From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Richard Hamblen & Robin Warren
GAME DEVELOPER:Avalon Hill
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Robin Warren
RealmSpeak is a solid freeware Java version of Magic Realm, Avalon Hill’s classic and long out-of-print tabletop strategy game featuring fantasy elements. An ambitious game that is much broader in scope and more complex than other similar [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Franz-Benno Delonge & Harald Gruber
GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Harald Gruber
Transsib is a great Java version of TransAmerica, a fun “beer & pretzel” tile-laying tabletop strategy game from Rio Grande. A game for 2-6 players, the goal in this game is to accumulate the most points [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Richard Bartle & Dennis Taylor
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Dennis Taylor
wxSpellcast is a good Windows version of Spellcast, a fun multiplayer-only strategy game for UNIX that is in turn based on Richard Bartle’s Spellbinder paper-and-pencil game first published in his magazine. This two-player game casts you as a [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Ben Mazur
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Ben Mazur
Copyright 2004, Ben Mazur & Helge Richter
MegaMek is a superb Java-based wargame based on FASA’s celebrated giant robot tabletop wargame called Battletech. As of July 2005, the game includes all level-1 (3025) tech and most level-2 (2750, 3050+) tech from FASA’s board games, [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:
GAME DEVELOPER:New World Computing
GAME PUBLISHER:Studio 3DO
Copyright 1999, New World Computing
Arcomage is a fun single or two-player fantasy card game, first appearing as a mini-game in Might & Magic VII that you can only play inns. Best described as a simplified rip-off of Magic the Gathering, your goal [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Friedemann Friese
GAME DEVELOPER:Rio Grande Games
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Friedemann Friese
Fearsome Floors is an accurate Macromedia Flash conversion of a neat German board game of the same name (called Finster Flure in German). The goal is to get the yellow smilies (i.e. your opponents’ playing tokens) eaten by the [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Kris Burn & Matthias Bodenstein
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Matthias Bodenstein
Dvonner is a great Windows game that features tough AI opponent for the game of Dvonn, a fun and unique tile-stacking abstract board game invented by Kris Burn in 2001. From the official site: “DVONN is a stacking [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Edward Bono & PK Winter
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2004, PK Winter
LeGame is a solid PC implementation of L Game, a neat little board game designed by Edward Bono that allows for an impressive range of possible moves (over 18,000), especially given a very small board (4×4) and only [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Juha Holopainen
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Juha Holopainen
Spice Trade is a very interesting historical business game that is based on a unique perspective as far as computer games go: an Arab merchant living in the 14th century, when Europeans were starting their “great voyages of exploration” across the [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Brad Schick
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2004, Brad Schick
Robot Battle is a great programming game in the footsteps of Apple II classic Robot War. From the official website: “Your goal is to create robots or teams of robots to compete in tournaments against friends and other players from around [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Ian Bird
GAME DEVELOPER:Activision
GAME PUBLISHER:Activision
Copyright 1991, Ian Bird
One of the best games ever made for the Amiga and Atari ST, Deuteros is the superior sequel to Millennium, Ian Bird’s 4X masterpiece that was converted to PC by Paragon Software. Dixiak Narco’s review explains why fans of Millennium and [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Istvn Kiss
GAME DEVELOPER:Digital Reality
GAME PUBLISHER:GT Interactive
Copyright 1997, Digital Reality
Imperium Galactica is a unique and commendable effort from Digital Reality that tries to blend 4X strategy genre with a real sci-fi story and adventure-genre-style plot development. The result is a hodgepodge of features – some obviously better than [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:
GAME DEVELOPER:4Head Studios
GAME PUBLISHER:JoWood Productions
Copyright 2002, 4Head Studios
One of the most underrated turn-based strategy games ever made, Europa 1400 from 4Head Studios/JoWood is a superb “medieval life simulation” that rewards the patience required to negotiate the complicated user interface and steep learning curve with addictive gameplay that [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Thurston Searfoss
GAME DEVELOPER:Fogstone Enterprises
GAME PUBLISHER:Fogstone Enterprises
Copyright 2005, Fogstone Enterprises
The Lost Admiral Returns is Fogstone’s long-overdue sequel to The Lost Admiral, a 1991 underdog published by QQP, which is no longer in business. Peterb, owner of Tea Leaves gaming blog, posted an excellent and very thorough review about [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Cameron Browne
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2003, Cameron Browne
Akron is a decent PC implementation of the abstract board game of the same name which was invented by Cameron Browne. In the author’s own words: “Akron is a new connection game played with marbles on a square grid. Two players, [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Jeremy Craner
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, Jeremy Craner
Qianhong is a good and free Chinese chess game for Windows. The author calls the game “Chinese chess for the casual and curious,” and this description fits Qianhong quite well. The well-written and concise on-line rules explain all you need to [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:
GAME DEVELOPER:NZP
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2005, NZP
Beehive Solitaire is a solid PC implementation of an original solitaire game by NZP. From the official blurb: “This good and little-known solitaire is easy to play, and can be won reasonably often. But it’s not unusual for a game to get blocked [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Victor Reijkersz
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2004, Victor Reijkersz
Definitely one of the best freeware wargames ever made, People’s Tactics is a great hex-based, turn-based war game that rivals many commercial games in terms of quality and AI strength. The quality of the game is so high that Wargamer.com, a [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:
GAME DEVELOPER:EAI Interactive
GAME PUBLISHER:Hasbro Interactive
Copyright 1998, Parker Brothers
Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion is a very competent translation of Parker Brothers’ popular board game to the computer screen. Although I found the mouse-driven movements hard to do, and the game lacks the charm of Virgin Mastertronic’s 1989 Clue [...]
From the Database of Home of the Underdogs
GAME DESIGNER:Alain Couchot & Bernard Klein
GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 2004, Unknown
Diam is a cool Flash version of a neat abstract board game for 2-4 players that makes an ingenious use of the third dimension (i.e. height). The goal of the game is to place 2 pawns of identical color [...]