Retro Gaming Year-End Review 2025
The year is coming to an end. And as per tradition, I'm trying to somehow put together my gaming year-end review. I didn't play much. Throughout the year, I tried to play more, in various ways. But in the end, there were just periods when I played regularly. And there were times when I didn't play games at all.
I'll start with my white computer. An Acer Aspire V13. Windows 8. I played on it at the beginning of the year. Then I took it to the dacha. And I played literally very little there.
I'll mention games: Quake 3, Colin McRae Rally 3, Doom 64. I played most of my games at the beginning of the year. While it was winter. On a winter weekend morning. Or on Saturday or Sunday evenings – I played all evening. I played racing games. Then, when I started studying, my focus on video games dropped. In favor of studying. Naturally, I'm studying computer technology. As Gosha says. And I love music. I took it up on that. But overall, it's playable. Especially if everything worked out.
Q3 is an online shooter. I ran around with bots. I even beat it on one or two easy difficulty levels. It was so much fun. The arenas are varied. Gothic and sci-fi. Different themes. Lots of bots. All different too. It's fun! I remember the game. It was so much fun. You run around the arena. The only thing is that I'm not that good at competitive games. And that's why I sometimes got tense. That I can't do it. My aim is lacking. Something else. I think slowly.
Then there's the racing game Colin Mc Rae Rally 3. It's a great race. It's different from the first and second games. It has a beautiful arcade menu. I remember it. And the tracks are different. Each track has several stages. Different weather. And there are different views. I played more for fun and relaxation. More like an arcade game. You drive and look at the views.
I remember that there was a track. Straight through the forest. There are trees. And sometimes it's even hard to tell where the road leads. Trees all around. In all sorts of corners of the world. A great time. So let's go for a spin. On a white computer. With a white keyboard. It's just beautiful. You just keep going and going somewhere. A couple of races at a time. You have to unlock tracks as you go. A very good racing game.
And this is Doom 64. The game surprisingly hooked me. It's a retro shooter. But modernized. Like, there are pixels. And everything is drawn from them. And the levels go on. Overall, this game is very different from what I've seen. This is Doom 1, 2. I thought it would be something similar. But it's completely different. Such cosmic horror. Real horror.
Creepy atmosphere. This is a very creepy little shooter. And well-made. Pixel graphics. It's style. Monsters, hellish ones. A rusty base. Dangling somewhere in space. Demons. Portals. And the levels are also terrible. They're not easy. You have to think about where to turn, what to press. Hellish riddles, really.
The palette is dark. I remember it as a reddish hue. I played through several levels. I was even surprised at myself. For me, the labyrinths there are quite confusing. It's not even about the monsters. That's it. And the labyrinth itself is a hellish riddle. And everything is so atmospheric. An abandoned station, silence. Monsters. And you have to figure out what to do next.
I played all of these, you could say, until the second half of spring. Then I started studying. I took the computer to the dacha in the summer. And I played little. There I played the first Heroes of Might and Magic. I launched Warcraft 3 for the first time. I tried other games. I played Need For Speed 2 SE, but not much.
Then we'll move on to the retro computer. The new product of 2025. I restored a retro laptop. And played on it. This is Iru Combo. I just restored it. And again, I played mostly until spring. I was playing Quake for Windows. That's the game version. I have a Windows 2000 computer. And I played without sound. I couldn't get the sound to work.
I played at 320x240. It's the creepiest setting. And I'd say Quake looks the creepiest and most horror-like game in this setting. Darkness and pixels. Rust and brown. That's the color palette.
I played through a few levels. I got lost in a few places at first. Then I breezed through a couple of levels. It's an interesting, creepy retro shooter at 320x240.
And on my modern Atlas H376 computer. I tried a theme called RetroBat for the first time. It's a bunch of consoles in a beautiful skin. Dendy, PlayStation. Dreamcast. Sega. I played it for a bit, just to get acquainted. I discovered a whole new universe, so to speak.
It didn't turn out that great. To be honest, it's true. But playing is fun. And the impressions. The gaming experience. Racing, a space base. Pixels, smooth graphics. All this will form the basis of personality and gaming experiences. For developing your own games. Probably. That's what I'd like to do. So playing is interesting! Computer games are fun! As John Lennon said, time spent enjoying yourself is not time wasted.
Playing little games. From time to time i like to play videogames. And write about it. Dima Link is making retro videogames, apps, a little of music, write stories, and some retro more.
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