I’ve been playing Descent.

A while ago (a long time, in fact) I wrote about DOS Box and Vetusware. It’s a way to re-live the 1990s by installing a DOS emulator on your present-day PC or Mac. You can then experience life in the bad old days by running antique software.

Some of the antique software is actually pretty good — including some classic games that just have no rival today. One of those — and one of the first PC games I truly adored — is Descent.

Descent wasn’t as popular as DOOM, but it was a better game. Unlike DOOM and its contemporary first-person shooters, Descent offered full 3D with 360 degrees of freedom. I think that was too much for early gamers. Either that, or it made them physically ill.

The goal of Descent is to pilot your ship around an abandoned space mine to rescue hostages. Populating the mine are the assorted power-ups and weapons, things that frequently litter the typical gaming universe. Oh, and there are malevolent robots you must destroy.

Descent came in two versions: the original Descent and then Descent II, which was a better game. Descent III was also released, but it was the final variation on the game, and possibly the best.

Vetusware has only Descent, which is really low resolution. To get Descent II, I had to sign up with GOG.com, and purchase Descent II to play it. GOG stands for Good Old Games, and it’s a great place to visit to pick up older PC games and run them on your PC, Mac, and eventually Linux systems. The games are über cheap.

Below you see a screencast of me playing Descent II. Feel free to criticize my gameplay at your whim.