Stargunner

Stargunner is a 1996 MS-DOS action game associated in this record with Apogee Software. In the nineties Apogee was effectively shorthand for shareware distribution: the first portion of a game travelled freely across BBSes and magazine cover discs, and the remainder was mailed out once you paid the publisher directly.

1996 is late for a DOS release. 3D engines had already reshaped expectations and Windows 95 was pulling developers away from the old system, so DOS action games from this year tend to be technically polished and simultaneously the last of their line. Most ran at 320 by 200 in 256 colours and leaned on detailed sprite animation and palette effects rather than polygons.

The entry lists a single player, which rules out network or split-screen play. The appeal rests entirely on one person's run and on how long they can hold the pace, not on a rival sitting alongside.

The catalogue names WizardWorks Software as developer and Apogee as publisher. Towards the end of the shareware era it was common for a title to appear under more than one company name as rights or retail distribution shifted to a boxed edition.

Installing a 1996 DOS game usually meant several floppies or a CD, picking a sound card from a list, and setting the interrupt and DMA channel by hand. Owners of clone cards had to guess which entry matched their hardware. This layer of technical decisions was inseparable from DOS gaming and vanished only when Windows took over driver duties.

On this page you will find the release year, the companies credited and period screenshots for the game.