Uno

Color, number, or nothing? The computer just played a card and is waiting to see what you've got. Uno from 1991 is a straightforward adaptation of the classic card game — no sounds, no animations, nothing selling you an illusion. Just you, the computer, and cards on the screen.

It's a classic card matching game where you try to get rid of all your cards before your opponent. You play a card that matches the color or number on top of the pile, and it continues. Special cards (Skip, Reverse, Draw Two) slow down the competition. Wild and Wild Draw Four let you change the color as needed. You probably know the rules from the paper version already — the computer implementation is faithful to the original without any embellishment.

You play against one or more computer players in limited resolution and a gray palette. The controls are simple — you pick a card and confirm. The computer opponent thinks fast, but not surprisingly intelligent. The game flows without a hitch, ends quickly, and can be started again. There's not even a hint of graphics to extend the experience — it's a fish out of water, but functional.

Uno wasn't born as a computer game and this port doesn't hide it. A card game needs friends around a table, not a solitary match against AI. In the nineties it was primitive, but functional — today it's more of a curiosity, an act of pious loyalty to the original.

When you want to remind yourself what a computer game looked like in an era when it wasn't yet assumed that every game had to be a visual and acoustic experience, this DOS-based Uno is exactly that. There's no attempt to charm, just the bare mechanics. And it has a certain toughness to that.