A screenshot from the Slovenian arcade game Tenis.

crni writes:

"The other day I was looking for some really old games and found this site. It’s run by a Slovenian guy, Tomaz Kac. It’s about old YU and Slovenia related software and such, it’s pretty interesting to me, because I used to live in Slovenia back in those days, when there were no copyright laws and pirating was legal and advertised in the papers and all that."

The site contains lots of goodies: old text adventures, arcade games, utilities, educational programs, cracked games/programs and more. You’ll need an emulator to try some of the games. I used the Spectaculator (free, Windows-only) but there are others. Most of the games I tried were fairly difficult, but maybe I’ve just lost the touch. (I’m currently trying to kill myself in the text-based game Samoumor. So far, no luck.)

I also asked crni for some recommendations. He wrote:

"Well, an interesting game is Kontrabant, because it’s taking place in Ljubljana and you take the role of a smuggler trying to put together a computer. Back in those days all trade was gov’t controlled and people used to smuggle a lot of electronics. There were no copyright laws and actually, Radio Student would "broadcast" a game once a week. For about 5 minutes all you’d hear in the radio was a lot of squeaking and if you recorded it all on a casette, you could play the game at home."

He also notes that: "Tomaz Kac wrote a re-make of a great puzzle base game Head over Heels." If you like puzzles and mazes, that one is definitely for you. I seem to have a talent for getting lost in them, or not being able to resist the urge to hop into boiling lava pots. But that’s just me.

Here’s the page: ex-YU Computer Scene.

(Thanks again crni!)