My little #retrocomputing world... Several weeks of work for 30 isometric #computer pictures!

The Thomson TO7/70 was supposed to become the French computer standard. Its prompt invited you to choose between BASIC and cassette loading. The interface used the light pen pointer.

The gorgeous intro of Epic on the Amiga, the 3D space opera released at the same time as Wing Commander II, which was bitmap based.

That's just enough memory to run Ultima VII as the install program indicates

The C64 version of R-Type was absolute masterclass in programming. Awesome graphics and sound, but most essentially flawless animation that didn't pale compared to 16-bit versions including the Amiga one.

Indianapolis 500. Probably the best racing game of the 1980s, and a real simulation. Very fast on every configuration, like on my IBM PS/2 Model 30 here, a mere 286 at 10 Mhz. Even sounds were good on a simple PC speaker. A real masterpiece.

Falcon on the Atari ST was a flight simulator that took its subject seriously. Released by Spectrum HoloByte in 1987, it put you in the cockpit of an F-16, with radar, realistic weapons systems and demanding missions.

One clever trick of the Amstrad PC1512: with two floppy drives and no hard disk, launching GEM creates a virtual RAM disk. A little piece of precious memory becomes a fast disk drive.

The Dungeon Master filming project continues with Level 4 and its beautiful but very dangerous flying snakes. Photo shot in my studio.

Jordan filmed his younger brother running and jumping to create the game's astonishing animation using rotoscoping. No fancy graphics cards, no 3D acceleration. Just 8-bit wizardry that made pixels feel magic. Photo shot in my studio.

At CES in '87, Commodore unveiled the Amiga 500 next to the much pricier Amiga 2000. The 500 was supposed to be the "affordable little brother," but it ended up stealing the spotlight and defining the era. Photo shot in my studio.

F-15 Strike Eagle II. Released by MicroProse in 1989, one year after F-19 Stealth Fighter. No patient radar evasive maneuvers here, but missiles and dogfights all the way. Not quite a flight simulator, not quite an arcade game, just the perfect balance. Solid manual too.

Speedball II Brutal Deluxe on the Amiga 500. Ice cream anyone? Photo shot in my studio.

XTree versus Norton Commander: two great answers to DOS file-management. Difficult to chose between them... XTree was probably the more sophisticated file-management tool. Norton Commander was probably the more elegant interactive file-navigation tool.

The Dungeon Master season begins on Retro Dream! From now until the end of the year, we’ll explore one level each week, with still shots on Saturdays and a short video on Sundays, showing the essentials of all 13 levels.

The Dungeon Master season begins! From now until the end of the year, we’ll explore one level each week, showing the essentials of all 13 levels. Level 0 is our opening prologue: the Hall of Champions. What characters did you choose for your own adventure?

Bubble Bobble, Amiga 500 with 1084S display. A great game to play with your pal after school! 100 increasingly devious levels, easy to learn, surprisingly hard to master and that incredible theme tune still refuses to leave your head. Photo shot in my studio.

Tetris on the PC: simple graphics, no sound card required, and yet more addictive than games a thousand times more complex. By 1988, the Soviet puzzle phenomenon had reached worldwide. Four little squares were enough to ruin an evening.

F-19 Stealth Fighter. A masterpiece of tactical flight sim by Microprose, 1988. Just cannot count the hours I spent on it back then. Didn't have any sound except for the PC speaker.

Lotus Turbo Challenge on the Amiga 500. Can you hear that tune just looking at this pic?

The earliest Microsoft shell interface: DOS Manager. Many first-time dos users experimented with it before moving on to Norton or XTree, and it was rather clunky compared to them, although it did the job overall.