There've been a few furrowed brows around FFG recently - though we're not having trouble with the site; Stoo's latest technological enhancements haven't caused any meltdowns, I haven't pushed that big red button marked "DANGER!" while updating, and by our standards there's been a reasonably steady trickle of new content. However, looking at recent updates, there's definitely the impression that newer (less than five years old, designed for Windows etc) games are started to predominate on the site. Glancing down the list (okay, more like a big pile of CDs) of candidates for FFG inclusion in the very near future, they're pretty much all budget games that I've picked up off eBay rather than downloaded from Abandonware sites.

On the one hand, there?s nothing wrong with this; our criteria aren't really that specific, only that a game must be reasonably old and run on a moderately powered PC. And when you consider that the motivation for this site when it was launched in 2001 was to recognise games like System Shock, Terra Nova and Wing Commander III, released around 5-6 years beforehand, the time frame between release and review hasn't altered too much - even Championship Manager 00-01, something I consider pretty recent, is getting on for five years old now. And it's not like we're taking major time out from playing modern spectaculars to recognise the oldies; by and large, it's the oldies that interest us, with countless hours spent on eBay, MobyGames and HOTU searching for something worthy of consideration. There's something in the review policy of Edge (snobby, console-oriented games mag) about only selecting the most interesting and innovative titles each month, which is probably their way of saying they aren't too bothered about offering the most comprehensive selection of reviews - I guess FFG is a bit like that. We might not be the most comprehensive site around, but we try to make sure that there's something interesting to say about every game we feature.

As for the older games - believe us, we are trying. I know Stoo has a big stash of oldies lurking somewhere on his hard drive (I think the Police Quest games are top of his list), and I've been making the most of the wonderful DOSBox to revisit some games Ive had trouble getting to work under Windows. Getting games up and running is one thing; finding them entertaining or substantial enough to write a review about them is another. Sometimes, it's just a matter of an old game not being up to scratch any more; I've played a few old sports games (Great Courts 2, for example) which come into this category. On other occasions, something might be perfectly enjoyable but for one reason or another there isn't really that much to say about it. I picked up Sid Meier's spy caper Covert Action some years ago and spent many an hour with it, but frankly there were times when I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and without sounding too precious, I wouldn't really be comfortable writing about it under such circumstances. FFG isn't about slagging off ageing relics, nor about expressing vaguely positive sentiments about games with depths unexplored by the reviewer.

But I'm getting defensive. I think it was Stoo's review of Morrowind which set us both off; its inclusion wasn't particularly contentious, but it did set us thinking that maybe we should put in a bit more effort with the older titles. We have been trying, but maybe we should try a bit harder. While abandonware may once have been about scoring a few free games and trying to work out how to play them, these days we have Moby Games, GameFAQs and Replacementdocs with the information to back up the downloads. With a stable DOS environment and the original documentation at our fingertips, there can be no more excuses. Watch this space...