• News

Ziggurat Interactive Retro First Friday returns with Battle Engine Aquila, Gunboat, & more

Another slate of classic games re-released is on showcase in the latest of Ziggurat Interactive's Retro First Fridays.

TJ Denzer

September 4, 2020 4:00 AM

2

Another new month means another new Retro First Friday for Ziggurat Interactive. The company’s mission to bring great games of yesteryear to modern audiences continues with another slate of new releases, this time featuring Battle Engine Aquila, Gunboat, Steel Thunder, and Hunting Unlimited 2.

Ziggurat Interactive posted its latest Retro First Friday on September 4, 2020. The latest games in Ziggurat's lineup can be found on Steam starting today and through the coming week at a 33% discount. 2003’s Battle Engine Aquila is a first person sci-fi flight combat sim that, even for a retro game, packs a lot of fun into your firepower as you lead your allies in battles across land, sea, and air in the titular Battle Engine Aquila ship.

Joining Battle Engine Aquila is Steel Thunder: a 1988 blast from the Commodore 64 era in which players jump into the operation of a number of tanks with various crews to wage battle in missions across Cuba, Syria, and Western Germany. Each tanks has intricate controls and each crew handles operation with their own peculiarities that make for a lot of customization in the player’s combat style.

Also from around that same time period on MS-DOS comes Gunboat, in which players will jump into the control of a patrol boat in the rivers of Vietnam and the Panama Canal on various missions. As the player navigates treacherous waters, they’ll handle points like pilot and gunner roles, as well as operating search lights, calling out targets to crew, and choosing which targets to engage or not.

Rounding out the new slate of games is Hunting Unlimited 2. Joining the first game from the previous Retro First Friday, Eight big animals await and there is a collection of 25 weapons with which to bring them down and 75 missions to challenge yourself in the thrill of the hunt.

Ziggurat has continued to amass a growing list of pretty great retro releases from yesteryear since it kicked off its retro game initiative back in March 2020. Since then, other titles like Krush Kill N’ Destroy have also been launched outside of Retro First Friday. If you’ve been looking to dig into some classic gaming, be sure to check out the latest slate of games above, or stay tuned for more coming down the pipeline from Ziggurat Interactive.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.