Pushing Buttons: UFO 50 is an anthology of pure nostalgia – and the games are good, too

In this week's newsletter: From platformers to side-scrolling space adventures and top-down racers, every experience from your gaming youth is recreated with passion and skill

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I filed this issue of Pushing Buttons late, because I have become obsessed with a 1985 strategy game about armies of warring dinosaurs. It's called Avianos, and it's part of an anthology of 50 games made in the 1980s by a little-known but influential developer, UFO Soft.

One minor detail: UFO Soft is fictional. All the games in this collection were made by a small group of modern developers. This anthology, UFO 50 (out today), is at once a tribute to imaginary 1980s game history and real 1980s game history. It impeccably imitates the look, feel and experimental creativity of the era, without the technical limitations.