Beneath a Steel Sky Remastered / iPhone – $4.99, or free

Oh, 1994.

You with your whining modems, your EGA monitors, and your dreams of cyberspace. You were cheeky, a dreamer, but you were underpowered. My 2009 cell phone would make you genuflect with its speed, color, and wirelessness.

By comparison, your action games were thin and sad — a very-flat looking Doom came out in 1993 — but it was a golden era for adventure games. Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, King’s Quest, Police Quest, Myst — we spent hours…

And, in the middle of that, the cult hit, Beneath a Steel Sky.

Originally released for MS-DOS and the Amiga (!), Beneath a Steel Sky is a story set in a dystopian future. A young boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Australian outback. He’s adopted by a local group of indigenous people, given the name Robert Foster, and taught to survive. After Foster becomes an adult, a group of storm-troopers invades from the big city, kidnaps him, and slaughters his tribe. He escapes and, along with his trusted robot friend, Joey, tries to avoid recapture and figure out why he was targeted in the first place.

Initial reviews were very good — 94% from Amiga Format! 4/5 from Computer Gaming World! ‘Editors choice Award’ and ‘Best Dialogue’ (!) from PC Gamer! — And, over the years, the fan base has remained enthusiastic.

Recently, Beneath a Steel Sky has reappeared on the iPhone, thanks to the work of Revolution. It features new animated movies by Dave Gibbons, of Watchmen fame, who worked on the original Steel Sky. For a mere $5, you can help Robert Foster “discover the sinister truth behind his abduction!” while you wait for the bus.

Here’s the trailer:

Here’s the Wikipedia entry, which explains some of the history of the game.

Beneath a Steel Sky is also available for free on all major platforms. GOG has it for Windows. For every other platform on earth, download the ScummVM and the Beneath the Steel Sky files.

A 67 meg game, complete with music and animation? 1994 — you were so adorable.