Quinquagintaphilia (Game your way back to the 1950s)

DecimusSaxon, one of THC’s older readers, has an urge to revisit the era of his youth via the medium of PC gaming. He asked me for some Fifties game recommendations, and the following was the best I could come up with. As there are sure to be some glaring omissions, feel free to proffer additional suggestions via the comments.

No Fifties gaming session would be complete without a spot of It Came from the Desert. Inspired by classic monster flick Them!, 1989 action-adventure ICFTD boasts a spiritual successor, but as said successor – It Returned To The Desert – ditches the period setting, the original Cinemaware title bags this slot.

In a similar vein but not out yet, It Fell To Earth draws heavily on Fifties sci-fi movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Judging by the developer’s YouTube channel, the lovely comic-book aesthetic is the result of a relatively recent rethink.

A sleuth-em-up set in 1956 West Germany, new release The Darkest Files casts the player as one of Fritz Bauer’s war crime investigators. Impressed by the demo, once I’ve set down the Burden of Command I plan to spend time guiding Katz and petting them.

Talking of felines, in haunting history lesson The Cat and the Coup you play Mohammad Mosaddegh’s mischievous moggy. Deft movement and object pawing resurrects the Iranian PM and slowly illuminates the 1953 Anglo-American plot that brought about his demise.

If its AI had been better, and its bugs fewer, SGS Korean War might have made this list. Instead the ‘625 War’ spot goes to a Squad Battles title. Watching The Mack grapple with The Korean War for the first time, reminds me of something I penned back in 2023:

“Compared to the firefights in many tactical wargames, SB’s are relatively slow-paced and bloodless. Troops under fire are far more likely to become pinned (a state that comes after ‘disrupted’ and before ‘demoralised’ on the game’s travails track) than take casualties, and frequently fusillades appear to achieve nothing at all. You need to be persistent, patient, canny, and, sometimes, pretty aggressive (assaults are an important tactical tool) to fell foes and gain ground in SB.”

The options available to PC gamers up for some high-level Cold Warring increased yesterday. Early Access Maestro’s Cold War 2 offers armchair Khrushchevs and Eisenhowers three 1950s starting dates. Plump for the first, and you’ll take the reins of one of the game’s two playable blocs immediately after the death of Uncle Joe.

Another speculative recommendation. A clever premise, a great trailer, and a ‘very positive’ Steam user rating suggest Lowbirth Games’ This Bed We Made deserves a place in this list of flavoursome Fifties diversions.

While I think I’m right in saying, no studio has ever released a Fifties motor racing game for PC, thanks to creations like the 1955 F1 mod for Grand Prix Legends, impersonating the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, and Stirling Moss is now relatively easy.

Although the majority of Diesel Railcar Simulator’s default timetables are set in the decade of Beatlemania, the Beeching Cuts, and the Great Train Robbery, most of its endearingly prosaic stars entered service towards the end of the Fifties. Assuming you’re prepared to turn a blind eye to absent steam locos and a few minor livery anachronisms (yellow warning panels were introduced in the early Sixties), imagining you’re a BR driver at the dawn of dieselisation is dead easy.