1986 adventure Relics arrives on Steam in 2026 — a must‑play

Developer Bothtec’s 1986 action‑adventure Relics — originally on MSX, PC‑88/98, Sharp X1, X68000 and FM‑7 — has unexpectedly appeared on Steam, and it’s one of my PC gaming highlights. Pasokon Retro revisits those early Japanese PC years, and Relics captures their oddball charm: harsh blue/yellow palettes, a frame rate I’d charitably call “present,” and hardware now showing its age. The thin manual prefers mystery to instruction, offering a few vague lines about a cosmic struggle before you begin. You start as a humanoid shadow with little context: a crumbling wall exposes a sunset, a soundscape suggests waves, and there’s a hole in the floor. With guidance withheld, you must stumble onward, “spirit riding” from body to body — I become a skeletal rabbit inspired by H.R. G... (Image credit: D4Enterprise Co.,Ltd.)