Play Al-Qadim: The Genies Curse Online

Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse came out in 1994 for MS-DOS, developed by Strategic Simulations, Inc. It was part of that wave of isometric RPGs that tried to do something a little different with the perspective, set in the Arabian Nights universe instead of the usual European fantasy. The graphics and interface feel very much of their time, with chunky sprites and a control scheme that takes a minute to get used to.

You control a young corsair, moving screen by screen through palaces, bazaars, and dungeons. The main goal is to lift a curse by gathering four elemental artifacts, which involves a lot of talking to NPCs, solving environmental puzzles, and managing a small inventory of keys and tools. Combat is simple, mostly just clicking on enemies with your scimitar or bow, but the real difficulty comes from the traps and the need to figure out what specific item or phrase opens the next path. It moves at a deliberate pace, demanding observation more than quick reflexes. Playing it feels like slowly untangling a knot, piece by piece, in a world that's colorful and full of small, clever details.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".