Play ElfLand: Volume One – Gorgimer’s Castle Online

ElfLand: Volume One – Gorgimer’s Castle came out in 1992 as part of the MS-DOS Classic Games series, developed by a small team whose name doesn’t ring many bells today. It’s one of those side-scrolling platformers that felt right at home in the early '90s, with chunky graphics and a simple, earnest charm that didn’t try to overcomplicate things.

You play as an elf tasked with exploring Gorgimer’s Castle room by room, jumping across platforms and avoiding environmental hazards like puddles and spikes. Your main goal is to gather ingredients for a grumpy alchemist, which involves collecting berries and other items scattered throughout the castle. Combat is basic; you throw berries at enemies, and the controls have a certain floatiness that takes some getting used to. The game moves at a relaxed pace, but some jumps require precision, and the limited lives mean you retry sections often. It feels like a quiet, slightly stubborn relic from a time when games were still figuring out how much to ask of the player.

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