Forerunners is a neat mini-documentary about the history of PC platformers
Features Cliff Blezinski, Tom Hall, John Romero and more.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
As far as sidescrolling platformers of the '90s go, consoles have a monopoly on the era's canonical titles. But if you were anything like me, reared on Apogee and Epic Megagames shareware, names like Monster Bash, Commander Keen and Jill of the Jungle probably evoke more fond memories than Mario.
Forerunners is a mini-documentary about sidescrolling PC games, and it manages to be both nostalgic and informative. The doco features Cliff Blezinski talking Jazz Jackrabbit, Tom Hall on Commander Keen, and John Romero on that trusty ol' classic Dangerous Dave, among others.
Naturally enough, it touches on id Software's breakthrough pioneering of PC sidescrolling, and the studio's efforts to use its tech to get a Mario PC port off the ground (consoles beat PC to the punch with seamless horizontal scrolling). Having no success, they used it for Commander Keen instead.
Check it out below. It's full of fascinating tidbits, most well known, but fun to revisit.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.

