Forbidden Solitaire: ’90s CD-ROM-Inspired Horror Game That Carries More Than A Curse

By:Musu Murray

The 2020s have once again taken another ’90s-kid memory and thrown it into a banned dungeon crawler CD-ROM! Forbidden Solitaire is a twisted psychological card game that will make your skin crawl, displaying 256-color graphics and a hauntingly pixelated atmosphere. The game is set for a full release in the first quarter of 2026, but a demo is currently available on Steam for Windows.

Care for A Game of Forbidden Solitaire?

Forbidden Solitaire emerges as a slasher card game within a sinister CD-ROM game that should have never been brought to light. While thrift shopping, you come across this familiar disk, and you remember not getting a chance to play it back then because of some controversy around the game. Now with the forbidden fruit in your hands, you’re finally getting a chance to play this banned adventure. But everything is not what it seems in this digital world.

From the creators behind the analogy call center horror, Home Safety Hotline, comes a 1990’s CD-ROM-style virtual card game transporting you into a cryptic dungeon crawler filled with secrets and death. Play a lethal series of Solitaire with the assistance of a flying Eyeball to uncover the secret to immortality. Beware of the creatures you encounter, for they don’t take kindly to those who wander their torch-lit halls, especially intruders who want to plunder their precious treasure.

A Solid ’90s Design With a Twist of Horror

Forbidden Solitaire has a dungeon filled with cursed creatures and monsters as you make your way with Solitaire
Image of a Reanimated Skeleton in Forbidden Solitaire, Courtesy of Night Signal Entertainment and Grey Alien Games via Steam

Night Signal Entertainment has done it once again, bringing that retro program back with some help from Grey Alien Games. The graphics replicate the old Full-Motion Video (FMV) with a 256-color layout structure. The camera motion is steady, slow, and even, giving that tell-tale stuttering motion of classic PC gaming software. The creatures might not look like much, but they become more unnerving the longer they stay frozen on your screen.

The music is retro-tier and perfect for this CD-ROM immersive atmosphere. The overlapping music with the over-sharpened images makes it appear weirdly realistic but very unnerving, especially for audiences who didn’t grow up with it. There’s a nice modern update for this approach with a typical low-budget home video scene spliced into the medium. This move ties in the otherworldly adventure into the horrific reality of a cursed CD-ROM.

The Demo Is Out, With A Full Release on the Way

Forbidden Solitaire is a blast from the past, but fitted for today’s crowd due to the love and care of the devs and creators. It’s a very nice imitation of a classic horror game experience that combines an age-old card game. The narratives are engaging, and the designs for the creatures and environment are creatively creepy. Check out the demo on Steam, so give it a spin! What’s a quick demo card game of Solitaire in a cursed dungeon anyway? I hope y’all make it out before the full release in Q1 of 2026.

Musu Murray is a graduate of Winthrop University with a B.S. in Multidisciplinary Chemistry & B.A. in Illustration Visual Communication. She can understand the technical jargon but prefers writing easy-to-digest reports that get straight to the point. She is a massive horror fan and loves the arts. When she's not writing, you can find her either at her easel desk painting, or bundled up in the dark watching cult classics. From gaming to gardening, she will get her hands on whatever topic she finds.