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Best DOS Games 1980-1990?


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I found an Archive torrent with like 10k games. Has everything separated by year 1980-2013.

 

I'm familiar more with the 1990's, since it goes past that as well I assume people are still making Games for DOS.

 

I'm just kind of picking through them to find the good ones! So working through the first decade. Most of which run at 4.77mhz. So been loading them on my Tandy 1000, down clocking it, or Model 25.

 

Also I know some are PC versions of Arcade/Atari games etc. Also some knock offs of those in there.

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I dont remember how early it came out but I always loved Scorched Earth. I think it was late 80's or early 90ish. Its probably most fun with multiple players though, Text based adventure games were big during that time too but I can't think of any specific titles.

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I was going to say Railroad Tycoon but that's a 1990 game. Others I remember include Populous (1989), Deathtrack (1989), Tetris (1987), Sim CIty (1989), Jet Fighter (1989), Leisure Suit Larry (1987 original text interface), Grand Prix Circuit (1987), Face Off (1989), Double Dragon II (1989), Arkanoid (1987). I think I got my computer in 1989/90. Some of those early DOS games had horrible sound/music; not sure how many support Tandy audio.

 

edit:

Ten thousand games; if each game averages 1 MB that would be 10 GB. You can of course just download them individually.

Edited by mr_me
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The torrent can found here https://archive.org/details/Total_DOS_Collection_Release_7_2014_01

 

Its 17GB, the main file is a TAR and most games are in a Zip which extracts into its own folder, some are disk Image files. Some PCJR, Some made Tandy versions. so maybe twice that if you extract them all.

 

Most of these early games seem to just use the PC Speaker, which on the Tandy seems routed to the sound card (can turn it up/down. On other systems I don't remember if there's a way to turn PC speaker up/down!

 

They can played in Dosbox, if you set it to run at 4.77mhz and configure the joystick.

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According to Wikipedia PC games first started supporting sound cards like AdLib and Roland and possibly Tandy audio in 1988. Older games aren't going to sound too good. Most sound cards had an input for PC speaker so like you say providing volume control.

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I tried Grand Prix, first time in maybe 25 years, the music was painful. Sim City has some very interesting sound effects for what I assume is the PC speaker.

 

Do you have Microsoft Adventure (1981), its the very first game for the PC. I understand its a conversion of Colossal Cave Adventure.

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According to Wikipedia PC games first started supporting sound cards like AdLib and Roland and possibly Tandy audio in 1988. Older games aren't going to sound too good. Most sound cards had an input for PC speaker so like you say providing volume control.

True for Adlib and Roland, but Tandy was supported from 1984 onward, PCjr. effectively from 1984 as well.

 

I tried Grand Prix, first time in maybe 25 years, the music was painful. Sim City has some very interesting sound effects for what I assume is the PC speaker.

 

Do you have Microsoft Adventure (1981), its the very first game for the PC. I understand its a conversion of Colossal Cave Adventure.

Actually, Donkey for PC-BASIC probably predates the Colossal Cave Adventure port.

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I found an Archive torrent with like 10k games. Has everything separated by year 1980-2013.

 

I'm familiar more with the 1990's, since it goes past that as well I assume people are still making Games for DOS.

 

I'm just kind of picking through them to find the good ones! So working through the first decade. Most of which run at 4.77mhz. So been loading them on my Tandy 1000, down clocking it, or Model 25.

 

Also I know some are PC versions of Arcade/Atari games etc. Also some knock offs of those in there.

Pre-1990 DOS games are pretty rough, in my opinion. I happily gamed on a Macintosh until the good DOS stuff of the 1990s came along. I'd rather play Sega Genesis and Nintendo games from that era, they hold up WAY better. Note that Wolfenstein 3D didn't come along until 1992, DOOM in 1993.

 

For example, 1990 is Wing Commander 1, which was considered an audiovisual tour de force at the time, but is pretty simple and primitive today. More standard popular DOS games are things like Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem the 2D scroller. I guess the Dynamix and Sierra (it occurs to me I'm not certain where Dynamix ends and Sierra begins) games were neat for the time, also Electronic Arts and Microprose ...but the best stuff of that era had more modern remakes.

 

I guess you could pick through it and find stuff with familiar titles, but I think you'll be disappointed in the ports of arcade and Atari games if you weren't there at the beginning. You can sample most of them in a modern browser: http://playdosgamesonline.com/

 

Apart from a few crazies who are doing it just to say they can, nobody is making games for DOS anymore. DOS games you can buy at retail only work on modern machines through the DOSbox emulation layer.

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Pre-1990 DOS games are pretty rough, in my opinion. I happily gamed on a Macintosh until the good DOS stuff of the 1990s came along. I'd rather play Sega Genesis and Nintendo games from that era, they hold up WAY better. Note that Wolfenstein 3D didn't come along until 1992, DOOM in 1993.

 

For example, 1990 is Wing Commander 1, which was considered an audiovisual tour de force at the time, but is pretty simple and primitive today. More standard popular DOS games are things like Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem the 2D scroller. I guess the Dynamix and Sierra (it occurs to me I'm not certain where Dynamix ends and Sierra begins) games were neat for the time, also Electronic Arts and Microprose ...but the best stuff of that era had more modern remakes.

 

I guess you could pick through it and find stuff with familiar titles, but I think you'll be disappointed in the ports of arcade and Atari games if you weren't there at the beginning. You can sample most of them in a modern browser: http://playdosgamesonline.com/

 

Apart from a few crazies who are doing it just to say they can, nobody is making games for DOS anymore. DOS games you can buy at retail only work on modern machines through the DOSbox emulation layer.

 

I know no game publishers are having any new DOS games made just random people. Any new retail version of a DOS game would be a remake to run on a current OS. Like porting old NES game to Wii download. I'm pretty sure anything that will run in DosBox will run on the specific hardware its emulating considering it doesn't emulate anything newer than a Pentium CPU, Old Dos, Svga

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I liked Pizza Tycoon but it had quite the learning curve. Master of Orion and Master of Magic are both very enjoyable too. In action, I played the hell out of One Must Fall 2097, it had some kind of RPG elements to it.

Those games are outside the date range being discussed.

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1990 or earlier, off the top of my head and in no particular order, some games I remember that are worth trying:

 

- Budokan (1 on 1 fighting game)

- Narco Police (3rd person shooter)

- Alley Cat (platform game)

- Goody (platformer adventure)

- Captain Comic (side scroller platformer)

- Carrier Command (3D action/strategy game)

- Alter Ego (text adventure / life simulator)

- Adventure Construction Set (RPG maker)

 

Also, from 1991 so out of range but still noteworthy: TMNT Manhattan Missions; unlike later games is closer to the comic than the TV show.

Edited by Newsdee
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I might accidentally slip a few post-1990 games in here, but let me take a stab:

 

First off, some great RPGs like Ultima I-VI, Wizardry I-VI, Might & Magic I-II, Wasteland, the AD&D Forgotten Realms series...hours and hours of stuff.

Lots of great Roguelikes, including my favorite: Rogue!

Tons of text adventures, like almost any game from Infocom (Zork series, Hitchhiker's Guide, etc).

And if you have internet, there's MUD2 and other MUDs, but DOS might not be the best route for those =)

And lots of graphical adventures, too. Sierra Online had a ton (and should support Tandy sound and graphics!), I know LucasArts had at least a few in the 80s.

Vette! was pretty cool for the time, and Test Drive III is one of my favorite driving games. Whoops, that one's 1990.

Prince of Persia and Karateka.

Oregon Trail, obviously. There's two different versions for DOS: one's more like the Apple II, and the newer one is high-res like the Mac.

 

I'll have to look up some more later.

 

Others I remember include Populous (1989)...

I'm kind of weird, because I actually prefer the SNES version of the game. The controls are a lot easier to work with, I think.

 

I know no game publishers are having any new DOS games made just random people.

Retro City Rampage B)

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I dont remember how early it came out but I always loved Scorched Earth. I think it was late 80's or early 90ish. Its probably most fun with multiple players though, Text based adventure games were big during that time too but I can't think of any specific titles.

 

 

That game is great! I paid for the full version. It comes with all versions from 1.0 to 1.5. They never did come with a networkable version. I'd love to see them do it though. It's like Worms on the Atari Jaguar.

 

 

Soooooo many great games back then though... that's "my time." That's back in the day when I played games... man....

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Pre-1990 DOS games are pretty rough, in my opinion. I happily gamed on a Macintosh until the good DOS stuff of the 1990s came along. I'd rather play Sega Genesis and Nintendo games from that era, they hold up WAY better. Note that Wolfenstein 3D didn't come along until 1992, DOOM in 1993.

 

For example, 1990 is Wing Commander 1, which was considered an audiovisual tour de force at the time, but is pretty simple and primitive today. More standard popular DOS games are things like Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem the 2D scroller. I guess the Dynamix and Sierra (it occurs to me I'm not certain where Dynamix ends and Sierra begins) games were neat for the time, also Electronic Arts and Microprose ...but the best stuff of that era had more modern remakes.

 

I guess you could pick through it and find stuff with familiar titles, but I think you'll be disappointed in the ports of arcade and Atari games if you weren't there at the beginning. You can sample most of them in a modern browser: http://playdosgamesonline.com/

 

Apart from a few crazies who are doing it just to say they can, nobody is making games for DOS anymore. DOS games you can buy at retail only work on modern machines through the DOSbox emulation layer.

 

 

Dynamix was purchased by Sierra. Sierra came first, and outlived the Dynamix subsidiary.

 

As for likeing the pre-1990 games or not... most of the really good games that I remember playing were pre-1990. Like Pool of Radiance, most of the early Sierra Quest games (Kings Quest, Space Quest, etc...). Lots of great games. I'm guessing you probably mean like 1987+. The games from 1986-1992 were pretty much a genre... anything older than 1986, and you started to get into some text based or monochrome games.

 

 

One game from Sierra that I remember... Jones in the Fast Lane. The original release of the game had a Vietnamese teenager working at the Monolith Burger. It was not but a year later that it was deemed "racist" or whatever, so they immediately changed it to a white kid with pimples in all subsequent versions. They even released a patch which fixed that (and some other things). Thought that was pretty funny. They ended up bringing the Asian kid back when they re-released it in VGA with speech though.

 

jflegass3.gif

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