MS-DOS Gaming

[Edmond Dantes]

I'm in an MS-DOS mood right now, so I'm up for recommendations.

So, what are your favorite MS-DOS games in the following genres? (It doesn't necessarily need to be the MS-DOS version, just it needs to have been available for DOS at some point):

First-Person shooter?
Point-n-click adventure?
Text adventure?
RPG?
puzzle game?
shmup?
Anything else?

Anyone got any nostalgic memories they'd like to share?

Thanks in advance, and happy gaming!

[lilmanjs]

Hocus Pocus is worth playing. Great soundtrack even. One of my favorite platformers.

[Ruldra]

First-Person shooter?

Wolfenstein, Doom, Heretic, Dark Forces, Descent 1&2

Point-n-click adventure?

Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Legend of Kyrandia 1&2, The Dig

shmup?

Raptor: Call of Shadows, Stargunner

Anything else?

Abuse, One Must Fall 2097, Wacky Wheels, Constructor 1, X-COM series, Dungeon Keeper, Extreme Pinball, Syndicate, The Incredible Machine, Jazz Jackrabbit, Little Big Adventure 1&2, MDK, Theme Park, Warcraft 2, Wing Commander.

If you want info about any of the above, just ask. That's enough to keep you busy for a decade

[Edmond Dantes]

WARCRAFT II!!! Probably the best Real-Time Strategy game ever made (IMO anyway).

Were you around in the days when people used a program called Kali to play Warcraft II online? (and other games, but I remember primarily using it for Warcraft II) Good times, even though I sucked at it. I guess everyone plays on Battle.net now, if they even play Warcraft II at all.

[drunkninja24]

I remember doing direct dial modem connections to play Warcraft II with a friend down the street from me. Closest thing I had to online gaming for a while.

Good times, though we couldn't do it often because neither of our parents liked us tying up the phone lines for it

Also would definitely recommend any of the Lucasarts adventure games, Full Throttle and Sam & Max are my personal faves.

[CMPXCHG8B]

FPS:
- Quake
- Doom
- Star Wars: Dark Forces
- Descent
- Descent 2
- Duke Nukem 3D

RPG:
- System Shock
- Fallout

Shooters:
- Tyrian
- Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Anything else:
- Command and Conquer (retroactively retitled "Tiberium Dawn")
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert
- Earth 2140
- Crusader: No Remorse
- Crusader: No Regret
- Warcraft
- Warcraft II
- Mass Destruction
- Grand Theft Auto
- Syndicate Wars
- Pro Pinball: Big Race USA, The Web, and Timeshock!
- wipE'out"
- SimCity 2000 Special Edition

I highly recommend the Crusader games, C&C and C&C Red Alert. Make sure you install the C&C games yourself, since they came with this awesome fully animated installer which is totally part of the experience.

-CMPX

[Crafty+Mech]

Dune II

RTS game circa 1992 from Westwood Studios, spiritual predecessor to Command & Conquer, Warcraft, etc. Loosely based on the Dune universe, kept me up to daylight on several occasions.

[lilmanjs]

Dune II

RTS game circa 1992 from Westwood Studios, spiritual predecessor to Command & Conquer. Loosely based on the Dune universe, kept me up to daylight on several occasions.

The game that gave us RTSes. A great game still, even if the remake and eventual sequel were better.

[Gespenst]

Whiplash/Fatal Racing, One Must Fall 2097, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Stunts!, Wing/Strike Commander (basically everything Chris Robert's), Jane's US Navy Fighters/ATF (also known as Fighters Anthology, Windows version) and Screamer series are in my top DOS games list.

[Edmond Dantes]

Oh man. I was at a flea market the other day and they had a fully boxed, complete copy of Wing Commander: Armada for $5. CD-ROM version. I totally sprung for it.

Haven't played it yet, but I enjoyed looking through the documentation. The storyline is told in records and diary entries from both Terran and Kilrathi (every Terran entry followed by a Kilrathi entry). It also came with this catalog, which was... mind-boggling. Did you know a lot of Origin's CD-ROM games cost EIGHTY DOLLARS brand new? Also, LOL: It advertised Ultima 8's "Lost Vale" expansion. I wonder if anyone tried to order it?

RPG:
- System Shock

Is that an RPG, or is it a First-Person Shooter? It's one of my favorite PC games either way, along with the Ultima Underworld games which use the same engine. Amazing that Origin was doing this before Wolfenstein 3D was even released!

Thinking of doing a lets play of Wolf3D, but I might be forced to use the "webcam a monitor" technique since I use a genuine Windows98/DOS computer and I don't know of any recording software that will run on such a PC.

[guigui]

Early DOS game, father of Post-Apocalyptic RPG : Wasteland.

Sequel Wasteland 2 has recently been funded via kickstarter and coming soon for release.

[shmuppyLove]

Carmageddon

[alamone]

Master of Magic. I didn't really like Age of Wonders.

[pestro87]

Carmageddon

^ YES! I spent/wasted so much time playing Carmageddon 1 and 2, haha. I remember that the first one had a couple of instrumental tracks from Fear Factory's Demanufacture album

RPG?

Heroes of Might and Magic II is great. I prefer the third one in the series but it wasn't available on DOS. I remember also playing a few of the Ultima and Might and Magic games and really enjoying them but I don't remember which entries I played in the series :/

[BryanM]

Always had a fondness for Dungeon Master.



Really great game, only a few significant flaws.

[BubbaMc]

Tie Fighter, Flashback.

[Crafty+Mech]

Eye of the Beholder!

Played the crap out of that one on a 286.

[Lord Satori]

Tyrian
Raptor
Hexen
Heretic
Bedlam
Scorched Earth
Spispopd

There are others, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Also, was Duke 3D a DOS game?

[BrianC]

There are others, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Also, was Duke 3D a DOS game?

yes. The version from GoG games runs in DOSBox.

[Ed Oscuro]

The "magic" (if it can be called that...) that lets Duke 3D, DOOM, and a variety of other memory-hungry programs run in DOS was DOS/4G and DOS/4GW.

These days, you're better off using this drop-in replacement:
http://dos32a.narechk.net/index_en.html

I should give it a test run on the ol' PacBell sometime.

[Teufel_in_Blau]

Dune II

RTS game circa 1992 from Westwood Studios, spiritual predecessor to Command & Conquer, Warcraft, etc. Loosely based on the Dune universe, kept me up to daylight on several occasions.

I loved and played all three campaigns to death when it was released but I would consider it today almost unplayable. The single fact that you can't select multiple units and have to click on EVERY damn unit makes this game today a hell of a click fest.

As for games that still hold to this day: Master of Orion II and the countless FPS but those were mentioned already.

[mastermx]

Good old dos.

Horror
Alone in the dark

Fps:
Blake stone

Adventure
monkey island series and Sam and max.

That's honestly all I can remember now. I had more. But then again I was obsessed with my Genesis in those days.

[Lord Satori]

The "magic" (if it can be called that...) that lets Duke 3D, DOOM, and a variety of other memory-hungry programs run in DOS was DOS/4G and DOS/4GW.

These days, you're better off using this drop-in replacement:
http://dos32a.narechk.net/index_en.html

I should give it a test run on the ol' PacBell sometime.

Yeah, I'm a 90s kid which means I experienced most of these games on the windows 95/98 which could still run most of these types of games without much trouble. Interestingly enough I didn't play very many games myself until I got older, I would watch my dad play them.

[Edmond Dantes]

The "magic" (if it can be called that...) that lets Duke 3D, DOOM, and a variety of other memory-hungry programs run in DOS was DOS/4G and DOS/4GW.

These days, you're better off using this drop-in replacement:
http://dos32a.narechk.net/index_en.html

I should give it a test run on the ol' PacBell sometime.

What do these programs DO, exactly?

[Lord Satori]

They're probably emulators like DOSBox.

[trap15]

Jesus people, use the Googs. It's a memory extender.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion? Bio Menace? Duke Nukem? I don't really know how these hold up, but this could go to the awesome video games artwork thread:

[Gespenst]

Star Control 2 was basically Mass Effect before Mass Effect. Plus some people managed to release a Windows version (Ur-Quan Masters, freeware) and there's a HD version of it too.

[Ed Oscuro]

Check out 3D Realms' page on it (including some more artwork, from the box!) http://www.3drealms.com/menace/

Basically, Jim Norwood was better than the rest of 3D Realms, at least in the pre-Duke era. Damn talented guy! I think the game holds up pretty well too.

I do like the Duke Nukem sidescrollers, but it's amazing to have one guy doing a complete game basically by himself - and compare that to Duke Nukem's stolen assets despite having a team of people.

[Obiwanshinobi]

"Dr. Mangle" - oh boy...