The History of DOS Computer Games

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Although the occasional DOS operating system game is still released, the "DOS Era" as most people think of it only spans the last two decades of the 20th century. In the earlier years interactive fiction style games from companies such as Infocom dominated, while in the latter years piloting simulators from companies such as Dynamix dominated. Unlike Arcade games, Cartridge Video Console games, or even many Tabletop games, a large percentage of DOS games are world-building and adventure games, that will require a great commitment of time to complete. Save often!

Due to hardware rapidly evolving over the period, games had to be installed manually, and then manually configured for the specific video and sound hardware installed in the machine (you the computer owner were expected to know exactly what hardware was inside your PC). Unfortunately many of the most intriguing DOS games were developed just before the invention of palatable graphics and sound, and never were given an appearance makeover.

Available here are several hundred carefully hand-picked superior DOS games, mostly from the DOS game Golden Age (first half of the 90s). These games can be played on any suitable hardware computer running MSDOS 5.0 or higher, or by using a DOS operating system emulator such as DOSbox-X. To help with selecting a game, included is an in-game image and a "blurb.txt" file (culled from the Internet) that gives a brief description of the game. For more information about DOS, and a huge selection of the absolute best in class of free downloadable DOS application software (including legal copy protection crackers), we strongly urge you visit the website: Disk Operating System.

The "Ready-to-Run" games are cracked, have been preconfigured for an optimal video/sound experience, and should be able to run from their directory without further configuration (or at most only minimal tweaking) as soon as they are unzipped. The directory contains a "SETTINGS.TXT" file that lists game quirks such as the type of controller, video, and sound the game uses. The games are configured to run from an editable "RUN.BAT" file that sets command-line game switches, activates adjustment software, and launches the game. The batchfile also describes specific instructions on how to properly exit from the game (DOS games did not have a standard method of exiting), and upon exiting resets the video state. As a bonus, extra material such as user manuals or expansion sets have been included with the game if they were available to us.

The "UnSetup" games are worthy DOS games that came into our possesion after the Ready-to-Run games were finished. While many of these games are obscure, a few were quite popular in their day, so please consider playing them even though they will require a little effort on your part to get them running. These UnSetup games consist of only raw floppydisk images (unstripped of source code or low rez graphics), which need to be installed onto the PC, cracked, and then configured using the games Setup routine. You may also need to add enhancement utilities to the operating system for capabilities such as Mouse, Expanded Memory, or 8x14 Video Fonts. Examine the "SETTINGS.TXT" and "RUN.BAT" files from one of the ready-to-run games, to learn how to write your own.


Sweet: A few of the games which are currently commented here as being DMCA Abandonware, have recently had their licenses officially changed to Freeware.