old DOS games

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2007-10-09 01:44am

Just out of interest, as part of gamers nostalgia, has anyone occasionally just upped and played these old DOS games like Colonization, Commander Keen and etc?

If you do, what games would you play?

Also, in my current search for colonization, it seems that there's a free source programme called Freecol up, that promises to be Colonization two..... Played it, so far, not much new differences other than taxation and for some odd reason, I dislike the huge graphic icons.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-09 01:57am

I haven't played them for years, but I miss XCOM & XCOM: Terror from the Deep.

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2007-10-09 02:00am

Tank Wars, or one variations of it, was hilarious fun. Sometimes one tank fires a shot, and takes out several guys, and their explosive deaths in turn kill everyone else and no one wins.

Covenant · Post by **Covenant** » 2007-10-09 02:40am

Wasteland, Starflight 1, Starflight 2, Masters of Magic, Masters of Orion 1 and 2, Protostar, X-COM 1 and 2!

I chronicled my X-COM:Terror From The Deep schenanigans on Penny Arcade's boards before a wipe. It was quite impressive! Those old games gave you such a possibility for rich storytelling. ;D

I'm one of the rare breed who actually does believe old games were actually superior to the new ones. Not in every case of course, but damn there were a lot of really fantastic games if you have the luxury of cherry picking 6 or so from that entire era.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2007-10-09 02:46am

I play old DOS games fairly frequently. I strongly prefer playing them to playing many newer games. Commander Keen, Monster Bash, Wolfenstein 3D, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, among others, make for some really awesome gaming. I have a somewhat large retro games collection. I grew up playing those games on my AMD 386 (with 4 mb of RAM, but, get this, a 128 mb HD...and this was in 1993). The HD still runs, and has an intact DOS and Windows 3.1 installation, which I have partially recovered and rebuilt in a VM. For playing the actual games, I typically use VDMS in WinXP, but I'm looking to change over to either Dosemu on Linux, or perhaps a more complex solution if I can find a VM that's fast enough. I might even go a bare metal route if I can find a used vintage 1995 gaming rig that would be largely compatible (SVGA graphics, 80486 or Pentium chip, with an authentic Sound Blaster Pro soundcard would be ideal). The motherboard on the 386 died in early 1997, so using it is sadly not an option.

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2007-10-09 02:54am

I love playing old DOS games... The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, Tyrian, One Must Fall: 2097... lots of fun. Graphics aren't everything. Sometimes it's quite possible to thoroughly enjoy those old games over newer ones, simply because the gameplay is more enjoyable.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » 2007-10-09 03:05am

Covenant, thank you for reminding me about Master of Orion 1 & 2.

Which also reminds me - did anyone else play Duke Nukem 3D or Rise of the Triad?

Those two were the two most fun FPS games I've ever played for DOS.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2007-10-09 03:14am

I actually prefer the graphics on many older, non 3D games to the graphics on most 3D games, especially those of a few years ago. The hand-crafted, pixel by pixel artwork in games like Commander Keen is exquisite...compare that to the poorly rendered, pixelated 3D crap in many FPS games (Halo, I'm looking at you) and you'll see what I mean. This is particularly evident in the realm of simulation games; compare the beautiful, handmade, 2D graphics of the original Roller Coaster Tycoon with the hideous 3D graphics in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (which I've never purchased, or even played, primarily because the box artwork does a very good job of convincing me that it is utter garbage). The original Roller Coaster Tycoon certainly did not have the most lush or photorealistic graphics ever, but its graphics did have character.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2007-10-09 05:22am

X-Com, Mechwarrior 2 Trillogy, TIE Fighter/X-Wing, Raptor, Dune, Dune II...

There are others I have played over the years, but mostly as one off installs. These are the games I generally have installed regularly over the years again and again when I need some good, old fashioned, classic, gaming.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2007-10-09 05:43am

Moonstone: It's short, very short, but sooooo much fun, especially multiplayer.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2007-10-09 05:58am

I recently played Ultima 7. The sound FX didn´t work and the game consists of miles and miles of text but it doesn´t really matter because the story is well told.

Starglider · Post by **Starglider** » 2007-10-09 07:22am

Dragon Stike, a rather fun dragonrider flight sim from 1990. The Legend of Kyrandia games, particularly the second one. I used to play Duke Nukem a great deal - but if I want to play it these days, I run the Windows/DirectX remake (JFDuke). Oh and History Line (WW1 turn-based tactical game based on and better than the Battle Isle games).

Bounty · Post by **Bounty** » 2007-10-09 07:34am

I occasionally go on nostalgic binges, but they're pretty short since I didn't play many PC games in the DOS days.

Stunts (track editor! whoo!)

Executive Suite (a text-only yuppie sim. And it's good)

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat

That plus the classics that everyone knows like Duke 3D, Trek 25th Anniversary and SimCity. There was also an early 3D shooter where you flew a fighter over a planet blowing stuff up, then docking with a flying Galactica-ripoff ship, but I can't find it.

Argosh · Post by **Argosh** » 2007-10-09 11:09am

I'm in the middle of an UFO/X-Com game, a few more days and the first Avenger's built.

NomAnor15 · Post by **NomAnor15** » 2007-10-09 11:21am

There was a Star Wars DOS game called Dark Forces, which was an excellent game. I played that one for a long time.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2007-10-09 08:07pm

I love the old Star Trek adventure games, like 25th Anniversary and Judgment Rites.

Another fun one is Red Storm Rising.

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2007-10-09 10:49pm

Floor 13. Intelligence agency sim? Yes please.

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-10-09 10:55pm

Let's see...

X-COM 1-3, Mechanized Assault and Exploration [M.A.X.]... Honestly I guess those are the only ones I play regularly.

RazorOutlaw · Post by **RazorOutlaw** » 2007-10-09 11:05pm

Tyrian sticks out in my mind as a game that's easy to get in to, although not necessarily easy and quite long. It's basically a top-down arcade game like that Ikaruga game released for the PS2.

DOOM was always fun.

I missed out on a lot of the really popular titles however, especially since my parents watched what I played. And strategy games were a foreign concept to me so you can discount Civilization or Alpha Centauri (if AC was even DOS, I can't remember). However, I eventually did play both Warcraft: Orcs and Humans as well as Warcraft 2.

Ultima VI preceded both, I always liked the vastness of that world...even if I got absolutely nowhere every single time and died far from home.

I also played the kiddified DOOM clone Ken's Labyrinth and the side scroller Jill of the Jungle. There are many others, but I don't exactly have any of them sitting next to me in my dorm room. Let's just say that at one point I was playing only DOS games.

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2007-10-09 11:09pm

Andrew_Fireborn wrote:Let's see...

X-COM 1-3, Mechanized Assault and Exploration [M.A.X.]... Honestly I guess those are the only ones I play regularly.

M.A.X. was awesome. I remember playing that game almost a decade ago and loving it... I need to get my hands on that game again, I really do...

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-09 11:15pm

It boggles my mind that this could be considered a new or interesting thing to do. The internet is full of people who play older games. Of course people play DOS games!

Stunts was awesome due to the physics bugs, where you could hit a wall just right and spiral into the air in a cloud of debris.

montypython · Post by **montypython** » 2007-10-09 11:36pm

Many of the old games had better story conception/depth of play that a lot of newer ones could only wish for.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-10-09 11:39pm

I was just thinking that when I was a kid, the popular games were flexible and interesting (ie, not linear and rote genre). Shit like Stunts (where nobody used the default courses), Star Control 2, XCOM, etc. Now it's just 'lol I beat another set-piece battle in Call of Duty'.

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-10-09 11:53pm

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:
Andrew_Fireborn wrote:Let's see...

X-COM 1-3, Mechanized Assault and Exploration [M.A.X.]... Honestly I guess those are the only ones I play regularly.
M.A.X. was awesome. I remember playing that game almost a decade ago and loving it... I need to get my hands on that game again, I really do...

I got my copy for about 2 bucks + shipping, there were a few others up on the site. but I forget which one it was. (Had one from a collection of old games that included the Original X-COM, Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Heroes of Might and Magic, and a few others... That copy got broken by a jackass... so, now I've got it in the original copy, and still have three different CDs with UFO defense on them.)

Deathstalker · Post by **Deathstalker** » 2007-10-10 01:12am

I'll lose hours every couple of weeks playing MOO 2. I play until I win a game on the impossible setting, usually takes six or seven tries to do it. Every once in a while I'll search the net for an old DOS game, either one I had or one I would have liked to try.