Remembering DOS-era gaming (giant jpg)

[emwearz]

Also I do not remember DOS having errors or failing, or telling me your computer is not good enough to run this game. It run was some where near flawless.

Was the same back then, needed a VGA card then Super VGA, etc.

Need a 286, need a 486, need a CDROM, etc.

[GSZX1337]

There were also options to run games in CGA,EGA,VGA modes similar to the settings menus we have for modern PC games.

[isiolia]

Also I do not remember DOS having errors or failing, or telling me your computer is not good enough to run this game. It run was some where near flawless

Depended on the game. Quite a few required different memory configurations or whatnot, necessitating special system files. It wasn't uncommon to create boot disks to reconfigure the system according to how a particular title wanted. One of the multimedia kits I got actually included a book filled with different configurations to use for different games.

[CRTGAMER]

Also I do not remember DOS having errors or failing, or telling me your computer is not good enough to run this game. It run was some where near flawless

Depended on the game. Quite a few required different memory configurations or whatnot, necessitating special system files. It wasn't uncommon to create boot disks to reconfigure the system according to how a particular title wanted. One of the multimedia kits I got actually included a book filled with different configurations to use for different games.

Agree, the biggest headache was the initial CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEC.BAT bootup. But you didn't need a boot floppy, just an EDIT of the initial Bootup files. Some games wanted just HIMEM.SYS, some only worked when EMM386.EXE is included and others needed a CLEAN Boot with no memory management. I used the CHOICE.COM command which allows a Memory Selection at the boot, labeled the "Memory Specific Needs" games in Power Menu.

[J T]

I just wanted to point out that several of the games in that image are now free:

Abuse
Beneath a Steel Sky
Command & Conquer
The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
Grand Theft Auto
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Nethack
One Must Fall 2097
System Shock (portable)
Tyrian 2000

[fastbilly1]

yeah I feel like the idea's been kicked around in the past, but...

Yeah, I was actually trying to think of which group we could make a DOS article for. Defining Games? That would be kinda hard, because like you said, the library is vast. Hidden Gems is also possible, but I would much rather see a "Top X" type of article to be honest. Either that, or even Retro Gaming 101: DOS.

It has been tossed around alot, since before I got here. The last time Ack and I talked about it we thought the best way to write it was to do Definitive Games in year blocks - ie Definitive PC Games of 1980-1985. That way the articles wouldnt end up being stupidly long.

[ExedExes]

I just wanted to point out that several of the games in that image are now free:

Abuse
Beneath a Steel Sky
Command & Conquer
The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
Grand Theft Auto
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Nethack
One Must Fall 2097
System Shock (portable)
Tyrian 2000

There's even more that are legally free --

http://www.classicdosgames.com/legal/fr ... share.html has shareware titles that were rights-released by the authors/companies

and

http://www.classicdosgames.com/legal/freeware_com.html has commercial software now also free such as those that were already listed.

[Nemoide]

http://dosgames.com/ is also a good site, filled with tons of games - mostly shareware.

[Ziggy]

I set up my old Compaq Deskpro with Windows 98 SE. It's got a whopping 400Mhz PII, 256MB of RAM, and a huge 20GB hard drive (it is actually huge for my gaming needs - with the OS and a few games installed I only used about a gig so far lol). This thing runs like a champ. Oh, and in addition to my 3.5" floppy drive and CD-ROM drive, I threw in a 5.25" floppy drive. I don't have any 5.25" floppies to test it though, but I think it works. I just picked up Out of this World from Amazon which includes one 5.25" and two 3.5" floppies, so we'll see when it gets here.

I have the Doom Collector's Edition, the one that was packaged with the Doom 3 preview. Apparently this release doesn't include the mouse driver. I just downloaded the driver from some where, hopefully it works. I've been using the Doomsday engine to play on current hardware, with which the mouse works great, but that engine doesn't work on Win98. I wanna get it running with mouse support on my Win98 PC.

yeah I feel like the idea's been kicked around in the past, but...

Yeah, I was actually trying to think of which group we could make a DOS article for. Defining Games? That would be kinda hard, because like you said, the library is vast. Hidden Gems is also possible, but I would much rather see a "Top X" type of article to be honest. Either that, or even Retro Gaming 101: DOS.

It has been tossed around alot, since before I got here. The last time Ack and I talked about it we thought the best way to write it was to do Definitive Games in year blocks - ie Definitive PC Games of 1980-1985. That way the articles wouldnt end up being stupidly long.

Yeah, that seems like the best way to go about it. Something like 5 year chunks. Also, "Definitive PC Games" and not just DOS games. I dug out a bunch of my old PC games from the 90's recently, I didn't realize that a lot of them aren't DOS.

There's even more that are legally free --

I just downloaded Alien Carnage, Abuse and Kosmonaut. Alien Carnage really looks cool.

[Erik_Twice]

The list of PC games I want is as big as all other platforms put together! Of the 30 titles I want for sure, 18 are from the DOS era.