DOS games that still totally hold up today.

[DeimosMasque]

/
STAR CONTROL II

See, back in the DOS era sequels tended to be better. I make jokes a lot about if I want to play a space game with fun combat, RPG elements, a wide open world filled with lore and back story, with a focus on exploration, resource gathering elements and the ability to nail a hot blue alien chick. I don't go for Mass Effect. I go for Star Control II. Because it is awesome. It is both humorous and has a decent storyline, where the main villains have significant depth, you feel like you are rewarded for investment in helping a species and has some extremely quotable dialogue.

This game has been modded under the title "Ur-Quan Masters" and is freeware. The amount of work put in is amazing and well worth your time. Take notes while playing. Yeah. Written. Notes. No journal screen for you.

It takes a bit to get into, but it happens to be one of the most fun little DOS games that I could recommend, and I'm sure other's would have put it down if I hadn't got in first.

It's also multiplayer.

Was literaly coming to this thread to metion Star Control 2.

Still so glad that I am not the only one who remembers it fondly.

Also most old school Sierra games and the Ultima series holds up as well. As do the original D&D Path of Radience games. Just take physical notes

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Hmm...

ZZT

But then, the DOS age had a game called Little Big Planet anyway, but whatever...

I believe you mean Little Big Adventure aka Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure. Great game and a wonderful sequel.

 

[Worgen]

Quest for Glory is still the best point-n-click rpg hybrid I've ever played.

In fact, I'd even dare to say they're Sierra's best series.

I'm always surprised I don't hear more people talking about the Quest for Glory series. Instead its kings quest that gets all the praise when it should have been Quest for Glory since its fuckawesome.

 

[Boffo97]

I'm going to make my first post ever here just to bring up the Wing Commander series. All kinds of awesome.

Ironically, the first two games play better on modern systems than the latter ones.

 

[Wary Wolf]

Hmm...

ZZT

But then, the DOS age had a game called Little Big Planet anyway, but whatever...

I believe you mean Little Big Adventure aka Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure. Great game and a wonderful sequel.

Gah, you're right. Sorry about that. Case of 3:30itis. A cruel disease designed by soup and coffee corporations.

Theme Park

Was another in the similar vein to Theme Hospital, but was be a very intricate and deep simulator. Unfortunately went over my head when I was a kid, but had a nice difficulty setting that catered to young minds. Still, going bankrupt and then the subsequent suicide always disturbed me...

Slipstream 5000

Yeah, there were plenty of racing games. But who wants cars when you have jet powered aircraft that are armed to the teeth? Fun stuff. AI was dumb, but those days, they usually all were.

Skyroads

Another freeware program, that is a curiously fast paced and unforgiving puzzler. Prepare to explode over and over and over and over again. But get that feeling of satisfaction when you FINALLY beat the level.

 

[The Madman]

Sam & Max: Hit the Road is still one of the best damned adventure games out there. With a great sense of humour, fun visuals, full voice acting and a great soundtrack, and even well designed (If crazed) puzzles it stood out even in what was then the crowded point & click adventure genre and continue to stand out as one of the quirkiest and funniest games I've ever played.

Goddamn I love Sam & Max, I wish Telltale would ditch all the episodic story stuff and make another Sam & Max game already.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Gah, you're right. Sorry about that. Case of 3:30itis. A cruel disease designed by soup and coffee corporations.

Its alright, when I first heard the name Little Big Planet I thought they were going to remake LBA... it really does deserve a modernization of some sort IMO. I mean the originals hold up really damn well as games today but I'd still love to see some better voice acting and a little more fluid animation and some mechanical tweaks to make it less tank-controllish.

 

[FPLOON]

Lemmings and The Oregon Trail... The formal is an RTS-style puzzle game where casualties may be required and the latter made me realize that I can keep a family alive through the trails and tribulations of going west to Oregon...

Other than that, I remember this Peter Pan point-and-click DOS game where you must capture Peter Pan and this other DOS game where you gather supplies to capture a false Santa helper elf(?), I think...

 

[PilgrimScott_III]

It might be my nostalgia talking, but...

Jazz Jackrabbit.

Yeah, it's essentially Sonic the Hedgehog with a gun, but in a good way. The gameplay is fun and enjoyable, the visuals are simply gorgeous (more pleasing to the eye than most AAA games nowadays), and the music - good heavens, the MUSIC - is pure ear candy. It remains to this day one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever, and that's no mean feat.

 

[Valiance]

Short answer: Most of them.

Short-ish answer: Yes, that includes Jazz Jackrabbit, Keen, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, Descent I, Descent II, Doom I, Doom II, Duke Nukem 3D, Fallout 1, Command and Conquer, Warcraft II, Jetpack, Civilization, One Must Fall, The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall (and Arena, to a lesser extent), Master of Magic (still with no true sequel, though I know there are plenty of spiritual successors), Alien Carnage, Alone in the Dark, Worms, Xargon, Xatax, Zone 66, Secret Agent Man, Crystal Caves, Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure, MDK, Major Stryker, Stargunner, Terminal Velocity (actually pretty much any Apogee/Interplay/Looking Glass Studios / etc. game), Lemmings, Prince of Persia, almost any lucasarts adventure game, many more I can't be bothered to list.

Star Control II, obviously, but most of the things i'd mention have been said already.

Hmm...

ZZT

But then, the DOS age had a game called Little Big Planet anyway, but whatever...

I believe you mean Little Big Adventure aka Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure. Great game and a wonderful sequel.

Gah, you're right. Sorry about that. Case of 3:30itis. A cruel disease designed by soup and coffee corporations.

Theme Park

Was another in the similar vein to Theme Hospital, but was be a very intricate and deep simulator. Unfortunately went over my head when I was a kid, but had a nice difficulty setting that catered to young minds. Still, going bankrupt and then the subsequent suicide always disturbed me...

Slipstream 5000

Yeah, there were plenty of racing games. But who wants cars when you have jet powered aircraft that are armed to the teeth? Fun stuff. AI was dumb, but those days, they usually all were.

Skyroads

Another freeware program, that is a curiously fast paced and unforgiving puzzler. Prepare to explode over and over and over and over again. But get that feeling of satisfaction when you FINALLY beat the level.

I actually beat ZZT for the first time in 2008, even hooked up an old PC with big floppy disk to install it.

Skyroads is amazing. I'm surprised it's freeware. I hope you played the Christmas version too, some REALLY hard maps in that one.

Slipstream 5000 is actually retro game of the week over at milkstone studios. Not gonna post the twitter link, but yeah. I loved SS5K.

Sam & Max: Hit the Road is still one of the best damned adventure games out there. With a great sense of humour, fun visuals, full voice acting and a great soundtrack, and even well designed (If crazed) puzzles it stood out even in what was then the crowded point & click adventure genre and continue to stand out as one of the quirkiest and funniest games I've ever played.

Goddamn I love Sam & Max, I wish Telltale would ditch all the episodic story stuff and make another Sam & Max game already.

S&M:HtR is probably the best game I played when I was 10 or 11. I remember my dad and I had to go to some game store 30+ minutes away to check a strategy guide for one of the ridiculously impossible puzzles, I believe involving the ball of twine. Great game, for sure. Tons of silly memories. Very easy to mess up even at the beginning, not grabbing the cash from the mouse hole in the office ^^;

 

[Dornedas]

Well a DOS game I regularly start up to play with my best friend is Herrscher der Meere.
I would love to give you the English title but it doesn't have a wikipedia page. Which really makes me wonder whether the game actually existed or if it was just a fever dream.

It's basically a sea-trading game. You know you have a ship and start with a city. Then you trade and do quests until you can buy more ships. Then you attack cities to increase your sphere of influence, I guess. And during the fight against the city a kraken destroys your ships and you start crying.

 

[mizushinzui]

Daggerfall
Master of Magic
Tyrian 2000
The Incredible Machine series

Also if you're willing to mess around with GZdoom and WADS I highly reccomend pairing "OBLIGE"(doom level generator) with the DoomRPG mod and the DoomRL weapons mod. Then it stops being doom entirely and it actually becomes a first person roguelike with fully randomly generated levels, five classes, and a ton of brand new weapons.

I spent a few hours last night trying to get DoomRPG working and can confirm that it is totally worth the hassle. It's really quite interesting when a game stops being anything like the original and becomes it's own thing when fans mess around with it.

As for the incredible machine series I can voice for those from personal experience, loved these games as a kid and they're still pretty fun to this day.

S&M:HtR is probably the best game I played when I was 10 or 11. I remember my dad and I had to go to some game store 30+ minutes away to check a strategy guide for one of the ridiculously impossible puzzles, I believe involving the ball of twine. Great game, for sure. Tons of silly memories. Very easy to mess up even at the beginning, not grabbing the cash from the mouse hole in the office ^^;

The problem with a lot of adventure games from that period is that they do have sort of insane puzzles. I played sam and max when I was older and I only finished it for the humour, the ridiculous puzzles that can get you stuck in the game can be a massive let down for a player not already familiar with the concept. They're great games to be sure but there's just a reason that most modern adventure games tend to try and follow slightly more logical paths.

Having said that I played the latest 3 seasons of the new Sam and Max games and thought they were pretty great, so my opinion on the originals may be totally invalid.

 

[Jeremy Dawkins]

I'm gonna have to say anything made by Lucasarts (R.I.P.). Monkey Island is still my fav adventure game series, Loom was amazing, and playing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was awesome, even if I never made it very far. (I was real young)

 

[weirdsoup]

What? No love for X-Wing or Tie Fighter?

But I have to agree with the recommendation for Star Control II. I'm also glad that I'm not the only person to see the huge chunks of stuff that Mass Effect lifted from that game

 

[Erttheking]

Does Dungeon Keeper Count? I've only played it for a few hours but it was a damn fun experience.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Tons of great stuff already mentioned in this thread. I'll add M.U.L.E. and Starflight (which was the great grand-daddy to Star Control 2...SC2 lifted a great many of its game play elements from Starflight lock, stock and barrel).

 

[asdfen]

the lost vikings
lands of lore
theme hospital
syndicate
kings bounty
civilization
day of the tentacle
prince of persia 2
lode runner (windows 2d version is good too)
ultima games
Arkanoid
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Gabriel Knight games
Monkey Island 1,2 but the remakes are better
Betrayal at Krondor
Wizardry games
Eye of behloder games
die by the sword
Dungeon Keeper
Z https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(video_game)

a ton of other games I cant recall all playable better than ever with dosbox

 

[Xeros]

System Shock, anyone? Not only a fantastic game in its own right, but Night Dive Studios, the ones responsible for it and its sequel's being compatible with your fancy-pants rig, have acquired the rights and have started development on a remake to bring this gem into the modern age.

Being the studio that brought it back to the surface, I'd hope they would understand better than anyone what made it such a beloved series and will do it proper justice.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

The problem with a lot of adventure games from that period is that they do have sort of insane puzzles.

That sort of depends on your ability, doesn't it? I could say that the problem with most of today's game is they have insane action sequences, but that's only because I suck at them. I'm sure most people would be able to tackle adventure game logic if they had a bit more experience with it, just like my action-itis.

System Shock, anyone? Not only a fantastic game in its own right, but Night Dive Studios, the ones responsible for it and its sequel's being compatible with your fancy-pants rig, have acquired the rights and have started development on a remake to bring this gem into the modern age.

Being the studio that brought it back to the surface, I'd hope they would understand better than anyone what made it such a beloved series and will do it proper justice.

Doesn't the fact that they just remade it entail that it doesn't hold up? Nothing against SS of course, as it's my favorite Shock game.