Hey everyone!
A little late again as usual but this time it's a special post. That wonderful site the Internet Archive has a new section for software and among their selections they have over 2000 (!) MS-DOS games and, get this, they're all PLAYABLE right from your browser!
So if you're at all curious what PC gaming in the late '80s and early '90s was like then click through and take a quick tour with me.
First up, here's the link to the relevant page: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games/v2
Since there's way too much ground to cover I'll just stick to what I'm personally familiar with and know to be of a certain quality. While you'll find lots of familiar games had DOS versions these weren't always the best way to play those games so, as a result, I'm sticking to games that were made explicitly for the PC at that time.
The first game you should look at is id Software's Catacomb 3D. Before Doom, before Wolfenstein 3D even, id did a first person action adventure game called Catacomb 3D. This was a maze game much like Wolfenstein only it doesn't run as smoothly. You play as some guy who can shoot fireballs out of his hand. As you explore the catacomb you encounter probably-racist caricatures of African tribesmen holding spears and big green trolls.
Along the way you pick up health potions, treasure chests for points and offensive spells like lightning bolts and "nukes" which are basically a more powerful version of your default fireball spell. You also have to find red, blue and yellow keys to open doors of corresponding colors. While this game predates Wolf3D it was built out of the same rendering tech and it also features secret rooms! Just shoot the walls with your fireball spell to blast away fake walls and reveal secret rooms, but watch out because sometimes you reveal more than just hidden treasure!
If you want to see what John Romero of id Software was going when he wasn't making Doom or Wolf3D check out Dangerous Dave in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout, a single-screen platformer from 1990. You have to navigate each screen as Dave, collecting gems and treasures while braving deadly pits of the fire and the like in order to reach the door to the next screen.
It seems crude by today's standards but people actually paid money for games like this back then! Also this is not a scrolling platformer because resident tech-genius for id-at-the-time John Carmack hadn't yet figured out how to do smooth screen rendering like in Mario games. The smooth scrolling screen in Super Mario Bros. was a technical challenge id eventually solved on their own and enabled them to make the Commander Keen games. You can also check out the sequel to Dangerous Dave called Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion.
Before Epic made Unreal and Gears of War they were called Epic MegaGames, Inc. and they made 2D platformers like Jill of the Jungle and Jazz Jackrabbit. Jill of the Jungle has you taking on the role of Jill, an Amazon woman who transforms into various animals in order to access different areas while Jazz Jackrabbit was kind of the PC gaming world's answer to Sonic the Hedgehog.
If you aren't familiar with the original SimCity by now you ought to be. This was the original "sandbox" city manager. Many children lost a lot of time in their schools' computer labs all across the country as a result of this game. But it was cool because they were learning valuable lessons in city planning and central management that would go on to help them later in life. Maybe.
archive.org also has SimAnt, if managing a virtual ant colony is more your thing.
Scorched Earth is a really fun real-time combat and strategy game in which you have to angle your artillery shots just right to destroy your enemy on the other side of the mountain.
If you're looking for a Bethesda FPS that isn't an Elder Scrolls game you can do a lot worse than The Terminator - Future Shock. Sadly, archive.org does not seem to have Arena or Daggerfall on offer but you can get those games for free from Bethesda's own website, or least up until a couple years ago you still could, if you really want to.
Unfortunately, due to what I'm assuming are licensing issues, a lot of popular DOS games aren't on here. Stuff like Day of the Tentacle, Civilization and X-Com are nowhere to be found. Also I'm struck by how many porn games there are but maybe I shouldn't be?
Anyway, I'm wrapping this up. A short post is better than no post I guess. You should definitely continue to browse through these MS-DOS games on your own time though. There are still a lot of good gems there that I skipped over in favor of my own selections, not to mention all the stuff that is yet to be discovered! I'll see you next week when hopefully I will have more to say.
Thanks for reading.
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