"Best" is completely subjective. Why don't you tell us something about what you like?

I think http://www.danielsays.com/ has a pretty nice directory of vintage software if you are wondering what was available at the time. The writeup of the first and last DOS office suite is kind of nifty.

The CorelDraw for DOS look's nice!

But, I can't find the classic games which often played in more than 18 year.

That I know DOS games is:
Test Drive
Quake
Doom
Wolfenstein 3D
Duke Nukem 3D
Wing Commander
SimCity 2000

Win 3.1 games that I know:
SimTower: The Vertical Empire
Windows Entertainment Pack

Win9x games that I know is:
Road & Track Present: The Need For Speed
Need For Speed II
Quake (Win9x version0
Quake II
Quake III Arena
Half-Life (include it expansion)

That was I know, can someone giving the best retro games other than list on above?

If you're into strategy games play Master of Orion II and Warlords III.

The answer to all of those is Fried Green Tomatoes.

😜

ClassicDOSGames usually has the popular classics and some obscures.

The world of DOS is very huge and deep. Discussions of it's games and applications can go on for years. No, seriously!

I think the best way too experience these classics is self discovery. Head over to MobyGames and browse through the respective sections. You can browse the different categories including the year of release. Each of us like different games a lot, in spite of having similar ones at the same time.

Some of us still like PC versions of Dig-Dug, Alleycats, Tapper, Zaxxon, Lode Runner, Asteroids, etc.

Wargames were aplenty by SSI amongst others. SSI (Strategic Simulation Inc.) was also known for releasing numerous well liked Advanced Dungeon & Dragon RPG games.

Microprose used to release some realistic Simulations after Simulations - F-15 Strike Eagle series, Stealth Fighter series, Silent Service submarine series, Gunship chopper series, etc.

Of course, Sierra On-Line with their classic Quest games - King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Quest for Glory and Leisure Suit Larry series.

And Gods, Lemmings, Civilization, Colonization, the Original Simcity, Syndicate, System Shock, Ultima series, and Prince of Persia and Karateka and .....soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many of them.....!!

And these are just 4 or 5% of the total DOS games. Haven't touched Windows 3.x and Win95 based software. And haven't touched the thousands of sharewares too!

As for other software, and applications like productivity suites, system tools and utilities (apps is a "new" term after the advent of smartphones), it totally depends on what you want to do.

So, as SquallStrife said Fried Green Tomatoes, it can be anything.

Anyone ever make a KliknPlay game? 😁

or visit Home of the Underdogs. I think they have their copyright credentials in line...
Everything organized by category with screens and decent reviews. Great site.

tincup wrote:

or visit Home of the Underdogs. I think they have their copyright credentials in line...

"Credentials"? There are no "credentials", sir. In the overwhelmingly vast majority of cases, downloading copyrighted software is just plain illegal, no matter where you're getting it from – it's just that in the case of ancient software that is vastly unlikely to ever be sold again, no one is likely to care. But that is a discussion that has been had many times in other threads.

And Home of the Underdogs ain't what it used to be.

I dig through Mobygames occasionally ...

Jorpho wrote:

tincup wrote:

or visit Home of the Underdogs. I think they have their copyright credentials in line...

"Credentials"? There are no "credentials", sir. In the overwhelmingly vast majority of cases, downloading copyrighted software is just plain illegal, no matter where you're getting it from – it's just that in the case of ancient software that is vastly unlikely to ever be sold again, no one is likely to care. But that is a discussion that has been had many times in other threads.

And Home of the Underdogs ain't what it used to be.

@ Jorpho - You may well be right. But after passage of the digital copyright act HOTU deleted a very large portion of their download links, maybe even the majority, in what looked to be a good faith effort to comply with rights holders expressed wishes. Remember, not all rights holders object to this sort of thing as much as the copyright purists do, and formally granted permission.

A game site, I forget which one, is dedicated to making a list of official freeware games and games that rights holders have formally declined to enforce copyright. I'm hoping that efforts along these lines will someday bring clarity to the situation.

But i don't want to hijack this thread - as you say, the topic has been beat to death...

tincup wrote:

@ Jorpho - You may well be right. But after passage of the digital copyright act HOTU deleted a very large portion of their download links, maybe even the majority, in what looked to be a good faith effort to comply with rights holders expressed wishes.

I beg your pardon, but I have to ask: where are you getting these ideas from? If the historical record is getting corrupted with the passage of time, something should be done.

At one point some lawyer from the ESA/IDSA sent out some C&Ds and a bunch of games were taken down in response, but that has everything to do with some overly ambitious ESA lawyer and little to do with keeping up to spec with legal developments. Many, many more downloads have been missing since the site underwent a massive upheaval due to its ISP going kaput and the site's original owner departing, simply because a lot of downloads were lost in the process that have not yet been replaced (and probably never will be).

A game site, I forget which one, is dedicated to making a list of official freeware games and games that rights holders have formally declined to enforce copyright.

There's http://www.liberatedgames.com , but it's kind of in decline as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commerci … sed_as_freeware is somewhat more authoritative at this point.

Jorpho wrote:

And Home of the Underdogs ain't what it used to be.

When Acord Games took over with his "top dog" stolen games/lazy 3d game kit shit, you know something's up with the site.

(not that I ever go there anymore - they jumped the shark a very long time ago, like 2000. What "abandonware" site would ever find a truly abandoned gem like Russian Roulette? 😁 )

MoSlo (or Mo'Slo?) comes in handy if you have any old games that run a bit too fast 😉

PowerPie5000 wrote:

MoSlo (or Mo'Slo?) comes in handy if you have any old games that run a bit too fast 😉

Can it slowing down the Pentium 100 to make old DOS games playable?

northernosprey02 wrote:

PowerPie5000 wrote:

MoSlo (or Mo'Slo?) comes in handy if you have any old games that run a bit too fast 😉

Can it slowing down the Pentium 100 to make old DOS games playable?

Check out my tutorial here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PtaXJp2iBY

If you have L1 and L2 cache options you actually don't need Moslo. Moslo can cause other issues, like I heard about issues with the joystick.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Check out my tutorial here: […]
Show full quote

northernosprey02 wrote:

PowerPie5000 wrote:

MoSlo (or Mo'Slo?) comes in handy if you have any old games that run a bit too fast 😉

Can it slowing down the Pentium 100 to make old DOS games playable?

Check out my tutorial here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PtaXJp2iBY

If you have L1 and L2 cache options you actually don't need Moslo. Moslo can cause other issues, like I heard about issues with the joystick.

I already watching your video yet.... 😁

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

...Moslo can cause other issues, like I heard about issues with the joystick.

Yes, very true. Moslo at much over 25-30% reduction introduces perceptible lag that get worse and worse as the percentage is increased. MoSlo works best with joystick/controller based games if the speed reduction you need isn't too high, that is if you start with a lower spec cpu to begin with.

A little app called Turbo works better in this respect, but I think it only operates in Windows not pure dos, but I could be wrong. Since building dedicated retro rigs to solve exactly this sort of issue it's been a while since I've needed to fuss with it:)