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Cute games for DOS

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First post, by Wild-E

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Hi!

I want to show some cute games on DOS to my girlfriend 😊

I can come up with Commander Keen (series) and Lemmings. Perhaps Zool. Monkey Island(s). Maybe more when I think about this more 😀

What other games do you think when you think about words "cute" and "girlfriend" ?

(In case you are thinking about Virtual Valerie 2, then that is not an option, you pervert!!! Also similarly themed games are out of question this time 😜 )

Being less stereotypical, also other game suggestions that might be more well received by women (or girls) are welcome (let's face it - many, or most games in the 90s were more or less, and in many cases exclusively, targeted at boys - including VV2). Especially something that could be enjoyed by more mature audiences (we are neither kids anymore, so that, too, excludes VV2); something like Gabriel Knight (series) is one option, I guess - and one I haven't played at all, save seen the introduction once! Perhaps other good adventures?

EDIT: Oh no, my jokes about VV2 are totally out of place ... it is a Windows game (it seems)... oh well 🙄

Reply 2 of 21, by Jo22

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Cute games, let me think a minute. Hm. On western MS-DOS.. Tricky. 🙁
Normally, I'd recommend Japanese games for this, but.. Ahem.
They often start out as being innocently cute and then suddenly destroy that atmosphere. 😊
Marble Cooking (DOS/V) also falls in this category, I think.

Anyway, here's what I've got so far..
I wished I knew more DOS games of that sort, though.
(Perhaps some of the Windows games can run on the HX Extender, too ?)

DOS
Puyo Puyo Tsuu
Bubble Bobble (CGA/HGC/EGA version)
Snoopy and Peanuts (the cool game)
Winnie the Pooh - In the Hundred Acre Wood (Composite CGA, Tandy)
ToonsTruck (?!)
Lollypop (a bit scary though)

Win 3.x

Jiji series (RPG)

Win 9x
Guardian of Paradise
My Little Investigations
Fushigina Mori no Pokora
Same Cube
Hamster Jam
Puyo Puyo 2

Flash

Fox Adventure
Pandaventure

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Reply 4 of 21, by krcroft

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Where in the World is Carmen San Diego.
The original tetris.

These two were exclusive favorites of my childhood best friend who happened to be female. She was amazing as Carmen San Diego, and could easily get to level 12 in tetris, all around the age of 10. I was so impressed.

Reply 5 of 21, by Errius

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A couple of the girls I knew back in those days had a strange obsession with the first Leisure Suit Larry game. Go away! That's not for girls!

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 6 of 21, by Cyberdyne

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Charlie The Duck
Jazz Jackrabbit

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.

Reply 7 of 21, by dr_st

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Wild-E wrote:

Being less stereotypical, also other game suggestions that might be more well received by women (or girls) are welcome

You call that "less stereotypical"? Oh the irony.

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Reply 8 of 21, by chinny22

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My sisters favorite games were.
Aladdin
Simcity, (maybe the graphics in 2000 are cute?)
Wacky Wheels and Micro Machines 2 which allow split screen multiplayer which helped.

Reply 9 of 21, by GigAHerZ

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Baby Jo

Be careful, that theme might create an appetite... 😜

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 10 of 21, by rasz_pl

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Cute? is your gf 12?
gamer girls I knew back in the day played worms, civilization, colonization, fallout, pretty much all rpg and adventure games

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Reply 11 of 21, by tayyare

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My wife (was my girlfriend then) was amazed with Leisure Suit Larry back in the days, especially the VGA remake. It was 1994 or something like that. 🤣

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Reply 12 of 21, by GigAHerZ

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Talking about women in general, my mother, who is approaching age 70, is playing Age of Empires 2 HD. Though she uses cheats and her goals are to build "nice environment for her people". But she does add enemies and keep them in check with walls, towers and soldiers. 😜

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - And i intend to get every last bit out of it even after loading every damn driver!

Reply 15 of 21, by leileilol

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Boppin and Rayman are the only western DOS examples that immediately come to mind, and even then, cuteness is subjective. If you wanted cuteness in the 90s, you'd either have to go to consoles or wait for the cute multiplatform titles to trickle down to Windows 9X....(american perspective)

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Reply 18 of 21, by Wild-E

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Hi!

Thanks for all the suggestions! Some are unknown to me before, some are good remainders 😀 .

A few comments to some replies:

Errius wrote:

A couple of the girls I knew back in those days had a strange obsession with the first Leisure Suit Larry game. Go away! That's not for girls!

I think it can be described as "cute" in some sense 😀 . I know many women of my age who know Larry. Many have also played it. I think the character is easy to empathize with (despite the players sex)!

dr_st wrote:
Wild-E wrote:

Being less stereotypical, also other game suggestions that might be more well received by women (or girls) are welcome

You call that "less stereotypical"? Oh the irony.

Umm... yes? I may have misused the English language, as I'm not a native speaker (in case it is not apparent from my writing). My point was that the beginning of my post could be interpreted as claiming that "girls/women only like cute games" - from between the lines. I wanted to point out that other suggestions are certainly welcome (being less stereotypical...). But, I failed to convey the thought that my girlfriend is not a gamer - which was the main point!

So, I was trying to get easily accessible DOS game suggestions for a non-gamer by abusing the stereotype of girls/women not being gamers (which just happens to be the case here). (EDIT: So, I can see that I'm still riding on the stereotype troughout the post ... but the beginning is certainly *more* stereotypical still)

rasz_pl wrote:

Cute? is your gf 12?
gamer girls I knew back in the day played worms, civilization, colonization, fallout, pretty much all rpg and adventure games

The keyword here is "gamer". She is not one. That rules out all (turn-based) strategy games, as I don't think she'd have the interest to learn them (at least not trough old games - if there was interest, I think the introduction to these genres would be best made with something more modern). Also hardcore RPGs are out of the question, but something more accessible to non-gamers, such as point-and-click adventure games, might be interesting to her.

In general (not replying to just rasz_pl anymore - and veering off course): All in all it is not really a question of what it the sex of the player. More like I want to introduce a non-gamer to some nice DOS era games! That being said, the (gaming) culture back in the 90s was very much male -dominated. For example, nearly all of (male) my friends in the teens were doing some kind of gaming, either on consoles or PCs (the latter was the more popular platform). It does show in the games also developed back then. There were certainly some girls who did some gaming, but in their case it was mostly something more easily accessible / non-hardcore, such as platforms, DOOM or the like. My original posting was trying to reflect this view in a bit humorous way, while asking for good suggestions! I believe the request was understood correctly since I got very good suggestions 😀

I believe games started to be (more and more) seriously aimed at both sexes only after the 2000s... but there is a lot I haven't tried, like most of 16-bit console games and what came after that on consoles (as mostly stopped playing on consoles after 8-bit consoles).

Reply 19 of 21, by dr_st

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Wild-E wrote:
dr_st wrote:
Wild-E wrote:

Being less stereotypical, also other game suggestions that might be more well received by women (or girls) are welcome

You call that "less stereotypical"? Oh the irony.

Umm... yes? I may have misused the English language, as I'm not a native speaker (in case it is not apparent from my writing). My point was that the beginning of my post could be interpreted as claiming that "girls/women only like cute games" - from between the lines. I wanted to point out that other suggestions are certainly welcome (being less stereotypical...). But, I failed to convey the thought that my girlfriend is not a gamer - which was the main point!

So, I was trying to get easily accessible DOS game suggestions for a non-gamer by abusing the stereotype of girls/women not being gamers (which just happens to be the case here). (EDIT: So, I can see that I'm still riding on the stereotype troughout the post ... but the beginning is certainly *more* stereotypical still)

Well, if it is the main point, it would make sense to emphasize that, and not the fact she is a girl, don't you think? 😉 What I tried to convey (and possibly, also failed) is that the very idea of games well received by women/girls is stereotypical in itself (whether the stereotype is justified or not, so let's not go there). 🤣

Wild-E wrote:

The keyword here is "gamer". She is not one. That rules out all (turn-based) strategy games, as I don't think she'd have the interest to learn them (at least not trough old games - if there was interest, I think the introduction to these genres would be best made with something more modern). Also hardcore RPGs are out of the question, but something more accessible to non-gamers, such as point-and-click adventure games, might be interesting to her.

Really, again? Why would you rule out turn-based strategy? I would think that this is actually one of the most forgiving genres for 'non-gamers', who have not developed the gamer reflexes growing up. It is also a genre that two players can calmly play together on a single PC. Also I don't necessarily agree with you about 'introducing with something more modern'. Modern games tend to be more complicated with a larger set of rules and a steeper learning curve. Think Heroes of Might and Magic - every new installment (at least in the first 3) adds more elements and more complexity; someone who had played them in order will find it easier to adapt than someone who is just thrown into the water with Heroes III.

In fact I have my very own example to back it up - as I had played several rounds of Heroes of Might and Magic with my wife, who is also not a gamer, and we both enjoyed it. She actually preferred the simplicity of the first game to the variety of the second, so I haven't even bothered introducing the third one to her.

Point-and-click adventures is another nice genre for people without gamer reflexes, if they have the patience to wander around a virtual world searching for clues, sometimes being stumped for hours; I know my wife likes these games more than I do. 😁

In the end, what I find the strangest in this thread is not the stereotypes about women, girls, non-gamers, whatever, but the mere fact that you are having a deep discussion and asking a bunch of strangers on the internet for suggestions, instead of just asking your girlfriend what she might like. Is your girlfriend deaf-mute? I hope not. 😵 No matter how much time you spend preparing a list of recommended games, it will still not be as good as just showing a game to a person for a few minutes, demonstrating some of the basics and asking them if it looks like something they'd like to play.

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