DOS coop usually meant you'd have to share your keyboard with the other, or one had to use a keyboard and the other a joystick.
ut is a good one. Total Annihilation can also be played vs bots and it should still have good mod support though I do not know if these modern mods are still compatible with Win9x (check tauniverse.com). But out of the box TA should work fine (do patch it to 3.1 and do at least try to get Core Contingency for it).
The bots in TA are pretty dumb though, they will attack ina straight line and stuff like that but definitely worth trying out. I had so much fun playing in coop with a friend vs some bots ^^

I know C&C Generals had a skirmish where you could team up with people vs bots and I'm reasonably sure some of the older C&C titles could do this as well, but I don't remember when this started being a thing.

FEAR had an unofficial coop mode. FEAR is a bit modern for Win9x and it was buggy as heck but it was oh so enjoyable! Same thing for BF2 which has excellent mod support! (check moddb)
But BF2 is also a bit modern for Win9x.

A bit later title, but I always had a blast with Serious Sam with friendly fire on and hippie gibs.

Duke3D definitely. It feels fun with a friend. Don't remember whether I tried DOOM coop - we played a lot of deathmatch in the school back in the day.

I have a pair of friends (brothers) who used to play Wrestlemania together in coop. (2 players against the royal rumble). That was always hilarious to watch. They played Battletoads on the NES as well, but that's not DOS...

Could also have a look at Get Medieval, if that is your kind of game. No shortage of enemies to slay 😋
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb7dDaeOji0

2 players makes it easy. You can just connect a null modem serial cable and play games like DOOM and Descent without even needing LAN.

List of all my dos multiplayer games and method. Windows just about everything had multiplayer but will say GTA 1 & 2 was always good for a break and big laugh.
C&C, IPX
Doom, IPX
Doom2, IPX
Death Rally, IPX
Duke3D, IPX
Dungeon Keeper, IPX
Fatal Racing, IPX /Split Screen
GTA, IPX
GTA London, IPX
Heretic , IPX
Hexxagon, Split Screen
Hi Octane, Split Screen
Iron Man, Split Screen
MK2, Split Screen
MK3, Split Screen
MicroMachines 2, Split Screen
Rampart, Split Screen
Red Alert, IPX
ROTT, IPX
Screamer, IPX
SF2, Split Screen
Skunny Kart, Split Screen
Stunts, Split Screen
TV, IPX
Tyrian, Split Screen
Wackey Wheels, Null Modem
Warcraft, IPX
Warcraft2, IPX
Warlords 2 , Split Screen
BigRed Racing, IPX
Hexen, IPX

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 has split screen co-op iirc.

Nit picking, but fighting games (MK, SF) are not split-screen - it's a single view for both fighters. They also don't have coop modes for the most part (but the fighting tends to be fun). 😉

Another game I recall competing in against a friend is Lotus: The Ultimate Challenge (split screen).

dr_st wrote on 2023-05-23, 10:14:

Nit picking, but fighting games (MK, SF) are not split-screen - it's a single view for both fighters. They also don't have coop modes for the most part (but the fighting tends to be fun). 😉

True. Split screen really means multiplayer on the same PC
Also if a game supports IPX then I don't note if it also supports Null modem.

It's just a way to categorise games in a a spreadsheet I have that also includes highest supported soundcard eg (Adlib, SB, SB16, Midi) and year released.

Tyrian's two player mode is an arcade mode variant with a weird two part 'dragon' ship, kinda like Blasteroids mechanics

on the other hand (with keyboard jam potential)....... DESTRUCT >:}

Tetrium wrote on 2023-05-22, 23:03:

Could also have a look at Get Medieval, if that is your kind of game. No shortage of enemies to slay 😋
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb7dDaeOji0

looks awesome!! definitely going to play that

chinny22 wrote on 2023-05-23, 09:05:

List of all my dos multiplayer games and method. Windows just about everything had multiplayer but will say GTA 1 & 2 was alway […]
Show full quote

List of all my dos multiplayer games and method. Windows just about everything had multiplayer but will say GTA 1 & 2 was always good for a break and big laugh.
C&C, IPX
Doom, IPX
Doom2, IPX
Death Rally, IPX
Duke3D, IPX
Dungeon Keeper, IPX
Fatal Racing, IPX /Split Screen
GTA, IPX
GTA London, IPX
Heretic , IPX
Hexxagon, Split Screen
Hi Octane, Split Screen
Iron Man, Split Screen
MK2, Split Screen
MK3, Split Screen
MicroMachines 2, Split Screen
Rampart, Split Screen
Red Alert, IPX
ROTT, IPX
Screamer, IPX
SF2, Split Screen
Skunny Kart, Split Screen
Stunts, Split Screen
TV, IPX
Tyrian, Split Screen
Wackey Wheels, Null Modem
Warcraft, IPX
Warcraft2, IPX
Warlords 2 , Split Screen
BigRed Racing, IPX
Hexen, IPX

awesome, thank you

Doom 2D
Lotus 3 Ultimate Challenge
Ignition
Mortal Kombat
Big Red Racing

As a kid I used to play some single player games in "co-op" mode. For example, in Wolf3D one would handle movement while the other took care of shooting and opening doors. 2D shooters were good for this as well (Raptor, Galactix, etc).

MAZter wrote on 2023-05-23, 15:38:

Doom 2D

Hey, I forgot about this one, but it was actually pretty fun.