Jill of the Jungle?

My two girls seemed to like it.

Captain Comic was a game I adored as a kid.

Lemmings and Worms obviously.

my kids are fond of commander keen

I think that the kids will like manything you show them, as long as they don't get spoiled by the new fancy schit and begin to view the old games as something uninteresting, even though they are most definitely still fun.

Supaplex can be a lot of fun although it definitely needs persistence and a kid may not have that, but it depends on a level. There are some brutal ones...

Larry

Jo22 wrote on 2025-03-09, 21:19:

Larry

As in, Leisure Suit Larry?

I really don't think that's appropriate for kids, regardless of the age and simplicity of the graphics the text is definitely not suitable for young children.

.. actually, I've played the '87 EGA version at age 7. My dad didn't allow it when I asked him, so I did play it without him knowing.
Because.. kids are interested in the forbidden stuff, as usual.
The quiz was challenging the most, especially if you have to deal with a foreign language and pop culture. I didn't know of Alt-X yet.
The dialogues were funny, but I didn't get so far because I wasn't being accustomed to swear words and dirty talk. Not even in my own language.
When my dad found out, he wasn't angry, though, but rather surprised I made it that far.
After a while of practicing English and experimenting it got a bit boring though and I continued to play other games.
No traumas or something. Watching "Jurassic Park" was much more traumatizing to me. But that was another time and society/culture. 🤷‍♂️

Edit: But yes, my response eith Larry was meant to be funny.
The story above was true, though. Violent games would have had a worse lasting effect on me. I'm glad my dad had no horror games in his floppy box. 🙂
I think that playing something like "3D Monster Maze" (ZX81) would have caused real damage, rather than Larry.

Work with the kid's natural bent. If the kid has a knack for computers, you'll know it, and in that case give him his own machine he can tinker with, something that won't frustrate him with its lack of ability or bizarre quirks in one respect or other (e.g. for DOS a 486/Pentium with a real SB card that "just works" and is the expected environment for almost all DOS programs and games would be ideal). Do the initial build of the machine with him and show him how you do the initial DOS setup, then give him a bunch of floppy disks with various programs, and a bunch of blank ones. A DOS manual would be worthwhile, something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/315099463242. Set him up with MS Quick Basic 4.5 and let him play with that as a first programming language. Get him a book... this is the one my dad gave me when I was a kid: https://www.ebay.com/itm/404420295066

As far as games go all of the usual suspects are in order. Of course I'm going to recommend the Keen games, and I really do believe they're the best.

Start with DOS because it's the perfect environment to learn how a computer works at a lower level than a Windows environment. For the kid to be familiar with command line environments and having to interact directly with actual files, directory structures, etc. from an early age is invaluable.

keenmaster486 wrote on 2025-03-09, 22:22:

Set him up with MS Quick Basic 4.5 and let him play with that as a first programming language. Get him a book... this is the one my dad gave me when I was a kid: https://www.ebay.com/itm/404420295066

Looks good. When I was about 7, I tinkered with GW-BASIC and QB 4.5. Before that I had a Sharp MZ-731 with S-BASIC.
I think the commands I played most with (for fun) were PRINT, PLAY, COLOR and RND.
That was sufficient to write number guessing games, draw ASCII pictures in colour/blinking, make melodies etc.
FOR N = 1 TO 10 .. NEXT loops were also a thing, to repeat patterns.
The basic syntax for such things were even supported by toy computers, such as Yeno Mister X2.
That's the one my sister played with, I believe. The Basic was crude, but core functionality was available.

Tip: Turbo Basic, Power Basic and Visual Basic for DOS are syntax compatible with QB 4.5 (PDS 7 too but it's overkill).
Though QB might be more friendly, with a good on-line help system.
There's also a game version of QBasic/QB: MS Game Shop - Game programming in Quick Basic before QBasic ?

Edit: I'm not making fun here. C64 kids in the early 80s were probably more talented than me at the time.
My sister was even beating me years later when it comes to development at young age, I think. By far.
She had watched news about geo politics at age 4 on TV and even understood, which I didn't.
There was this news show for kids, logo!, at the time on the children's programme.
It was interesting to discuss adult themes like current wars and catastrophes with her
and watching her figuring out solutions to conflicts/problems.
Some ideas were more smart than what the average politican came up with, I think. Kids shouldn't be underestimated, I think.

Edit: Never mind, then. Back on topic..
I don’t know what for sure which games might be suitable to today's kids, but here are some ideas.
On Windows 3.1, Jiji and the mysterious forest is harmless, as well as Freddie Fish series.
On DOS/Composite CGA, Winnie Pooh and Donald Duck's Playground. They're using Troll's Tale engine, just like Mickey's Space Adventure.
They can be found on Al Loewe's website, the "father" of the Larry series and former Sierra dev. I assumed the connection was known.
Other kids games here, but they're for older ones: Could anyone recommend some pc games for girls?

Edit: Speaking of CGA, I can think of a couple of games but they're IF adventures with text parsers or sci-fi games like StarFlight.
For "simple" games, I can think of games like Hi-Res series by Sierra (Adventure in Serenia etc) or games like QIX, Packman, J-Bird (QBert-clone), PopCorn, Zaxxon, Bubble Bobble etc.

Edit: Paperboy comes to mind. Was a hit on Gameboy.. There's also a DOS version, among other ports.
Cartoon themed games like All Dogs Go to Heaven or Who Framed Roger Rabbit ? also exist on DOS for CGA/EGA.
Disney even had a sound device made for such games, the Disney Sound Source.
Question is just how much these games remain "kids friendly" by today's standard.
When I was that age, cartoon violence and slightly naughty references had been socially tolerated, still.
Shows like Tiny Toons, Animaniacs or Bonkers were not seldomly making some bad jokes aimed at parents watching TV with their kids.

Edit: Oliver and Company is another games that comes to mind.
I suppose Mobygames.com has a lot of more games in Disney category.

I'd suggest Superfrog (although it gets pretty hard by the Castle level), Golden Axe, Tomb Raider 1/2/3, and NFS 1/2/3.

Catz or Dogz
Wacky Wheels
Croc
Rayman games
Sim Tunes
Disney's GAMEBREAK! Timon and Pumbaa's Jungle Games

Freddi Fish and the Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds

Sim City is a great game to learn with and have fun. Use whatever version will run well on the hardware they have.

Also Theme Hospital is a classic.

My daughter liked the point and click games - Freddi Fish and Panjama Sam (both series are DOS) and same style on early Windows gaming - Ruff’s Bone of the Living Books series.

Aladdin and Lion King are cute Disney DOS games, but still probably frustratingly difficult for modern kids.

Commander Keen is one of the easier side scrollers. Except for the pogo-stick, some fast enemies, and the final level of Keen 2 which nobody should attempt.

Monkey Island has a lot of story & adventure.

The Incredible Machine.

I don't know if it will work on PCjr but ecco the dolphin was one of my favorite games. Also, you can check the 8bit guy and LGR on youtube for retro gaming.
- The 8 bit guy focuses mainly on machines from the 80's. For the PCjr, you could get a bunch of game recommendations that fit your needs.
- LGR focuses more on mid to late 90's machines and games but still gets quite a lot of gaming content appropriate to the era.

For my personal recommandations (and yes i'll stick to the 90's with a VGA preference over CGA) :
- civnet is a must.
- Lords of the realm 2
- ecco the dolphin
- full throttle
- day of the tentacle
- dark force
- Rayman forever
- Lemmings
- creatures (any of the franchise except for the second installment)
- age of empire 1
- any of the wing commanders
- any of the x-wing series
- black and white 1 & 2
- Half life

For more mature audience :
- diablo (on GOG)
- Dungeon keeper gold (given the sense of humor it could fit with children but... yeah... you play the bad guy after all)
- KKND
- Duke nukem 3D

Koulkrith wrote on 2025-03-10, 11:39:

- black and white 1 & 2

Yes i know : technically not the 90's... but they are so good.

Just add one of the elder scrolls pre-skyrim (arena, daggerfall, morrowind, oblivion)

Sega PC games comes to mind, too.
Windows 95 ports of Sega Genesis games. Such as Sonic and Knuckles Collection and Sonic CD. They use OPL3 and MIDI.
The screensavers and wallpapers by a Japanese artist are cute.

For Windows 3.1+Win32s+WinG there are Genesis ports such as Ecco The Dolphin, Comix Zone etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI0-WPXQjwE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBieCLUUzvQ

As for DOS/CGA games, some more ideas came to mind.
Spider-man, Hulk, those comic book games such as Lane Mastodon vs. the Blubbermen.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/1870/spider-ma … creenshots/dos/
https://www.mobygames.com/game/1943/the-hulk/ … creenshots/dos/

https://www.mobygames.com/game/1688/lane-mast … hots/pc-booter/
https://www.mobygames.com/group/236/infocomics-games/

My little girl loved playing the original 1987 Mixed Up Mother Goose game on my IBM PC 5150 (with EGA video and PC speaker) when she was just a few years old. It's super simple for a really young kid since it can be played with just the arrow keys on a keyboard or a joystick, yet it has similar basic gameplay to other Sierra adventure games of the time.

Later on she played the newer VGA version with full digitized music\singing and enjoyed that too.

They both have a lot of charm and are great examples of well made but accessible games from their respective time periods.

The 1987 version seems to have Tandy\PCjr support, so I would recommend trying that out. 😀

EDIT: I guess this needs some context. She played this about 8 years ago, so there were definitely flashier games out there, but I was trying to get her to appreciate the older, simpler stuff first. I think it helped because she likes to work with pixel art and draw her own Minecraft skins and stuff now. 😊