Doomn00b wrote on 2025-12-27, 15:25:

I've scratched that from the list - thanks! Those questionable ones never get much info.

On a second thought, though, I'm not really sure. Let's take KKnD and KKnD Xtreme for example. The latter is not only Windows-native, but also adds expansion pack missions which were never (IIRC) available for DOS.

You could kind of view Bubble Puzzle the same way: the base game (for DOS) only has random-generated puzzles, while Bubble Puzzle 97 also adds 50 (IIRC) hand-made levels in addition to the random level mode. Otherwise, the gameplay is the same between both versions.

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-12-27, 15:25:

I got it from Mobygames - sadly they have NO SOURCES(!), so I may have been a bit rash there. 😳 They also don't have any product-codes for any of the releases, so we can't use those to see if we can find them in any kind of product-database of sold items either.

Uhh, I thought they fixed that obviously erroneous information. I guess whoever added that might have been confused by the existence of the original (non-PC) Conquest of Elysium in 1996-1997, and incorrectly conjectured it to be a PC release as well.

The problem here is solved very easily, as there are two DOS demo/shareware versions of the game from 1999, version 2.0 and version 2.2. Later releases of the demo include a version history (also available on the dev website), which clearly states that version 2.0 was the first PC release -- the game having been ported from Atari Falcon. Although I've not been able to track down the 2000 demo, it seems plausible that in 2000 the developers ported the game to Windows. You can get the later 2001 demo from GamesDomain FTP mirror (coedemo.zip), which is already Windows-native, and the changelog says "Much improved windows support" -- likely suggesting that the 2000 version was also for Windows.

The fact that version 2.0 (coe20pcd.zip), which is known to be a DOS application, is described by the authors to be the first PC version of the game invalidates any claim of a supposedly earlier Windows version.

Also it's probably worth noting that the PC version is called Conquest of Elysium II precisely because of the version number 2.0 of the first PC release, as it is identical to the original Atari Falcon Conquest of Elysium in all essential aspects. But, of course, the PC version then received various updates such as having more playable characters, and bug fixes, so it is not entirely the same thing as the original Falcon version.

On a vaguely related note, here's an interesting case for you when the DOS version indeed came later than the Windows version (well, sort of). There's an arcade-style vertical-scrolling shmup called XOP, which was programmed using Allegro and was originally sold as shareware in the early 2000s. Author Christopher Emirzian later declared the game freeware. AFAIK, this version was Window-only. In 2011, Christopher released an updated freeware version of the game called XOP Ultra, for which a DOS version is also available alongside the Windows version.

You can read some history of the project as related by Christopher here.

Unfortunately, the post-2002 release of XOP Ultra means it falls outside of your current scope.

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

Modern recreations, remasters and 3rd Party remakes are not included. I place the cut-off point at 2002.

I'd still suggest to add Abuse for Windows (2001) by Jeremy (Marauder) Scott. While it was not created by the original developers of the game, Scott received permission from them to include the full version's data files (which were not covered by the original PD license release of the source code + shareware data) with his Windows port, as per the readme:

This is the retail version of Abuse's data files, with the Win32 executable. Many thanks go out to Jonathan Clark and Dave Taylo […]
Show full quote

This is the retail version of Abuse's data files, with the Win32 executable.
Many thanks go out to Jonathan Clark and Dave Taylor for granting me
permission to redistribute the retail data set.

Thanks also to Justin Cassidy for helping with the testing, and to everyone
at the Abuse message board (www.abuse2.com) for invaluable feedback.

Possibly even stronger cases would be HacX 1.2 (runs on Win and other platforms using ZDoom) and Chex Quest 3 by Chuck Jacobi (one of the creators of the original Chex Quest), but, again, these came out in late 2000s/early 2010s.

Also I remembered that a while ago, I found a Wayback Machine copy (in good condition) of a 90s online multiplayer service that had free multiplayer clients of Panzer General and Castles II available for download. I think I was able to download either both or only PG, but of course, they'd only work with said service (I don't remember if it was MPlayer.net, TEN or something else altogether). I'm not sure if this is of any indication if a complete Windows-native version of Castles II existed or not. I only know there was a CD re-release, and a website hosted a big demo (likely taking up an entire CD's worth), but said demo had intricate copy protection which required it to only be run from an actual CD, so I didn't bother experimenting with it. It could be only DOS though.

Theme Hospital (1997) has executables for MS-DOS and Windows 95.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/674/theme-hospital/

Calvero wrote on 2025-06-29, 17:19:

The Even More! Incredible Machine
Sid & Al's Incredible Toons / The Incredible Toon Machine

Seems this has gone unnoticed, but yes:

The even more Incredible Machine has a Windows 3.x version (see, e.g. gameplay video).
The Incredible Toon Machine (Windows) is a re-release Sid & Al's Incredible Toons (DOS).
The Incredible Machine 3 (Windows) is a re-release of The Incredible Machine 2 (DOS)

Why is MechWarror 2 Mercenaries only mentioned?

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

Sint Nicolaas (1999)

This one is a bit tricky. AFAIK, there was no native Windows version of the original Sint Nicolaas (1998) until very recently (the one you can download now from Wiering Software, dated 2017-2018), and the "Windows" version offered for download before that was just the DOS game bundled with DOSBox, last time I checked that.

However, Mike Wiering also produced an "enhanced remake" of sorts, which is Windows-native and open source, also called Sint Nicolaas. I wasn't able to properly play it as it runs too fast on a modern PC.

Doomn00b wrote on 2025-06-27, 14:01:

Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars

I'm fairly certain that The Price of Loyalty is also available both for DOS & Windows. At least, I used to have an all-Windows compilation of all three HoMM games and it had the Gold Edition of HoMM2. GOG also sells both DOS & Win versions of the Gold Edition, although I've not tried the Windows version.

Also here's two more 90s games that are missing from your list:
Transport Tycoon Deluxe (1996) -- that's a legit DirectX Win32 port of the game
Crazy Drake (1997) -- MobyGames puts the Win release at 2001, but I think I found Windows shareware here (totally didn't work in Win10 for me), and the files are dated 1997.

Additionally, here's some interesting titbits concerning Windows versions of several classic LucasArts games, by Aaron Giles:
https://aarongiles.com/programming/war-lec/#windows

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-12-29, 21:26:

I'm fairly certain that The Price of Loyalty is also available both for DOS & Windows.

Of course it is. I think it is just treated as an expansion, not its own game. However, I agree it is a good idea to clarify.

dr_st wrote on 2025-12-30, 08:03:

Of course it is. I think it is just treated as an expansion, not its own game. However, I agree it is a good idea to clarify.

To be fair, it wasn't a given that NWC should've released the expansion for both DOS & Windows, even if they did that for the original game and the Gold edition. Since I never had a separate version of PoL, I made this remark.

MobyGames gives box scans for either Windows-only or DOS/Windows hybrid releases of HoMM2, the expansion and the Gold Edition. Apparently it was unfeasible to make a DOS-only release in 1996-1998 already.

On a more general note, it appears that when looking at the list, the games naturally fall into several distinct groups:

1. Concurrent/hybrid DOS/Windows releases. Most commercial games released right after Win95 came out (roughly in 1995-1998) that have a DOS version seem to belong here. They are also pretty much hit-and-miss in terms of legacy compatibility of the Windows version on modern Windows systems, hence GOG/Steam releases thereof usually rely on the DOS version run in DOSBox instead.

Another batch of combo DOS/Windows releases are indie/freeware/shareware games made in late 90s and in the early 2000s, many of which use the Allegro library, which allows for fairly good cross-platform development and porting. Again, native performance on modern Windows may vary a good deal between these, but in some cases development continued and there is a stable Windows build available that works well on modern systems (e. g., Mirror Magic).

Also Chris Jones' Adventure Game Studio continued to support DOS to around 2003, and some games had combo releases. What's more, you can play games that were only compiled for Windows using the DOS AGS binary (provided you could find a compatible version), although some features like music may not work properly.

2. Games with a somewhat prolonged development cycle which started on DOS and then moved on to Windows. Conquest of Elysium II is an example. A more recent Windows version (or cross-platform versions) that is better compatible with modern systems may be available.

3. Windows ports of DOS games that came out before the Windows era (or early on after Win95 came out so the developers did not have time to adapt), as a matter of bringing the game to a more modern platform. This may be either commercial or freeware games (or commercial titles going freeware thanks to the original author, like in the case of Cylindrix or Boppin), with the gap between the DOS release and its Windows iteration varying from just a few years to decades.

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-12-30, 17:07:

To be fair, it wasn't a given that NWC should've released the expansion for both DOS & Windows, even if they did that for the original game and the Gold edition. Since I never had a separate version of PoL, I made this remark.

Gotcha. I never had a copy of PoL standalone either, that is, the one you would buy after already owning a copy of the base game. Since you must have the base game to play PoL, I imagine the expansion just shipped with the updated DOS/Windows programs (version 2.x) which could run both the original and the expansion campaigns. The Gold edition, as far as I know, includes the final patched versions of each executable.

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-12-30, 17:07:

On a more general note, it appears that when looking at the list, the games naturally fall into several distinct groups: […]
Show full quote

On a more general note, it appears that when looking at the list, the games naturally fall into several distinct groups:

1. Concurrent/hybrid DOS/Windows releases...
2. Games with a somewhat prolonged development cycle which started on DOS and then moved on to Windows...
3. Windows ports of DOS games that came out before the Windows era (or early on after Win95 came out so the developers did not have time to adapt)...

And then you have the weird case of Earthworm Jim, where the DOS and Windows ports were developed separately, based off different consoles, and the (better) Windows version actually hit the shelves before the DOS version.

dr_st wrote on 2025-12-29, 07:53:

Seems this has gone unnoticed, but yes: […]
Show full quote

Calvero wrote on 2025-06-29, 17:19:

The Even More! Incredible Machine
Sid & Al's Incredible Toons / The Incredible Toon Machine

Seems this has gone unnoticed, but yes:

The even more Incredible Machine has a Windows 3.x version (see, e.g. gameplay video).
The Incredible Toon Machine (Windows) is a re-release Sid & Al's Incredible Toons (DOS).
The Incredible Machine 3 (Windows) is a re-release of The Incredible Machine 2 (DOS)

THANK YOU! That was some good stuff - the different names made me think they were entirely different games. I have added them to the list now.

BEEN_Nath_58 wrote on 2025-12-29, 09:15:

Why is MechWarror 2 Mercenaries only mentioned?

I will fix this -- but I need a comprehensive description of every Win-version and what, if any, differences there are, to the DOS-versions. (of which there are also multiples)
EDIT: I added info on several versions. ^^
Can anyone confirm if MW2: Titanium Trilogy has BOTH 3DFX Glide support AND Direct3D support? Or ONLY Glide-support?

Doomn00b wrote on 2026-01-03, 10:55:

Can anyone confirm if MW2: Titanium Trilogy has BOTH 3DFX Glide support AND Direct3D support? Or ONLY Glide-support?

Both + RRedline

Hopefully not to derail this topic too much, but is there any kind of compatibility list or database that showed how well earrly-mid-90s DOS games fared on more powerful PCs in the late 90s/early 2000s?

I had a P4 (IIRC) desktop PC running Win98 back in the 2000s, and a laptop with WinXP (also P4-something). I remember that the few old DOS games from the early-mid-90s that I had like F-19 did not work under Win98, asking to boot in pure DOS and then running too fast to be playable anyway. While Dune II worked pretty well on the laptop natively, at an acceptable speed, although music did not work (I was too lazy to use VDMSound, although I was aware of that option).

What I mean to say, was there a time period when Windows versions like that Crazy Drake shareware were clearly preferable to their respective DOS versions? For example, Mike Wiering did not update Sint Nicolaas to a native Win version until rather recently (even listing its DOS nature as an advantage, requiring no DirectX), but did develop a native Windows version of Charlie II in the 2000s.

I do remember Warcraft II for DOS having that issue with map scrolling going too fast to be playable, which made Battle.net Edition the preferred option. But I was too hooked on StarCraft back then, and rediscovered BNE only much later. It still has worse quality music compared to the DOS version's CD Audio, in spite of all the other advantages.

Generally, I had a rather limited experience with running DOS stuff in Windows (save for the late 90s and very early 2000s), and I was happy to discover source ports and later on DOSBox, which immediately became my option of choice to run anything DOS related, unless too resource-consuming for the host machine.

I think it's obvious that many open-source engine recreations for older games were created in the 2000s first and foremost out of necessity to make old games playable again, and so were the official Windows ports of old titles when the devs did make them.

I also wonder how many game "freeclone" projects sprang out of the inability to properly play the originals on a then-modern system (in addition to the more ideological considerations like the desire to have a libre/FOSS version of a popular title).

Destruction Derby 1 had a Win9x version for S3D as well as the first Wipeout (not 2097) for ATI Rage. Simearth also had a Win 3.x version.

MrFlibble wrote on 2026-01-04, 17:28:

I do remember Warcraft II for DOS having that issue with map scrolling going too fast to be playable, which made Battle.net Edition the preferred option. But I was too hooked on StarCraft back then, and rediscovered BNE only much later. It still has worse quality music compared to the DOS version's CD Audio, in spite of all the other advantages.

Yes, the BNE version has music in (afaik) .mp2 format embedded in the MPQ container, and with not very impressive bitrate at that, compared to uncompressed CD audio (or MIDI files) of the DOS version.

Azarien wrote on 2026-01-05, 19:06:

Yes, the BNE version has music in (afaik) .mp2 format embedded in the MPQ container

I'm afraid it might be even plain 22 kHz WAV files, like in StarCraft. What's worse, most tunes were taken in their MIDI form without looping, so they are shorter than their CD audio counterparts and cut off abruptly where the CD version would play the tune anew seamlessly and then slowly fade out. Only in-game tracks 5 an 6 for each side (which do not have MIDI counterparts) still use this effect.

I believe I even made looping versions or these tunes (so recreated the loop and fade out effect of the CD versions) and injected them into patch_rt.mpq so that they would override the default music.

Looking Glass' Flight Unlimited had separate boxed releases of the DOS (1995), Win95 (1996) and Mac (1995) versions. The Win95 version page states that it adds five new locations compared to the other versions.

There's a downloadable demo of the Windows 95 version: f95demo.exe

Also there's an obscure 1998 shmup called Firecrow, apparently made by a French demo group. In a conversation in another forum, I learned that there was a 1999 Windows commercial release of this game (here's a copy sold on eBay). The DOS original runs in 320x200, and the Windows re-release ups the resolution to 640x480, but does not scale up the graphics, instead it just renders the game world in something like 320x400 port at the upper-centre part of the screen and fills up the rest with a really large HUD.

Alone in the Dark 3 also had a Windows version. Unlike the Macintosh version, the high resolution modes on the Windows version just stretched things out.

The Kilrathi Saga aka Wing Commander Windows ports of 1+secret missions and 2 works on modern machines but the cutscene speed problems tied to monitor framerate affects WC2 and wcdx is dead because the dev who works at blizzard went off radar.
Also the releases are free courtesy of PCGamer and EA, the problem also is that the kilrathi saga release also uses a re-recorded soundtrack converted to WAV, same goes to wing commander 3 KS which uses a re-recorded soundtrack.

Also WC3 has some washed up color problems that were fixed recently courtesy of WCNews enhancement patches for 3 and 4

Technically, The Kilrathi Saga is literally the first known remaster of a game made by a company.

Deffnator wrote on 2026-01-08, 14:18:

Also the releases are free courtesy of PCGamer and EA

Alright, I jumped into that little rabbit hole and found the following:

PC Gamer July 2000 cover disk (#5.10) featured the free full Windows version of Wing Commander 1 (only) from The Kilrathi Saga -- along with some other 90s commercial games.

This version is available for download from WCNews website, and the description implies that it is distributed with permission from copyright holders:
https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/2000_PC_Gamer_ … verdisk_Release

The original DOS versions of the first three games are still sold at GOG.

Deffnator wrote on 2026-01-08, 14:18:

Technically, The Kilrathi Saga is literally the first known remaster of a game made by a company.

I'm not sure if that should be right, judging by screenshots these are the same games as the originals, and the WCNews description only mentions "remastered audio". The back of the box promises re-orchestrated music, and all music and sound converted to high-quality digital sounds (so no more FM synth music I guess).

I think there were more drastic changes often made to CD re-releases of commercial games in the early/mid-90s, like adding CD Audio music, fully digitized speech and CGI cutscenes instead of hand-drawn static images. But that did not involve moving to a different platform though.

Also let's not forget that certain PC games received a graphical facelift when ported to Mac because of the higher native screen resolution there. This includes Wolfenstein 3D and the original Warcraft, LucasArts adventures and the like.

At any rate, Star Wars: TIE Fighter - Collector's CD-ROM (1995) predates The Kilrathi Saga by a year and very definitely offers bigger improvements over the original TIE Fighter, with the SVGA mode alone being a huge leap forward (also I think the engine was overhauled or tweaked as well).

The Learning Company were already "remastering" their Super Solvers DOS games on Windows with better art and sound by 1994, such as Outnumbered

MrFlibble wrote on 2026-01-08, 19:53:

Alright, I jumped into that little rabbit hole and found the following: […]
Show full quote

Deffnator wrote on 2026-01-08, 14:18:

Also the releases are free courtesy of PCGamer and EA

Alright, I jumped into that little rabbit hole and found the following:

PC Gamer July 2000 cover disk (#5.10) featured the free full Windows version of Wing Commander 1 (only) from The Kilrathi Saga -- along with some other 90s commercial games.

This version is available for download from WCNews website, and the description implies that it is distributed with permission from copyright holders:
https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/2000_PC_Gamer_ … verdisk_Release

The original DOS versions of the first three games are still sold at GOG.

Deffnator wrote on 2026-01-08, 14:18:

Technically, The Kilrathi Saga is literally the first known remaster of a game made by a company.

I'm not sure if that should be right, judging by screenshots these are the same games as the originals, and the WCNews description only mentions "remastered audio". The back of the box promises re-orchestrated music, and all music and sound converted to high-quality digital sounds (so no more FM synth music I guess).

I think there were more drastic changes often made to CD re-releases of commercial games in the early/mid-90s, like adding CD Audio music, fully digitized speech and CGI cutscenes instead of hand-drawn static images. But that did not involve moving to a different platform though.

Also let's not forget that certain PC games received a graphical facelift when ported to Mac because of the higher native screen resolution there. This includes Wolfenstein 3D and the original Warcraft, LucasArts adventures and the like.

At any rate, Star Wars: TIE Fighter - Collector's CD-ROM (1995) predates The Kilrathi Saga by a year and very definitely offers bigger improvements over the original TIE Fighter, with the SVGA mode alone being a huge leap forward (also I think the engine was overhauled or tweaked as well).

Macwolf is mostly a downgrade because none of the sprites like the original received 360 animated sprites, adrian did only front due to the deadline.
Also Warcraft 1 is mostly 640x480 with upscaling when at the time they were working with warcraft 2 sprites they were more detailed at said resolution

Also is possible that all of WC4 engine improvements were translated back to 3 when they made it since KS comes with a DOS to Win patch for WC4 DOS and a year later they would release the DVD upgrade with HD cutscenes.