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First post, by dada

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I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips for really old DOS games to play. By the late 80s, DOS game development was starting to get really serious with those awesome LucasArts games that were coming out among other things, but I'm basically totally unaware of what was happening before then, like until around the mid 80s.

There are a few games I know of:

I've played a bunch of other random really old DOS games that I have on floppy disks, but I don't recall their names.
Would be really interested in seeing your recommendations for what other early/mid 80s games are worth looking into.

Reply 1 of 10, by konc

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Ah, a favorite topic. The joys 🤣 of early PC gaming. Just throwing in some names, mostly attempted arcade conversions and probably screwing up some dates. It's not until 1987-88 that much more descent games/true classics appear for the PC, but I didn't go past 1986.

Zaxxon (1984)
Xonix (1984)
Troll's Tale (1984)
Tetris (the dreadful 1986 version)
Tapper (1984)
Strip Poker A sizzling game of chance (1985) Laugh all you want but this was a thing!
Striker (1985)
Spy Hunter (1984)
King's Quest 1 (1984)
Space Quest 1 (1986)
Sopwith (1984)
PC-Man, Pac-man & Ms Pac-man (1982-83)
Karateka (1986)
Jumpman (1984)
Joust (1983)
Hard Hat Mack (1984)
Dig Dug (1983)
Donkey Kong (1983)
Boulder Dash (1984)

Reply 2 of 10, by dada

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Thank you 😁 This is actually precisely what I was looking for. Gonna check these out. A few of them are already familiar, but I didn't recall the names.

I actually had that strip poker game on a floppy! If it's the same one I'm thinking of, as a kid I'd rename the files so that you don't have to go through the tedious process of actually winning the games. 😉

Reply 3 of 10, by clueless1

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If you like RPGs then there were some really good ones made during this time. Mainly the early Ultimas, Wizardrys, and Bard's Tales.

Also, there's all the Infocom text adventures.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
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Reply 4 of 10, by shiva2004

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In my country (Spain) the PC was popular in the mid-late 80s thanks to the (relatively) cheap Amstrad PCs, so it received a lot of 8 bit conversions in these years, most of them have this "old flavour" you seems to be searching for (CGA or at best EGA graphics, speaker sound, 8086 as target CPU); some games you might want to try:

- Fernando Martin Basket Maste (only Basket Mater outside Spain, I think)
- Game Over
- Army Moves
- Mad Mix Game; a little known fact about this game is that it was nearly selected as the game to be bundled with the original GameBoy, but it has copyright troubles (it's basically an evolved PacMan clone) and Nintendo finaly elected Tetris and the rest is history.
- La abadía del crimen (an absolute technical masterpiece for it's time but also an incredible difficult game)

and more or less any PC game from Dinamic, Topo Soft and Opera Soft from this timeframe.

Reply 6 of 10, by infiniteclouds

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I'm going to be checking out Clueless' recommendations for RPGs as I've played Might and Magic I-III and really enjoyed them. Though I may hold off on Ultima for hopes of a TGA supported version of 2 and 3. I played a bunch of text-based MUDs in the mid 90s on AOL when I was growing up so I think I will really enjoy the Zork series, as well.

As I look into computer games from this era it makes me wonder how PC came out on top when the graphics and sound were so much better on computers like the Apple II, Commodore/Amiga and Atari. Obviously gaming wasn't going to drive computer sales back then but still.... on the surface it just seems like better tech.

Reply 7 of 10, by Ozzuneoj

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I've played a few really fun games on my old IBM 5150 (with some upgrades).

Elite (amazing for its time but the controls are quite limited)
Arkanoid
Gold Rush
Neuromancer
Mixed Up Mothergoose (great for little kids... my daughter absolutely loves the original EGA version)
Star Trek TNG : The Transinium Challenge (hilariously corny game with way too much dialog)
Oregon Trail
King's Quest
Space Quest

... and I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 8 of 10, by Malik

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Try Starflight.

I first played it in my cousin's CGA* based machine. One of the first free-form space exploration game.

* - (All I remember was the purple pallette being used predominantly, and I assume it was a CGA machine.)

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 10 of 10, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman

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Sierra Championship Boxing, one of my most favorites.

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Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.