Well DOS covers a large era, I mean late games like Fallout 1 had a dos port. For me 'classic' dos rpgs are my favourite, for me its Magic Candle 1, Ultima 6, Eye of the Beholder II (I have a long list of favourites so I wont post them all)

I know you can get off GOG the Beholder Trilogy, so maybe give EOB II a try!

(I'm not a fan of any of the 3 you listed 🤣!)

I just bought a boxed Ultima 6 recently, including cloth map and moonstone. Seems to run pretty good with L1 cache disabled, so that could be another option! Thank you...

I'm pretty sure I only played through Ultima 7 & Dark Sun-shattered lands on PC under DOS. I pretty much only played point & click adventures back then. In fact the only other real RPG I have played through is final fantasy VII on Playstation back in 1997!

The SSI AD&D games are not bad at all either, so if you want to play some old-school Dungeons And Dragons RPGs, then "the goldbox series" of series could be a good choice.

WolverineDK wrote:

The SSI AD&D games are not bad at all either, so if you want to play some old-school Dungeons And Dragons RPGs, then "the goldbox series" of series could be a good choice.

I have them in my GOG wishlist, waiting for a sale. 😀

Knights of Xentar 😉

Ultima Underworld 2, but not 1.
Ultima 6.
Ultima VII.
SSI Goldbox series.
Quest for Glory series. I especially like the skill system, where you increase your skills not by increasing levels then spending skill points, but by 'exercising'. For example, if you keep sneaking, then your stealth skills would increase, etcetera.
Space Rogue.
Privateer and Privateer 2: The Darkening.

Zup wrote:

Knights of Xentar 😉

Well I actually prefer Cobra Mission for the music alone, too bad it doesn't support General MIDI.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Ultima Underworld 2, but not 1. Ultima 6. Ultima VII. SSI Goldbox series. Quest for Glory series. I especially like the skill sy […]
Show full quote

Ultima Underworld 2, but not 1.
Ultima 6.
Ultima VII.
SSI Goldbox series.
Quest for Glory series. I especially like the skill system, where you increase your skills not by increasing levels then spending skill points, but by 'exercising'. For example, if you keep sneaking, then your stealth skills would increase, etcetera.
Space Rogue.
Privateer and Privateer 2: The Darkening.

I have both Underworlds, U6 and U7 and the QFG series. Lots of choices!

Why do you prefer UU2 to UU1?

clueless1 wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Ultima Underworld 2, but not 1. Ultima 6. Ultima VII. SSI Goldbox series. Quest for Glory series. I especially like the skill sy […]
Show full quote

Ultima Underworld 2, but not 1.
Ultima 6.
Ultima VII.
SSI Goldbox series.
Quest for Glory series. I especially like the skill system, where you increase your skills not by increasing levels then spending skill points, but by 'exercising'. For example, if you keep sneaking, then your stealth skills would increase, etcetera.
Space Rogue.
Privateer and Privateer 2: The Darkening.

I have both Underworlds, U6 and U7 and the QFG series. Lots of choices!

Why do you prefer UU2 to UU1?

I don't know, it seems UU1 has more complex dungeons but less NPC interactions, while UU2 is the opposite. Maybe it's just me, but I enjoy UU2 much more than UU1. When I finished UU2, it felt like great achievement but also great loss since I love playing the game. On the other hand, I haven't even finished UU1 because each level feels like chore, that I'm too lazy to continue.

I'm not sure why I never gave the UU's more time back in the day. I believe it was all to do with timing. I remember my brother being really into them and at the time I think I was all Wing Commander fanboy and burned out on Ultima after beating U7. By the time I was through my WC phase, it was already close to 1995 and UU was left in the dust of more modern games. That's why I love GOG so much. Now I can go back in time and give it another shake. 😀

BSA Starfire listed two of my all time favorite DOS era RPG's and I cant praise Dark Sun Shattered Lands enough. I also highly recommend Wasteland and Battletech The Crescent Hawk's Revenge. My personal favorite RPG on the PC (at least I think of it as an RPG) is Star Control II. If you're looking for fun character and/or item progression, then these games really shine.

My favorite DOS RPG is first Lands of Lore , I played only that years ago but i very like that game.

Here's my list:

Might & Magic III - Isles of Terra
Might & Magic IV - Clouds of Xeen
Might & Magic V - Darkside of Xeen
Lands of Lore
Eye of the Beholder 1
Eye of the Beholder 2

These are all games that I played in the '90s to completion or near completion (couldn't quite finish lands of lore for example). At the time I cheated in most of them because I wasn't very experienced and found them too hard, so I would open an hex editor and augment the attributes of the characters by editing the save file. Nevertheless, they left a strong impression on me and I really enjoyed playing through them - they all sport great VGA graphics and good Midi or FM soundtracks. If time allows, I'd love to have a another go at them now, preferably without cheating! 🤣

I would be inclined to start with the Worlds of Ultima games if I had to pick one today, or more likely the original Wasteland. (The version available on GOG and Steam neatly integrates the flavor text that you would have had to look up in the manual originally.)

Superhero League of Hoboken isn't a particularly good RPG, but at least it's pretty funny and has a vaguely interesting design.

I generally like the RPG genre, especially DOS based RPG games.

When I had my 286, I played SSI's Krynn trilogy extensively - Beginning from Death Knights of Krynn. I actually didn't play the prequel - Champions of Krynn until much later. I have yet to properly begin the finale - Dark Queen of Krynn.

And played Ultima VI extensively along with Martian Dreams.

There was also the game Drakkhen that I played a lot. I had the rare VGA version.

Might & Magic III - Isles of Terra comes to mind.

Yes, Eye of the Beholder too. Haven't started the 2nd or 3rd games yet.

Elvira and Waxworks.

And some "RPG Lite" games like :

Quest for Glory series - I love the series, despite it's not very deep in the "RPG" elements.
Al-Qadim - a nice fun and good looking game.

The Bard's Tale series are my favourite DOS RPGs.

Arena and Daggerfall are DOS as well, I tried playing Daggerfall recently but I got some killer motion sickness after about half an hour so had to abandon that idea 😢

You really can't go wrong with any Ultima (although... maybe U8 is a stretch. I didn't enjoy it as much as previous ones). Especially U7 rocks.

Outside the box I'd suggest Darklands (by Microprose). It's pretty much Sid Meier's Pirates! meshed with proto-Baldur's Gate era battle system (real time with pause). And lots of multiple choice text adventure. In "realistic" medieval Germany.

TBH I couldn't enjoy U7s because of their bad performance. Scrolling is just too annoying for me... U8 is more bearable . I wish someone made alternative DOS game engines for these games... one can dream, right? 😀

Ultima 7 Part II Serpent Isle or Darksun Shattered Lands, I can't decide.

U7 SI for its phenomenal story and depth in every aspect, face portraits, world, sound, music (MT32) and DS SL for its kick ass sound track(MT32), story, spells and loosely ad&d base.

Played them both to death.