dr_st wrote on 2020-10-28, 07:09:

Don't forget The Incredible Machine 2 - a great upgrade to the original. https://www.mobygames.com/images/shots/l/7298-the-incre […]
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Don't forget The Incredible Machine 2 - a great upgrade to the original.

Man, I had so much fun with this game! I loved to solve puzzles in a non-intended way.

I rlly love the graphics of Super Tetris. Here are some of my favorites (I ripped them from the original files):

I second that. When I once saw the screenshots at Mobygames,
I was puzzled (pun intended) that a soviet themed title could be so cheerful and peaceful..
(I mean, sure, it was made by a western company, but, Tetris as a game, was THE figurehead of USSR/Russia at the time.
But never the less, Super Tetris managed to look civil.)

I think Legend of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate ought to win this..

appiah4 wrote on 2021-01-23, 21:50:

I think Legend of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate ought to win this..

There isn't a composition I believe. Just peoples personal favorites as of members aqs far as looks go.

Loved The Incredible Machine.

Oh I know. It is still the best, though.. 😉

No one did better 256 color art than Westwood imo! Kyrandia 1&2 and Lands of Lore are some of the best looking games of all time. I definitely prefer the clean backgrounds in Kyrandia to, for example, the scanned artwork of the VGA Sierra games.

7th Guest....

Nice game nobody know or talks about... Quimo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPIW_Vr_Xao

Not as good as Jazz Jackrabbit .....

So exotic there is not any information in it even in google. I have played it alot, and it is a nice game. Pretty late for a commercial DOS platformer a 1996 game.

With nice classic MOD music.

Looks like some of my favorite games were already mentioned here... Dune II, Raptor, Maniac Mansion, DOTT, Blackthorne, Another World, Lands of Lore, Heart of Darkness, The Lost Vikings, X-COM UFO (all 3), ... So I'll mention some others, not sure about "beautiful" but I loved them:
(keeping in mind DOS only)

Shadowcaster
Sharkey's 3D Pool (it's still my favorite pool game)
Tie Fighter (I've never been into flight sims but I loved this one)
Warcraft
Arkanoid II
Aquanoid
Battle Bugs (loved it, nobody talks about this game. Never got to finish it)
Beneath a Steel Sky
Fifa 94' (lol still my favorite)
Gobliiins (all 3)
Innocent Until Caught
Guilty
Ishar 3
Lotus The Ultimate Challenge
Mortal Kombat Trilogy
Space Quest IV (never got to play the others)

I know there's more but this is it right now. There are tons of more games that either I never heard of or I simply didn't get to play for whatever reason... Some of them look fabulous still today!

Cheers!

Sam & Max: Hit the Road is the #1 best looking DOS game of all time alongside Out of this World!
Great artstyle and colors

Dusko wrote on 2021-01-26, 06:56:

Beneath a Steel Sky

Nice graphix there 😀

I got another one to add to the list: The Koshan Conspiracy

Never played it before today but the art is really good. The CD version adds some animations to the 2D art with some 3D pre-rendered space ships, they don't look bad either. And it even has some full 3D Elite-like sequences.

It got good reviews back then but it's very unusual. It is a French game after all 😜

That's the sequel to B.A.T., named B.A.T. II : The Koshan Conspiracy.

Wow, some great art work there is! 😎

It almost brings tears to my eyes, though, that some of these are limited to a resolution that's so close to that of an Atari 2600..😢

Some of these wonderful gems would have had deserved 640x400 pels, at least.

Impressive, there are actually a few screenshots that at least made me consider playing an MS-DOS game again. I have a long list of favorite games from that era:

Prince of Persia 1 and 2
Space Quest 3-5
Leisure Suit Larry 3; 5; 6; 7 and the VGA remake
King's Quest 3-7
SimCity original and 2000
Alley Cat
Block Out
Battle Chess
Beneath a Steel Sky
Sam and Max Hit The Road
technically not dos: Nightmare Ned (from what I've seen it looks great - never got it to run properly)
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (also not DOS) - And I believe there was some discussion about its performance. In my experience it runs absolutely fine natively on Windows 10 on my newest pc.
Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail
Inherit the Earth

And many, many more. I would have look at my collection.

Anyway as good looking some of these oldies are, once you have looked at a much more modern game you're spoiled forever. As much as I love these old games they're pretty clunky in comparisson.

Magic Pockets, Galactix, and Major Stryker.

hyperrmachine wrote on 2020-10-06, 12:01:

I just happen to know a lot of beautiful looking DOS games. But I played very few of them (lol) […]
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quovadis11 wrote on 2020-10-06, 03:08:

Wow... There's a lot of beautiful DOS games.
In general, Japanese games made good use of bitmaps, but there were games that were comparable to Western ones.

I just happen to know a lot of beautiful looking DOS games. But I played very few of them (lol)

I feel like that Sam & Max: Hit the Road is one of the best looking adventure games of all time and the best looking LucasArts adventure game released on DOS.
I played Sam & Max a few days ago; it was okay but I felt it was too short and had a bland ending.

Speaking of cyberpunk-themed games, Rise of the Dragon comes to mind. The EGA version's color palette makes the cyberpunk feeling more real.
(Pic related is EGA version)

I just played a bit of Rise of the Dragon VGA, it looks like it's a pretty good game for the time. The controls are a bit odd though. I think you really need to be into the kind of humor Sam and Max deal with to really appreciate that game.

Peter Swinkels wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:50:

I just played a bit of Rise of the Dragon VGA, it looks like it's a pretty good game for the time. The controls are a bit odd though. I think you really need to be into the kind of humor Sam and Max deal with to really appreciate that game.

I think Rise of the Dragon also has a beautiful Amiga version, that was probably the basis for the VGA one.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-24, 21:16:

Peter Swinkels wrote on 2021-05-24, 20:50:

I just played a bit of Rise of the Dragon VGA, it looks like it's a pretty good game for the time. The controls are a bit odd though. I think you really need to be into the kind of humor Sam and Max deal with to really appreciate that game.

I think Rise of the Dragon also has a beautiful Amiga version, that was probably the basis for the VGA one.

I really liked the look of the EGA version - something about the vivid colour, deep blacks, and lots of contrast - but haven't been able to find a copy of the game *anywhere*. The VGA version seems to be quite common. Has the EGA version been lost to the sands of time? I'd very much like to play it.

According to Thomas Van Velkinburgh's website, the original game art was 256 colour VGA and he did the conversions for EGA and Amiga:

My first job was converting 8bit art assets down to 4bit EGA 16 fixed color palette images. The first conversion step was handled via command line followed by hand dithering and cleanup in Dpaint. My machine specs: 12.5mhz 286 pc with 128k of ram

My second task was to convert the same art for the 32 color Amiga version of RotD. The Amiga could take advantage of unique color palettes per image with two color slots held in reserve. Working with 30 colors felt luxurious after exploring the limits of EGA.

(Surely nobody ever built a 286 with just 128KB of RAM?!)