Where to get older games that work on retro hardware? \ VOGONS

Where to get older games that work on retro hardware?

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First post, by rwGast

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I built a p3 system last month and it is working pretty good. So far I have installed Unreal, Half-life, Quake, Quake2 using files from steam downloads or iso files from archive.org. These are all windows games though, now I'm looking to get Doom, Wolfenstein, Duke3d, X-Wing, Tie Fighter, monkey island, and random FMV games. I do not have an optical drive, I have just been mounting CD and floppy images and copying installs from a network share. Is there a place that I can easily download original installs of these games? I looked in to GOG and only one of the games came with the original DOS games along side the updated version. Is scrounging around for original ISO's or demo versions and copying data files from a legit steam install the best way to get these old games?

Reply 1 of 7, by rmay635703

Posted on Yesterday, 04:15

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I honestly play a lot of old shareware games
Jill of the Jungle (and various epic mega games Ilk). Some of the better dos shareware CDs have been archived.

Some old dos games can/could continue to be purchased from the original publisher (some have stopped sadly)

But yeah archivism seems to work in spurts and a lot leaves much to be desired

An example of leaves a lot to be desired
List of currently or always legally free games

At least it’s a list.

Last edited by rmay635703 on 2026-08-14, 17:59. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 7, by Solus

Posted on Yesterday, 04:17

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Mod edit: Abandonware is not allowed on VOGONS. Please see the VOGONS Terms of Use.

Last edited by Shponglefan on 2026-08-14, 13:15. Edited 1 time in total.

Reason: Removed Abandonware link

Reply 3 of 7, by jakethompson1

Posted on Yesterday, 04:47

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Some of the GOG games are legitimately just DOSBox+the original DOS version that you can put on real hardware. Commander Keen, for example. I'm not sure how you can tell before buying though.

Reply 4 of 7, by dougdahl

Posted on Yesterday, 08:16

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No guarantee how good the list is but you could try
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_gam … ted_with_DOSBox
Though you'd have to install the games on Windows or whatever OSes are supported to extract the game files, then likely tweak them as gog have likely altered things somewhat, then copy them to the dos hardware.
And probably have to forget about anything that relies on cd images as I'm not sure how well you'd be able to get them running on DOS itself.

Reply 5 of 7, by rwGast

Posted on Yesterday, 17:02

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Thanks guys, some good links here. I was hoping there was some place that sold digital copies of original games but i guess not. I also stumbled across https://www.zoom-platform.com/ it looks like they have some original stuff for sale, not a lot though.

Reply 6 of 7, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on Yesterday, 17:24

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jakethompson1 wrote on Yesterday, 04:47:

Some of the GOG games are legitimately just DOSBox+the original DOS version that you can put on real hardware. Commander Keen, for example. I'm not sure how you can tell before buying though.

Go to the game's store page on GOG, scroll down to the System Requirements section, and look for the "This game is powered by DOSBox" line.

See Tyrian's page for an example of this: https://www.gog.com/en/game/tyrian_2000

My retro stuff

Reply 7 of 7, by leileilol

Posted on 49 minutes ago

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Usually when it's an adventure game sold online, the DOS/Windows binaries are stripped out for ScummVM and that's icky because now the reference implementation is no longer available while they tell you it's a "PRESERVED GOOD OLD GAME" using irrelevant Namco arcade typefaces because That's Retro(tm).

yeah, gog sucks. never had an account there. I'd advise seeking second hand physical releases.

long live PCem
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