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 Some of the better dos shareware CDs have been archived.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.

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

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.

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.

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.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2026-08-14, 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

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 if you can.

leileilol wrote on 2026-08-15, 07:53:

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).

Looks like GOG now has "This game is powered by ScummVM" under System Requirements as well, for games which use it. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is one such example: https://www.gog.com/en/game/indiana_jones_and … ate_of_atlantis

So we can at least tell what they are selling. But yeah, I too would prefer the unaltered DOS release.

1. For shareware, demos and free (including commercial turn free) games my first stop is DOS Games Archive and the second is RGB Classic Games - (the latter does not seem to open anymore).

2. Online distribution platforms like GoG, Steam or Zoom Platfrom are hit and miss. I have quite a few games from GoG that work in DOS, but overall it's a gamble.
- some come in just fine (e.g. Terminal Velocity, Tyrian 2000, Star Control or Star Control II)
- others come as preinstalled (and sometimes patched) installation with full CD image available (e.g. Quake and mission disks, Strike Commander, Lands of Lore, Alone in the Dark 2 or Alone in the Dark 3)
- then there are games that have their Audio CD tracks ogg-compressed (e.g. Alone in the Dark 1 or HeXen II)
- or games that need some work to get them running in "pure" DOS but can in principle work (e.g. Lands of Lore II, Wing Commander 3 and 4)
- and _then_ some "remasters" or SCUMMVM packages like Z, Chaos Engine or Kyrandia-s which I would not recommend

I never bought anything off Zoom, but got Heretic and Hexen on Steam (before these were "kexed up") which run in DOS just fine.

3. This forum has exceptional curated lists of games that can be downloaded off internet (already linked above).

4. Finally, on the "second hand" - it does not need to be a single boxed game; there has been enormous amount of editions, reissues and compilations of PC games in last 30 years. To give an idea, in Europe I was able to get:
- Bitmap Brothers compilation with multiple old games on single CD
- Silmarils compilation by DotEmu - a single disk with a huge collection of games packaged to run in DOSBox that are perfectly runnable in DOS and Windows
- A Lucas Arts adventures collection and so on...

I have not been paying attention recently, but there used to be Humble Bundles that went wayyy back. Usually on a theme of publisher or author or something, so there would be 90s through 3 year old games in the bundle.