First post, by MrFlibble
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I hope no one minds if I make a topic for random free stuff that I come across and don't have the time to document properly. I used to keep a similar thread in the dosgames.com forum but it eventually restructured itself into the list of free closed source games and I stopped updating it for a long while. UPD 2023/12/28: the list has been updated in a major way, so check it out.
This thread is totally not about any temporary free giveaways, or free games available from online game stores. At this point I'm mostly interested in DOS games, be it originally freeware projects, or liberated titles that were initially sold in some form or other. Shareware stuff is also OK if it's playable and/or interesting enough (i.e. if the shareware version is playable enough to hold on its own as a game, not a limited demo).
A similar endeavour can be found here but it is not frequently updated these days.
Updated 23/11/2022: I've compiled a fairly big list, including some of my older findings that I may have mentioned elsewhere previously. These are complete games, unless stated otherwise. Some are liberated, i.e. formerly commercial or shareware.
Adventure
- Clone (1997) - an original puzzle/adventure game, originally shareware
- Desperabis (2000) - commercial quality, fully 3D fantasy action/adventure game
- GemWorld (2000) - Zelda like action-adventure, simple but nice looking
- The Great Mystery of Cheops (1993) - old-school first-person adventure game, originally commercial
- Runaway (1993) - point and click adventure about a monkey escaping from the zoo, originally shareware
- Twinlands (1999) - an original puzzle/adventure game, in German
Arcade
- 3D Pulsoid (1998) - inspired by Pulsoids, an Arkanoid variant
- Ballgame 2 (1992) - rolling ball game similar to Marble Madness, shareware without limitations
- Biprolex+ (1997) - a mixture of Tetris and Arkanoid
- Bombs And Bugs (1997) - Bomberman like game, originally shareware
- Bubble Jeopardy (1998) - decent Pang variant
- Cosmic Ambush (1996) - Space Invaders clone
- Drilling Billy (1997) - Lode Runner-esque game wich colourful graphics aimed at kids, originally commercial
- Dynamite (2001) - Bomberman clone built with Allegro library
- Greedy (1996) - quality Pac-Man clone by a French demo group, originally shareware (needs a patch to run in DOSBox)
- JetPak (2001) - a great remake of ZX Spectrum game Jetpac
- Mega Breakout (2002) - an excellent Breakout variant made with DIV Games Studio
- Nibbles by George Tzoumas (2001) - open source Nibbles clone
- Noid (2001) - decent Arkanoid/Breakout variant, released as a sample game for DIV Games Studio
- PANGG! (1998) - Pang clone
- PopCorn (1988) - excellent Breakout variant
- Powball (1997) - an Arkanoid variant with a few extra features and a story, originally shareware (download)
- Scavenger (1996) - inspired by Lode Runner, originally shareware and now open source
- TecnoballZ (1992) - cross-platform Arkanoid variant, now open source
- Trick Blast (2000) - interesting arcade game made with DIV Games Studio
- Vlak (1993) - a cute Snake variant with a train, open source
- Xplosive () - a Bomberman variant for up to four players, originally shareware
Card
- Bolitaire (2005) - open source clone of MS FreeCell
- Kosynka (1992) - Russian parience/solitaire similar to Klondike, shareware but no limitations
- XM Solitaire (2009?) - open source solitaire engine with many variants
Chess
- Chenard (1996) - open source chess programme
- Toledo Atomchess with CGA graphics (2021) - retro stylised chess programme making a tribute to The Queen's Gambit
Fighting/Brawler
- Fostiator (2001) - sample versus fighting game made with DIV Games Studio
- Little Fighter (1997) - brawler game with tiny characters
- Night Stalkers [download] (2002) - nice looking beat-'em up, playable but incomplete
First-Person Shooter
- The Adventures of Square (2014) - Doom engine game set in an original universe populated by geometrical shapes
- Beyond Life (2007) - futuristic FPS made with FPS Creator
- Kaos (2003) - an awesome FPS project with an engine somewhat similar to Rise of the Triad; incomplete but open source
- Robot Redemption (2014) - free game based on the source code of Hovertank 3D
- Zillion 3D (2014) - futuristic FPS on the Wolfenstein 3-D engine
Managerial Strategy
- Der Planer (1994) - run your own forwarding agency; originally commercial
Platform
- Boondog (2008) - nice retro style puzzle platformer
- Flynn Sprint (1996) - inspired by Lode Runner but not quite the same, originally shareware
- Giana's Return (2014) - a tribute/spiritual successor/sequel to The Great Giana Sisters, a Super Mario Bros. clone popular in some regions
- Giddy 3: The Retro Eggsperience (2000) - tribute to Dizzy series
- Iji (2008) - cinematic platformer, I'm hearing this one is very good
- Mick (1993) - a charming, kid-friendly puzzle platformer, originally commercial
- Planet Cloudius IX (2019) - free game running on recreated Commander Keen engine with enhancements
- Silly Knight (2017) - minimalist modern platform game, made for a DOS game jam
- Spelunky (2009) - inspired by Rick Dangerous (?); open source
Puzzle
- Atomiks (2014) - open source reimplementation of the DOS game Atomix, using original art with permission from copyright holders
- Blockout II (2007) - open source remake of BlockOut, a kind of 3D Tetris
- Blupimania (1996) - very nice isometric puzzle aimed for kids, but will challenge adults too; originally shareware
- BOB and His Amazing Journey Home (1995) - a game made primarily for kids, but nice visuals and rather relaxing; originally shareware
- Bref (1997) - quality Coulmns variant with bonuses
- Bubble Puzzle (1995) - similar to Bust-A-Move
- Columns by Brian Boese (1994) - simple but fun Columns variant, originally shareware
- The Continuing Adventures of Cyberbox (1995) - a very nice Sokoban style puzzle game, originally shareware
- Digger (1992) - unofficial conversion of an East German Boulder Dash clone
- Enigma (2003) - unofficial remake of Oxyd, a rolling ball type game
- Falling Block Game (2002) - nice Tetris variant
- Frozen Bubble (2002) - a very popular Bust-A-Move clone
- HitBlock (1997) - unofficial conversion of Crillion
- Rock 'n' Spin (2005) - Boulder Dash/Repton like game
- Tristix (1996) - a nice Tetris variant with a few extra options
- Wizznic! - an open source Puzznic clone
Racing
- 'Ghini Run (2002) - a QuickBASIC tribute to OutRun, a fully featured game
- 2FAST4YOU a.k.a. BiFi 3 (1995) - a German promotional advergame
- Death Rally (2009) - official free Windows port
- MREGA (2020) - open source multiplayer racing game
- Overheat (1997) - something vaguely like The Need for Speed but from Italy, originally commercial
- R-Cross (2022) - rally racing against time
- Raymond Fait Du Kart (2000) - decent overhead-view kart racing game
- Street Rod (1989) - classic racing game, originally commercial
Real-Time Strategy
- Astroseries (2005) - sci-fi RTS on the Stratagus engine
- Fractured Realms (2020) - sci-fi RTS on the OpenRA engine
- OpenHV (2020) - sci-fi RTS using assets from unreleased 1993 game Hard Vacuum, on the OpenRA engine
- Priority: Survive (2008) - StarCraft-esque sci-fi RTS, seems to glitch on modern Windows
- RAD - Rapid Aerial Deployment (2003) - a pretty faithful remake of Herzog Zwei with completely new art and levels
Role-Playing
- Amulets & Armor (1997) - fantasy action RPG; open source, originally shareware
- Blades of Exile (1997) - classic Macintosh RPG in the style of Ultima series with a scenario construction kit; open source, originally shareware
- City Beneath the Surface (1998) - decent fantasy blobber, originally shareware
- Fenix Blade (2001) - a demo of an unreleased console style RPG, but contains a complete episode playable from start to finish; excellent visuals
- The Gates of Skeldal (1998) - fantasy party-based RPG that has been compared to Lands of Lore; open source, originally commercial
- Gene Splicing (1999) - very old-school sci-fi RPG
- Helherron (2006) - classic style top-down fantasy RPG
- Tower of Fortune (1998) - a QuickBASIC blobber similar to The Bard's Tale, featuring music by Bjorn Lynne; incomplete, but a "shareware" episode is available
Shooter
- Attack of the Mutant Camels (1999) - remake of the Commodore 64 game with new graphics
- Alien Assault II (1997) - similar to Alien Breed
- Invasion Alien (2001) - very decent faux 3D shmup made with DIV Games Studio
- Hydorah (2010) - inspired by R-Type, this one seems to be a classic title by now
- Operation Vulture 3: Cyber Chopper (1993) - side-scrolling shmup with a helicopter, originally shareware
Simulation
- Jaguar GR1: Strike Force Delta Zulu (1997) - professional quality flight sim made with Flight Sim Toolkit
- RiftSpace (2004) - a spin-off of the Star Wraith series, effectively an enhanced mercenary mode from SW2; originally shareware
- Star Wraith 2 (2001) - space combat sim featuring campaign and freeform mercenary modes, originally shareware
- Star Wraith 3: Shadows of Orion (2002) - sequel to Star Wraith 2, essentially an updated game; originally shareware
- Vertigo (1995) - open source flight sim aiming at realism
Sport
- Football Glory (1995) - football/soccer game like Sensible Soccer, made by Croteam
Turn-Based Strategy
- Battlelords (2001) - futuristic strategy games similar to Empire
- Conquest of Elysium II (1999) - fantasy strategy with considerable depth, originally shareware and running under DOS
- Conquests (1994) - a prototype of the German medieval strategy game called Crusade
- Crazy Cows (1996) - turn-based tactics somewhat like Jagged Alliance but with cows
- Knights of War (2009) - something between Defender of the Crown and Heroes of Might anc Magic
- PaybackTime 2 (1997) - futuristic tactical combat inspired by X-COM's Battlescape mode
- Visual Star Trek (1990) - the cult implementation of the classic mainframe Star Trek game from the 1970s, by an anonymous author
Developers with several free games:
- .HCC. ~Software~ - several games created with DIV Games Studio
- Ader Software - several free games with source code
- Brain Child Design - several games for DOS, some with source
- Carl Erikson's Computer Games Page
- Cheesy Software - several games for DOS
- Dod-G Pos-E - a UK team that made quite a few games of average quality. Attempts to market them via Ultisoft apparently were not successful. They had several sites, two with working downloads:
- Free Lunch Design - games built with Allegro library
- Games by Jorrit Rouwé - several free games with source
- Games by Scott Haag - quite a big list
- Georg Rottensteiner's page - has several clones of popular games like Super Mario Bros., Atomix and Puzznic
- George M. Tzoumas' page - several DOS games
- JJsoft Games/Saito Games - arcade games for DOS and Windows
- KENTAURI - several quality games made with QuickBasic
- Mateusz Viste - software - several open source games for DOS and other platforms
- Paul Panks' page - some interesting DOS projects, including a neat looking RPG (incomplete but with source) and a roguelike
- Piste Gamez - a Finnish team
- Solitaire Games by Randy Rasa - includes several formerly shareware games for DOS and Windows, now freeware
Kitchen sink stuff:
- X2 Support Group FTP mirror -- there was a 1995 gamedev contest with the entries available from the FTP. Some are pretty interesting projects.
- Finnish video games wiki - DOS Games -- also lists downloadable games (no abandonware here)
- List of old Finnish games
Last edited by MrFlibble on 2023-12-28, 16:11. Edited 4 times in total.
