best dos games?

Crusader: no Remorse and Crusader: no Regret are 2 of my favourite dos games, the control scheme is a little odd but after a bit you get into it.

 

Also, the soundtrack:

 

 

And Daggerfall, spent a lot of time on Daggerfall.

23 minutes ago, mrthejoshmon said:

Crusader: no Remorse and Crusader: no Regret are 2 of my favourite dos games, the control scheme is a little odd but after a bit you get into it.

 

I remember it being very difficult for me to figure out. I was the kind of idiot who would just start up the game and start pressing buttons expecting to figure it out. Pretty sure I tried that with Crusader and just gave up after a while, until I decided to read the damn manual. It was great after that!

Duke Nukem 3D, DooM, Wolfenstein 3D, SimCity, The Lost Vikings, Civilization and many many games.

12 hours ago, Orcsbreath said:

 

Actually, currently the best way to play Daggerfall is with the fan-made Unity port.  It's got 99.9% feature-parity with the original, a ton of bugfixes (both gameplay- and performance-related), and mod support.  Of course, it doesn't run in DOS, so not exactly what OP was asking for, but at least it doesn't crash if you look at it funny (which the original DOS version is prone to doing, even with patches).

 

That said, Daggerfall is amazing and totally worth playing at least once.

You're probably right there. I never played that port cause I kinda doubt my laptop can run it, but I've heard it's a nice way to run the game.

simant :)

5 hours ago, omalefico32x said:

thanks im gonna take a look

 

If a not so original Approach is ok for you, take the Battle.net Edition.
It hast some improvements from Starcraft as to bind Groups to 1-9 with CTRL + Number.
Makes life easier :)

 

5 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

 

I really recommend the C&C games. Especially Red Alert 2, as it is one of the easiest RTS games to learn (and no, I am not suggesting this because it is one of my favorite RTS games ;) )

 

But C&C 1 and Red Alert can get frustrating in later Levels.
I am so glad that the Remaster has an easy Mode :>

7 hours ago, Azuris said:

But C&C 1 and Red Alert can get frustrating in later Levels.
I am so glad that the Remaster has an easy Mode :>

 

Which is why I recommend to try RA2, as it has more modern UI and controls compared to the older C&C games and the missions are less trial and error (although I didn't find RA1 that frustrating either because it originally did come with difficulty setting)

KKnD is a nice Red Alert clone, but I'm not sure if the DOS version is still sold or only the Windows Xtreme version. Besides, the original Red Alert is free nowadays.

 

I have to confess though, I used to play a lot of RA1 and C&C, but almost exclusively the high-res Windows versions. I think in RA1, large maps don't even fit entirely on the minimap even in zoomed out mode.

 

I never found RA1 missions particularly frustrating, later ones can take a while to complete (some can drag out way longer than needed), or sometimes need you to figure something out. But overall they're way more forgiving than C&C or Covert Ops missions.

Ultimate Doom, Doom 2 and Final Doom
Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny
Duke Nukem 3D
Heretic
Hexen
Blood
Blake Stone (both games)
Quake
ROTT

Mortal Kombat trilogy

Commander Keen games

Prince of Persia

Sim City for DOS

 

Those are the DOS game I like the most (almost all of them are FPS lmao)

Stargunner was one of my favorites that I worked on.

Space Quest and Quest for Glory are my jam! Especially SQ4, 5, and the VGA remakes of SQ1 and QfG1. Incredible, clever, timeless games. And honorable mentions to all their adventure game contemporaries.

 

And of course, the FPS games we know and love.

 

6 minutes ago, leejacksonaudio said:

Stargunner was one of my favorites that I worked on.

 

And great to see you Lee! You're the best ever!

Dungeon Keeper was my favourite dos game by a mile. Jazz Jackrabbit was another favourite, but I never owned my own copy until GoG rereleased it. 

Alrighty, I just thought I'd mention some all-around good DOS games (IMO) that are worth playing, as opposed to just checking out for curiosity's sake:

 

First-Person Shooter

Star Wars: Dark Forces (demo)

Powerslave/Exhumed (demo)

 

Both are available at GOG.com, and both are "Doom clones" in the good sense of the word. I am not a particular Star Wars fan but I immediately appreciated the "atmosphere" of SWDF, alongside its very solid, story driven gameplay in Doom-like environments.

 

Shooter

Tyrian 2000

 

This game is awesome in every respect, great art and music, huge replay value.

 

RPG

The Elder Scrolls Chapter 2: Daggerfall

 

Like Tyrian, this was mentioned above but worth mentioning once again. You can get the free full version straight off Bethesda, or use the DaggerfallSetup version to easily set up DOSBox (but if you're going to frequently use DOSBox for your DOS gaming, then it might be recommended to make your own manual installation). Daggerfall Unity is ceratinly the easier way to get into this, and I heard that the recent builds are more accurate to the vanilla mechanics, but perhaps it's a cool experience to try out the DOS original as well -- just make sure you apply both the official patch and the essential unofficial fixes. Replacing DOS4GW with DOS32A might help solve some memory issues.

 

Platform

Prince of Persia (demo)

 

Now PoP is not a DOS original, having been developed for Apple II computers, but it's probably one of the best video games ever. Sadly, it is not sold now AFAIK, but you can get an accurate recreation of the DOS version that conveniently comes with data files called SDLPoP. JIC, a while ago Jordan Mechner released the complete Apple II source code and data of the game, but I don't think anyone made a port out of this.

 

Action-Adventure

Tomb Raider (demo)

 

I can't get off the feeling TR was in part inspired by Prince of Persia, but now you have guns to weed out those pesky dinos and mummies.

 

Turn-Based Strategy

Heroes of Might and Magic II (GOG has both DOS and Windows versions)

Warlords II Deluxe

 

Flight Simulator

F-19 Stealth Fighter / Nighthawk F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0 (demo)

Sandwarriors (demo)

 

Flight sims are a rather niche thing and I love these for nostalgia reasons, but they (F-117A is essentially an enhanced remake of F-19) are all-around good and not that difficult to learn.

 

Sandwarriors mixes a futuristic flight sim with a Stargate-esque setting on a faraway planet that is heavily influenced by Ancient Egypt. I think the game is not currently sold.

 

Racing

Need for Speed (demo)

Screamer 2 (demo)

I'm not much into realistic racing sims, and these are fairly simplified, action oriented games. NFS has some nostalgia value for me, and the Screamer series games are not far behind.

 

Fighting

Battle Arena Toshinden (demo)

Primal Rage (demo)

Savage Warriors (demo)

 

All these are high quality and very playable. Unfortunately, none appear on sale at the moment, but all have playable demo versions. Savage Warriors (simply called Warriors in Europe) looks like it uses voxel fighter models, and has some other innovative features as well.

 

And lest I forget, here's one worth checking out, but not sure how it holds if played for long:

 

Third Person Shooter

MDK (demo)

 

Music is pretty cool.

On 6/11/2021 at 8:35 PM, Taw Tu'lki said:

The Lost Vikings

I need to replay it again, even if I finished it a month ago. it is just so nice and heart warming lol.

i always had a hard time getting into the original prince of percia i like the sequels but man i hate the controls on the first one i feel like they are slow and clunky i have a similar experience with the first tomb raider games now i never tried the dos version so maybe its just the console versions of pop that suck?

21 hours ago, omalefico32x said:

maybe its just the console versions of pop that suck?

I can only say about the (largely identical) Sega Genesis and Mega Drive ports versus SNES (all played on PC via emulators): SNES is a perfect recreation of the PC controls, with which I never had any problems ever. The Sega ones on the other hand, seriously botched combat, and I think movement suffered as well. No idea about any other consoles. On the PC, you can have a great degree of fine precision in the way you control the Prince, which is crucial for bypassing slicers, timed doors and other events. SNES seems to recreate this 1:1, or very close. I suggest you try out the two-level DOS demo and decide for yourself. The default 3000 cycles in DOSBox should be enough for the game.

 

I only played Tomb Raider on PC in DOSBox, using keyboard. The NumPad keys seem to work best. (I don't have a joystick and never used one, so no idea if a joystick would offer better controls in either case.)

 

On another note, I think I should've mentioned Descent and Descent II in the previous post too :)

On 6/14/2021 at 5:15 PM, MrFlibble said:

Tomb Raider (demo)

 

I can't get off the feeling TR was in part inspired by Prince of Persia, but now you have guns to weed out those pesky dinos and mummies.

 

Not quite, please read here: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tomb_Raider_(1996_video_game)#/Development

 

On 6/15/2021 at 6:42 PM, MrFlibble said:

I only played Tomb Raider on PC in DOSBox, using keyboard. The NumPad keys seem to work best. (I don't have a joystick and never used one, so no idea if a joystick would offer better controls in either case.)

 

A joystick certainly wouldn't work too well in Tomb Raider, which is a keyboard-controlled game by heart.

 

How about revisiting Tomb Raider in a modern port? Then check out Open Lara.

Open Lara runs in your browser, the first level is available online. You can load additional levels from your local hard drive.

 

There are also standalone ports of Open Lara available for PC, XBOX, Android, Switch, GBA, PS Vita, and more. Just follow the GitHub link on the Open Lara page, then click '+11 releases' on the very right to get to the downloads. The setup, namely the correct arrangement of the audio files, is quite difficult to achieve and not too well documented. I figured it out and created a better manual to follow. Let me know if you are interested.

 

On 6/15/2021 at 6:42 PM, MrFlibble said:

 

On another note, I think I should've mentioned Descent and Descent II in the previous post too :)

 

Two awesome games with awesome soundtracks. There's a great, matured port available for Windows, Linux, and MAC, supporting both games. The port has been discontinued, though: http://www.descent2.de

 

Make sure to also check the available downloads for hi-res models and textures available on that site.

i never plated decent but the game looks really cool and seens like the hacking cyber space sections on the system shock remake is decent on acid so i gotta give it a try

i heard that the games are very frustating is that true?

4 minutes ago, omalefico32x said:

i heard that the games are very frustating is that true?

 

On your first playthrough, you should settle on the easy difficulty. The farther you progress in-game, the more complex the levels become. Orientation can get tricky at times. The game offers a 3D wire-frame layout map of the level, but in the more complex levels, it gets hard to read.

 

Descent 2, the successor of Descent, adds up to the level of complexity but also sports additional new weapons, power-ups, enemies, and improvements to the gameplay.

 

I recommend trying the source-port I mentioned above: http://www.descent2.de

Among many visual improvements and greatly extended configuration options, this port offers a textured 3D map of the game level, which greatly improves the map readability and overall orientation.

@omalefico32x, it's kind of dizzying and disorienting at first. The games have an auto-leveling option to reduce that. Definitely set up your controls so that you'll feel comfortable when moving up/down. You'll also want to SR40 in three directions, especially when you hear that warning buzzer saying a homing weapon has locked-on to you.

 

I also prefer D2X-XL, but I have to point out it's not exactly vanilla (e.g. saving cloaking and invulnerability items to use later). DXX-Rebirth is a more conservative source port if that's your thing. Both make the mouselook work much better than the completely asstastic behavior in the original games.

For Descent 1 and 2, I would say that the most stable and true to vanilla source port (and the one I prefer) is DXX-Rebirth.

11 hours ago, omalefico32x said:

i heard that the games are very frustating is that true?

 

They are very fun games, but I recommend to not play on anything higher than skill 2 (Rookie) and you should hopefully be fine. Above that would be very frustrating for a new player (especially one who has never played 6DOF games).

 

The first 5-ish levels are fairly easy. But starting from level 6, you will be facing the Class 1 Drillers, which are hitscan enemies with an extremely fast reaction time (they are kind of like Blood's cultists, but even worse). Another annoying enemy is the red hulks which fire homing missiles. One of them first appears on Level 5, I think.

 

Thankfully Descent 2 toned down both these types of enemies.

 

I also recommend to rebind the controls. My personal control setup is such that it would feel comfortable for an FPS player.

• WASD for Forward, Left, Backward, Right movement
• Space for moving Up, Ctrl for moving Down (kind of like how Space is jump and Ctrl is crouch in FPS games)
• Q for banking/rolling Left, E for banking/rolling Right
• R for rear view
• LMB for Primary fire, RMB for Secondary fire
• Alt for firing Flares

Descent 2 specific controls.

• F for Headlight (kind of like F is for flashlight in some FPS games)
• T for Energy to Health Transfer.
• Shift for Afterburner (kind of like Shift being used for sprinting in FPS games)

Edited June 17, 2021 by ReaperAA