Show me your best freeware DOS games

[Bucket]

I'm loading up my Pentium 2 laptop with timewasters, so lay them on me. I'd prefer games that are freeware or have been re-released as such. I also wouldn't mind any games written for Win95/98 as long as they're not too demanding.

To avoid any abandonware confusion, let's not just post links to sites (also because I'm fully capable of using Google myself). Just tell me what your favorite GAMES were and why.

[Xaser]

Tyrian.

[hex11]

One Must Fall 2097 - the only fighting game I ever really got into, other than old 8-bit stuff like Barbarian, Way of the Exploding Fist, Yie-ar Kung-fu, etc.

Bio Menace - first DOS platform game I ever played, EGA graphics but the gameplay is good

[Vordakk]

Xaser said:

Tyrian.

I second this. Plus, the game is now freeware as of 2004, so linking to it is not against the rules of this forum.

As far as other DOS games go, Blackthorne was good. Also Alien Carnage and Jazz Jackrabbit. There was also a game I played a long time ago called Baryon, but I have yet to find it since so I'm assuming it was rare.

[Fletcher`]

Tyrian, Terminal Velocity, any of the build games (Blood, Duke3d, Shadow Warrior), Doom obviously, and anything published by Apogee or early 3d Realms (oh wait that includes TV)
Edit: Oh you said freeware. Nevermind.

[jute]

Daggerfall is freeware and should keep you busy for a decade or so.

[sgtcrispy]

Tyrian

[45th Parrallel]

jute said:

Daggerfall is freeware and should keep you busy for a decade or so.

Yes but its a pain to install and play (at least it was for me)

Also Elder scrolls arena is good too

[wildweasel]

Heartlight PC - Pretty clever Boulderdash clone puzzle game with nice level design and graphics.

Traffic Department 2192 - Overhead vehicular action game with a reasonably well written story.

Manic Miner PC - An enhanced remake of a ZX Spectrum game. It plays almost 100% accurately to the original, but the graphics were tuned up to an early-90's-VGA aesthetic and Amiga-style MOD music.

Alien Carnage/Halloween Harry - Not entirely terrible, just takes some getting used to the jetpack fuel system and the weird controls. Love the music.

[bgraybr]

Abuse.

[TwinBeast]

Death Rally was pretty fun.. I think there's some windows port of it that's free, but I don't know what's the deal with the DOS version.

Stargunner is freeware too.

Xenophage is also, but it feels too complicated for me, though otherwise it seems pretty cool.

Then there's also a bunch of Dune2 remakes, but they're not DOS, but the original is.

[hex11]

sgt dopey said:

Yes but its a pain to install and play (at least it was for me)

There's also this:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/daggerxl

[Remilia Scarlet]

Beneath a Steel Sky

[kmxexii]

This is fun mindless platforming; my only complaint is that his hitbox is literally the same size as the squares he has to squeeze between, which means pixel perfect pauses in some areas.

Pharaoh's Tomb 2.0. It's a more intricate game what with the introductions of puzzles and stuff but still Pharoah's Tomb at the core.

Pharaoh's Tomb 3.0. The puzzles get a lot more complicated here with pushable blocks, shootable switches, and myriad other nasty things. You can see the basics of the engine that would later power Crystal Caves and Secret Agent Man.

[Aliotroph?]

hex11 said:

There's also this:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/daggerxl

That is neither complete nor meant to run on a Pentium-II.

Daggerfall will run great on a machine like that.

Command & Conquer, Red Alert, and Tiberian Sun are freeware. Good luck getting links from EA's site, though. Bastards.

GTA 1 and 2 are also freeware.

[Bucket]

I already own Daggerfall, and it's refused to run on anything I've put it in so far. We'll see if I have better luck with Arena. I already have C&C:RA for the Playstation. GTA will eat up my HDD space, so that's out.

So far I've got a good collection going:
Abuse
Acid Tetris
ADOM
Beneath A Steel Sky
Drug Wars
Duke Nukem 2
Elite
FreeCiv
Ironman Off-Road
Keen 1-5
Ken's Labyrinth
Microsoft Golf 3.0
Noctis
One Must Fall 2097
Out Of This World
Race Drivin'
Stunts
Wolfenstein 3D

Too bad the early Id/Apogee games still haven't been liberated.

[Shadow Dweller]

Stargunner. It had a great fucking soundtrack.

[Aliotroph?]

Scorched Earth is a good one too. The difference between shareware and registered is one extra tank and the text on the title screen.

Cyberdogs and its sequel, C-Dogs, are good too. They were always free as far as I know. C-Dogs has an SDL port now in case you want it on a different platform.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Aliotroph? said:

Command & Conquer, Red Alert, and Tiberian Sun are freeware. Good luck getting links from EA's site, though. Bastards.

I know the OP says no links, but grab C&C from here:

http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/

Supports high resolution, fixes a ton of bugs, and adds more modding features to the engine, includes all of the expansion and console-exclusive missions. Make sure you also get the videos from the Digiex mirror, too.

There are also installers/patches for RA and TS, but I don't have any links handy and they haven't had nearly as much work put into them as this. TS runs horribly on some systems, though.

Edit: And I'm an idiot and forgot this was about DOS games. Only the Win95 version of C&C was officially made freeware. You can use the Win95 CD images with it for videos if you remove the "95" from their labels. That movie pack I linked from the 1.06 patch page will probably work fine too.

RA has the DOS version on the CDs, so no problem there. TS was never released on DOS (wish it was, because it'd probably run better in DOSBox than natively).

[Bucket]

I said Win95/98 games are fine too, as long as they're lightweight. I wouldn't qualify a 2-CD game as that, though...

[Guest DILDOMASTER666]

You people seriously have not mentioned System Shock? What the hell is wrong with all of you

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

Fisk said:

You people seriously have not mentioned System Shock? What the hell is wrong with all of you

The fact that it's not freeware, and the "portable" version is illegal.

[hex11]

XEvil (yeah there's a Win32 version also)

[kristus]

Syndicate and Crusader.
They're not freeware, but you can buy them at GOG.com

UFO: Alien unknown and Terror from the deep. Don't think they are freeware either. But still, awesome.

Beneath a Steel Sky is freeware though,

Cyberdogs, is freeware.

[Belial]

I wanted to say Betrayal at Krondor, which I'm replaying ATM, but:

Contrary to popular belief, Vivendi Universal Games has stated that the game is not free to be redistributed by others.[6] It had previously been available, free to download, from Sierra's website, coinciding with the release of its would-be spiritual successor, Betrayal in Antara.

[Bucket]

I believe I have Betrayal at Krondor... it might be at my parents' house.

In my travels, I discovered that Apogee released a Super Upgrades pack for Wolfenstein 3D, which included 800 user-made levels, a random level generator and an editor. Now they've released it for free on the 3D Realms website. FASCINATING.
http://www.3drealms.com/wolf3d/

[Aliotroph?]

More fascinating is the detailed documentation on making Blake Stone maps. I've never seen tools for it before.

Also, they host a link to WolfenDoom, which is uncharacteristic behaviour for game developers.

[jute]

Freeware or not, Betrayal at Krondor is really good.

[Archy]

It sounds ridiculous but I actually like this game, and not just for the comedy value.

Quest For Hussein.

Download like here.

[Fletcher`]

Archy said:

It sounds ridiculous but I actually like this game, and not just for the comedy value.

Quest For Hussein.

Download like here.

The fuck did I just watch? I swear they ripped resources from every build/doom game imaginable. And not even in a good way.