This thread is dedicated to Abandonware - typically software created in the DOS era of computing that is no longer sold or supported. Most abandonware can be played cross-platform via Dosbox. Some are playable via the Internet Archive. What games are you playing?
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Once in a while, I will play The Ancient Art of War. I have to use some sort of program to slow it down-it was written to be played on a 10 MHz machine, not a 3 GHz one.
Also, the original Doom and Wolfenstein.
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Doom is so bloody brilliant. It’s hard to believe people are still writing mods for it. Something so brilliant about its simplicity.
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Master of Magic. Every few years I get the urge, and it runs fine in a Raspberry Pi 3 DosBox.
I might try Dungeon Keeper, DOS version next.
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I do play some old games, but I don’t know which are “abandonware”. They are all long unsupported, anyway. Mine are all for Mac rather than DOS. Lots of Doom, Quake, and Marathon games, mods, and expansions. Also other Id engine stuff such as the Star Wars Jedi Knight and Star Trek Voyager Elite Force games. Bad Mojo, Galapagos, System Shock - and some other weird odds and ends I probably don’t remember now.
After my childhood, I only got back into video games in the late 1990s.
ETA: OOh! Also Descent 1&2
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I got an emulator and a copy of Exciting Hour (Taito World Wrestling) on regular play.
Best wrestling game ever.
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None. But, coincidentally, I am now wearing underwear that I thought I had previously abandoned.
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Starcraft and Broodwar via the Chaos launcher so it works windowed.
I am still surprised at how nice it looks for how old it is.
I should fork over for Redneck Rampage on GOG as the mouse support in dosbox isn’t the best.
I would try Total Annihilation again but I got bored with the gameplay once you get to have artillery.
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I’ll still take Free Enterprise for a spin now and again - a beautiful little game save for the bugs that still exist in it. I’ve waited so long for some sort of sequel that I’ve considered writing one myself. Big Pharma feels like it’s trying to be a spiritual successor, but just doesn’t feel the same.
I’ll still take the original XCOM for a spin from time to time too.
And just picked up Fantasy General on GOG for a trip down memory lane.
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Oooh that’s one I should actually play. I got that packaged up with all the original sequels on steam for cheap aeons ago.
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Is it possible to play Hexen anymore? I looked at some repositories and couldn’t find it, so I wondered if I just dreamt about that game.
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I still play Age of Empires: The Conquerors. There’s still a thriving community online with some players going back to the MSN Zone even though the Zone is long gone and Microsoft quit publishing. This game is old af but IMO has stood the test of time; it has everything it needs (with some recent mods and the no-CD crack) and nothing it doesn’t.
HCCC[quote=“popobawa4u, post:5, topic:96784”]
ETA: OOh! Also Descent 1&2
[/quote]
Yep, Descent was a goodie, I still have Infinite Abyss and DOSBox for that.
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I have that on Steam, but Windows only 
Ah, memories of LAN parties and turtling. I always sucked at that game but at least it would take hours to beat me.
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I’m having too much fun with Rhythm Heaven Megamix on my 3DS at the moment, but I’m hoping this is the year I finally finish Planescape Torment.
[quote=“daneel, post:13, topic:96784”]I have that on Steam, but Windows only[/quote]If I’m not mistaken, the Steam version of XCOM (much like the version available anywhere else) is just the DOS version packaged with DOSBox.
Regardless, I hear Open XCOM is the way to go nowadays – same classic gameplay, but free of the bugs that riddled the original. (And of course portable to different operating systems.)
https://openxcom.org/
[quote=“popobawa4u, post:5, topic:96784”]ETA: OOh! Also Descent 1&2[/quote]Descent 1&2 may likewise be enjoyed with DXX-Rebirth.
http://www.dxx-rebirth.com/
[quote=“dfaris, post:11, topic:96784”]Is it possible to play Hexen anymore?[/quote]Seems to be on Steam.
I also expect that is yet another game that should be playable with one source port or another.
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yeah they have it in a dosbox wrapper though upon checking the googles there is a mac dosbox.
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I have gone back to the DOS games of my 90s youth occasionally over the years (and those that I missed originally), and unfortunately it never really works out for me. I can play a bit and reminisce, but honestly I don’t even get nostalgic about it the way I do with other things, even though I spent untold misspent-youth hours playing these games over and over again.
I know the games are still good, despite how advanced modern games have gotten. But despite loving Fallout 3 (and New Vegas), I tried playing the original (the advertisements for which I remember vividly from when it came out, but which I never played) and didn’t make it past the first room before giving up. I realize that isn’t really giving it a chance, but also I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the room and the controls were frustrating to me.
Unfortunately I think that’s true for me for most of this stuff, other than sidescrollers I suppose. I’m so used to better controls, it gets frustrating fast. Of course that goes the other way too - a new Descent would suck, because it’d be a console-first game and would lack the complicated joystick-and-keyboard control scheme of the original that gave you so much control and finesse and let you get disoriented so quickly (same with e.g. the X-Wing series - the flying maps of the new Star Wars Battlefront are a joke, and not fun).
That said, when I play new games (which isn’t actually very often), I do miss things about the old games. What was it about Battlefield 1942 that was so, so captivating despite being so simple? Battlefields 2, 3, and 4 were never anywhere near as fun, though I played the heck out of them. Battlefield 1 almost gets back to the original fun but with welcome modern improvements, but I never get that same sense of pure enjoyment.
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Aren’t there a couple of reboots in various states of development?
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I’ve seen ports of it to PSP and 3DS. You can find a copy of it in a certain emulator paradise.
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Dood, there’s so many titles, and plastics have taken my memory, but, does anyone remember the *Art of War on the Apple IIe? The archers? The ground troops? The sieges?
*Title may be different from my memory, as I’m infusing Sun Tzu, whom I didn’t understand as a ten year old…
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Pfft. The control scheme for Fallout 1 is truly obtuse (I died to the goddamn rats a good dozen times until I gave up and googled a build). But if you’re willing to give it time, Fallout 1 and 2 are absolutely brilliant - difficult - computer tabletop games. There’s even a brand new total conversion for 2 that adds a 20 hour story. Or try FOnline (I recommend FOnline2 - most active). These run even on Pentium II potatoes.
I’ve been trying to track down a copy of WinTrek, myself. Had a shareware disc with it years ago but lost it.
NetHack is the best RPG I’ve played, judging by time logged. 180 hours on DS, thousands on PC.
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