The 20 Greatest PC DOS Games of All-Time
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- Опубликовано: 3 май 2024
- In this video I countdown the 20 greatest PC Compatible DOS games of all-time as voted for by you, the retro gaming community!
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Игры
DOS had 4 distinct but slightly overlapping generations (CGA 81-85, EGA 86-89, VGA 90-93, SVGA 94-98) and each really should have its own top 20 list. Just like how the NES, SNES and N64 represented different eras of Ninentendo gaming, each of the DOS eras had their own classics, many of which went on to heavily influence future gaming design and genres.
I did consider it but thought it would be too confusing and given how people got confused between Windows and DOS I think that was the right decision!
Also this video had the smallest amount of votes for any "Greatest of All-Time video" that I've done, so splitting it and confusing things certainly wouldn't have helped with that.
I see both sides of what is being said here and while I agreed with the original comment, I see why it wasn't segmented out this way.
Also, games that supported multiple video modes would make it hard to cleanly split the 80s generations like this. I'd agree though that VGA had such a clear advantage that it marked a pivotal shift in the industry. SVGA did as well, though to a lesser extent as Windows slowly overtook it as the platform of choice for gamers and developers.
One thing that could set the later 80s as a distinct generation were the OPL synth cards, such as Adlib. However, the shift marked by the digital cards of the 90s, such as the Sound Blaster series, had a far greater impact overall. The later 90s were also marked by the pivotal shift from floppies to CDs.
I think the multimedia demands of the last gen is what ultimately doomed DOS as a platform, as the PCs architectural legacy that fractured the first 1MB of RAM made it a massive PITA to load all of the required drivers.
I can certainly see an argument for splitting the DOS era into 2 or 4 distinct "generations".
@@TheLairdsLair It could be considered an educational opportunity to teach console and younger gamers a bit about the history of PC gaming. I can understand though if that was more than you wanted to tackle in this series.
My knowledge of PC gaming is far too limited to do it justice really.
I remember having a go of a few friend's PCs in the late 80s and feeling it was inferior to anything I'd played up to that point, including C64, Apple II and Atari 8-bit. I didn't really know what a PC was but I knew this businessy looking computer with a key hole at the front was obviously not made for games. There were only a few colours and the sounds were just beeps and screeches from the little speaker. It was strange of me at the time because I loved video games, but I knew not to ask to play again.
But when I first played a friend's PC with VGA graphics and Sound Blaster sound, I knew straight away this was a different beast. The PC took a while to get to the standards of the other computers of the time, but when it did, there was no looking back. DOS gaming of the 90s was unreal and I'm glad I was there to experience it.
Those where some good choices, I remembered a few other from that time that where fun, jazz jackrabbit, tyrian and raptor, syndicate, prince of Persia, flight of the amazon queen, 688 sub attack, gunship2000, f15 strike eagle, mdk, biomenace, there was absolutely loads and too many to even mention from the dos era of games,
Nice list I'd like to have seen lords of the realm 2 on it 100% My favorites would be also GTA, Carmageddon, Sword of the Samurai, Mechwarrior 2.
Oh Carmageddon for sure
Lords of the realm 2 was on windows.
Sorry to not see Commander Keen. I am a huge fan of platform gaming , and It is easily the first game I think of when I think of my years of owning a DOS-PC.
It was 28th, quite a few people did vote for it.
Commander Keen IV was a huge improvement and the map screen and backgrounds made it compete far better with NES platformers.
Excellent selection. My brother and I have played nearly all of them over the years. They were stunning for their time.
Seeing X-COM UFO in a top 20 was a surprise, seeing it nab the number 2 spot was pleasing. I played it first on the Amiga 4000, but later got it when I moved to the PC. Oh, and because someone might ask, the lovely background music in the closing IBM advert was Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
Doom was always and deserving of being number 1. Hexen and Heretic were also favourites of mine. I bought many discs full of WADS from computer fairs that made expansion easy and contributed to both popularity and longevity of play. Glad to see that Leisure Suit Larry made the list. From the same stock we also saw the Kings Quest, Police Quest and Space Quest series that were very popular. I was rather surprised not to see Lemmings get on the list as not only was it popular but was one of those games that attracted women to play, which allowed gaming to beginning to see a market expansion. I saw Battle Chess at the start, which very likely made Chess cool and way more popular than it had ever been. Quite a few Windows games were essentially based upon DOS too but just ran under the GUI.
Nice thanks for the post 😊
thank you for this it is amazingly appreciated
Didn't see any driving games. Geoff Crammond F1 GP from 1991 was a technological marvel. I still play that game today on Dosbox. Nothing else could touch the feeling of sheer speed in those days. Also the flight sims were top notch on Dos PC. Even things like Disney's Stunt Island where you could fly everything from a Duck to a 747.
F1GP only just missed out on the top 20.
Okay - fairs fair. You’ve done the DOS PC. Now you need to do Classic (pre OS X) Mac.
LOL, can't see that happening any time soon!
Pax Imperia was great Mac os exclusive. I'd argue its sequal on PC was better but the original was certainly unique
Spin Doctor
Wow, no pinball on that list. No Zork! I knew well the last 5 on your list. Back in the day, my first computer was a 386 40hz, which at the time was the fastest 386. At the time or shortly after they put a 486 but not as fast as mine with 2Mg of RAM.I did a lot of shareware back then on 5 1/4 floppy. Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it.
The list is missing Ultima Underworld! It was groundbreaking for the time. It had the most advanced graphics of any game on earth when it was released in 1992. It came out before DOOM...and it had a full 3D open world. It was a precursor to all open world 3D games but it's also significant in the history of both RPGs and FPSs. If there's not enough room to mention UW in a list of the greatest achievements of the DOS era...well then it should be an honorary top 21 just to fit UW because it was innovative enough to deserve a spot.
^--- here's the comment that was a 1 hour battle with Google to post
Underworld really doesn't get the credit it deserves. Free movement in a 3D rendered level and real-time ranged combat from a first-person perspective would technically qualify as a FPS. Yet, it mostly gets lumped in with the labyrinthine dungeon crawl style of RPGs that it was based on, when it really was so much more.
Totally agree, it was my favorite. I'm glad I was able to appreciate it in 92.
1995 was the last time it was acceptable to proudly and publicly announce that you've "Got Worms," 😂
Great list, feel like it really represented the best of DOS gaming. I played each and every game on the list back when they were out. I remember being in 9th Grade when my buddy brought a couple floppy disks to school and said "Check this out!" It was Wolfenstein 3D. We must have played that for hundreds of hours until we got into Doom and Doom2 in the computer lab on the school's IPX/SPX network. As avid computer kids our computer teacher let us play at lunch and we even ordered pizza (who wants to go to the cafeteria!) . But honestly the one we played the most for so many hours together was Civilization. I remember my friend would call me up and say "wanna play civ?"
Pre FPS games, PC was first and foremost a simulattion game platform.
There was a ton of good sims long before Doom:
- Falcon series
- Flight of the intruder
- MS Filght Simulators
- Geoff Grammond racing sims
- Gunship type sims from multiple studios.
- SEAL Team from EoA
- lots of WWI and WWII flight sims
- Papyrus racing sims
And the list goes on..
Interesting list, never played any of them, like most computers. I used PCs on training schemes, when I did own them, I downloaded utilities apps, rip music CDs, shop and watch RUclips.
Super big props to XCOM! Maybe not the first turn-based game, but definitely one of the best!
Some good choices there, certainly brings back some memories. I'm surprised Alone In The Dark didn't make the list.
Glad to see Tie Fighter on the list. My personal #1.
Cool list 👍
Thanks for using my comment!
You know, given how popular they were back in the day, I'm quite surprised that nothing from Apogee or Epic Megagames (as they were known back then) made the top 20...
There were quite a few in the Top 40, like Commander Keen and Raptor.
@@TheLairdsLair Had a feeling that was the case!
Incredible machine
i was surprised to not see Screamer, Descent 1 & 2, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Hexen, and Mech Warrior on there.
Blood made the Top 40, none of the others did though!
I miss typing setup.exe
In the beginning it was tough. When my Atari ST started to show it's age I defected to the PC with high expectations. They weren't met. A couple of golf games and a selection of flight sims. To complete the mix you had the text adventure and the public domain scene. PD as it was known was mail order only (pre internet) and to say the quality varied is putting it mildly. For me the game that lit the flame was F1GP. They gave away the first circuit on a cover disc and it gave the PC format the boost it needed. More ST and Amiga games got a PC version and eventually the PC could stand on its own.
Yay i made it into another video! Daggerfall really was an amazing game that, like skyrin now, had years of replay value
So glad to see Civ 1 on here also!
Debatable, but good choices anyway. :)
That's what people voted for!
It is too hard to name only 20 DOS games when there was a whole bunch of great games out there... I would put in this list The Lost Vikings, which changed the mechanics of 2D platforming by alternating between the 3 vikings for picking the most suitable skill to pass through a certain obstacle. Prince of Persia and Lemmings are other great picks, but they were not DOS only games (although in my opinion those were the best versions). Also loved to see your honorable mentions both in the beginning and in the end. Some games I didn't even know existed. Gonna play some DOSBox today...
To be fair Lost Vikings wasn't original, it borrowed that idea from The Humans, which came before it. Prince of Persia and Lemmings only just missed out on the top 20, from about 15 to 30 there was just 5 points difference!
You know what would be an interesting top 20? A list of the best Public Domain games. There may have been some in the 80s but my knowledge is mainly from those on the Amiga in the 90s. By far my favourite (and the only one I can remember off the top of my head right now) is Scorched Tanx. Worms and Stick Wars came after that and there might have been earlier versions of that sort of games but i still think its great.
By the way, anyone remember "Cookbook" on the Amiga? My mate got a copy from somewhere that had recipes for thermite and gunpowder amongst many other crazy things 🙈.
Tie Fighter was a major part of my childhood. Playing as the empire was so much fun. Rebel scum!
BTW that IBM PS2 jingle was an early 90s bop.
Hexen, I would have thought Hexen would have been there.
It got a few votes, but not enough to make the list.
Great list! Glad to see my comment on Wolfenstein 3D! However, I missed Prince of Persia 1 or 2, Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island... Are they in the Top 40?
Prince of Persia 2 was 25th, the rest no.
When are we going to see the "DOS mini" console? It would have to ship with the Gravis gamepad and _Jill of the Jungle._ ;-)
All good choices!
I was going to say Battle Chess but couldnt remember if DOS or Windows.. 😁
Doom was unquestionably *the* PC killer app, it put the platform on the gaming map. Without Doom, there would be no Quake, and without Quake there would be no Half-Life, and no Half-Life means we wouldn't have Steam today.
Don't forget about other killer app games for PC also. Myst, The 7th Guest, kings quest, heck even Megarace and Kid Pix for DOS
Sure my top game won't make the list but hey, not many know about Darklands. It needs a remake but won't happen.
Missed a couple imo. Wing Commander and Elite. Wizardry (which started almost all of them). Also Typhoon.
Lands of Lore should have been there
Leisure Suit Larry? Really? The rest of the list is decent-to-good, but Leisure Suit Larry?!
I'd have gone with Commander Keen (which proved smooth scrolling was possible for DOS platformers), Quest for Glory (a much better point-and-click adventure), Nethack, Fallout 1, or even Oregon Trail over LSL.
Commander Keen only just missed out on the Top 20.
My issue with lists are that they are so subjective... ID software should by default be top games as they created and defined a new genre.
They are usually subjective, but I'd argue that this one isn't because the results were compiled from the votes of over 300 people, as I outlined in the intro, so this isn't just me picking my own favourites like most videos of this type.
#2 is wild .. ahem .. now seriously, I must stop using my random clickbait title generator to write comments... never mind ... I love that game, and it deserves endless praise, but I'm genuinely amazed to see it above Civilization
Curious how Diablo or Diablo II didn't make the cut.
Are you from Luton?
I live in Luton, but not from here.
@@TheLairdsLair I used to live there!
so Hi There Fellow RUclipsr!
Lucky escape! 😜
No Dungeon Keeper? You’re nuts
I'm not nuts, this is what people voted for. FYI Dungeon Keeper didn't get a single vote.
@@TheLairdsLairif you’d played it you’d know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A predictable list really.. too many great games and no 2 list would be identical.. for me.. Wing commander would have been in there and maybe Gobliins and kings quest 6 or 7.. Lands of lore or Dungeon master too.. but choosing what to take out to make room and where in the list is a dam hard decision haha.. all in all.. im pretty happy with the list as many are games i grew up with and sank waaay too many hours.. days.. weeks into lol..
Wing Commander 2 was 26th
@@TheLairdsLair The original was the one for me as i moved from an Atari ST to a PC and OMG the difference was night and day haha.. Wing commander was leagues above any other space sim at the time and just blew me away.. WC 2 was a better game.. yes.. but by then i was getting used to pc games and the upgrade was nice but not as big..
I think there are several distinct dos eras. From the PC debut till about 1990, Dos was a TERRIBLE platform for playing games. Despite being built around Motorola chips from the start, it had almost no graphics or sound capabilities. I remember my first machine from the mid 80’s having all of one beeping channel and glorious shades of orange and black to play things largely ported from other systems.
Then around 1990 once vga cards became standard and there was roughly an Amiga level sound card that came standard, gaming caught up to what Euro Micros were used to (really wolfenstein I think was the dividing point)
Somebody else raised this same point and I thought about it too, but it would have been too confusing to separate them.
monkey island 2 but not the first one?
I think only one person voted for the original, loads voted for the sequel.
Way too many FPS games on this list. What about old adventure games like King's Quest? Those are classics.
This is what people voted for.
@@TheLairdsLair Guess you can't argue with that, lol.
This presentation does not do justice to your video. I'm looking at a wall paper with some video in the middle.
Ah well, can't please everyone
The rest of the list is competently chosen, but Leisure Suit Larry and Daggerfall have no business being in any "greatest" list, and whoever voted for them clearly has no idea about DOS gaming. Likely an artifact of mostly asking console gamers... Daggerfall was seen as a failure then and later and is still seen as one of the _worst_ RPGs of all time - having had an impact on later development is not the same as being a great game. Similarly, Leisure Suit Larry would not even make a top 20 of best graphical adventure games on the platform. As I said, the rest of the list is quite okay, considering the lopsided focus on shooters instead of showing the breadth of DOS gaming and genres.
4:47 Lord British?
Lord British is the creator of the Ultima games:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott
@@TheLairdsLair I know that, I was referring to the fact that you called him Lord English...
Oh, did I? Slip of the tongue obviously.
@@TheLairdsLair ya i figured
DukeNukem would never be released today. The woke crowd would go insane
Truth!
Google deleted my comments, I'm not allowed to post. I can't figure out how to get my post to go through. I have to deal with this every day! I'm spending at least a half hour a day just struggling with figuring out how to post a comment without having it insta-deleted. I usually give up on RUclips and just stop watching because it's so frustrating. I've looked at my comment carefully, there is nothing that should trigger the censorship.
I see both your comments . . . . .
@@TheLairdsLair Not either of these 2 comments - Both comments were posted in frustration that my real comment is instantly deleted.
The real comment contains some word pattern that is banned by Google but I can't figure out what it is. I just named some games. I tried editing / reposting my real comment around 5 times by making subtle alterations to the text each time, but nothing is allowed.
Ok, that's strange, I never have issues.
@@TheLairdsLair C0u|d y0u pl34se -\-2y l0w3r1ng the pr0t3c-\-ion s3-|-ting5 on the ch4nn3| temporarily? I know that sounds weird, but I'm curious if it will help. Even this post is being censored because of the P word. 3rd time editing this post
@@TheLairdsLair Are you able to see the hidden comment that's right above this comment?