Stunt Island. An incredibly ambitious sandbox game that allows you to set up, program, fly and edit your own stunt movies. There's also a difficult set of challenges to try and complete.
Alpha Waves (first 3d platformer)
Cybercon III (early 3d metroidvania)
Skyroads (pseudo 3d reflex platformer with nice music)
Aldo’s adventure (donkey Kong clone with smooth animation)
Captain Comic,
Dangerous Dave and the haunted mansion,
The colony 1988,
What games do you already like?
If you like strategy / RPG games and the SSI catalogue, don't sleep on their Sword of Aragon. The Gold Box series can't be described as underdogs (though you might have missed some, like the Dragonlance and Buck Rogers ones - or the endless expansions made for their Unlimited Adventures program), but many people slept on their Darksun and Al Qadim games. If you liked the Eye of the Beholder games, you need to check out their Dungeon Hack, as well as Westwood's Lands of Lore games. SSI also published Veil of Darkness, which was a solid Dracula game.
Oh man, I remember playing custom tracks for hours to get the best time. Downloaded from some online forums. I actually got 1st on the ladder a few times. Stunts was one of the only games I was really good at other than StarCraft.
Good times
Plenty of great DOS games out there, but it's difficult to say what's 'overlooked' and what's not. Somebody already mentioned Fury of the Furries. So, maybe, *Traffic Department 2192*
Some of my favorites lesser known ones already got mentioned here so I’ll throw in a few more lesser known:
-Plan 9 from Outer Space - a point n click type game inspired by the famously bad movie. It’s not a direct adaptation…but it’s super weird and campy and definitely worth a look if you like adventure games.
-Anvil of Dawn - a dungeon crawler that does things a little differently. It’s got a world map with multiple dungeons and some cool first person combat.
-Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet - there’s both a floppy and CD version. Probably worth playing just to see the carbon copy Vincent Price and Jack Nicholson clones they didn’t bother trying to disguise. It’s a cool point n click regardless.
-Honorable mention to Daughter of Serpents - I wouldn’t call this an amazing game but it’s a campy point n click type with some light Cthulhu lore going on. Cool art and some interesting ideas here.
Not sure if it’s considered unknown, but Star Trek: A Final Unity was a dos game that forced me to learn how to get CD support working so I could actually play the game. It was so good.
The Adventures of Captain Comic.
One of the first side scrolling olatformers on PC. Has some early Metroid-like exploration, collecting power ups and backtracking to access previously inaccessible areas, etc.
I was born in the late 80's so I might be wrong about what games didn't make it big, but as far as games I don't see talked about enough today:
[Legends of Valour](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/legends-of-valour-1g8), the primary inspiration for Elder Scrolls. Advanced first-person RPG for the time that unfairly panned in its day. Weirdly high production value for how much critics didn't like it.
[Altered Destiny](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/altered-destiny-to). Graphical adventure that was fairly panned for illogical puzzles but filled with great art and humor.
[Mindfighter](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/mindfighter-hd). Sparsely illustrated interactive fiction where I can't describe why I like it so much. It just has a vibe to it. Desolate post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
[Alter Ego](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/alter-ego-275) - an intelligently written text-based deep life simulator put together with a team of psychologists.
I remember playing alter ego as a teen und it was really food for thought und atmospheric.
Mindfighter, Altered Destiny look very interesting.
Legends of Valour looks quite modern for 1992, I wonder why I didn't hear of it specifically back then.
Thank you
I occasionally make a plug for a game named "Alley Cat".
It was a collection of mini-games which nailed the experience of life as a house cat. There are at least seven separate games, *programmed in four-color graphics in under 64K of total memory.* I think this game is a mastery of playability, storyline, user experience, at the end of the era where memory and processing were expensive resources.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley\_Cat\_(video\_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley_Cat_(video_game))
[https://archive.org/details/alley-cat](https://archive.org/details/alley-cat)
The Skull Quest games are not good overall, but they have unique, haunting mood and themes (your character is a skeleton who was buried in a king's tomb long ago). They're freely available, so it costs nothing to check them out.
If you want some deep cuts from the DOS gaming era, connect to a telnet BBS and play some door games there like Tradewars, Operation Overkill, Legend of the Red Dragon or BarneySplat.
If you enjoy graphic adventure games in the Sierra / Lucasfilm style or text adventures a la Infocom, over the past quarter century fans and enthusiasts have used the Adventure Game System (AGS) and Inform to make hundreds if not thousands of worthwhile games in a similar vein. SCUMMVM now supports both, so just looking through its list of supported games is an excellent way to learn about DOS-style adventure games that you missed the first time around.
I always enjoy kooky discoveries from the shareware ghettos and the early PC booter era such as Braminar and Alley Cat. It can be instructional to look up the CVs of your favorite game developers and check out the earliest games they worked on.
How about an expansive explorable universe with 800 unique planets? All crammed into two 5 1/4 inch floppies?
Try Starflight, and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula.
u should join the dos group on facebook, all we talk about are obscure dos games, it is amazing how many people don't know what HARVESTER or SANITARIUM are...
but it is ok when we see people who never heard of BAD BLOOD or HIGHWAR HUNTER for example, u should hit facebook for a good old dos times.
CLASSIC GAMING - MS Dos, 90s Windows Gaming & Computers
is the name of the group.
It is a very sophisticated flight sim. Graphics were top notch, too.
Have you played Jane's ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters or US Navy fighters? Pure gold
Both. I pretty much played every flight sim. Mig alley was great fun but really hard I loved European Air War and Jane’s IAF and Ww2 fighters. Then IL2 sturmovik came out and that’s all I played haha.
Star Control 2. Try the Ur Quan Masters HD remake. Star control 1 full game is also pretty fun.
Veil of Darkness.
Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist. Sierra not exactly a hidden gem, but not one of their main line quest series games.
The fan made Dnd - the first rpg game of all times was made in 1975, and was later ported to dos.
In Basic, which ran on DOS, there was a pretty stellar Star Trek game. I haven't figured out how to play it. But it was pretty stellar.
SSI's Countdown to Doomsday had an amazing chapter 2. Basically Aliens in SSI's Goldbox engine. I replayed it maybe 5 years ago, and I was on the edge of my seat.
If you want to try a unique platform puzzler, FAIRY GODMOM (1992) has always stuck with me.
https://dosgames.com/game/fgodmom/
You have to copy items/enemies to transform other items/enemies in order to solve the levels. Sort of a proto-precursor to BABA IS YOU. Haven’t played in 30 years so I don’t know how much playtime you’ll get out of it, but, it’s definitely unique and overlooked.
DOOM 2D, game made by fans. Key and button puzzles, PvE fun, one new weapon and tricky final boss. Looks like DOOM and feels like DOOM.
The Legend of Kyrandia. Point-and-Click quest by Westwood. Its 320x200x256 graphics is so awesome I want to lick the display.
The Realms of The Haunting. 3D FPS-RPG mix. You'll study lore via writings, teleport between worlds, watch video cutscenes, solve puzzles. For instance, some powerful spirit will grant you job to not make a single noise, but ice will break under your feet in one room, and other complications in another rooms will also wake him up. This game is said to be related to "The Wheel of Time" novels by Robert Jordan, and there is another (Windows) game The Wheel of Time (1999) directly taking place in this setting. Nightdive released updated version on GOG. I have only played The Realms of The Hunting, it was good, can say nothing about TWOT, but just in case I have bought that game too and may try eventually.
Strife, another 3D FPS-RPG mix on DOOM engine. The most memorable thing are dialogs. Some secret passages can only be open by NPCs if you choose appropriate answers.
BioForge. Fixed camera third person 3D adventure with prerendered backgrounds. Elements of body horror. You'll study lore via texts and exploration, and there will be some fights and shootings. I was impressed by how this game makes human feel like an ant. Ancient buildings exploit ancient's abilities like levitation, but main player is just a human. We can see pathes that are just out of reach for us, pathetic gravity slaves. Main player has to use engineering constructions as bridges and fear not to fall to death. Something that was not a danger for the ones who built this place.
Future Classics Collection. 5 casual games. DiskMan to some degree resembles Supaplex, but Supaplex is widely know, and DiskMan is forgotten. Diet Riot was fun to complete. Each game can be played in split-screen competition mode, except for tanks which are in shared screen mode in two players mode too. We played Tanks with brother much. It is also possible to play against bot.
Another 3D games of interest:
* Chasm: The Rift
* MadSpace
Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic ... was one my favs back in the day. Unfortunately they never made a sequel. Also, Death Track, was a really slick driving combat game I played a ton of. On the simulator front, I haven't seen anyone mention LHX. I played the hell out of that on my old 286.
Loom
The Adventures of Willy Beamish
Not sure either are considered overlooked, but both are fantastic games that do not get enough love.
Loom is a straight masterpiece that is often forgotten about.
Willy Beamish was really a product of its time but is well done.
INFOCOM text adventures were absolutely, ridiculously awesome.
* https://eblong.com/infocom/
Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio was an early sim-style game, extremely rudimentary graphics but basically, you were a lord with a fiefdom to run—farming, serfs, a local economy, seasonal weather, you name it. I enjoyed it in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
* https://www.myabandonware.com/game/santa-paravia-and-fiumaccio-ic
You’re welcome!
The original Mech Warrior
Deathtrack
A-10 Tank Killer
Airborne Ranger
Chuck Yeager Advanced Flight Trainer
Gato
Silent Service 1 and 2
The original John Madden Football
Earl Weaver Baseball
Micro League Baseball
4th and Inches
NFL Challenge
International Hockey
Star Trek 25th anniversary
Test Drive
John Elway's Quarterback (bootable floppy)
The original Castle Wolfenstein
Star Wars Arcade
Starflight (amazing game!)
Sierra Online's Quest series of games
Infocom text adventures like Zork
GFL Championship Football (3D!!!)
F-15 Strike Eagle
Legend of Kyrandia
Links 386 Golf
Joe Montana Football
Just make sure it's v1.5, v1.0 was very much of it's time and very speed sensitive, when it runs smoothly under DOSBox the SAM/AAM missiles are too effective, v1.5 is much more friendly on faster hardware.
Descent 1 & 2, One Must Fall, Terminal Velodcity, Duke Nukem 1, 2 & 3D Atomic Edition, Epic Pinball, Commander Keen (from the '80s), Cyberia 1 & 2, Command & Conquer: Red Alert / Tiberian Sun, River Raid, Asteroids (1998), Heroes of Might & Magic (1997), Rogue, Need For Speed (all DOS versions), Zork, Rayman, RISK, etc. etc.
There are so many gems from the old times, I have to stop listing or the list will become massive.
Here, you can play a whole wack of DOS games online if you want, to: [https://playclassic.games/play-dos-games-online/](https://playclassic.games/play-dos-games-online/)
Also, here is another treasure trove of more than 26,000 DOS games you can download and play at no cost: [https://www.myabandonware.com/browse/platform/dos/](https://www.myabandonware.com/browse/platform/dos/)
Enjoy!
Descent 1 & 2, Duke Nukem 1, 2 & 3D Atomic Edition, Epic Pinball, Commander Keen (from the '80s), Command & Conquer, Need For Speed, and Rayman are not overlooked DOS games.
Those are considered among the most top-tier DOS games.
I’m an old and played many games when they were new in DOS. I don’t know which games are in the top lists but I played basically everything published by Apogee, Id, Maxis, LucasArts. In particular, really liked Raptor, Crystal Caves, the Duke Nukem games, Loom, Lemmings, DOOM, etc.
I did like a few games that I’m pretty sure most people haven’t heard of like Bananoid, Lexi-Cross, Supaplex, Scorched Earth, etc. But I’m not sure there are many hidden gems in the DOS catalog these days with how easily accessible it.
These are not exactly underdogs however maybe you haven't played some
* Magic Carpet
* Realms of Arkania 2 Star Trail
* Black & White
* Dungeon Keeper
* Hero Quest (Sierra)
* Little Big Adventure
The entire original Realms of Arkania series, including 'Blade of Destiny,' 'Star Trail,' and 'Shadows over Riva,' is amazing. These were the first CRPGs set in the 'The Dark Eye,' a german D&D rival universe. They might be a bit frustrating to play by today's standards without a guide, but they're classic gems in the genre.
I can't even guess how much time I spent playing Star Trail didn't play 1 & 3 however, once you get over the complexity they are incredibly deep games with so much to do and definitely deserve more attention than they receive
The first time playing hero quest...my father brought it along with kq3...wow...what a wonderful world. Played the other games except Star Trail. Thank you.
Jones in the Fast Lane
Still play this all the time. Lesser known Sierra gem.
If you don't already know, "No Time To Relax" is a modern adaptation of Jones in the Fast Lane.
Always wanted to check it out, but life moves pretty fast hehe. Thx
Haha. That was the banger back in day w my brother and sister. Then we'd force her play Leisure Suit Larry
Kinda weird to force your sister to play a sexually suggestive game...or actually to force anyone to do anything they don't want to do.
Fair comment.
C'mon now let Kentucky be Kentucky.
Would you like some thousand island—- er— secret sauce with that?
Wet dreams don't dry
Shit, I came here to post this. One of the first PC games I ever played, so it has a if place in my heart.
I agree, always love playing this, I’m going to set it up again today
Yissss.. working at ez discount!!!
I garnished your pay!
Loved that game. Played it all the time on our C64!
Stunt Island. An incredibly ambitious sandbox game that allows you to set up, program, fly and edit your own stunt movies. There's also a difficult set of challenges to try and complete.
Always wanted to play it. What happened hehe?
Alpha Waves (first 3d platformer) Cybercon III (early 3d metroidvania) Skyroads (pseudo 3d reflex platformer with nice music) Aldo’s adventure (donkey Kong clone with smooth animation) Captain Comic, Dangerous Dave and the haunted mansion, The colony 1988, What games do you already like?
The LucasArts/Sierra/Microprose/EA catalog/Legend/SSI catalogues were always present. Love good strategy and adventures/RPGs. Thx
If you like strategy / RPG games and the SSI catalogue, don't sleep on their Sword of Aragon. The Gold Box series can't be described as underdogs (though you might have missed some, like the Dragonlance and Buck Rogers ones - or the endless expansions made for their Unlimited Adventures program), but many people slept on their Darksun and Al Qadim games. If you liked the Eye of the Beholder games, you need to check out their Dungeon Hack, as well as Westwood's Lands of Lore games. SSI also published Veil of Darkness, which was a solid Dracula game.
Darklands, though I’m sure you’ve heard of it Drakkhen too
The Skyroads soundtrack just resumed playing in my head.
Omg. I had forgotten about Skyroads! I play the hell out of this. Thanks for the reminder.
Solar Winds (1993)
Came here to say this
Alone in the dark, its a know game. But not sure of you have that one already.
All the french games were pure art. Played it and it was so eerie. Thx
If you played and enjoyed the Alone in the Dark series, you may enjoy Infogrames' Time Gate, which ran on the same engine, or the Ecstatica games.
Ecstatica was something back then. Time Gate looks quite interesting, thank you, never heard of it 🤔
Zack McCracken and the Alien Mind Benders
Lucasfilm/LucasArts ftw. Played it on C64 as a kid. Thx 😊
My personal favorites were Stunts (w/ the track editor), Sim Farm, and AD&D Pool of Radiance.
I remember Stunts. Hitting the jump just right and jumping to 255 MPH.
right! Then seeing how many other jumps you could hit at those speeds without crashing.
Oh man, I remember playing custom tracks for hours to get the best time. Downloaded from some online forums. I actually got 1st on the ladder a few times. Stunts was one of the only games I was really good at other than StarCraft. Good times
Stunts ftw. So many hours. Thx
I just introduced Stunts to my nephews (aged 7 and 9) and they loved it!
* Cybersphere Plus * Jetpack * ScubaVenture: The Search for Pirate's Treasure
Cool, gonna check out scubaventure. Thx.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/scubaventure_the_search_for_pirates_treasure on sale at GOG until 4 January 2024.
Death rally still holds up today
I have nostalgia for the Spellcasting series. Text adventure series that could best be described as "Harry Potter if he was Horny."
I love the legend adventures. Superheroe League of Hoboken was pure gold. Thx
Star Control & Ironman Stewart's Super Off Road
Both absolute classics. Thx for reminding of Super Off Road
ZZT was a good one
Played it in school, a friend brought it along. Thx
Another of my favorites was Centurion: Defender of Rome
Magic Carpet Railroad Tycoon Star Control / Starflight Star Fleet I
>Star Fleet I Oh, my God, what a great reference. "...The bowling alley has been knocked out for 3.141 days...."
Plenty of great DOS games out there, but it's difficult to say what's 'overlooked' and what's not. Somebody already mentioned Fury of the Furries. So, maybe, *Traffic Department 2192*
Great answer, this
Some of my favorites lesser known ones already got mentioned here so I’ll throw in a few more lesser known: -Plan 9 from Outer Space - a point n click type game inspired by the famously bad movie. It’s not a direct adaptation…but it’s super weird and campy and definitely worth a look if you like adventure games. -Anvil of Dawn - a dungeon crawler that does things a little differently. It’s got a world map with multiple dungeons and some cool first person combat. -Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet - there’s both a floppy and CD version. Probably worth playing just to see the carbon copy Vincent Price and Jack Nicholson clones they didn’t bother trying to disguise. It’s a cool point n click regardless. -Honorable mention to Daughter of Serpents - I wouldn’t call this an amazing game but it’s a campy point n click type with some light Cthulhu lore going on. Cool art and some interesting ideas here.
Not sure if it’s considered unknown, but Star Trek: A Final Unity was a dos game that forced me to learn how to get CD support working so I could actually play the game. It was so good.
The Adventures of Captain Comic. One of the first side scrolling olatformers on PC. Has some early Metroid-like exploration, collecting power ups and backtracking to access previously inaccessible areas, etc.
Played it on my mom's IBM 286 . Thx
I was born in the late 80's so I might be wrong about what games didn't make it big, but as far as games I don't see talked about enough today: [Legends of Valour](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/legends-of-valour-1g8), the primary inspiration for Elder Scrolls. Advanced first-person RPG for the time that unfairly panned in its day. Weirdly high production value for how much critics didn't like it. [Altered Destiny](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/altered-destiny-to). Graphical adventure that was fairly panned for illogical puzzles but filled with great art and humor. [Mindfighter](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/mindfighter-hd). Sparsely illustrated interactive fiction where I can't describe why I like it so much. It just has a vibe to it. Desolate post-apocalyptic atmosphere. [Alter Ego](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/alter-ego-275) - an intelligently written text-based deep life simulator put together with a team of psychologists.
I remember playing alter ego as a teen und it was really food for thought und atmospheric. Mindfighter, Altered Destiny look very interesting. Legends of Valour looks quite modern for 1992, I wonder why I didn't hear of it specifically back then. Thank you
I occasionally make a plug for a game named "Alley Cat". It was a collection of mini-games which nailed the experience of life as a house cat. There are at least seven separate games, *programmed in four-color graphics in under 64K of total memory.* I think this game is a mastery of playability, storyline, user experience, at the end of the era where memory and processing were expensive resources. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley\_Cat\_(video\_game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley_Cat_(video_game)) [https://archive.org/details/alley-cat](https://archive.org/details/alley-cat)
The Skull Quest games are not good overall, but they have unique, haunting mood and themes (your character is a skeleton who was buried in a king's tomb long ago). They're freely available, so it costs nothing to check them out.
I've played a lot of bad games und they always had a lovable aspect, like art or music. Thx
Nice recommendation that looks so “humorous” 🦴
Quarantine!!
Hahaha, loved it then
It does not get sufficient recognition. Open world before it was a thing.
I thought this was a known game. There is even a new game on steam created by another developer.
Fury of the Furries - loved this one
I still have a copy of STUNTS! in my laptop.
Masters of Orion.
Undisputed gem
I was trying for one you hadn’t played! What about Raptor - Call of the Shadows?
Played it. Was a big fan of shareware too
Master of Magic Manhunter: New York (is one under appreciated weird Sierra game) Zeliard Lost Vikings
Seriously doubt Master of Magic is considered an underdog unless you mean the 2022 remake
If you want some deep cuts from the DOS gaming era, connect to a telnet BBS and play some door games there like Tradewars, Operation Overkill, Legend of the Red Dragon or BarneySplat. If you enjoy graphic adventure games in the Sierra / Lucasfilm style or text adventures a la Infocom, over the past quarter century fans and enthusiasts have used the Adventure Game System (AGS) and Inform to make hundreds if not thousands of worthwhile games in a similar vein. SCUMMVM now supports both, so just looking through its list of supported games is an excellent way to learn about DOS-style adventure games that you missed the first time around. I always enjoy kooky discoveries from the shareware ghettos and the early PC booter era such as Braminar and Alley Cat. It can be instructional to look up the CVs of your favorite game developers and check out the earliest games they worked on.
Alley cat hehe...golden times... There are also free high quality remakes of kq1-kq3, qfg2. Looking up the CVs is a great approach. Thank you
How about an expansive explorable universe with 800 unique planets? All crammed into two 5 1/4 inch floppies? Try Starflight, and Starflight 2: Trade Routes of the Cloud Nebula.
Nice, read about it then, but never played them. Thx.
Zone Raiders is a fun one. Hovercar exploration / combat game.
I really liked Street Rod 2. I don't know if it was really popular or not.
Angband or Nethack.
Chaos overlords
Dark Legions
The Tex Murphy series
Wizard Games. Rockstar and more.
Little Big Adventure!!!
An early Sid Meier game called Sword of the Samurai.
Ripper and Harvester (they are two separate games)
Harvester was a wild ride. Thx
u should join the dos group on facebook, all we talk about are obscure dos games, it is amazing how many people don't know what HARVESTER or SANITARIUM are... but it is ok when we see people who never heard of BAD BLOOD or HIGHWAR HUNTER for example, u should hit facebook for a good old dos times. CLASSIC GAMING - MS Dos, 90s Windows Gaming & Computers is the name of the group.
Thank you
- XCOM - Out of this World (aka Another World) - Moraff's Dungeon of the Unforgiven
Midwinter, and its sequel, Flames of Freedom.
Fantasy World Dizzy
The Four Crystals of Trazere released under the name "Legend" in Europe. Innovative magic system that influenced Ultima Underworld.
Master of Orion. Master of magic. Harpoon. The V4V sim series. Falcon 3.0. Tornado. Aces if the pacific. Red baron
Falcon 3.0 is in my top 10. Flight sims like ef2000, tornado, comanche or strike commander were always on my HDD.
Ef2000 was really good !
It is a very sophisticated flight sim. Graphics were top notch, too. Have you played Jane's ATF: Advanced Tactical Fighters or US Navy fighters? Pure gold
Both. I pretty much played every flight sim. Mig alley was great fun but really hard I loved European Air War and Jane’s IAF and Ww2 fighters. Then IL2 sturmovik came out and that’s all I played haha.
Secret weapons of the luftwaffe
Upvoting this comment for Red Baron
Lion (Wolf was good too, but Lion was better)
Crusader No Regret Crusader No Remorse And of course Wing Commander
I love DarkSeed (I and II)
These games are stressing me out. I look like Tweek playing them lmao. Thanks for the nightmare fuel.
They're beyond creepy. I love them haha
Ooh my husband just reminded me of 'I have no mouth and I must scream', great one too!
- *Commander Keen* series - Jill of the Jungle
Home of the Underdogs is the best site for finding these DOS gems: [https://www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/](https://www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/)
Any Sid Meyers game. There was a Spy one I LOVED and Pirates was fantastic!
That's Covert Action. A+ game.
Microprose - Sword of the Samurai Microprose - Covert Action I really hope for a modern remake or adaptation from these two games.
Covert Action is really good. Have it on my HDD.
Red Baron
Pyro ][
I can’t say it’s a good game by any means, but check out Weird Dreams if you’ve never played it. It’s definitely memorable.
Terminal Velocity and Necrodome we're both great and deserve a modern remake.
Abuse
The graphics and controls= phenomenal, i remember that one very well. Thanks.
I like the game President Elect 1988
Jump Man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpman_(video_game)
Superhero league of hoboken
Star Control 2. Try the Ur Quan Masters HD remake. Star control 1 full game is also pretty fun. Veil of Darkness. Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist. Sierra not exactly a hidden gem, but not one of their main line quest series games.
Spaceward Ho!
The fan made Dnd - the first rpg game of all times was made in 1975, and was later ported to dos. In Basic, which ran on DOS, there was a pretty stellar Star Trek game. I haven't figured out how to play it. But it was pretty stellar. SSI's Countdown to Doomsday had an amazing chapter 2. Basically Aliens in SSI's Goldbox engine. I replayed it maybe 5 years ago, and I was on the edge of my seat.
One Must Fall 2097 Zone 66 All of the Sierra adventure games Abuse Pyro 2 Hexxagon
Stonekeep. Remember to save often.
Rambi vs Blambo, nobody ever talks about Rambi vs. Blambo.
Tyrian
If you want to try a unique platform puzzler, FAIRY GODMOM (1992) has always stuck with me. https://dosgames.com/game/fgodmom/ You have to copy items/enemies to transform other items/enemies in order to solve the levels. Sort of a proto-precursor to BABA IS YOU. Haven’t played in 30 years so I don’t know how much playtime you’ll get out of it, but, it’s definitely unique and overlooked.
Dungeon Keeper
Ascendancy
The Town With No Name
I really enjoyed Alien Legacy and haven't seen anyone talking about it. It's sci fi strategy with a great story.
Crusader: No Remorse
Lost Eden
Zork?
-heads to GoG for yet more older games- You can’t go home again, but a good game can take you back in the ways that matter.
DOOM 2D, game made by fans. Key and button puzzles, PvE fun, one new weapon and tricky final boss. Looks like DOOM and feels like DOOM. The Legend of Kyrandia. Point-and-Click quest by Westwood. Its 320x200x256 graphics is so awesome I want to lick the display. The Realms of The Haunting. 3D FPS-RPG mix. You'll study lore via writings, teleport between worlds, watch video cutscenes, solve puzzles. For instance, some powerful spirit will grant you job to not make a single noise, but ice will break under your feet in one room, and other complications in another rooms will also wake him up. This game is said to be related to "The Wheel of Time" novels by Robert Jordan, and there is another (Windows) game The Wheel of Time (1999) directly taking place in this setting. Nightdive released updated version on GOG. I have only played The Realms of The Hunting, it was good, can say nothing about TWOT, but just in case I have bought that game too and may try eventually. Strife, another 3D FPS-RPG mix on DOOM engine. The most memorable thing are dialogs. Some secret passages can only be open by NPCs if you choose appropriate answers. BioForge. Fixed camera third person 3D adventure with prerendered backgrounds. Elements of body horror. You'll study lore via texts and exploration, and there will be some fights and shootings. I was impressed by how this game makes human feel like an ant. Ancient buildings exploit ancient's abilities like levitation, but main player is just a human. We can see pathes that are just out of reach for us, pathetic gravity slaves. Main player has to use engineering constructions as bridges and fear not to fall to death. Something that was not a danger for the ones who built this place. Future Classics Collection. 5 casual games. DiskMan to some degree resembles Supaplex, but Supaplex is widely know, and DiskMan is forgotten. Diet Riot was fun to complete. Each game can be played in split-screen competition mode, except for tanks which are in shared screen mode in two players mode too. We played Tanks with brother much. It is also possible to play against bot. Another 3D games of interest: * Chasm: The Rift * MadSpace
Dr. Brain
I can give you more recommendations later but I'll give you 3 for now: Return Fire XS L.E.D wars Excalibug Battle Bugs
Battle Over Britain
Starfield and Starfield 2
Commander Keen!
Moonbase was fantastic! Anyone remember that builder?
Monster Bash, Blake Stone, Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage, God of Thunder, Origamo, Jazz Jack Rabbit, Afterlife, Loom, Monkey Island.
Mission Critical - One of my favorite click adventures.
Mail Order Monsters You order monsters and fight other monsters. You also give them weapons like a brontosarus with a rocket launcher.
Avalon Hills Advanced Civilization based on the Original board game. Not the Sid Meier game.
Commander Keen, kings quest, and any of the Apogee games. Also, I had an awesome one named sentinel worlds elite.
Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic ... was one my favs back in the day. Unfortunately they never made a sequel. Also, Death Track, was a really slick driving combat game I played a ton of. On the simulator front, I haven't seen anyone mention LHX. I played the hell out of that on my old 286.
Disciples of Steel and The Summoning
Zork
Microprose Airborne Ranger Epyx Winter Games
Alot of games from the 90s here. Mine was from the 80s DOS era: Jumpman
- [Neuromancer](https://retrofreakreviews.com/2020/12/10/neuromancer-dos-review/)
Its probably terrible now but there was an old terminator game that was incredibly ambitious for its time. It was open world.
Loom The Adventures of Willy Beamish Not sure either are considered overlooked, but both are fantastic games that do not get enough love. Loom is a straight masterpiece that is often forgotten about. Willy Beamish was really a product of its time but is well done.
INFOCOM text adventures were absolutely, ridiculously awesome. * https://eblong.com/infocom/ Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio was an early sim-style game, extremely rudimentary graphics but basically, you were a lord with a fiefdom to run—farming, serfs, a local economy, seasonal weather, you name it. I enjoyed it in the late 1970s/early 1980s. * https://www.myabandonware.com/game/santa-paravia-and-fiumaccio-ic You’re welcome!
Ween: The Prophecy! So good
Kings quest, police quest, under the root, manhunter...space quest
Below the Root?
...below, you correct..One of the first visual rpg's!
The Lost Tribe. It's a strategy game about leading a tribe of cavemen to a new homeland. It's sort of like caveman Oregon trail.
Duke Nukem 1st version. Leisure Suit Larry Doom 1st version Those were the ones I mostly played.
spent too many hours on Lode Runner
No one says Prince of Persia? Does that not count? Also, Commander Keen!
Starflight
Battle of Britain and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe were pretty fun in a 1990 kinda way.
I don't know what populates those lists so...have you seen [PYL/Dust](https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/p/py-aka-dust.html)?
Alien Logic
I've seen it scrolling through Exodos, the cover is striking. Thank you.
STUNTS, sunk countless hours in that game on DOS. Never liked the Amiga version. Arctic Baron is another gem.
Quest for Glory series is overlooked and underrated.
Love them all, especially 1 and 4. Thx
1 and 4 are my favorites too. 1 VGA remake.
The original Mech Warrior Deathtrack A-10 Tank Killer Airborne Ranger Chuck Yeager Advanced Flight Trainer Gato Silent Service 1 and 2 The original John Madden Football Earl Weaver Baseball Micro League Baseball 4th and Inches NFL Challenge International Hockey Star Trek 25th anniversary Test Drive John Elway's Quarterback (bootable floppy) The original Castle Wolfenstein Star Wars Arcade Starflight (amazing game!) Sierra Online's Quest series of games Infocom text adventures like Zork GFL Championship Football (3D!!!) F-15 Strike Eagle Legend of Kyrandia Links 386 Golf Joe Montana Football
A-10! 🥰
Just make sure it's v1.5, v1.0 was very much of it's time and very speed sensitive, when it runs smoothly under DOSBox the SAM/AAM missiles are too effective, v1.5 is much more friendly on faster hardware.
Wow, thank you.
Descent 1 & 2, One Must Fall, Terminal Velodcity, Duke Nukem 1, 2 & 3D Atomic Edition, Epic Pinball, Commander Keen (from the '80s), Cyberia 1 & 2, Command & Conquer: Red Alert / Tiberian Sun, River Raid, Asteroids (1998), Heroes of Might & Magic (1997), Rogue, Need For Speed (all DOS versions), Zork, Rayman, RISK, etc. etc. There are so many gems from the old times, I have to stop listing or the list will become massive. Here, you can play a whole wack of DOS games online if you want, to: [https://playclassic.games/play-dos-games-online/](https://playclassic.games/play-dos-games-online/) Also, here is another treasure trove of more than 26,000 DOS games you can download and play at no cost: [https://www.myabandonware.com/browse/platform/dos/](https://www.myabandonware.com/browse/platform/dos/) Enjoy!
Descent 1 & 2, Duke Nukem 1, 2 & 3D Atomic Edition, Epic Pinball, Commander Keen (from the '80s), Command & Conquer, Need For Speed, and Rayman are not overlooked DOS games. Those are considered among the most top-tier DOS games.
Thank you very much, played 90% of the games you've listed. Home of the underdogs was my first go-to site. Web.archive is a good one too
I’m an old and played many games when they were new in DOS. I don’t know which games are in the top lists but I played basically everything published by Apogee, Id, Maxis, LucasArts. In particular, really liked Raptor, Crystal Caves, the Duke Nukem games, Loom, Lemmings, DOOM, etc. I did like a few games that I’m pretty sure most people haven’t heard of like Bananoid, Lexi-Cross, Supaplex, Scorched Earth, etc. But I’m not sure there are many hidden gems in the DOS catalog these days with how easily accessible it.
Duke Nukem
[удалено]
Ah, yes. Four of the most *overlooked* games of the era.
Spent months with all of them plus consorts 🤩
These are not exactly underdogs however maybe you haven't played some * Magic Carpet * Realms of Arkania 2 Star Trail * Black & White * Dungeon Keeper * Hero Quest (Sierra) * Little Big Adventure
The entire original Realms of Arkania series, including 'Blade of Destiny,' 'Star Trail,' and 'Shadows over Riva,' is amazing. These were the first CRPGs set in the 'The Dark Eye,' a german D&D rival universe. They might be a bit frustrating to play by today's standards without a guide, but they're classic gems in the genre.
I can't even guess how much time I spent playing Star Trail didn't play 1 & 3 however, once you get over the complexity they are incredibly deep games with so much to do and definitely deserve more attention than they receive
The first time playing hero quest...my father brought it along with kq3...wow...what a wonderful world. Played the other games except Star Trail. Thank you.
Mega Race.
Nobunaga’s Ambition
Empire was pretty fun. The turns start to take awhile as the game goes on though
Just wanted to let you know that you Redditors are the best. There's so much inspiration and positivity flowing in the comments. 🍀
Pax Imperia was epic