Suggestions for fun, classic MS-DOS games

[Reiska]

Definitely second Master of Magic and Darklands, both are fabulous.  Darklands in particular was a huge influence on similarly open-ended games which came later, particularly the later Elder Scrolls games.  Master of Magic is basically Civilization II meets Magic: The Gathering with the latter's serial numbers filed off; the influence is unmistakable though.  Microprose had the Magic license at the time, so it's entirely possible the game may have started out with the Magic branding and they decided to separate it midway through development.

I feel like Might and Magic is metaphorically the Final Fantasy of PC first-person dungeon crawlers: the gameplay, even from the first title, is significantly more casual and less difficult than its contemporary competitors, and the game has more of a narrative focus than Wizardry or Bard's Tale ever did (probably rivaled by the AD&D Gold Box games though).  The analogy holds in one other way too; Might and Magic revels in referencing Star Trek throughout the franchise in much the same way FF does Star Wars.  Anyway, all five DOS Might and Magic games are pretty great, although the first is really rough around the edges nowadays.  I still think it's worth playing, but the series did get better with each successive entry at least through World of Xeen, and M&M6/7 (for Win 9x) are still good games as well.  (Disclaimer: M&M1 was the first RPG I ever played, so I may be biased.)

Speaking of Ultima IV, it's also an excellent game, for all that the DOS port is one of the worse incarnations of it.  DOS also offers Wizardry 1-7 for RPGs; however, the DOS ports of 1-5 are awful and I can't recommend playing those in good conscience.  (Even on the better platforms, they are seriously dated games.  If you really want to play Wizardry 1-3 or 5, play the SNES ports; if you really want to play Wizardry 4, play on the Apple II version.)  6 and 7 are DOS native though.  Neither are bad, although I think the contemporary Might and Magic entries are far superior.

Similarly, while Bard's Tale is considered a classic, the DOS ports of the series are the worst versions, avoid them.

The Magic Candle is an oft-forgotten classic DOS RPG too which is pretty good and does some things that were fairly ambitious for the time.  Give it a whirl.

[Jorpho]

It occurs to me that for some reason we still haven't seen the old Epic Megagames catalog make an appearance in one form or another.  That kicked off with ZZT, a game creator that people used to do some pretty amazing things – it game me a certain appreciation for what goes into even modern game design.  It inspired Megazeux, a similar and considerably more powerful program, particularly improved by its support for MOD music.  There were a lot of ambitious Megazeux projects that never got past the demo stage, but Bernard the Bard is probably one of my top ten gaming experiences ever.

Later games from the Epic catalog include Jill of the Jungle, which I never got around to playing, as well as Seek and Destroy, Traffic Department 2192, One Must Fall 2097, and of course Jazz Jackrabbit.

Speaking of Ultima IV, it's also an excellent game, for all that the DOS port is one of the worse incarnations of it.

There was a special VGA version later, wasn't there?

[Reiska]

It occurs to me that for some reason we still haven't seen the old Epic Megagames catalog make an appearance in one form or another.  That kicked off with ZZT, a game creator that people used to do some pretty amazing things – it game me a certain appreciation for what goes into even modern game design.  It inspired Megazeux, a similar and considerably more powerful program, particularly improved by its support for MOD music.  There were a lot of ambitious Megazeux projects that never got past the demo stage, but Bernard the Bard is probably one of my top ten gaming experiences ever.

Later games from the Epic catalog include Jill of the Jungle, which I never got around to playing, as well as Seek and Destroy, Traffic Department 2192, One Must Fall 2097, and of course Jazz Jackrabbit.
There was a special VGA version later, wasn't there?

I was remiss in forgetting Epic's catalog, yeah, especially ZZT and Jill, yes.

Re: Ultima 4 - The VGA version is a fan mod.  An exceptionally well done fan mod, though, and certainly the preferred way to play it if possible.

[PresidentLeever]

Epic Pinball, ZZT, Jazz and OMF are mentioned on the first page in the pic I posted.

[Jorpho]

I meant specifically that for some reason these games haven't been made available digitally – of course, ZZT and OMF are genuinely freeware, and I think the same goes for Castle of the Winds, but it's strange that despite being alive and well, Epic hasn't made Jazz Jackrabbit available in one form or another.  (They even have their own Game Launcher now.)  They were still selling physical copies of everything for a surprisingly long time at epicclassics.com, but that's been kaput for a while now.

[PresidentLeever]

Oh, yeah I agree then. Seems like a Jazz 3 or Jazz 2 HD could be a minor hit nowadays as well.

[Recca]

I remember having played these titles years ago and thought that they were pretty fun:

- Highway Hunter
- One Must Fall
- Cyberdogs
- C-dogs (the sequel to Cyberdogs)
- Warcraft: Orcs & Humans
- Ambush
- Walls of Rome
- Advanced Destroyer Simulator
- Merlin Challenge
- North and South
- Sherman M-4
- Hannibal
- Realm of the Paladin
- Sabre Team
- Siege
- Tetris

[SCD]

Another old PC game that should work on DosBox that you should check out is Beavis and Butthead: Virtual Stupidity, it's a good click & point game and the only good Beavis and Butthead game ever made.

[Bonesy]

pickle wars

[Chronosplit]

I about forgot, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Jetpack yet.  Legit free and with a ton of custom levels if you know where to look.