I was streaming some Jackbox on the weekend for friends, and one of the people in the background made a quip about the old days of troubleshooting .ini files. It reminded me of the torture of dealing with DOS4GW errors, but naturally, you can’t think about DOS4GW without thinking of some absolute classics.
To help you think of some of your own favourites, there’s a couple of great videos below that just run through 200 DOS games in the space of 20 minutes. There’s plenty of bangers like Abuse, Blake Stone, Shadow Warrior, the Wing Commander games, TIE Fighter, Capitalism, Little Big Adventure 1, Ecstatica, Powerslave, and more.
Obviously I can’t run through every game, but I’m just going to provide some super quick memories here.
GTA 1
Still my favourite of the series. My mum, knowing how much we loved GTA, referenced the game as a way to get us ready for school with basic mathematics. We’d be driving along, and she’d stop and point out things on the side of the road.
“Oh look, that’s a granny with a pram, how many extra points is that?”
Hexen: Beyond Heretic
Absolute classic and a design that really wasn’t replicated by the sea of FPS clones from the ’90s. Hexen‘s level design isn’t that uncommon today, especially with the spate of Metroidvania-inspired games, but for a shooter in 1995 it was a huge change.
Did have a lot of really shitty monster placements. I’m talking enemies literally standing one inch away from you as soon as a level loads. Or standing directly behind you as soon as you come up an elevator. That was just cheap.
Sango Fighter
I never finished Sango Fighter or learnt all the moves, but I can still hear that high pitched menu music. Doo DOO doo doo DOO doo doo DOO doo DOO for life.
Sango Fighter 2 was a hell of an upgrade, though.
Terminal Velocity
One of the few DOS games I’d rather play today on a phone. Terminal Velocity was an absolute blast – or Fury, the ported Windows version – and it’d make for a sick redux in 2020.
Hell, with all the advancements in dynamic LOD, object culling and just advancements in what CPUs can render on screen, Terminal Velocity could really go places. Maybe Nightdive Studios could pick it up?
Micro Machines 2
Absolute all-time classic, with an infinitely better sense of speed than Codies’ recent remaster.
Cricket 97
Look, I’d just be flat out lying if I didn’t say this utterly dominated a couple of Christmases for me. Australia’s side were utterly dominant back then, and watching Bevan was manna from heaven for a kid, but it wasn’t as good as smoking sixes of your own.
One Must Fall: 2097
The GOAT of all fighters, especially on PC.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/03/tribute-thursday-one-must-fall-2097/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/08/maxresdefault14-410×231.jpg” title=”Remembering The PC’s Best Fighting Game” excerpt=”I’m going on a flight to Japan over the weekend, and as a result I’ll be needing something to occupy me should the in-air entertainment be a bore. Fortunately, there’s been one game happily residing on my laptop ever since I purchased it, and that one game is what I’m paying tribute to.”]
What DOS games do you remember and love the most? I can probably guess most of them – TIE Fighter, Daggerfall, Heroes of Might and Magic 2, Warcraft 2, the DOOM games, Rebel Assault and some of the SSI strategy titles for older gamers – but let me know in the comments!
Leave a Reply