Welcome to Classic DOS Games. This is a very simple web site about a very simple time.

A long time ago, back in the 1980s and early 90s, the best games were for DOS, or a version of Windows that required DOS. Most of the best games were shareware or, more accurately, the first few levels were free and you had to pay for the rest. These were the games my friends and I spent our childhood playing, but lost track of after modern operating systems swept DOS into history.

This website is devoted to DOS and "Windows for DOS" (Win16) games. This particular DOS games site is a little more focused than most. Companies and individuals produced thousands of shareware games for DOS and, like movies and books and anything else, a lot of them weren't very good. Most sites aim for quantity. This site is almost exclusively dedicated to games that were distributed commercially, except for a select few games that were extremely good and achieved the same level of quality. Only the best games make it to this site.

This web site is unique. I am attempting to include every version of each listed game. A lot of research has gone into making sure that all of the information on this site is correct. You'll quickly notice that there is no other web site that has all of these files in one place. Classic DOS Games is quite possibly the most complete, and most accurate classic DOS games resource in the world.

The highest ideals of this site are to support the authors by providing links to their web sites and ordering information for the full versions of games that are still sold, and to encourage the authors of classic games to preserve their games for future generations by making them available for sale or as freeware. If you enjoy a shareware game, please consider buying it from the author.

All of the games on this site are freely distributable because they are shareware, freeware, or because the copyright holder has officially and legally released all rights to the public domain (abandonware).

Latest news:

4 January 2009

• Created a list of DOS games that can be played in your browser thanks to JPC. The site's source code is being simplified and consolidated into a lean, mean, easy to use content management machine! Visual changes are coming soon. Help with graphics and design would be greatly appreciated.
• Thank you to the 482 918 of you who visited Classic DOS Games in 2008. Half a million thank yous for helping to preserve and popularize DOS games!

31 December 2008

• Phase II of the major update is complete. Classic DOS Games has moved to a better webhost. Screenshots now overlay on the current screen so that you don't have to press Back after viewing them. Love it or hate it? Let me know in the forum if you like. The complete game list can now be sorted by title, operating system, genre or year, ascending or descending. Added Game Creation section. Added FIX8X14 to the Utilities section. There are now over 800 versions of classic games on the site. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
• Added 2 games: Bow and Arrow - In Search of the Greatest Archer and Klik & Play.

27 November 2008

• Added 6 games: Astro3D, Holiday Lemmings 1994, Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures, The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain, Moraff's Ultra Blast, and War-8}!.
• Please stop sending donations of $0.01! Some people are still contributing to the long-dead Have a Penny, Donate a Penny campaign, in which I encouraged visitors to donate a bit of pocket change, or even a single penny, to websites that they appreciate. If even a small fraction of visitors donated a single penny, small websites would earn enough revenue to cover their expenses. Unfortunately, PayPal charges a fee of 1.9% to 2.9% on all payments, and they round up to the nearest cent, so the fee on a donation of $0.01 is $0.01. 100% of all pennies donated are kept by PayPal, and I have to refund your pennies to prevent PayPal from keeping them. I appreciate your willingness to donate, but I'd rather you keep the pennies than give them to PayPal. Please put your pocket change in a Salvation Army donation globe, or a busker's guitar case, or to a homeless person. PayPal has enough pennies already!

11 November 2008

• In Flanders fields the poppies blow
  Between the crosses, row on row,
  That mark our place; and in the sky
  The larks, still bravely singing, fly
  Scarce heard amid the guns below.

  We are the dead. Short days ago
  We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
  Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
  In Flanders fields.

  Take up our quarrel with the foe:
  To you from failing hands we throw
  The torch; be yours to hold it high.
  If ye break faith with us who die
  We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
  In Flanders fields.

29 October 2008

• Major Update II: Phase I. It's been about a year since the original Major Update, so it's time for another massive overhaul of the site. Redesigned the website to allow games to be searched by developer, publisher, or company (whether developer or publisher). Created company information pages for every company, which will include a short overview of each company, as well as a link to their official webpage if one exists. It took 133 companies and independent authors to develop and publish the games on this site! Added a navigation menu to the About this site page.
• Went through every game on the site and updated ordering information. A great many discontinued games were found for sale on Amazon and, of course, when you use the site's links to buy them, Classic DOS Games gets a small commission.
• There are still many people who don't understand why "abandonware" is illegal to distribute. A new section has been added to the About this site section which explains why abandonware is illegal. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
• Added 11 games: Bang! Bang!, Command & Conquer, Descartes Enigma, Floyd's Bumpershoot, Honeycomb Hotel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Kalakh, Knarly Works, Loom, MESH: Falling Hero, and Solitile for Windows.

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