You know what? I didn’t plan to fall down a rabbit hole. But I did. I spent four weekends with a big pack called “1746 DOS Games.” It’s a giant menu of old PC games that runs through DOSBox. Click a title. It boots. Boom. You’re in 1993, give or take.
Curious what living with that many retro titles really looks like day-to-day? I broke it all down here.
If you’d rather dip a toe before downloading a multi-gigabyte archive, the browser-friendly catalog at DOS Games Online streams dozens of these same classics in seconds. For an even shorter sampler, my own one-week plunge into a smaller collection shows how much fun you can squeeze into just a handful of evenings.
I used a plain Windows laptop, a cheap USB gamepad, and a quiet Sunday. Well, not that quiet. My cat walked on the keyboard more than once. Felt right.
Setup that didn’t make me cry
I’ll be honest. I feared setup. Old PC stuff can be touchy. This was easy. If you need a primer, the official Basic Setup and Installation of DOSBox page walks you through the whole process. It came with DOSBox already ready. A simple launcher sorted the games by name and genre. I didn’t have to hunt for drivers or weird files.
A few games asked me to pick “Sound Blaster” in their setup screens. I clicked it. Music played. That was it. For slower games, I bumped up “cycles” in DOSBox a bit. If that sounds scary, it wasn’t. Two arrow taps. Fixed. For a broader crash course, PCWorld’s walkthrough on how to use DOSBox to play classic games covers tips like these in detail.
First week: the “oh wow, I remember this” run
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DOOM (shareware): I picked Sound Blaster in the setup and heard that crunchy E1M1 track. Arrow keys felt clunky, so I mapped my gamepad. The shotgun still thumps. Doors still whoosh. I grinned like a goof.
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Prince of Persia: Timing is tight. I missed a jump. Then another. I slowed DOSBox a little so the moves felt fair. Landing a perfect grab? Still magic.
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Commander Keen 4: Bright EGA colors. The pogo stick still rules. I forgot how many hidden goodies Keen packs in corners.
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Wolfenstein 3D: Fast, flat, and loud. I kept tapping walls for secrets. Found chicken dinners and ammo piles like it was 1992.
After that opening sprint I started wondering what other essentials I’d missed; a quick skim through this “beige-box” best-of list gave me a fresh queue.
Second week: the “one more turn” trap
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SimCity 2000: It ran fine after I nudged speed up a bit. I built a river town. Then taxes. Then a weird traffic mess. The tiny icons are a pain with a touchpad. A mouse helps a lot.
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Dune II: Harvest spice. Build Wind Traps. Lose a harvester to a sandworm. I forgot the right-click quirks, but it came back fast. The slow build pace still feels good.
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Lemmings: I set one as a blocker and felt bad. Then a little proud. Then bad again. The music gets stuck in your head.
If strategy sandboxes and city builders are your vibe, this MS-DOS greatest-hits list is a goldmine of more turn-stealing classics.
Side note: sound that hits your chest
PC speaker beeps in Alley Cat? Sharp and funny. Sound Blaster FM in Jazz Jackrabbit? Warm and buzzy. Some games even had MT-32 music files, which most folks won’t use, but the pack let me switch. I didn’t, but it’s nice it’s there.
Third week: deep cuts and school memories
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Oregon Trail: I bought too many bullets. My kid got dysentery. Classic. I named the party after my cousins. They laughed, then yelled when I sank the wagon.
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Stunts: Loops, jumps, clean fails. I kept flipping the car. Pressing F1-F5 to change views still feels cool.
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Tyrian: Smooth shooter. Great music. I didn’t expect to like it this much, but I did. Power-ups feel chunky in a good way.
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King’s Quest VI: Text version here. I used a walkthrough for one puzzle. I don’t feel bad. The charm holds up.
The one that fought me
MechWarrior 2 ran, but it was fussy. It needed extra tweaks and felt heavy on my laptop. I got it to work. It wasn’t smooth. That’s the thing with big packs like this. Ninety games feel great. Ten feel needy.
Controls: keyboard, mouse, or pad?
Old games love the keyboard. Some love the mouse. A few feel best with a gamepad, even if they didn’t ship that way. I used:
- Keyboard for DOOM, Wolf3D, Keen
- Mouse for SimCity 2000, Dune II, Lemmings
- Gamepad for Jazz Jackrabbit, Tyrian, Prince of Persia (surprisingly nice)
Swapping controls in DOSBox was simple. I saved two profiles and switched when needed.
The launcher: boring in a good way
The menu isn’t flashy. That’s fine. I could search by title, sort by year, and tag favorites. A few entries had short notes or manual scans. Those helped with odd copy-protection screens (“What’s word 4 on page 12?”). When a game needed a code wheel, the scan was right there. No wild goose chase.
What made me smile
- The curation: It’s not just the big names. Alley Cat, Jill of the Jungle, The Incredible Machine. So many small gems.
- The saves: DOSBox save states are handy for kids, new players, or sleepy adults. Ask me how I know.
- Couch play: I plugged the laptop into my TV and used a wireless mouse. Family night turned into a Keen night.
I kept cross-referencing my discoveries with another collection of “best ever” DOS tales, and it was fun to spot overlaps and oddballs.
What bugged me
- Some titles are tricky with modern touchpads. A wired mouse helps a lot.
- A few games run too fast or too slow until you tweak speed. It’s quick, but you do have to learn it.
- Manuals aren’t perfect. Most are there. Not all. You’ll wing it sometimes.
Who this pack is for
- Folks who grew up with DOS and want the real feel.
- Parents who want to show kids where games came from.
- Anyone who likes short, clever ideas over big, shiny worlds.
If you hate fiddling even a tiny bit, you might bounce off it. But if you can handle a simple setup screen, you’re golden.
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Small, odd moments that stuck
I paused Prince of Persia to sip tea and set the cup down wrong. The saucer clinked. The guard stabbed me. I laughed. Later, my cat stepped on F10 and quit DOOM right before a tense fight. I sat there like, wow, I guess that’s the real final boss.
The quick take
- It works out of the box, with tiny tweaks here and there.
- The game list is huge and honest. Not every game sings, but enough do.
- Sound and control options let you shape things to your taste.
My verdict
“1746 DOS Games” made my weekends bright. It felt cozy, like finding old patches on a jacket and sewing on a few new ones. Not perfect. But true. If you want a big, playable time capsule that still respects your time, this hits the mark. And when I just want a quick nostalgia hit,