I grew up with a beige box under a wobbly desk. A Packard Bell 486DX2, Sound Blaster 16, and a ball mouse that needed a good wipe every week. I can still hear the hard drive hum. I can still smell warm dust. I played these games on real floppies, with real restarts, and yes, I once spent a whole Saturday fixing autoexec.bat after a bad mouse driver. Worth it.
If you want to compare notes, the folks at DOS Games Online put together the best MS-DOS games of all time list that’s well worth a skim.
So here’s my honest list, from the ones I beat to the ones that beat me. Some were kind. Some were rough. All of them stuck.
Boom, pew, and a little bit of vertigo
Doom (1993)
I got Doom from a shareware disk at a local shop. I ran it after school, lights off, volume up. The shotgun felt like thunder. The music slapped through my tiny speakers. I loved the speed. But the maze parts? I got lost a lot. Also, it made my cousin a bit queasy, which was funny until it wasn’t. If you want to see how it stacks up against the rest of the genre, PCWorld’s 10 Greatest MS-DOS Games of All Time explains why Doom still tops so many lists.
Tip: Turn down the screen size a notch if it stutters. It helped on my 486.
Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
This one was my first “wow.” Big blue walls, dogs, guards yelling “Achtung!” Simple, fast, and loud. The levels look samey, though. I’d walk in circles and swear the map moved on me. It didn’t. I was just stubborn.
Duke Nukem 3D (1996)
Yes, I ran it in DOS. It was smooth and snarky. The levels felt like real places, which I loved. The jokes? Some land, some don’t, and a few aged weird. Still, the jetpack and RPG made me grin like a doofus.
Descent (1995)
Six degrees of freedom. Translation: I hit the ceiling. Then the floor. Then a wall. And somehow I was upside down. But when it clicked? Sweet. It felt like flying a drill into a hornet’s nest. Motion sickness was real, though. I kept ginger ale nearby.
Jump, flip, and fall into a pit you swore you saw
Prince of Persia (1989)
The animation is still smooth. That little run-up jump? Chef’s kiss. But the timing is strict. I yelled at my keyboard more than once. When I nailed a long chain of moves, I felt like a ninja who also pays rent.
Commander Keen (1990–1991)
Bright, clever, and kind. Keen made me smile. The pogo stick gave levels a nice bounce. Some stages felt like puzzles, which I liked. The hit detection could be fussy, but the tone was so warm that I didn’t mind.
Jazz Jackrabbit (1994)
Fast. Like, real fast. It’s Sonic but with chunky PC charm. Great color, great tunes. On bad days, it felt a touch slippery. On good days, I played until my pizza rolls cooled.
Think, plan, then panic anyway
Sid Meier’s Civilization (1991)
One turn before bed turned into the sun rising behind my blinds. I loved building roads and making silly city names. The AI could be rude. Also, turns got slow late game. Still, it taught me patience and also how to lose a spaceship race by one turn without crying. Mostly.
SimCity 2000 (1994)
Power lines, zones, pipes… hello, Sunday afternoon. I liked the little car sound when traffic got heavy. The UI felt busy at first, but it made sense after a bit. The budget screen is math, yes, but friendly math. Garbage still stresses me out.
X-COM: UFO Defense (1994)
This one got in my head. Base building by day. Tense squad fights by night. I named soldiers after my friends. Bad idea. They died. A lot. The game is hard but fair, unless it’s night and you forgot flares. Then it’s just pain. Save before you move. Trust me. It even earned a spot on a collection of the best MS-DOS games I still think about over at DOS Games Online, and I can see why.
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994)
Click, chop, build, rush. The voice lines live in my brain rent-free. Pathfinding was goofy sometimes, and units got stuck on trees. Still fun. Two-player over a null-modem cable felt like magic. Mom tripped over the cord. We paused and laughed.
Laugh, point, click, repeat the joke
The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)
This made me love games more than any class ever could. Smart puzzles. Dry jokes. Warm heart. I got stuck on the “how do I…” moments, but the payoff was worth it. The insult sword fighting bit still kills me. I wrote comebacks in a notebook like a little gremlin.
Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Time travel plus toothpaste. The art pops. The audio is crisp even on a cheap sound card. Some puzzles seem wild, but clues are there if you breathe. I felt clever, even when I was not. That’s a neat trick.
King’s Quest VI (1992)
Fairy tale vibes with sharp edges. Pretty scenes. Odd logic at times, but the charm landed. Save often in new screens. Learned that the hard way near a cliff.
Space stuff that made me whisper “whoa”
Star Wars: TIE Fighter (1994)
I played with a creaky gameport joystick, and it changed the feel. Tight controls, clean HUD, moody music. Mission briefings felt serious. Keyboard works, but a stick helps a ton. I failed a convoy mission three times and still felt proud.
Wing Commander (1990)
Chunky pixels, big drama. Dogfights were exciting, but on a 386 it chugged. On my 486 it sang. I liked how your squad mates mattered. Miss a shot and you’d hear about it later.
Odds, ends, and a few “oh wow” memories
Lemmings (1991)
Cute, chaotic, and mean in a nice way. One wrong click and the whole group walks into lava. I learned to pause. A lot. Music gets in your head, so it’s a warning and a perk.
Stunts / 4D Sports Driving (1990)
I built dumb tracks with loops and death jumps. Then I failed them. Great replay camera. The physics are silly, which makes it better. Also, I learned not to brag until I could finish a lap.
The Oregon Trail (1990 DOS)
We all died of something. Usually me. It taught me to pack more food and fewer jokes. The hunting minigame was my calm spot. Kids now may find the text slow, but it still has bite.
Dark Forces (1995)
Star Wars guns with clean level design. Jumping felt stiff in spots, but the set pieces rocked. The stormtrooper chatter through my speakers made me grin.
Quick picks if you’re busy
- Best starter today: Doom
- Best story laughs: Monkey Island
- Best couch stress: X-COM
- Best shiny sim: SimCity 2000
- Best space flight: TIE Fighter
- Best kid-friendly jumpy joy: Commander Keen
A tiny tech corner (simple, I promise)
I ran most of these on DOS with a Sound Blaster 16 set to port 220, IRQ 5, DMA 1. If sound stutters, try IRQ 7. I had to load the mouse driver (MOUSE.COM) in autoexec.bat. And yes, I used HIMEM.SYS and EMM386 to free more memory. If that sounds scary, don’t sweat it. DOSBox on a modern PC handles all that. Set CPU cycles to “auto” or tap Ctrl+F12 until it feels right. GOG packs many games with DOSBox ready to go. You can also browse a treasure trove of shareware and freeware classics at DOS Games Online and fire many of them up instantly in your browser. WIRED recently highlighted the Internet Archive’s massive library of more than 2,300 MS-DOS games, all playable straight from your browser if you’re in the mood for a deeper dive. Plug in a cheap USB gamepad for the flight games; it helps.
Little gripes I still remember
- Duke’s humor is uneven now, and some bits are cringey.
- Civilization turns bog down late game.
- Descent can make you dizzy fast.
- Wolf3D levels blend together after an hour.
- X-COM loves to punish your mistakes, which is part of the thrill, and also why I sometimes yelled at the screen.
If those downsides sound familiar, you’ll enjoy [this reflective walk through the best DOS games ever told from