Side-scrolling games
A side-scroller (or horizontal scrolling) is a video game in which the action is shown in a side perspective and the environment scrolls mainly on an horizontal axis. Characters usually have to move from the left to the right side of the screen to go on in the game.
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Blade Warrior
DOS1991 Image Works
Blade Warrior (1991) is a side-scrolling beat 'em up that looks like it was illustrated entirely in heavy metal album covers. You’re a silhouette of rage, cutting through demonic hordes in a world where nobody believes in co...
Blood Money
DOS1990 DMA Design
Blood Money (1990) answers the question: what if every level in a shoot-'em-up was a different kind of sci-fi fever dream? You fly through alien-infested caverns, collect cash, and try not to get obliterated by things that look li...
Body Blows
DOS1993 Team 17
Body Blows is a 2D fighting game developed and published by Team17, released in 1993. It was initially launched for the Amiga and later ported to MS-DOS. Body Blows was one of the few fighting games to emerge from Europe during th...
Boot Camp
DOS1989 Konami
Boot Camp (1989, DOS) is the game that turns military training into a button-mashing festival of pain. Ever dreamed of surviving basic training without breaking a sweat? This is it—if your definition of “not sweating&r...
Brutal Sports Football
DOS1993 Teque
Take American football, remove the rules, add swords and fireballs, and throw in some screaming. That is Brutal Sports Football. This is not about touchdowns. This is about survival. Players can be decapitated, the ball can explod...
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show
DOS1989 Tynesoft Computer Software
Saddle up for an awkward mix of minigames that vaguely resemble rodeo events. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show tries to recreate the excitement of a 19th-century traveling circus but ends up feeling more like a 1980s office party whe...
Captain Comic 2: Fractured Reality
DOS1990freeware
In Captain Comic 2: Fractured Reality, our fearless spandex-wearing space explorer returns—but this time, he's bouncing between dimensions like a malfunctioning microwave. The graphics are more colorful, the enemies slightly...
Captain Comic, The Adventures of
DOS1988freeware
Before space marines were gritty and everything exploded in brown and grey, there was The Adventures of Captain Comic. This is early PC platforming in all its clunky, jumpy, 4-color glory. You collect treasures, shoot baddies with...
Carl Lewis Challenge
DOS1992 Teque
Carl Lewis Challenge is a sports simulation video game that was released in 1992 by Psygnosis for various platforms, including the Amiga, Atari ST, and DOS. Named after the famous American track and field athlete Carl Lewis, the g...
Castlevania
DOS1990 Distinctive Software
Castlevania, originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, was developed and published by Konami. The game was known in Japan as Akumajo Dracula (Devil's Castle Dracula) and was later renamed Castlevania for i...
Caveman Ugh-Lympics
DOS1989 Dynamix
Before the IOC cracked down on fun, Caveman Ugh-Lympics gave us the primeval sporting event we never knew we needed. Clubs, fire, and the 100-meter mate drag—yes, that’s a thing—await you in this 1989 slapstick D...
Colorado
DOS1990 Silmarils
Colorado (1990, DOS) drops you into the buckskin boots of a rugged frontiersman navigating the Wild West with guns, canoes, and questionable hygiene. Equal parts action and exploration, it feels like someone mashed together Oregon...
Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars
DOS1990 id software
Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars is a platform video game developed by id Software and published by Apogee Software in 1990 as shareware for MS-DOS. The game follows the adventures of an eight-year-old genius named Billy Bl...
Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes
DOS1990protected id software
In Commander Keen 2: The Earth Explodes, the stakes go from “oops, stranded on Mars” to “uh-oh, Earth is doomed.” The Vorticons have planted death lasers in orbit (as you do), and only one 8-year-old with a...
Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die!
DOS1990protected id software
Commander Keen 3: Keen Must Die! is the kind of title that makes you wonder what this kid did to tick off an entire alien race. After foiling their plans twice, Keen takes the fight to the Vorticon home planet, where enemies are s...
Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle
DOS1991protected id software
Just when you thought Keen could catch a break, Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle drops him into a mystical realm full of bouncing jelly beans and sentient toasters. This is where the series finds its sweet spot: colorful gra...
Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine
DOS1991protected id software
In Commander Keen 5: The Armageddon Machine, Keen infiltrates a massive space station engineered to obliterate planets like it’s swatting flies. This is Keen at his most tech-savvy, with blinking lights, metallic corridors, ...
Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate my Baby Sitter!
DOS1991 id software
Billy’s babysitter has been abducted by aliens, and he’s not having it. Commander Keen 6: Aliens Ate My Baby Sitter! is the series at its most Saturday-morning-cartoon absurd. The Shikadi are back, the humor is dialed ...
Commander Keen: Keen Dreams
DOS1992 id software
Before Keen went full-on galactic hero, he had a Keen Dreams. Literally. This midquel drops him in a dreamscape ruled by King Boobus Tuber (yes, really), where vegetables are evil and broccoli is the final boss. No pogo stick this...
Contra: Locked and Loaded
Windows 10/112013freewareremake
Contra: Locked and Loaded is like caffeine in video game form—fast, explosive, and just a little dangerous for your health. You’re running, you’re gunning, and you’re wondering how your character’s bi...
Cool Spot
DOS1994 Virgin Interactive
Cool Spot proves that even a soft drink mascot can star in a surprisingly fun platformer. You’re a tiny, sunglasses-wearing red dot who surfs soda bubbles, rescues friends trapped in bottles, and somehow makes it all look co...
Cosmic Spacehead
DOS1993 Codemasters
Cosmic Spacehead is a cheerful point-and-click adventure wrapped in platformer segments, starring a purple alien who’s equal parts explorer and goofball. You’ll travel colorful worlds, solve quirky puzzles, and occasio...
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventures
DOS1992protected Apogee Software
In Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventures, you’re a green alien kid with suction-cup hands who’s crash-landed on a strange planet. It’s a platformer with bright visuals, bouncy music, and levels that encourage explorati...
Cougar Force
DOS1990 Coktel Vision
Cougar Force feels like the ’80s exploded into a side-scrolling action game. Big guns, big hair, and bigger explosions define this run-and-gun romp where subtlety is for other people. You’ll blow through enemies, jump ...
Creatures Village
Windows XP/98/95Mac OS2001protected Creature Labs
Creatures Village trades explosions for adorable AI pets in a colorful sandbox world. You raise, teach, and care for Norns—genetically simulated cuties with personalities as unpredictable as real animals. Feed them, play wit...
Crime Wave
DOS1990 Access Software
If you like your justice loud and messy, Crime Wave delivers. It’s a side-scrolling shooter set in a dystopian future where the only way to keep order is with a hail of bullets. The enemy designs range from intimidating to o...
Crystal Caves
DOS1991protected Apogee Software
Crystal Caves is a bright, cheerful platformer starring Mylo Steamwitz, an entrepreneur whose business plan involves raiding dangerous alien caves for profit. The levels are full of hazards, from traps to enemies that seem designe...
Dalek Attack
DOS1992 Alternative Software
Dalek Attack is the digital embodiment of Doctor Who’s “run for your life” mantra—except here, you can also shoot back. Playing as the Doctor or one of his companions, you’ll blast your way through ci...
Dangerous Dave
DOS1990protected Softdisk Publishing
Dangerous Dave is the kind of platformer that defined the early ’90s shareware scene: simple, fast, and just tricky enough to make you shout at your monitor. You guide Dave through a series of trap-filled levels in search of...
Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion
DOS1991protected id software
Dangerous Dave in the Haunted Mansion turns up the difficulty (and the body count) by tossing Dave into a gothic nightmare of zombies, ghosts, and bloodthirsty critters. Armed with a shotgun, you’ll creep through dimly lit c...