Abandonware DOS title

The best board game games

Classic board games like Backgammon, Othello, Checkers were an inspiration to the first wave of developers for their simplicity and appeal. In time, modern board games like Diplomacy, Risk, Monopoly or Scrabble were also adapted in a number of games. And let's not forget the strategy games NOT based on actual tabletop games which gameplay is clearly inspired by board games (like the excellent Archon).
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BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception

DOS1988 Westwood Studios
Released in 1988, BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception is part RPG, part strategy, part “did I just die in the tutorial again?” You’re a young MechWarrior on the run, assembling allies and blowing stuff up w...
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Monopoly Deluxe

DOSWindows 3.x1992 Parker Brothers
Monopoly Deluxe is an abandoned turn-based top-down Monopoly adaptation  of the classic board game, developed by Parker Brothers and released by Virgin Interactive in 1992. Monopoly Deluxe was published for DOS, Windows 3.1, ...
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4Play

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.x1995NSFW
4Play was a risqué trivia and multi-player board-style game released in the mid-1990s. Designed as a party game, it combined trivia questions, mini-games, and challenges that often leaned toward suggestive or adult the...
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221B Baker Street

DOS1986 Datasoft
You are Sherlock Holmes, and someone has committed a crime, possibly because they couldn’t handle the game’s UI. 221B Baker Street is a detective board game where your mind is your only weapon. And also a notepad, beca...
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5th Fleet

DOS1994
This 1994 naval strategy game for DOS is based on the board game of the same name, which means you’ll spend more time squinting at menus than blowing up ships. It’s cerebral, methodical, and incredibly satisfying - if ...
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Advanced Civilization

DOS1995 Avalon Hill
Think you’re good at making tough decisions under pressure? Advanced Civilization dares you to prove it by turning diplomacy into passive-aggressive warfare. Based on the classic board game, this DOS gem lets you take your a...
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Checkers for Windows

Windows 3.x1997
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Dark Legions

DOS1994protected Silicon Knights
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HeroQuest

DOSMac OS1991 Gremlin Graphics / Gremlin Interactive
HeroQuest is a classic video game adaptation of the popular board game HeroQuest, released in 1991 by Gremlin Interactive. HeroQuest faithfully recreates the turn-based, dungeon-crawling, and role-playing gameplay of the...
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Battle for Atlantis

DOS1990
Fancy a war under the sea? Battle for Atlantis (1990) asks the age-old question: what if submarines had grudges? This top-down, action strategy title throws you into a deep-sea turf war with clunky controls and a soundtrack that f...
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Star Saga: Two - The Clathran Menace

DOS1989 Masterplay Publishing Corporation
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A Line in the Sand

DOS1992protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
A Line in the Sand (1992) is what happens when a board game about modern Middle Eastern warfare gets turned into a DOS strategy title with all the subtlety of a cold war memo. You command military forces in a region that is perpet...
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Autoduel

DOS1985 Origin Systems
What do you get when you mix Mad Max, Car Wars, and a fondness for vehicular homicide? You get Autoduel (1985, DOS), a top-down driving RPG where your car is your castle and your guns are your diplomatic policy. Part racing game, ...
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Acquire

DOS1989 IBM
Acquire (1989, DOS) brings boardroom drama to your DOS screen, turning you into a hotel tycoon in a game where the real enemy is... math. It's a faithful adaptation of the classic board game, complete with mergers, hostile takeove...
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The Ball Game

DOS1991 Esprit Software Programs
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Black Crown

DOS1995
In Black Crown (1995), you play as a prince with a very punchable name, trying to reclaim his rightful throne by solving puzzles and dying a lot. It's one of those DOS-era games where half the difficulty is figuring out which pixe...
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Full Metal Planete

DOSMac OS1990 Hitech Productions
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Trivial Pursuit

DOS1989
Trivial Pursuit is a popular trivia board game that was adapted into a computer game for various platforms, including DOS. In the game, players answer trivia questions from various categories in order to collect pie pieces th...
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Risk: the World Conquest Game

DOS1989 Mastertronic
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Stratego

DOS1990 Accolade
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Risk

Windows 3.x1991 Azeroth
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Trivial Pursuit Deluxe

DOS1992 Oxford Digital Enterprises
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Bureau 13

DOS1995 Take-Two Interactive
Paranormal agents, conspiracy theories, and point-and-click puzzles that would make even a ghost sigh in frustration. Bureau 13 is like The X-Files if Mulder and Scully spent more time pixel-hunting. You choose your agents—o...
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Robot Rascals

DOS1987 Ozark Softscape
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Battlestar

Windows 3.x1996freeware
No, not that Battlestar. Battlestar (1996) is more obscure than a reboot that never happened. Set in deep space with a top-down view and UI only a Windows 3.x user could love, it mixes tactical combat and sci-fi storytelling like ...
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Battleship

DOS1983 Mirror Images Software
Released in 1983, this is your grandpa’s Battleship—minus the plastic pegs, but with all the tension of blind naval warfare. There are no fancy graphics, no Hollywood explosions, just good old-fashioned "Is it a hit?" ...
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Gold of the Americas: The Conquest of the New World

DOS1989 SSG Strategic Studies Group