Abandonware DOS title

The best action puzzle games

Action puzzle games are a hybrid genre that combine elements of both action and puzzle games, requiring players to manipulate a character or solve problems within a real-time environment. Unlike traditional puzzle games that often allow for careful, turn-based thinking, action puzzle games demand quick reflexes and fast decision-making.
These games often involve navigating characters through obstacle-filled environments (thing about puzzle platformers). The core gameplay still revolves around problem-solving, but it’s layered with the intensity and pacing typically found in action titles.
bomb-jack-01

Bomb Jack remake

DOS2002remake
The classic bomb-defusing, platform-hopping, enemy-dodging chaos of Bomb Jack gets a fresh coat of pixels in this 2002 DOS remake. You’re still the tiny superhero hopping around grabbing bombs while evil smiley faces and flo...
lemmings2-2

Lemmings 2: The Tribes

DOS1993 DMA Design
Lemmings 2: The Tribes is an abandoned puzzle game part of the acclaimed Lemmings series. It was developed by DMA Design and released by Psygnosis in 1993. Lemmings 2: The Tribes runs on DOS but was also published for Acorn, Amiga...
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Chagunitzu

DOS1990 Softdisk Publishing
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Night Shift

DOS1990 LucasArts
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The Lost Vikings

DOS1993 Silicon & Synapse
The Lost Vikings is an old DOS platform-puzzle game, developed by Silicon & Synapse and published by Interplay Productions in 1993. In The Lost Vikings you have to solve puzzles by controlling three characters (glorious v...
diggers-5

Diggers

DOS1994 Millennium Interactive
thehumans-2

The Humans

DOS1993protected Imagitec Design
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Holiday Lemmings

DOS1993 DMA Design
Lemmings was one of the most iconic puzzle games ever made. It was also one of the most inventive. The idea behind those tiny furred punk suicidal rodents is truly a stroke of genius. Not surprisingly, after the huge success of th...
zoom-02

Zoom!

DOS1988
Zoom! is a puzzle game that desperately wants to be cool. You're a sunglasses-wearing smiley face cruising down psychedelic gridlines while dodging blobs and filling in tiles like Tron on a budget. It’s fast, weird, and occa...
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Locomotion

DOS1992 Prestige Softwareentwicklung
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DX-Ball 2

Windows XP/98/951998protected Longbow Digital Arts
DX-Ball 2 is a popular brick-breaking game that was first released in 1998 by Longbow Digital Arts. It serves as a sequel to the original DX-Ball, which was inspired by the classic arcade game Breakout and its successor Arkanoid.&...
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Humans 3: Evolution - Lost in Time

DOS1995protected Imagitec Design
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Arkanoid 2: The Revenge of Doh

DOS1989 Taito
Doh is back, and he’s mad - presumably because no one understood what he was in the first place. Arkanoid 2 takes the original formula and dials everything up: more levels, more power-ups, more neon madness. It’s still...
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Rockford: The Arcade Game

DOS1987protected Arcadia Systems
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Supaplex

DOS1991freeware Think!Ware Development
Supaplex is a classic puzzle game released in 1991 by Think!Ware Development for MS-DOS and Amiga. It is heavily inspired by Boulder Dash but introduces more complex mechanics. In Supaplex, you control a red, Pac-Man-like cha...
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Guldkorn Expressen

DOS1991 SilverRock productions
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ZZT

DOS1991freeware Epic MegaGames
ZZT (1991, DOS) looks like it was drawn by an enthusiastic ASCII artist with too much time and not enough colors. And yet, it’s brilliant. Part action game, part puzzle adventure, part game creation tool, ZZT is the reason s...
lemmings-5

Lemmings

DOS1991 DMA Design
Lemmings is a classic puzzle-platformer video game developed by DMA Design (now known as Rockstar North) and published by Psygnosis. It was originally released in 1991 for the Amiga and later ported to numerous platforms including...
lemmings95-03

Lemmings 95

Windows XP/98/951994 DMA Design
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Arkanoid

DOS1988 Taito
Arkanoid is a classic arcade video game that was first released in 1986 by Taito. It is a breakout-style game, which means that the primary objective is to break a wall of bricks or blocks by bouncing a ball off a paddle at the bo...
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Bust-A-Move

DOS1997freeware Taito
Also known as Puzzle Bobble, this bubble-popping classic stars those cute dragons from Bubble Bobble, now in competitive puzzle mode. Match three colors, clear the screen, panic as the ceiling drops—repeat until addicted. Bu...
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All Dogs Go to Heaven

DOS1989 Polarware
This 1989 game is based on the animated movie where dogs die, go to heaven, then come back for revenge (sort of). The DOS adaptation? Well, it’s more like All Pixels Go Nowhere Fast. You jump, you dodge, you squint at the sc...
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Archipelagos

DOS1989 Astral Software
Archipelagos is like a fever dream after watching too much Myst. You’re dropped onto strange, floating islands inhabited by stone monoliths and evil terrain-infecting sludge. Your job? Purify the land by destroying said mono...
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Beauty and the Beast

DOS1992 Infogrames
This isn’t Disney’s musical fairytale—it’s a DOS game, which means Beauty and the Beast is way more "puzzle platformer" than "tale as old as time." You play as the Beast, leaping around levels, solving very...
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Boulder Dash Construction Kit

DOS1987 First Star Software
Boulder Dash Construction Kit is both a full game and a level editor, built around the gameplay mechanics of the original Boulder Dash (1984). You still play as Rockford, the pixelated, googly-eyed spelunker, digging through caves...
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Contraption Zack

DOS1992 Presage Software
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Gapper

DOS1986
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Oxyd

DOS1992 Dongleware
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Robbo

DOS1993freeware xLand Games
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The Game of Harmony

DOS1990 The Assembly Line