DOS abandonware games sorted by popularity

The original Grand Theft Auto drops you into a city where rules are more of a suggestion than an obligation. In Grand Theft Auto, you play from a top-down perspective that somehow ...

If you grew up in the ‘90s, you probably remember Disney’s Aladdin as the game that made you want to bounce off rooftops while throwing apples at everything in sight. T...

Sid Meier’s Civilization is the game that tricked an entire generation into loving history, city planning, and the occasional world domination. Starting with a tribe of stick...

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall is an enormous fantasy RPG whose sheer ambition still borders on the ridiculous. The world is vast, cities are numerous, dungeons seem to continue ...

Norton Commander was one of the most popular and influential file management applications ever released for MS-DOS. Introduced in 1986, it featured an innovative, dual-pane interfa...

With Grand Prix 2, things suddenly get serious, like the genre collectively decided it was time to grow up and learn aerodynamics. This is not just a racing game, it is a full-blow...

Golden Axe is a classic arcade game developed by Sega and released in 1989. It's a side-scrolling beat 'em up game set in a fantasy world where players choose one of three characte...

The Lion King brings Disney's animated classic to the computer in the form of a platform adventure starring Simba. The game follows the broad story of the film while turning its me...

Wing Commander is one of the games that helped establish the space-combat simulator as a proper cinematic experience rather than merely a collection of dots shooting at other dots....

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 expands the historical strategy formula of its predecessor, offering a deeper simulation of warfare, politics, economics, and diplomacy during China...

Street Fighter II is a classic arcade fighting game developed and published by Capcom. It was first released in 1991 as a sequel to the original Street Fighter. Street Fighter II i...

Ultima 7 is often hailed as the crown jewel of the series, and with good reason. It throws you into an open world that feels startlingly alive, even decades later. Townsfolk go abo...

The Secret of Monkey Island is one of the great adventure games, combining clever puzzles, absurd comedy, memorable characters, and a pirate story that happily refuses to take itse...

Bigger, bolder, and with more statues of yourself than ever, Caesar 2 builds on its predecessor like Rome after a good tax season. Now you get to manage both cities and provinces, ...

Building upon an already outstanding foundation, Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares adds richer empire management, customizable races, improved diplomacy, and deeper tactical com...

Albion is a science fiction role-playing game (RPG) developed and published by German studio Blue Byte Software. It was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and later for Amiga. Albion...

The Need for Speed marked the beginning of a racing series that would eventually become one of gaming's most recognizable names. The original game focuses on fast cars, realistic-f...

Super Street Fighter 2 brings the famous fighting formula to the PC, offering a roster of colorful combatants, special moves, distinctive fighting styles, and enough international ...

X-COM: UFO Defense is the granddaddy of tactical strategy, the game that made countless players paranoid about what might be lurking just outside radar range. It blends base manage...

SimCity 2000 takes the original city-building formula and expands it into a much richer simulation. Players can construct roads, highways, subways, power networks, water systems, r...

Volfied is a deceptively simple arcade puzzle game in which drawing lines is far more dangerous than it sounds. The basic idea is straightforward: your little craft moves around a ...

Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel is a 1987 adventure game that puts players in the role of a police officer investigating crimes and following proper law enforcement p...

Three Sisters' Story is a Japanese adventure game centered on character relationships, dialogue and the unfolding events surrounding its cast. Rather than relying on constant actio...

When Leisure Suit Larry 1: In the Land of the Lounge Lizards debuted in 1987, it introduced one of gaming's most famously awkward protagonists. Larry spends the adventure searching...

Robocop is a 1989 DOS action game based on the iconic film, putting players inside the heavily armored body of the cybernetic police officer. The gameplay focuses on shooting crimi...

Super Mariio Bros is a DOS-era platform game whose title immediately makes its intentions rather obvious. It borrows heavily from the famous plumber formula, offering side-scrollin...

In 1990, Life & Death 2: The Brain raises the stakes by focusing on neurosurgery, presenting even more demanding medical procedures and diagnostic challenges. Players carefully exa...

Tetris Classic is exactly what it promises: a faithful, no-nonsense version of the puzzle titan that defined a generation. It doesn’t try to be flashy or revolutionary; instead, ...

Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive in 1996. It is part of the Command &...

Heroes of Might and Magic offers a strategic playground where armies march, heroes grow stronger, and time seems to disappear without warning. It has that classic “just one more ...