Abandonware games by year of release
The vast majority of games and applications published or reviewed here on Abandonware DOS were released approximately between 1980 and 1999. As you can see - just look at the numbers - the golden years of DOS gaming were the end of the 80s and the first half of the 90s.
That doesn't mean there aren't good DOS games released earlier or later, but if you want to understand what the DOS scene were like, look for the first years of the 90s.