Games demos

Let's start with a fact: not every old game is abandoned. With the resurgence of "vintage", there's a renewed interest in all things retro, including videogames. As a direct consequence, a few companies acquired entire back catalogs of old games and started selling them. That's why lots of interesting games on Abandonware DOS are marked "NOT abandonware": they are sold somewhere online.

Games demo versions are a thing of the past. You don't see often demos of recent games on Steam or GOG, but the demo version of a game, in the late 80s and the 90s, was quite common, expecially when videogame magazines started to include floppy disks or CDs and internet was almost non-existent.

With this premise, I started to collect old games demos and I'm putting them online on Abandonware DOS with the focus on commercial games. Enjoy!

Age of Empires

Windows XP/98/951997protected strategy

Age of Empires, published by Microsoft and developed by Ensemble Studios, is one of the most popular historical RTS and started a successful series. The player must guide a civilization from prehistory to the iron age, battling other civilizations, building and gathering resources.
Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings

Windows XP/98/951999protected strategy
Age of Wonders

Windows XP/98/951999protected strategy
Diablo

Windows XP/98/951996protected rpg
Dogs of War

Windows XP/98/951996 strategy
Duke Nukem 3D

DOS1996protected shooter
Fallout

DOSWindows XP/98/951997protected rpg
Full Throttle

DOS1995protected adventure
Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures

Windows 3.xMac1996 action-adventure
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

DOS1991protected adventure

Monkey Island 2 is the second game of the Monkey Island series, a point and click adventure game set in a world of pirates and mysterious treasures. Monkey Island 2 utilizes a command-based SCUMM interface and a branching dialogue system.
Operation: Inner Space

Windows 3.x1994protected shooter
Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in The Spinal Frontier

DOSWindows XP/98/951995protected adventure
StarCraft

Windows XP/98/95Mac1998protected strategy

StarCraft is a classic RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in 1998 for Windows and Macintosh. StarCraft takes the Warcraft experience to a sci-fi setting with an interesting story, three very different races (the militaristic Humans, the alien Zerg and the religious Protoss) and one of the best gameplay experience an RTS had to offer at the time. No wonder that StarCraft became a fan favorite and Blizzard released expansions, a sequel and even spin-offs.
The Secret of Monkey Island

DOS1990protected adventure

The Secret of Monkey Island is perhaps the most popular point and click adventure game developed by Lucasfilm Games and designed by the trio Ron Gilbert, Dave Grossman and Tim Schafer. In Monkey Island you're the would-be pirate Guybrush Threepwood on a quest to become a fearsome pirate in the Caribbean. Monkey Island uses one of the most friendlier interfaces for adventure games: the SCUMM engine.
Theme Hospital

DOSWindows XP/98/951997protected simulation
Van Buren (Fallout 3)

Windows XP/98/952003canceled rpg

Van Buren was a science fiction post-apocalyptic RPG being developed by Black Isle Studios and never published. Van Buren was the direct sequel to Fallout 2, part of the Fallout franchise. Van Buren was canceled in 2003.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans

DOS1994protected strategy

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is the first real-time fantasy strategy game from Blizzard Entertainment. Two separate story lines (Orcs and Humans) evolve with 12 scenarios per side telling the tale of the battle for the Kingdom of Azeroth. Players must mine gold and chop wood in order to construct buildings and create units. Each side tries to destroy the other by collecting resources and creating an army.
Wolfenstein 3D

DOSMac1992protected shooter

Wolfenstein 3D is the first-person shooter that popularized the whole genre in the early 90s and is considered one of the greatest games ever made. Wolfenstein 3D was designed by John Romero and Tom Hall (id Software) and released as shareware by Apogee Software in 1992 for DOS. Wolfenstein 3D is based on the Wolf3D engine, programmed by John Carmack.
Worms

DOS1995protected strategy