# Let's play.... DOS games!

**URL:** <https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783>\
**Category:** Adventure/Lucasfilm Games\
**Created:** [June 5, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783 "2018-06-05T13:07:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/1 "2018-06-05T13:07:58Z")

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Continuing the discussion from [Let's play…Sega games!](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-sega-games/2777/30):

Look! A brand new topic! Let’s discuss on all things DOS! Not only IBM-PC games, but also any game developed for the 8086, 80286, 386, 486, Pentiums,… on whatever system (DOSBox these days).

Let’s see if we can convert @RonGilbert to become a DOS boy after all. 😉

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**Author:** ![ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/zakphoenixmckracken/32/41_2.png) [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/ZakPhoenixMcKracken)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 1:10pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/2 "2018-06-05T13:10:27Z")

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uhm, as far as I remember, I even played ZMKATAM on DOS.  
My first DOS game was Wolfenstein 3D, and subsequently, DOOM.

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**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/3 "2018-06-05T13:17:04Z")

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Went straight from amiga to windows 95, so DOS that still came with it was all the DOS I got.

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**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/4 "2018-06-05T13:49:32Z")

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> [@milanfahrnholz](#):
>
> was all the DOS I got

I’m still, I’m still, Milan from the block.

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**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/5 "2018-06-05T13:54:24Z")

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I already felt the vibes when I wrote that. 😂

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**Author:** ![Guga](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/guga/32/14476_2.png) [@Guga](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Guga)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/6 "2018-06-05T13:59:46Z")

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I spent my whole childhood between a C64 and a DOS 80286.

The first game I remember playing was called [Big Three](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/big-three-lt), which I didn’t understand at all, but I liked it somehow. I don’t even remember the first time I played it, but I vividly remember that I asked my father to play it again, but he couldn’t find the floppy.

The second game for which I have definite memories is Prince of Persia. I remember being in my father’s car, probably going to school, and he said “a colleague of mine gave me a new game, it’s called _Prince_, this evening we’ll try it together”.

The game I played the most? Probably Prince of Persia, since I still play it from time to time. Then the adventure games. And a football game called [International Soccer Challenge](https://www.myabandonware.com/game/international-soccer-challenge-1un) which in retrospect was easy as \*beep\*. My first team was Liverpool, and I always lost against Manchester UTD. Little did I know that it was an actual rivalry.

Oh, and **Stunts**. Best racing game ever.

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**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:13pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/8 "2018-06-05T14:13:12Z")

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Oww I want to comment on these things but I’m at work and seeing Solo tonight! \*bookmark\* \*bookmark\* \*bookmark\*…

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**Author:** ![Someone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Someone](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Someone)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/9 "2018-06-05T14:21:39Z")

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> [@Sushi](#):
>
> A brand new topic!

Now we have four brand new topics - we definitely need a “brand new topics” category. 😜

> [@ZakPhoenixMcKracken](#):
>
> My first DOS game was Wolfenstein 3D, and subsequently, DOOM.

Monkey Island 1 was my first game on a 486. And some really crappy shareware games. 🙂

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**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/10 "2018-06-05T14:48:50Z")

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I first played Wolfenstein 3D and Doom on a Mac. No idea how they got there, though. 🤷‍♂️

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**Author:** ![Someone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@Someone](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Someone)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/11 "2018-06-05T15:07:07Z")

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It’s likely that you got the _Shareware_ version. 😉

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**Author:** ![milanfahrnholz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@milanfahrnholz](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/milanfahrnholz)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/12 "2018-06-05T15:07:44Z")

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Since that was in 1996 it is unlikely it was any other. 😄

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**Author:** ![kaiman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kaiman](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/kaiman)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2018, 5:25pm UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/13 "2018-06-05T17:25:42Z")

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Ah … DOS! The joy of tinkering with autoexec.bat and config.sys to free up just enough memory to actually play that game! And to add insult to injury, each game required it’s own personal settings, or so it seemed.

As for the games, the first two I remember playing were

1. The Fate of Atlantis (on a PC at my dad’s business, while he was doing some work there on weekends). Back then I did not realize that an Amiga version existed, otherwise I’d rather played that one for sure.
2. Ultima VII (by then we had a PC at home), and that one is still my top favourite game of all time (and likely will remain so). It’s the only RPG I since replayed (using the excellent [Exult](http://exult.sourceforge.net/)). It’s a masterpiece against which anything else must pale in comparison.

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**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 7:34am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/15 "2018-06-06T07:34:12Z")

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My first computer was an Amstrad IBM PC-compatible. I’ve tried to find out exactly which one in the past but never got to the bottom of it.

It ran DOS and came with some games pre-installed - Prince of Persia, Battle Chess, Star Wars and some others I can’t remember. I got given a copy of Space Quest 2 from my uncle. I think it also came with this, as I don’t remember buying it

 ![award-back](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/thimbleweedpark/original/2X/6/636c443acaaa02dc86845b61b942516e8bd136a0.jpg)

Populous was great (you got to be God).  
Pipemania great also.  
Space Ace was crapawfully hard.

Oh and I got Commander Keen from somewhere. I remember the load command was ‘keen4e’.

I also used a word processor to write stories. I can’t find which one it was but it was extremely basic. It had a shortcut menu that ran along the bottom, where you typed a corresponding highlighted letter to go to that option (my computer didn’t have a mouse).

I actually really liked the command line interface as it felt really technical, like I was making it work instead of it all being automated. I wasn’t specially skilled or anything but I felt really clever just installing and running things.

Though I always wanted to cry whenever I saw this:  
C:/\> Not ready reading drive A  
Abort, Retry, Fail?

Whichever one I chose it just got stuck. Usually my fault for not having inserted a disk in the first place, doh.

Disclaimer: this was a long time ago, so I might have some things wrong!

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**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 7:35am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/16 "2018-06-06T07:35:38Z")

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> [@Guga](#):
>
> “a colleague of mine gave me a new game, it’s called _Prince_ , this evening we’ll try it together”.

I remember calling it Prince, too. I think that’s what I had to type to play it after putting the disk in, so maybe that’s why.

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**Author:** ![Guga](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/guga/32/14476_2.png) [@Guga](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Guga)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 7:38am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/17 "2018-06-06T07:38:26Z")

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> [@PiecesOfKate](#):
>
> C:/\> Not ready reading drive A  
> Abort, Retry, Fail?

20 years later, a PhD in Computer Science, and still I don’t understand the difference between Abort and Fail.

Those were the days ❤

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**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 7:59am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/18 "2018-06-06T07:59:38Z")

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Oh, I forgot Captain Comic! That’s one of the earliest games I remember playing.

![download%20(1)](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/thimbleweedpark/original/2X/8/8396fae68bb588fbdedf1442b92aa44659b0c1b3.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![Nor\_Treblig](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/nor_treblig/32/216_2.png) [@Nor\_Treblig](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Nor_Treblig)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 8:53am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/19 "2018-06-06T08:53:35Z")

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> [@milanfahrnholz](#):
>
> windows 95, so DOS that still came with it was all the DOS I got

Windows 95, or should I say WinDOS 95? Oh you’ve got plenty of DOS back then 🙂

> [@PiecesOfKate](#):
>
> I also used a word processor to write stories. I can’t find which one it was but it was extremely basic.

On DOS I remember [Edlin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edlin) which was even more basic.  
Speaking of which, I remember [QBasic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBasic) being used as text editor in later versions.

> [@PiecesOfKate](#):
>
> C:/\> Not ready reading drive A  
> Abort, Retry, Fail?

Oh, there is even a Wikipedia entry for this particular [error message](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abort,_Retry,_Fail%3F)!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sushi](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/sushi/32/163_2.png) [@Sushi](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Sushi)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 9:01am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/20 "2018-06-06T09:01:46Z")

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> [@Guga](#):
>
> still I don’t understand the difference between Abort and Fail

if fail… retry

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PiecesOfKate](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/piecesofkate/32/93_2.png) [@PiecesOfKate](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/PiecesOfKate)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 9:12am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/21 "2018-06-06T09:12:01Z")

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> [@Nor\_Treblig](#):
>
> Speaking of which, I remember [QBasic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QBasic) being used as text editor in later versions.

Actually, it looked more like that than Word. I wonder if I was just using a text editor and not a word processor? 😂 ah damn, I’d love to know what is was. Maybe I should start a project to Reconstruct Kate’s 90s Computer.

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**Author:** ![Nor\_Treblig](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/forums.thimbleweedpark.com/nor_treblig/32/216_2.png) [@Nor\_Treblig](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/u/Nor_Treblig)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2018, 9:19am UTC](https://forums.thimbleweedpark.com/t/lets-play-dos-games/2783/22 "2018-06-06T09:19:46Z")

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> [@PiecesOfKate](#):
>
> Maybe I should start a project to Reconstruct Kate’s 90s Computer.

Where is your backup? 😉

Actually I think I have most of the applications/games and documents I have created far back then.  
Every time I’ve got a new computer I’ve copied all data to the new harddisk which was always huge compared to the previous one.

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