MS-DOS is where a lot of classic shows got their start, but many of its hidden gems have been forgotten over time.
MS-DOS is known for being hard to get back to. Even DosBox, the most well-known DOS emulator for modern computers, needs to be tweaked. Just to set up the program, INI files are used. Then, in order to play a game, players must run the executable file through the terminal. So, it’s not strange that so many MS-DOS games have been forgotten for a long time.
Since 1981, Windows has used MS-DOS, but it stopped being used in the late 1990s. The end of DOS came at the same time that video games became more complicated and more expensive. This was a great time to be an independent developer because budgets were low and personal computers were easy to get. However, it wasn’t as great as the 2010s, when the number of independent developers grew.
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit is a series of DOS platform games that haven’t been made in years. Even though he wasn’t as well-known as Commander Keen from id Software, the green rabbit with the Rambo-red bandana was one of the most popular platformer characters of his time. Gears of War’s Cliff Bleszinski and Arjan Brussee, who went on to start Guerrilla Games, worked together to make Jazz Jackrabbit.
The first Jazz Jackrabbit game came out in 1994. It was one of the last games for MS-DOS, and it was the only one in the series. It was a big hit with gamers at the time, but because it was only available for a short time. Everyone forgot about Jazz except for his biggest fans.
SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony
SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony is a game about managing a group of ants. It is probably the strangest game in the Sim series. SimAnt is both a simulation and a strategy game, just like the other games in the series. It allows the player to control one ant at a time and issue commands to their fellow ants.
Two unique features of SimAnt, natural hazards and limited control, make the simulation stand out. Dangers include things like people walking on it, spider bites, bug spray, and so on. In terms of control, the player tells the colony what to do by moving one smart ant at a time. Since ants can’t talk, the player has to use pheromones to communicate with the colony.
Magic Carpet
Magic Carpet is a unique mix of flying simulations, shooters, and strategy games. The game takes place in a world that has been destroyed by wizard wars and is full of dangerous creatures. After his master dies, a young magician must look around this land and figure out how to put it back in its natural state.
The majority of Magic Carpet is spent flying on the game’s namesake carpet and shooting what looks and sounds like a machine gun at both big monsters and regular bats. The goal of each level is for the player to use mana to build a castle and then fill it with more energy. The castle is the HQ, but you have to protect it from enemy wizards until it has enough mana.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
The games Thief, Ultima Underworld, and System Shock aren’t the only ones in Looking Glass. The tactical shooter Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri came out in 1996. When the studio was already known for making immersive sims. Even more surprising is how well-kept a secret it really is.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is a tactical first-person shooter that takes place entirely inside a mech. Strike Force Centauri was definitely influenced by mech games like MechWarrior. But it’s more about taking part in big battles than fighting with other pilots. At the time, critics loved the game’s smart AI, but only people today seem to like the cheesy FMV cutscenes that come with every mission.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Star Wars: TIE Fighter, which came out in 1994, was thought to be one of the best PC games ever made for a long time. It was IGN’s third best computer game and PC Gamer’s all-time favorite game. Stories like this show how much gaming has changed. Since a space flight simulator has become as popular as Battlefield and Civilization 4 in the 2000s.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter tries very hard to break away from the sterile image of classic flying sims by using the Star Wars brand and filling every mission briefing with mysterious story bits. You can even use point-and-click to look around a whole space station.
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Master Of Orion
Master of Orion isn’t completely forgotten, but it might be one of the most important games for MS-DOS. Not only is it a pretty creative and unique strategy game, but it is also where the term “4X” comes from. The acronym, which stands for “Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate,” was first suggested in a Computer Gaming World review of a game.
Master of Orion is a 4X game, so it has a lot in common with the first games in the genre, like 8 Ball Pool game. Master of Orion, on the other hand, looks more like Civilization than most other games. This starts with the different cultures the player can control. Which are sci-fi races, and goes all the way to the triumvirate of diplomacy, technology, and conquest.
Descent
Descent is an old-school 3D shooter from a time when nobody really knew what 3D games were supposed to be. The whole story of Descent takes place in space. Where up and down aren’t as strict as they are on earth. This gives the player six ways to move: forward, backward, left, right, and up and down.
Descent plays like a space flight simulator. But the way the levels are set up and the focus on fighting make it a big change from the genre. Descent is a first-person shooter game that came out in 1996. It takes a lot of care to use new FPS ideas, like hiding colored keycards around the level or adding bonus objectives in the form of hostages.
