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https://lunduke.substack.com/p/the-best-vga-dos-games-period
Every major computing platform has, in terms of gaming, something special about it. The color palettes, the sound hardware, the storage mechanisms, the available keyboards and joysticks... they all lend flavor to the games developed for each system.
The sound of a Commodore 64. The funky colors of a ZX Spectrum. The pure black and white of the early Macintoshes. All wonderful in their own ways.
But DOS gaming... it might just be the most amazing of all. Especially the period of time from the early 1990s through to about the mid-1990s. VGA graphics. Sound Blaster audio. Lots and lots of 3.5" floppies (with the occasional CD-ROM).
And the games... Oh, my. So many games. Bajillions of them. While there were a lot of stinkers (counting them is as futile as counting the grains of sand on the beaches of the world), the great ones were truly spectacular.
Nay. Life changing.
What follows are what I consider to be the 10 best DOS games that capture that "VGA plus Sound Blaster" aesthetic. These are presented in chronological order... purely because ranking them any other way made my brain explode.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday September 10 2021, @07:21PM (3 children)
One of the games I still play, just as recently as a few months ago. Master Of Orion II. It was, and still is, and awesome strategy game.
Star Control II is an absolute classic to me. The music alone was awesome [youtube.com]. It used multi-channel sample-based music, which I believe was called MOD music. The plot was great, the game play was great, and it was just great period. #1 on the list if you ask me.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by stretch611 on Saturday September 11 2021, @02:09AM
Master of Orion (MOO) 1 & 2 are pretty cool. MOO3 was horrible, and the MOO remake in 2016 was a huge bugfest that was so bad it was literally unplayable.
If you are interested in the 1st MOO someone did a remake in Java for modern computers. There are a few changes, but it is quite true to its roots.
It is called Remnants of the Precursors [rayfowler.itch.io]. It looks good... runs well (even on linux), and is so true to the original that many of the tips in old strategy guides for the original still apply.
The biggest differences are that it does limit ship designs. But you are also able to play against up to 49 opponents and have star systems with over 3.5 million stars.
There are 3 different ai's... the original and 2 other ais that are much more competent.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @06:56PM
I have wasted so many hours playing MOO2. :) Bought it off Good Old Games a while back and it is still my go-to game when I'm bored.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Friday September 17 2021, @01:29AM
Urquan Masters is the port to modern platforms, and it also includes voiceovers, music and graphic improvements from a rare console (3DO?) version... and the improvements are ACTUALLY improvements... though there are options to drop back to DOS behaviour if that's your preference. It's really worth a look.