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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: 3, Touché) by Magic Oddball on Saturday September 11 2021, @10:43AM (2 children)
The article should have been titled "the best VGA DOS games if you love sim games, space shooters, FPS, and strategy titles." The only exception on the list appears to be DOTT; since I found the SCUMM games interface a bit frustrating, I never got around to playing it.
As someone who prefers well-written, thoughtful RPGs and adventure games, I'd rank Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Father, Ultima Underworld, and Beneath A Steel Sky, I'd rank those ahead of the vast majority of games on that list, if not all of them.
The Incredible Machine, Myst, Riven, and The 7th Guest also deserve to be mentioned for people who prefer graphical puzzles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @05:05PM
I was coming in to mention Ultima, both VI and Underworld; glad someone beat me to it.
System Shock fits in there as well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 11 2021, @09:22PM
I considered putting Myst on my list, but it wasn't a VGA DOS game, but rather a SVGA Windows game. It was still a great game, and there's even a modern remake.
I didn't include any RPGs because I'm not really into them and the only one that I could think of that I really liked was Dungeon Master, which was from 1987 and outside of the time frame.