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Playing those old DOS Games

This post is probably not strictly on topic (being less serious than usual) however I have just prepared a whole heap of links for someone else and figured why not share them.

There are two things that I want to cover today;
  1. Obtaining the remakes of old games for free (full game Remakes).
  2. Running old games under newer systems (Engine only Remakes).

I have a preference for adventure games so while will be covering action games as well, I might be a bit biased.

Remakes of old Games
A lot of the open source project's have been recreating the old DOS games for free. You can usually find these by typeing the name of the game and the word "remake" into google.

I'm going to provide some direct links to save a bit of searching - the links may move over time so if this post is old by the time you read it, try searching.

King's Quest 1 and King's Quest 2
http://www.agdinteractive.com/

King's Quest 3
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/index.php?page=kq3vga

The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Online Version)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_andrew.shtml

Ultima
http://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?event=project&typeKeyword=remakes
http://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?event=project&typeKeyword=remakes3d

Manic Mansion
http://new.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=search&sterm=maniac+mansion+deluxe&submit=Search%21

Some other Remake Sites;
http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/videogameremakes
http://www.retroremakes.com/forum2/showcase/grid.php?pr=c

The Wikipedia Page on Remakes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fanmade_computer_game_remakes_and_sequels


Running Old Games under New Systems - Including (DOS Games in Mac and Linux)
Unlike the section above, to run these systems, you will need a copy of the original game. Many of these are still quite commercial, though some are available on Abandonware Sites .

1. DosBox
http://www.dosbox.com/
This utility is very very good and will run a lot of old DOS games directly under windows xp, Mac or Linux. It's a better, more compatible and more configurable DOS than the one that ships with XP.

2. Early Sierra Games (FreeSCI)
http://freesci.linuxgames.com/
This is for the Sierra SCI Games, like Leisure Suit Larry 2, Leisure Suit Larry 3, Police Quest 2, King's Quest 4, Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory 1, Space Quest 3, The Colonel's Bequest, Conquests of Camelot, Codename: Iceman, Hoyle's Book of Games, Hoyle's Book of Games 2

3. LucasArts and Later Sierra Games (ScummVM)
http://www.scummvm.org/
You can get a Scumm interpreter that runs under Windows XP (and on other systems too). So if you have games like these, you can copy the data files from the CDs and run them with the new scumm

LucasArts: Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Loom, Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The Curse of Monkey Island, The Dig, The Secret of Monkey Island, Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders

Sierra: Donald Duck's Playground, Gold Rush!, King's Quest: Quest for the Crown, King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne, King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human, King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, Manhunter: New York, Manhunter 2: San Francisco, Mixed-Up Mother Goose, Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel, Space Quest: The Sarien Encounter, Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge, The Black Cauldron

Other Game Artists: Beneath a Steel Sky, Broken Sword and Broken Sword II, Bargon Attack, Elvira, Elvira 2, Flight of the Amazon Queen, Future Wars, Gobliiins, Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon, Goblins Quest 3, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb, Lure of the Temptress, Mickey's Space Adventure, Nippon Safes, Inc., Simon the Sorcerer, Simon the Sorcerer II and Simon the Sorcerer Puzzle Pack, The Feeble Files, The Legend of Kyrandia, Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer, Troll's Tale, Waxworks (a.k.a. Elvira 3)

4. Ultima
Ultima 4 Recreated http://xu4.sourceforge.net/
Exult - Recreated Engine for Ultima 7 - http://exult.sourceforge.net/

5. Doom and other Shooters
There are lots of remake engines for Doom



The Wikipedia Game Engine Recreation Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_engine_recreation


A Word about Emulators
No discussion would be complete without listing the many emulators for non-PC games, such as › GameCube
Nintendo 64, Gameboy + Advance, Super Nintendo/NES/DS, Sony Playstation 1&2 + PSP, Microsoft XBox,
Sega Dreamcast/Saturn/Genesis etc, and the various other Arcade Systems.

You can download a lot of emulators from here, though you still have to own or find the games.
http://www.emulator-zone.com/

The games can often be found by searching for "ROM" and the Game title.


I know I've missed a lot of other games and remakes. So if you're feeling nostalgic or wanting that old game to work, it's worth having a good search in google.
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