7000 free browser-based DOS games
Tired of working? To distract yourself, you can always visit archive.org and play old DOS games in your browser. Since this week, 2,500 new games have been added to the media library, bringing the total to 7,000.
If you want to visit an old website or the earlier version of a homepage that has long since disappeared from the Internet, you can use the WayBackMachine from archive.org. The site also offers royalty-free videos and films as well as audio, text and software archives. DOS games are the highlight, and can even be played directly in the browser. Recently, titles such as Street Fighter II, Ultima Underworld, or Summer Games II have been added to the catalogue.
The collection of browser-playable DOS games has been around since 2014. Back then, 900 games were available. In 2015, 2,400 games were added, and then year after year, the collection has continued to grow and now has around 7,000 titles. 2500 games have just joined it. This is the biggest update to date.
Behind the DOS-BOX browser-based emulator, Jason Scott pointed out in a blog post that, depending on the game and the hardware available, performance issues could also arise. Emulating games does require better performance than simply playing on the hardware and software designed for it at the time. So don't despair when a game doesn't work the way you want it to. And don't forget to change the key assignments before you start playing. Titles that were originally published on CD-ROM also require some bandwidth.
Behind the collection and publishing of games is the eXoDOS project, which aims to catalogue, archive and make playable all games published for DOS. To achieve this, the project's initiators are relying mainly on original media. The project focuses on games in English as well as games that are easy to understand even without knowledge of the language in which they are published.
In the whole collection, my favourites are Stunts, Pinball Fantasies, and Prince of Persia. And what are your favourites?
I find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.