The Internet Archive has added 2,500 more MS-DOS games
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A couple of thousand more MS-DOS games have been added to the Internet Archive, thanks to the efforts of eXoDOS and the Internet Archive. The best part? They’re all playable!
eXoDOS is a project that has been working on the preservation of MS-DOS games for several years. Their aim is to make sure that every MS-DOS game, from the original ancients to modern-day creations that are designed to work with the OS, are preserved for years to come.
eXoDOS doesn’t just preserve the software, however. The project works to ensure that all of the games are not only preserved, but are also playable, regardless of how niche the hardware and setup they require may be.
As such, the Internet Archive has been archiving several of these MS-DOS games so that people can experience them for themselves. Whether you want to play the games for fun or research how games used to be back in the day, there’s an entire archive at your fingertips.
However, as Jason Scott (Software Curator for the Internet Archive) says in his blog post about the topic, sometimes the emulations are slower than they should be, not all the games are necessarily enjoyable, and not all of the games come with their manuals.
Download speed may also be an issue. Some games contain a lot of data and, if you load up a game and come across a hundred-megabyte download, it may be wiser to leave that game until network speeds improve.
You can check out all the new additions by following the link here.
If you want some game suggestions from the entire Internet Archive’s collection of MS-DOS games, some of my favourites include SimCity 2000, Discworld, and the game adaptation of the iconic short story I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
