The Drunken Lizard Pub

A web site dedicated to classic dos games, they have 5 pages of RPG's. Several screen shots listed with each game. Not certain yet whether or not if they have some kind of dos emulator featured so that you could play the games.

http://www.abandonia.com

If someone listed this site prior to this...ah well.

---Rush.

You do have to be careful with these sites some of the things they have are not freeware they are actually still held by the companies that made them....although you can find some great stuff.

Thanks, Rune. I saw a few that I might like to try, but I've never used an emulator before (assuming that I'll need one in order to play dos games).

---Rush.

Do a search for dosbox...very simple to use. Works like a charm. Then check out lands of lore...a classic.

Okay, I'm on it (grins).

Thanks again...

---Rush.

Have been visiting them for years. Many of the games have been released to the public, eg: Railroad Tycoon, Betrayal at Krondor etc. etc.
Some newer ones actually run under my windows XP, although you should have a dosbox. Also available at their site.

Just an additional comment from someone who has been playing lots of games on emulators lately....many times games from the mid 80's to around 1990 are far better using the Amiga, C64 or appleIIGS emulators. PC's weren't really the main machine of choice for development up until the early 90's so often the dos games in that area are far better on other systems.

Let me know if any questions on what emulators to use and where to get them.

The PC (IBM and other clones) were limited in the resolution and colors that could be displayed. The games for the PC were usually set at the lowest common hardware specifications. The computers by the other companies (Atari, Commodore, Apple) used custom chips to display graphics and produce sound.

Example the Alternate Reality games (Dungeon and City) were originally programmed for the Atari 8-bit computers which had a special graphic chip called Colleen, sound chip called Pokey and microprocessor called Antic. The Atari version was actually able to display 256 colors through programming and had player missle graphics (sprites). The Atari sound chip could produce the sounds of an orchestra. The Amiga was the spiritual successor to the Atari 8-bit. Jay Miner designed the chips for both. So Alternate Reality is stunning on both systems.

Even the Commodore 64 had special chips for graphics and sound. Not as sophisicated as the Atari, but still very good.

The PC was bland by comparison.

Yes, PC gaming has always been a bit of an anomaly in some ways - it just goes to show that market forces are more powerful, and more complex, than just who has the best equipment. It's all just the same VHS vs. Betamax issue, repeated ad nausium.

I think the biggest force which made the PC a success was its open nature, but now that games are becoming such a big industry, the tide has turned rather and it seems that closed-platform consoles are taking the lead. I guess that now the industry is big enough to drive big innovation due to competition, whereas before it was easier to innovate in "small chunks" on the PC (sound cards, graphics cards, etc.).

It's interesting watching these trends - I just hope that PC gaming doesn't die off totally, because consoles are such a limited environment that it seems very hard to come up with games with any degree of depth to them. Lack of keyboard and mouse, for example, are quite a barrier to certain gaming styles. Also, the "loss leader" approach of current consoles makes home-grown games much harder to imagine, because the console vendors charge awful licencing fees to studios (well, Sony do anyway, I've no idea about Microsoft - Nintendo might not be so bad, because they're smart enough to actually make a profit on each console unit).

Getharn wrote:Yes, PC gaming has always been a bit of an anomaly in some ways - it just goes to show that market forces are more powerful, and more complex, than just who has the best equipment. It's all just the same VHS vs. Betamax issue, repeated ad nausium.

I think the biggest force which made the PC a success was its open nature, but now that games are becoming such a big industry, the tide has turned rather and it seems that closed-platform consoles are taking the lead. I guess that now the industry is big enough to drive big innovation due to competition, whereas before it was easier to innovate in "small chunks" on the PC (sound cards, graphics cards, etc.).

It's interesting watching these trends - I just hope that PC gaming doesn't die off totally, because consoles are such a limited environment that it seems very hard to come up with games with any degree of depth to them. Lack of keyboard and mouse, for example, are quite a barrier to certain gaming styles. Also, the "loss leader" approach of current consoles makes home-grown games much harder to imagine, because the console vendors charge awful licencing fees to studios (well, Sony do anyway, I've no idea about Microsoft - Nintendo might not be so bad, because they're smart enough to actually make a profit on each console unit).

I always though boxed gaming consoles are better, because then the developers knows what hardware EVERYONE has, and likewise, you know the floppy / NES brick / CD /DVD or whatever you just bough WILL work and is optimized for your box.

I have a PC now, of course. I was also defeated by the market forces . I hate hate hate hate hate DRM and consoles these days are locked up tighter than the virginity of a female royal heir.