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The Internet Entertainment Games Technology

Internet Archive Releases 2,500 MS-DOS Games (cnet.com) 58

Posted by BeauHD from the nostalgia-blast dept.
The latest update from Internet Archive brings thousands of MS-DOS games from the '90s like 3D Bomber, Zool and Alien Rampage. CNET reports: On Sunday, Internet Archive released 2,500 MS-DOS games that includes action, strategy and adventure titles. Some of the games are Vor Terra, Spooky Kooky Monster Maker, Princess Maker 2 and I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. "This will be our biggest update yet, ranging from tiny recent independent productions to long-forgotten big-name releases from decades ago," Internet Archive software curator Jason Scott wrote on the site's blog.

One game that might trigger a few memories is the 1992 action-adventure horror game Alone in the Dark, published by Infogrames. In the game, you can play private investigator Edward Carnby or family member Emily Hartwood, who's investigating the suspicious death of Jeremy Hartwood in his Louisiana mansion called Derceto, which is now supposedly haunted. Fighting against rats, zombies and giant worms, you have to solve a number of puzzles to escape. Another retro game included by Internet Archive is a 1994 title played on PCs and Amiga computers called Mr. Blobby (a remake of the SNES game Super Troll Islands). Players can choose from three different characters -- Mr. Blobby, Mrs. Blobby and Baby Blobby. The goal of the game is to color in the computer screen by walking over it. Levels include climbing ladders, avoiding spikes and bouncing on springs.
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Internet Archive Releases 2,500 MS-DOS Games More

Internet Archive Releases 2,500 MS-DOS Games

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  • Tried this for Discworld in firefox on linux, couldn't get the sound to work.

    Any suggestions?

  • Bravo! (Score:3)

    by Chromal ( 56550 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @09:15PM (#59307916)
    Well done, this is a significant chunk of digital culture (and my childhood).
  • When I saw "Alien Rampage" I thought of "Alien Carnage" for a moment (before remembering the correct name for the latter) and my hopes were raised.
  • To release into the public everything required to make the copy righted material. This includes the original master recordings, art work, source code etc. For example: I don't think that the BBC should still have the rights to the episodes of doctor who that they have lost or the various recording companies that have lost their master recordings. There should be penalties for not preserving these things and still claiming the copy right. If the hardware that a game was originally made on no longer exist

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Copy right should come with the obligation ... To release into the public everything required to make the copy righted material.

      It does in the US, that has been codified in law since the beginning.
      But no corporations are held to account for breaking the law anymore.

      DRM works are unconstitutional for all US judges to enforce protections on too, since unlimited copyright terms were never a power granted to the government to issue.
      Yet they do.

      There should be penalties for not preserving these things and still claiming the copy right.

      That too isn't codified in law in any way. Only distribution and public performance are rights reserved for copyright holders, nothing else, including preservation.

      This one doesn't really apply t

    • Re:Copy right should come with renewal fee (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @10:55PM (#59308094)

      Re:Copy right should come with an renewal fee so disney can keep paying $$$$ for the mouse but other stuff that is long gone and is not makeing any $ moves to PD.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Zehsi ( 5630632 )
      big stuffs like SSI games, disney games, coca cola, 7up, blizzard games are not there.

  • I think Harlan Ellison will sue if they don't pay him royalties...

  • Sniff...so old...

  • Holy cow. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Chas ( 5144 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @10:27PM (#59308052) Homepage Journal

    Below the Root
    Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
    Prince of Persia
    Oregon Trail
    Several SSI Gold Box games
    Pac-Man

    Just...wow.

  • Yeah, but.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @11:39PM (#59308144) Journal

    I suppose they expect you to upgrade to DOS 4.01 and edit your config.sys to get these to work.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by MobyDisk ( 75490 )

      Looking back, I want to make a game out of that process. The game, once successfully configured, would merely display the message "YOU WIN" and exit. The game itself would consist of running the EXE and getting a single error message that would clue you in on what you need to do next. They would direct you to do things like load your mouse driver into high memory, change the port and IRQ for your sound card, enabling EMS, etc. Perhaps getting the sound card to work would also reward you with some sound.

      • Looking back, I want to make a game out of that process.

        You know, I was thinking about this very thing last night. There was a moment, many many years ago, when I realized that messing about with all the DOS nonsense to get the game to work was actually more fun to me than the game itself. I bet this is common among many Slashdot users.

    • No, for best results: DOS 6.22 with himem.sys loaded high, giving you up to 600K of RAM. But then, 25% of your stuff won't run.
      If you wanted to go all out, you could go with QEMM and get up to 620KB of RAM. Of course, half your stuff won't run, but hey, it kind of works. There were even hacks to get you up to 700K if you had an unused Hercules adapter.

      I remember it was a bit of technical mastery to get Ultima 7 to run. You had to be sure your mouse TSR was 4kB or less, or you weren't going to get anyw

  • Seems like about 10 to 20% don't load properly.

    I did see one that proudly displayed a "Cracked by Fabulous Furlough!" banner, lol.

    But wow, this takes me back. Some of the games are just as awful as I remembered, but others....oh man. Countless hours spent playing bunches of these.

  • Holy crap, Dungeon Keeper [archive.org] is on there. All time legend. Colonization and the original Tomb Raider too.

  • On Sunday, that includes action, strategy and adventure titles. Some of the games are , , and .

    ...yep.

  • Wow (Score:1)

    by rootb ( 6288574 )
    So many classics there, even Lucasarts games..

  • dosbox (Score:4, Informative)

    by hcs_$reboot ( 1536101 ) on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @01:54AM (#59308292)
    dosbox, safe and convenient way to run any DOS games on most systems.

    • Re:dosbox (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot@worf.ERDOSnet minus math_god> on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @02:46AM (#59308364)

      dosbox, safe and convenient way to run any DOS games on most systems.

      Or practically all systems. After all, the Internet Archive is running dosbox when you run those games. It's just using a special version compiled down to WebAssembly.

      Remember webassembly started as asm.js which was concocted from someone at Mozilla wanting to "compile" Unity or some other engine to run in a browser. This lead to a C to Javascript compiler, which became a C to asm.js compiler and now exists as a C to WebAssembly compiler.

      There are several interesting things that run in a browser nowadays, but when you look deep into it, they just compiled the native C code into WebAssembly.

      There's even a port ofr MUNT to WebAssembly, so in theory some of those games could have MT-32 sound as well...

      • MT-32 sound in a web browser...wow. We used to have to work hard to achieve this kind of backward compatibility. My retrogaming Pentium build runs DOS 6.22 and uses a gameport to USB adapter that lets me use my modern PC as an MT-32 emulator via MUNT; this lets me run the commands through my Soundblaster sound card and the games are none-the-wiser. The extra effort was worth it because some games like Space Quest III really shine on an MT-32 rather than Adlib sound. But now? Wow, so easy! (Yes, I am aware

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mackil ( 668039 )
      Now I have to dig out my old manuals to find the codes to unlock the game. I'm looking at your Gunship 2000 [archive.org]! Still, very cool stuff.
  • Don't do it! I have tried to go back to all those incredible 80s and 90s dos games and only ruined my memories. I had forgotten how horrible the interfaces were, how terribly repetitive the music, how beepy the sound. You can never go back. Keep your memories. Compared to the triple A games available today even on my iPhone the best games of yesterday are crap.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mccalli ( 323026 )
      Except Dungeon Keeper. That one stands the test of time even vs the later Windows version.

      (And there were only ever two games of course, certainly no-one has ever attempted to port it to mobile...)

      • Except Dungeon Keeper. That one stands the test of time even vs the later Windows version. (And there were only ever two games of course, certainly no-one has ever attempted to port it to mobile...)

        Are you being sarcastic?

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper_(2014_video_game)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mccalli ( 323026 )
          404 not found. At least, in a just universe it would be.

          Just like there is a single sequel to Terminator, only one Highlander film and only a single Matrix film, so shall there be only two Dungeon Master games. There was a statement in 2014 that a mobile version existed, but they surely couldn't be referring to the cash-extracting monstrosity that actually turned up...

          (and yes, I'm being sarcastic. Well - ish. That 2014 thing was no Dungeon Master. What a travesty).

  • Are these legal? :/

    • I don't think so. They've done this before with ROMs for old consoles and I don't think it was legal either.
      Many games will be from companies that no longer exist and no one will claim copyrights or care but others will surely belong to existing companies or someone who's bought the rights.
      OK, I've checked and there're many copyrighted games: Wolfenstein 3d for example I'm sure is still legally owned by Id Software. And as we speak is actually on sale on Steam (and probably other digital shops).
      So no, so

      • > I don't know why they do this. I was under the impression that Internet Archive was a repository for non-copyrighted things.

        Possibly because they serve the world, not just a small geographical regime.

        Possibly because copyright is unjust and the oligarchs who run the government won't ever change it without the culture changing first, so somebody has to show some bravery (besides Aaron Schwartz).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I don't think so. They've done this before with ROMs for old consoles and I don't think it was legal either.
        Many games will be from companies that no longer exist and no one will claim copyrights or care but others will surely belong to existing companies or someone who's bought the rights.
        OK, I've checked and there're many copyrighted games: Wolfenstein 3d for example I'm sure is still legally owned by Id Software. And as we speak is actually on sale on Steam (and probably other digital shops).
        So no, some

  • Link to the Internet Archive's MS-Dos library. [archive.org]


    It's a massive list with some of the classics of the period included. The article mentions 2,500 additions to what is already an extensive list of some of the greatest games ever released.
  • Abandonia / Abandonware and dozen other sites had thousands of these 80s/90s games for .. like a decade now ?

    Not all of them work (because of the games themselves), but 90 % work OK with dosbox.
    • My understanding is that abandonware / abandonia operates under their own interpretation of the law - which some would consider piracy - while archive.org actually works with the publishers. Notice that quite a few titles at archive.org are stream-only - you can't actually download the titles - which is probably less bothersome for the publishers.
  • So much expended time and energy making all these games.
    • So much time... and remember a developer back then had a lot more individual input than most of the top flight modern games today, where a developer can be a tiny cog in the EA machine. That's a legacy I'd be happy to show my grandchildren

  • How do they do it? (Score:3)

    by sad_ ( 7868 ) on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @06:23AM (#59308648) Homepage

    Some of these games are still on sale on GoG or even Steam (with integrated dosbox).
    How can they keep these games online to play for everybody?
    I would expect some takedown notices at the least to be send their direction, but it doesn't happen (yet).
    Compared to most other sites, which just host roms (not even directly playable) and get shut down all the time.

    Anyway, for those interested, this collection is build upon the work of eXoDOS,
    which is great, because the whole eXoDOS collection download is rather big.
    You no longer need to download it, just go to the Internet Archive instead.

    https://exodos.the-eye.eu/ [the-eye.eu]

  • There are a few titles from Opera Soft, [archive.org] a famous company in the Golden Age of Spanish video games.

    If you like platformers, I recommend giving those a try.

  • Brilliant game
  • Normally I look at new game announcements with jealousy but hopefully my graphics card should do just fine with these! Let's get on those rose-tinted specs and party like it's the early 90's!
  • my Pinball --- that was the bestest!
  • Hello, Any body help me to find immune software under DOS 6.0. Regards,

  • This is good, but ClassicReload has some 6,000 DOS games playable online.

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