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Internet Archive releases 2,500 MS-DOS games so you can relive the '90s

Bullet Club

Member
Internet Archive releases 2,500 MS-DOS games so you can relive the '90s

Play retro computer games like Mr. Blobby, Alone in the Dark and Alien Rampage.

If you loved playing retro MS-DOS games from the '90s like 3D Bomber, Zool and Alien Rampage, you can now replay those, and many more, with the latest update from Internet Archive.

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). The unusual game published by Millennium Interactive is based on BBC's TV show character Mr. Blobby from the British TV show Noel's House Party.

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.

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library that archives digital versions of computer games, books, audio recordings and videos. For gamers looking for more vintage games, Internet Archive has been preserving and adding games from the '80s and '90s on a regular basis. Last year, the site added more than 200 retro LCD and LED games including Karnov and Battletoads.

Source: CNET

 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
No way to save games?

I just played Oregon Trail for the first time. Made it to the end having one person die. Seemed like an easy game, then googled it and I chose banker which is easy who starts with tons of money. lol.

Some things were confusing though. If someone has a broken arm, do I rest? If water is bad or running out, how do I get more? I just kept forging ahead, buying supplies and made it.
 

Woo-Fu

Banned
It isn't just shovelware either, there are tons of classics in there. CNET could have done a much better job with their story.

Quickly glancing at just part of the list I found these:

Dune 2
Castle Wolfenstein
Masters of Orion
Castle of Dr. Brain
Karateka
Eye of the Beholder III
Seven Cities of Gold
Dungeon Keeper
Sid Meier's Pirates!
 

Bullet Club

Member
Don't think you can save yet.


I want to save my game! How do I do that?
Currently, there is no way to save your game, although we are trying to work out if this is technologically possible.
 
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Woo-Fu

Banned
Is this even legal?
Technically no, for most abandonware. Yes if for instance, the company who held copyright has released it. In practical terms there's no money to be made on this stuff so nobody pays their lawyers to protect it.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Don't think you can save yet.
Is this even legal?
Technically no, for most abandonware. Yes if for instance, the company who held copyright has released it. In practical terms there's no money to be made on this stuff so nobody pays their lawyers to protect it.
Although I can't see lots of sales for 25 year old games, but having these no-save abandonware libraries is probably good for those games that can still be bought as legacy GOG games. They are basically full version demos.

People can try them out, and buy them from a different site if they want to play the game more. There is nobody on Earth who is going to try beating Eye of the Beholder III on a single save run.

Might as well allow it and hope to make some back end sales even if it's tiny.
 
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SweetShark

Member
Time to play at last Abuse as I wanted (if available of course)
151265-abuse-dos-front-cover.jpg
 

makaveli60

Member
Time to play at last Abuse as I wanted (if available of course)
151265-abuse-dos-front-cover.jpg
Back when I was a kid I saw this pic a lot of times and it seemed to me that the character, who wears a headscarf, has his head turned fully back, which seemed quite odd. Only now I realized that it was just my imagination.
 

klosos

Member
Excellent, because its nearly Halloween try out Dark Seed (my personal favorite Point and Click of all time) and I have no mouth and i must scream is also brilliant , also Discworld

also Eye of the Beholder series , Lands of Lore & Stonekeep as well are good .
 
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BigBooper

Member
No way to save games?

I just played Oregon Trail for the first time. Made it to the end having one person die. Seemed like an easy game, then googled it and I chose banker which is easy who starts with tons of money. lol.

Some things were confusing though. If someone has a broken arm, do I rest? If water is bad or running out, how do I get more? I just kept forging ahead, buying supplies and made it.
I think you might be missing the point of the game. You aren't meant to be an expert. You are just supposed to take plenty of ammo so you can leave a trail of thousands of pounds of buffalo meat for the next expedition to follow.


This is awesome. Gonna load up Discworld.
 
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Wow, Stunts. I played this game so much.

I would design some gimmick tracks, save them in a floppy disk and then exchange that with my friends.

I need to find a way to run these games in Linux.

Edit: I can play in the browser. It seems that this is the only way for this game. So I need to find out if we can still design and share tracks.
 
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As long as they are not making money, I'm mostly okay with this aside from:

I just wish they wouldn't upload games you can buy on GoG/Steam etc. The rest are fair game.

It is stupid to allow history to die off in the name of protecting IPs that have been abandoned by any reasonable standard other than the arguably unreasonable legal one.
 

sol_bad

Member
As long as they are not making money, I'm mostly okay with this aside from:



It is stupid to allow history to die off in the name of protecting IPs that have been abandoned by any reasonable standard other than the arguably unreasonable legal one.

When you can purchase the game right now, today, that is not history dying off. They are not abandoned. How is it unreasonable to keep games off the archive if they are available to purchase?
 
When you can purchase the game right now, today, that is not history dying off. They are not abandoned. How is it unreasonable to keep games off the archive if they are available to purchase?

I was agreeing with you - games you can purchase on GoG and Steam should be kept off. Everything else should be available, and if they are put up for sale (due to renewed interest, for example) IA should take them down. Regardless, they should hold copies of all of them.
 
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sol_bad

Member
I was agreeing with you - games you can purchase on GoG and Steam should be kept off. Everything else should be available, and if they are put up for sale (due to renewed interest, for example) IA should take them down. Regardless, they should hold copies of all of them.

^_^
Sorry for misreading your sentence.
 

Kenpachii

Member
That website is hella cool, ut loads the game into the browser emulator and u can just start to play it directly in your browser.

Dope.
 

lock2k

Banned
Internet Archive releases 2,500 MS-DOS games so you can relive the '90s

Play retro computer games like Mr. Blobby, Alone in the Dark and Alien Rampage.

If you loved playing retro MS-DOS games from the '90s like 3D Bomber, Zool and Alien Rampage, you can now replay those, and many more, with the latest update from Internet Archive.

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). The unusual game published by Millennium Interactive is based on BBC's TV show character Mr. Blobby from the British TV show Noel's House Party.

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.

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library that archives digital versions of computer games, books, audio recordings and videos. For gamers looking for more vintage games, Internet Archive has been preserving and adding games from the '80s and '90s on a regular basis. Last year, the site added more than 200 retro LCD and LED games including Karnov and Battletoads.

Source: CNET


Are they playable on dosbox? It would be cool to install then on the pi
 

stranno

Member
There's a little BIG problem with this "library".

IA has used the eXoDOS pack in order to create it, so game files are just stupidly big packs of unnecessary files. Those files are perfectly fine for a preservation project but of course not for an streaming service like this.

Long story short: The Secret of Monkey Island download is 1.5GB? Thats because they packed every version of the game (while you can only play one of them) + the CD-ROM + both OST (CD and floppy) in FLAC files 🤦‍♂️

BTW: You can get the pack link using the Chrome Console, it is the first cors_get.php thing.
 
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Vitacat

Member
Very cool. Of course, you can do all this yourself with DOSbox, but this is very convenient to quickly try out some games.
 

Fbh

Member
Cool.

Just played some "Sango Fighter", probably the first fighting game I ever played.
Still as janky as I remember lol
 

petran79

Banned
I was agreeing with you - games you can purchase on GoG and Steam should be kept off. Everything else should be available, and if they are put up for sale (due to renewed interest, for example) IA should take them down. Regardless, they should hold copies of all of them.

It is not just the buying price. You also pay for other features like technical support, updates and cloud saving. Which are missing here. It is like borrowing torn, stinky and greased books from a library
 
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