The Dink Network

My family used to have this really old, slow computer. Then we got a relatively new (one year old, we bought it from my brother) Dell Dimension desktop. Ol Sparky, as we affectionately called it, was put away in the basement to be forgotten.
Until today.
My father brought Ol Sparky out of the basement and had it sitting by the door. The following conversation took place:
Me: "What's the computer doing up here?"
Dad: "We're throwing it away."
Me: "Throwing it away?! Why?"
Dad: "Nobody uses it."
At this point I remembered a conversation Tal and I had held about old DOS games and how difficult it is to run them on new computers. Seizing the opportunity, I offered to take Ol' Sparky up to my room and give it a good home in the unused top bunk of my bed (which acts as my loft). And so I did.
And now I have an old computer (well, probably about 7 years old) sitting in the top bunk of my bed. I still have to remove some of the RAM to slow it down and reformat the hard drive and install Windows 95, but I think this is a project I will enjoy... I just need a bunch of old DOS games (and I suppose some fairly ancient Windows 95/3.1 games would work too) to play on it. I'm going to stop by my local used bookstore (which also sells used games, but is going to cease to do so soon) and see what I can find. Also, Tal is going to burn me some copies of things. I am quite happy.

Anybody have any old PC games they don't want? Or suggest some good ones that I should keep an eye out for when shopping.

Suggestions? Can do.
The Commander Keen series was awesome, you have got to get them.... And since its an old computer, get JEZZBALL! And who could forget the original SKI! As for otheres... the early ultima's were okay, but if you want something a little better, yet a little more modern, get something like Avernum 3. The Elder Scrolls 3: Daggerfall is neato, if you like first-person dungon crawling, and have a good deal of hard disk space...

As I don't know, and don't particularly want to find out on the wrong side of the fence the DN's policy on abandonware, so... Lets just say... Kazaa doesn't have everything, and get a good firewall and virus scanner... Lots.. LOTS of evil people out there, you know?

i remember a game called supaplex.
that prehistoric guy.
and many more but i don't know the names for them.zelda!
DOS games rule!but the sounds suck

Command and Conquer, the ultimate dos game...

Btw, check your pm

DOS games???
How old should they be? I've got a great collection of things only playable on 286/386 and aren't for sale. I used to have a download site for it, maybe I'll dig it up again sometime.
Anyway, for the real old ones, you should check Prince of Persia 1&2. They're the best known oldies I can find right now. Oh, and the classic "alleycat" or just "cat" is fun. But that one is from the commodore age. (I play it on my P4, how low can you go?)

Have a look here
You'll find lots of abandonware there (short for old games made free for public)

http://www.the-underdogs.org/

Greetz,
Shampoo173

And if you go to http://www.the-underdogs.org, don't forget this game

Edit: ah, the memories of Prince of Persia, SimCity 1, Commander Keen, and of course Duke Nukem (2D-platform in those days)... and many many others

You know, I was almost offended when they had dink on there... but then again, any publicity is good publicity...
Also, I really really really dislike there server.. makes it so freaking hard to resume downloads...

i seriously need to find an old computer to buy... my bro has one that we had a long long time ago. dont forget about wizardy: dark savant. that game is so awesome, its like final fantasy, cept its a way more difficult&fun&time consuming

Hey, thanks, that was indeed the site I meant!

And all Apogee software: Agent 006, Crystal Caves, etc. (Wonder if Hocus Pocus, one of my favourites, is also from Apogee.)

Yeah, the Apogee games rocked. The old duke nukem games and the Commander Keen series is still not made freeware though, so you can't donwload them there. Then again, I'm sure we're all original enough in our ways to get our hands on it anyway.

It's really sad a lot of games are processor based and can therefore no longer be played on Pentium class PCs. There are utilities to bring the CPU down to old values but they're difficult to operate and don't always yield the results you asked for.

Bio menace was my favourite.

And I really enjoyed the "manhunter" by sierra. Too bad they never finished that trilogy...

I really digged this site... It had so many of my early childhood-games. Too bad it went offline.

Yeah Bio Manice ROCKED! God, I wanna play that game again! I'll see if I can download it...
other cool games are:
Stunts (or 4D sports driving)
Day of the Tentacle
Commander Keen 1-8

Stunts, LOL! I don't understand why I didn't mention that game... Not the most realistic racer around, but at least it's funny jumping into the sky after hitting an obstacle in the right angle.

Also, check www.dosgames.com. I haven't checked the quality of it yet, but I remember downloading from it. (Hey, I was into retro two years ago, so it isn't some sort of amnesia...)

I just played it today... for some reason. Certainly better than the single player mode of Mario Kart for the SNES.

Commander Keen and the old Duke Nukems were fantastic!

And Cosmo! Cosmo was dope!
Too bad I only had the shareware version

Ive still good some good old games in my cdcase here. Lets see...

Hexen
Heretic
Doom I
Doom II
Command and Conquer
Beneath a steel sky
The Horde
Cosmo
Tyrian
Capitalism
Caesar I
Caesar II
Mega Man
Terminator: Future Shock
Realms of the Haunted
Day of the Tentacle
Leisure suit larry I
LSL II
Maniac Mansion
The Lure of the Temptress
Igor: Project Uikokahonia
In The Dead of Night
Inca
Murder by The Dozen
Murder Cruise
Murder in Space
Murder in Venice
Murder on The Atlantic
Murder on The Zinderneuf
Mystery of the Mummy!
Myth Nighmare
Neuromancer
Zeliard

i can't believe no one has said anything about roger wilco in the space quest series...those are still today my favorite series of games. i wonder what ever happened to the making of space quest 7? anyway, i got so excited when it was supposedly supposed to be released, and then they postponed it, and i never heard anything about it again. i am sad.

you're right! roger wilco rocks! also beneath a steel sky is very cool, yeah
and leisure suit larry, ofcourse

Old adventures rule!

Dave! You guys are forgetting Dangerous Dave!

what about wizardy 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5 ,6 ,7? the wizardy series is awesome, especially 7 (The Dark Savant) there was recently a number 8 which cant be counted as an old dos game . anybody remember the point and click game called kyrandia? that game is so awesome, i still have the floppy for it and im gonna try and get it to work one of these days...

or how about the Might & Magic series! I actually completed part 5

Anyone remember the old ultima series?

What aboiut Akalabeth?

The Dig

Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle... These were great games! Those Lucas Art point-and-click adventures are cool.
Also check for Indiana Jones and the last crusade and Fate of Atlantis. Monkey Island series and Sam 'n Max Hit the road!

Angband, or one of the quadrillion variations thereof.