If you grew up playing DOS games or started playing them more recently, I’d highly recommend checking out eXoDOS. Rather than try to summarize the project myself, I’ll combine bits of the blurb from the site:
eXoDOS is an attempt to catalog, obtain, and make playable every game developed for the DOS and PC Booter platform. We strive to find original media rather than using scene rips or hacks.
This pack includes 7,666 DOS games. The focus is on games that were either released in English or are fairly easy to play without a knowledge of the native language. This is not every DOS game ever made, however it is a very high percentage of all commercial releases.
There is also an optional Media Pack Add-On, which can be downloaded below. This adds books, catalogs, magazines, and game soundtracks to eXoDOS.
The games have already been configured to run in DOSBox.
What’s really cool is that there is also a Linux patch which works brilliantly. The media pack also provides an insane amount of novel value. It’s easy enough to download DOS games or get even get a curated DOS pack but being able to click on a game and see all of it’s commercials, books and magazine reviews/mentions deeply enriches the experience. There’s an added layer of functionality too where if you see the game was mentioned in X issue of CGW on page Y you can click on it and it will open the PDF to the right page~
If anyone gives it a try, let me know what interesting games you may find. I’m currently playing through Eye of the Beholder 1 again and mapping manually on graph paper - time-consuming but rewarding, as now I’ve got another graph notebook with hand drawn maps.
