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Spotlight: 10 excellent but obscure free DOS games 534n31

Blog article by MrFlibble 5n2a5x

Today DOS Games Archive brings you a list of 10 excellent high-quality free DOS games that you might have never heard about.

1. 'Ghini Run 18615b

'Ghini Run is a sprite-based old-school racing game that pays homage to the Sega classic title OutRun. It was written in QuickBasic and is completely free. There are four game modes, six tracks and nine cars, some of them unlockable by beating the game in a certain mode.

'Ghini Run or play it in the browser

2. Desperabis 1o5ym

A first-person action-adventure in full 3D made by German developer Florian Born. You'll never say it's a freeware indie game when you look at it, because it could just as well have been a commercial title! The story tells of a wizard apprentice who inadvertently unleashes a demon on his world and needs to set things back right. There are two chapters in the game, one focussed on puzzles and exploration and another on combat. Everything is in German, so you'll miss a bit of background story when playing if you do not know it, but gameplay itself should be self-explanatory. Must check!

Desperabis or play it in the browser

3. Jaguar GR1: Strike Force Delta Zulu 634g3r

If you're a fan of old school combat flight sims, you're in for a treat. Jaguar GR1 is a commercial-quality game created by UK flight sim enthusiast Ron Walker using Simis and Domark's Flight Sim Toolkit. As a British Jaguar fighter pilot, you will take part in fictional t military exercises in a remote area of the former Soviet Union. The game has ten scenarios that can be played in any order.

Jaguar GR1: Strike Force Delta Zulu or play it in the browser

4. Robot Redemption 2h426m

A free first-person shooter game based on the source code of id Software's classic Hovertank 3D, and very similar in game play. Native Windows and Linux versions are available too.

Robot Redemption or play it in the browser

5. Gene Splicing 2f4b2l

A sci-fi party-based first-person RPG in the style of 80s PC titles such as Mines of Titan. As a newly recruited operative of the Space Security Agency, uncover a conspiracy on the Moon that involves genetic experiments.

Gene Splicing or play it in the browser

6. Bert the Barbarian 23nd

An incredibly charming side-scrolling platform game with claymation sprites (that is, all characters and environments were modelled from clay and then digitized). The author never completed the game, so it's only a few levels and difficulty is pretty unbalanced, but it's still worth checking out. Made with DIV Games Studio. A Windows version is also available.

Bert the Barbarian

7. Greedy z4c5

A top-notch (and pretty hard!) Pac-Man variant created by a French demoscene group, and it tells! Excellent graphics and music, excellent quality overall, and challenging gameplay -- you might want to tone down the speed from "Crazy" to "Normal". Make sure to the unofficial fix if you're intending to run this in DOSBox.

Greedy or play it in the browser

8. Firecrow 5l2k4m

This is a pretty obscure vertical-scrolling shooter similar to Raptor: Call of the Shadows, except without the equipment shop. It plays fairly smoothly and will throw waves of enemies your way. Pre-rendered graphics are nice, and the game uses Unreal 2 by Purple Motion as its main music track.

Firecrow or play it in the browser

9. Mega Breakout 4d1751

An excellent Breakout variant in high resolution with very smooth gameplay. This game was created with DIV Games Studio.

Mega Breakout or play it in the browser

10. PANGG!! 4q4b68

A nice clone of Pang/Buster Bros. from Spain. There's no music and only PC speaker sounds, but gameplay-wise it appears to be a faithful recreation of the source material.

PANGG!! or play it in the browser