MS-DOS: 5 generations of gaming
Even if you aren't experienced with playing games on PC in the 80'ies and 90'ies you probably heard of DOOM, maybe Monkey Island, King's Quest, Civilization, Command & Conquer or the Ultima series.The following presentation is a wider introduction to what you can expect from retrogaming games written for Microsoft DOS, the PC operating system before Windows became a thing. Instead of viewing DOS as one consistent platform, we divide the history of DOS into five distinct eras, compared to the video game console generations from 1981-1998.
1st Generation (-1981): Text games from before PC.
2nd Generation (1981-1986): PC with CGA graphics and PC Speaker (the Atari 2600 generation)
Video Game Industry Crash (1984-1986): Composite CGA and Tandy (TGA) (the C64 generation)
3rd Generation (1987-1990): EGA, Adlib soundcards (the NES generation)
4th Generation (1990-1993): VGA, Soundblaster and Roland (the SNES/Genesis generation)
5th Generation (1993-1998): SVGA, CD's and 3d acceleration (the PS1/N64 generation)
6th Generation (1998+): The end.
Generation 1. BASIC text (Before 1981)
(IBM PC was introduced 1981) IBM PC |
= |
 Gen 1: Magnavox |
 Mainframe computers |
 Apple II |
 Adventureland (1978) |
 Lunar Lander (1979) |
 Snipes (1982) |
The first generation of video game consoles go back to the mid 70'ies, with Magnavox Odyssey and Atari's Pong. In this era, the game consoles did not have software, cartridges or discs. Instead the game was part of the hardware itself.
 MS-DOS 1.10 |
 IBM DOS |
When we talk about "DOS Games" we speak about games produced for PC running a Microsoft system prior to Windows. The first "PC" was the IBM PC introduced in 1981. This means that the PC we know today did not exist during the 1st generation of consoles. However, the IBM PC could play games written for mainframe computers in portable programming languages that existed before the PC was born. Zork was written in Z-code in 1977, Lunar Lander was ported to BASIC in 1973 and Star Trek is dated back to 1971.
Incidentally most games for MS-DOS in 1981-1983 were ports from other systems like TRS-80, Apple II and Commodore 64 and and those who were DOS-Specific were often published by IBM themselves like Arithmetic Games Set 1 and 2 that might have been the first games written and published directly for DOS in mind.
While the IBM PC could display graphics, graphics was barely used in the first batch of PC games that instead relied on text, unless they used very rudimentary line-based 3d-polygons without color or textures. Even the first action-games, such as Snipes, used letters instead of pixels, both for the character and enemies. The trend of games lagging behind on graphics will stay through most of the early DOS history and its rooted in the fact that the raw processing power and memory limited what the PC could do.
 Microsoft Adventure (1981) |
 Zork (1979) |
 Ultima 0: Akalabeth (1980) |
Generation 2. CGA Games (1981-1986)
(IBM PC, Speaker audio, 4-color CGA, 8086/8088 cpu) IBM PC XT |
= |
 Gen 2: Atari 2600 |
 Apple IIe |
 Sinclair ZX Spectrum |
 Atari 800 |
 Moon Patrol (1983) |
 Sierra Championship Boxing (1985) |
 Zaxxon (1984) |
The second generation of video game consoles brought rudimentary colors and interchangeable software. The IBM PC coexisted the final years of the most iconic of the 2nd generation consoles; the Atari 2600. This was also the same era where games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong could be played in the Arcades.
The earliest games with graphics appeared around 1982, with Paratrooper, Flight Simulator 1.0 and Decathlon. It took until 83-84 for CGA graphics to be common. CGA is identified by a distinct 4-color palette. The lack of color made gaming on the PC inferior to contemporary platforms like the Commodore 64, the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. Even if other alternatives became available earlier on, the majority of all DOS games kept using CGA until 1987.
| Mode 4 Palette 1 | ||||
| Mode 4 Palette 1 | ||||
| Mode 5 |
 5.25 Floppy |
 PC-Speaker |
Harddrives and memory capacity was limited too. To save space, many of the first games were booted from large wobbly 5-inch floppy disks, called "PC booters". With few standards the games in this era were pioneers, often hardcoded or custom made. This make them difficult to run even on authentic PC's. One issue were that they were programmed to run as fast as the processor can handle, meaning that when processors became faster the games became too fast to be played until modern emulation came in. Sound and music was often non-existant or used the "PC speaker"
. A rudimentary device that could produce simple bleeps and blops.What is Hercules?
The Hercules Graphics Card was released in 1982 and offered high resolution (720x348) monochrome graphics. For awhile it was standard on monochrome IBM computers. This card was rarely a primary choice for games, but mentioned here as a curiosity.
 101 Monochrome Mazes (1983) |
 Sim City on Hercules (1989) |
 Hot Time II (1992) |
Before we move on...
Since almost all the CGA-games were available for other machines with more colors, DOS-gaming during the CGA-era can be mostly forgotten. That said, before we move on, lets appreciate that some artists could use the CGA palette in a good way. Also check out the 2019 game Eternal Castle or the CGA Jam that attempts to stick to the CGA palette for artistic reasons.
 Star Dust (1988) |
 Falcon (1987) |
 La Abadia Del Crimen (1987) |
 Sky Runner (1987) |
 Mach 3 (1987) |
 Prohibition (1987) |
Video Game Industry Crash. Composite CGA and TGA Games (1984-1986)
(PCjr/Tandy 1000, Tandy audio, 160x100 16-color TGA, 8086/8088/286 cpu) IBM PCjr |
 Tandy 1000 |
= |
 Commodore 64 |
 Macintosh |
 Amstrad CPC |
 Below the Root (1984) (composite CGA) |
 Super Zaxxon (1984) (composite CGA) |
 Frogger II (1984) (composite CGA) |
1983 marks the video game crash, a time in which home computers took over the gaming market. While the new IBM XT was a more powerful machine, with an updated 286 processor, it was also expensive. The IBM PCjr was announced in 1984 to compete with Commodore 64 and Apple II, but it also met competition with the "PC Compatible" Tandy 1000 by Tandy Corporation. The Tandy 1000 marked the first step towards IBM losing their hold of PC as a platform, leading to PC becoming an "unowned" computer.
What is Composite CGA?
During this era we saw the earliest introduction of 16 colors on PC. When using CGA on some old TV's, the signal was imperfect, which caused a color smearing that was later turned into an asset. Done right it was possible to use this smearing to produce new colors, offering an early 16-color mode known as "Composite CGA". For an in-depth coverage of this mode, check out this video by The 8-Bit Guy.
 RGB monitor vs Composite monitor |
 Composite Cable |
What is Tandy?
King's Quest was among the first games to use the low resolution 16-color PCjr Tandy mode, a mode iconic for its very large pixels. By reducing the amount of pixels on screen (160x200), the PC's could produce 16-color games at reasonable speed. Adventure games like King's Quest could not be ran on most other systems at the time due to their high memory requirement, making King's Quest one of the first "defining" games for DOS and still quite fun to play. You can read more about the Tandy mode here with a list of 49 games using this mode.
 Tandy Graphics |
 Tandy sound-chip |
The PCjr and Tandy 1000 also came with improved graphics and sound. The latter from the soundchip Texas Instruments SN76496, also used in Sega Master System. With this chip the games could get music similar to the classic 8-bit chip tunes we know from other 8-bit consoles at the time, like in Kings of the Beach
. King's Quest (1984) in 160x200 TGA |
 Maniac Mansion (1987) in 160x200 TGA |
 Ninja (1986) in 160x200 TGA |
Generation 3. EGA Games (1987-1990)
(320x200 16-color EGA, Adlib music, 386 cpu) IBM PS/2 |
 Compac Deskpro386 |
= |
 Gen 3: Nintendo |
 Apple IIGS |
 Amiga |
 Baal (1989) |
 Axe of Rage (1989) |
 Pool of Radiance (1988) |
Nintendo Entertainment system initiated the third generation of video game consoles by reviving the Video Game industry in mid 80'ies while the Amiga took over the home computer market. Games in this generation changed from single screen backgrounds to scrolling, with games like Super Mario. The rest of the major Nintendo titles was released this generation, such as Zelda, Metroid and Castlevania.
IBM continued to be the main producer of PC machines until the latter half of the 80'ies when other companies took over, including a significant loss against Compaq who beat IBM with the Deskpro 386 and the first 32-bit processor. After this era the PC no longer belonged to IBM. A "PC" became synonymous with a computer put together with parts from different developers, using a microsoft operating system and Intel processor. Being able to upgrade computer components separately meant that things like processor, graphics and sound could be improved rapidly, unlike consoles that were retired when they were obsolete.
| TGA & EGA |
Around 1987, most commercial games for PC used EGA. This meant 16 colors in 320x200 resolution in a slightly "off tones" palette. The PC's also got a great leap in sound quality. The first Adlib soundcard was released later in 1987. This was a synthesizer, capable of producing music with greater complexity
. Adlib Soundcard |
 Founded 1987 |
Game-production for the PC begun to accelerate in the mid-80'ies. About a hundred games 85, 200 in 86, 300 in 87, 400 in 88 and 500 in 89. But EGA was still inferior to its contemporaries, like the Amiga that had double the colors and its 4096-color HAM mode. Multi-platform games were always inferior on the PC. However, some companies had begun to produce pc-exclusive titles that are still good to play today. Sierra continued to produce adventure games with the PC in mind, showcasing in each generation what the PC was capable of. Apogee and ID Software started to show that platform games ran just fine on the PC.
 Battletech: CHI (1988) |
 Bubble Ghost (1988) |
 Lombard RAC Rally (1988) |
What is MCGA?
The IBM PS/2, released 1987, was able to present 256 color graphics ahead of its time, but could not display EGA. For more about this, check out this blog post from Trixter.
 Rockford (1987) |
 688 Attack Sub (1989) |
 Mean Streets (1989) |
Generation 4. VGA Games (1990-1993)
(256-color VGA, soundcards, 486 cpu) 486 PC |
= |
 Gen 3: SEGA Genesis |
 Gen 3: Super Nintendo |
 Macintosh LC2 |
 Alien Carnage (1993) |
 DOOM (1993) |
 Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes (1992) |
Around 1990 the Commodore Amiga was still the best gaming computer while the SEGA Mega Drive and SNES fought eachother out during the fourth generation of video game consoles that saw a drastic boost in graphics and audio quality, including a wider color palette and sampled sound effects. Meanwhile the console gamers were preoccupied with Sonic the Hedgehog and Donkey Kong Country.
 256 colors |
 3.5 inch floppy |
 Soundblaster 16 |
 Roland MT32 |
It was during the fourth generation the PC grew into the worthy challenger that would eventually usurp the throne of the main computer for gaming. On the paper the PC was ahead early, with 256 color VGA graphics and 16-bit sound from the new Soundblaster
. The more expensive Gravis Ultrasound or Roland MT-32 offered unmatched music quality for those who could afford them. Prince of Persia 2 (1993) |
 Aces of the Pacific (1992) |
 Lands of Lore (1993) |
What is Planar Pixels/Sprites and Chunky Pixels/Texture Mapping/Raycasting?
Sprites are small, moving images, such as the mouse cursor, a game character or monsters. Game consoles and computers in the 80'ies usually had sprite support, making them very effective at smoothly presenting many small moving images on the screen at the same time. The PC's initial drawback for action games was that PC had no hardware support for handling sprites. Sprites had to be programmed and calculated by the main processor in each new game and the games end up choppy and slow when too many sprites were used. Also the contemporary game systems on the market used "planar pixels" which was an efficient way of handling colors and pixels in memory. The PC used "chunky pixels" where each pixel was programmed separately. This is not a problem for slow games, like strategy, adventure or roleplaying games, but 2d action games were always less fluid on PC than the contemporaries.
 Warcraft (Sprite) |
 Raycasting |
The shortage of DOS action games ended when Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM converted the PC's main bottleneck into its main advantage. The very technology that calculated pixels separately (chunky pixels) turned out to be very efficient at "raycasting". Raycasting is a trick where a bunch of still images gets arranged in a way that make them look like a 3d environment that can be walked through in first person. Its an illusion; even if walls and windows appear at different heights, there is only one floor. Raycasted games never have air both above and below the same surface and thus couldn't have multiple floors. Despite these limitations, raycasting became one of the greatest reasons the PC took the crown as the mainstream gaming computer. The competitors just couldn't deliver this new game genre at the same speed.
 Dark Forces (1995) |
 Heretic (1994) |
 Shadow Warrior (1997) |
 Redneck Rampage (1997) |
 Duke Nukem 3d (1996) |
 Blood (1997) |
What is Voxel graphics?
In 1992 the helicopter simulator Comanche introduced a short-lived graphical trick known as Voxel Graphics. Voxels are pixels that derive their placement on screen relative to other pixels. This technique could be used to create 3d landscapes ahead of its time. Eventually this technology fell out of use with fast 3d-accelerators, but there were plenty of games in the 90'ies using this technology. When voxels are used today it's usually done for aesthetic reasons rather than a need.
 Comanche (1992) |
 Voxel Landscape |
 Voxels vs Polygons |
Generation 5. SVGA Games (1993-1998)
(SVGA, 3DFX, CD, Pentium cpu) Pentium PC |
= |
 Gen 5: Playstation |
 Gen 5: Nintendo 64 |
 Macintosh PowerPC |
 Command & Conquerer (1995) |
 Crusader: No Remorse (1995) |
 MDK (1997) |
In the mid 90'ies the fifth generation of video game consoles got the ability to read CD-media, display fast 3d graphics and experimented with full motion video. The first Playstation and Nintendo 64 being the most known competitors. This is the same generation we saw Mario 64 in full 3d and the Playstation shined with Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid.
The PC's processing power and graphic capabilities continued to grow. The last graphics standard used in DOS was SVGA (or VESA). SVGA had higher resolution than VGA and could gradually show more and more colors, but after SVGA the industry abandoned the attempt to provide a unique name for each higher display standards. With the addition of CD drives, growing harddrive sizes and effective audio compression in the form of MP3 (introduced during the mid 90'ies) the games could be filled with prerecorded music
instead of relying on MIDI technology. Incidentally Intel introduced AC97 audio in 1997, a development that lead to audio chips being integrated to the PC motherboards and eventually rendering the use of dedicated soundcards obsolete. Bioforge (1997) |
 Comanche 3 (1997) |
 Oddworld (1997) |
What is FMV?
At the same time CD-readers got cheap enough for public use. The increased storage space lead many developers to produce interactive Full Motion Video games. These were heavy on full motion video, but the technology did not take off and there are very few titles using this technology that people play today.
 Gabriel Knight 2 (1995) |
 Mad Dog McCree (1993) |
 Compact Disc (CD) |
What is 3DFX?
As explained during the 4th generation, the early first-person shooters were not actually 3d. True 3d environments required a lot of processing power and it wasn't until the later part of the 90'ies that such games became a thing, with Quake being one of the first. The 3DFX chip was introduced in 96 and was dedicated to calculate fast 3d graphics with enhanced capabilities that wasn't possible to calculate fast enough on just a regular processor.
 Screamer Rally (1997) |
 Lands of Lore 2 (1997) |
 Grand Theft Auto (1997) |
 Tomb Raider Gold (1998) |
 Carmageddon (1998) |
 Battle Arena Toshinden (1996) |
Windows 3.11
Windows started out as a graphical, mouse-driven system for DOS, competing with other similar systems for Macintosh, Amiga and Atari. For most of its life cycle it was not considered for games since Windows stole system resources that could be utilized by games written purely for DOS. The first Windows considered for games was Windows 3.1 that came out in 1992, then Windows gaming took off in 1993 with Windows 3.11.
 Windows 3.11 |
 Zombie Wars (1996) |
 MYST (1993) |
 Woodruff & The Schnibble (1995) |
 Battle Beast (1995) |
 Enemy Nations (1995) |
Windows 95 and the end of DOS
During the 5th generation of gaming consoles came Windows 95, with its own graphics standard in the form of "Direct X". MS-DOS was after this point at an end. Ironically when Microsoft really started to embrace that they were now the main operating system for gamers.
 MS-DOS 6.22 (1994) |
 Windows 95 |
Generation 6. The end of DOS (1998-)
 DOSBox |
The sixth generation marks the end of DOS gaming. For PC Windows 98 was released. DOS Games after 1998 are exclusively homebrews. No major game company produce for the platform. While Windows 98 was still booting from DOS, the DOS games disappeared, replaced by games written for Windows or DirectX. DOSBox, the most known DOS emulator, was released in 2002. Windows 98 can be emulated sparingly in DOSBox and its even possible to get games requiring 3d accelerator cards to run, but it's often easier to try to get them to run on a modern Windows 10 system with patches.
Due to interest in retrogaming there have been new games made for classic computers and consoles and MS-DOS is not an exception. Five to ten games have been made per year for DOS since 1998. Early on, many of these games were made in publically available game engines, like sierra adventure games and DOOM, offering aging gamers to make their twist on their favorites when they were younger. From 2010 and beyond there have been several games made to look and feel similar to classic games for nostalgic reasons.
 Castle of Viana (2017) |
 Retro City Rampage DX (2015) |
 Silly Knight (2017) |
 Perils of Treasure Mountain (2017) |
 Planet X3 (2018) |
 Ratillery (2016) |