25 Essential DOS Games of 1993 

Frontier, so awesome. Dragged my Amiga to my friend's house, set it up next to his PC, and we spend an entire summer holiday playing it. He was Federation. I was Empire. Great times!

This video *IS* my childhood. God, 1993 was such an amazing year for PC gaming, I forgot that so many of my all-time favorite games released in a single year. Thank you so much for taking me back to some of my most treasured memories. 😊

Golden era for games.

I was 9 in 93. Mortal Kombat was something that blew everyone away. I still play it in MAME and love it. Easily on of the top 5 most impactful games of all time in my opinion. People would be crowded around the machine in the arcades watching, it was awesome.

DOS; how I don't miss you. Monkeying around with DOS box settings is more than enough for me.

I feel like you've been uploading a new video every half an hour! 😂

Top games of the year for a particular platform are probably my favorite lists. Keep it up!

Not a single bad or even average game here...well worth a look👏

Master of Orion is one of the best 4X games EVER! The sequels added complexity and depth at each iteration but the basic gameplay loop of the original was so perfect.

I'm currently playing through World of Xeen again. 1993 DOS games is peak nostalgia.

Id forgotten 3/4 of all those games and yet, Ive played almost all of them when I was a kid. Awesome times.

Lists like these are like a nostalgia shot in the arm, so very nice. Personally, I think MoO is a lot more streamlined and elegant than Civ, but I maybe I just think space/futuristic stuff is cooler than historical.

So many games I missed out on...My family was pretty sparing on what they'd buy. Most of the games I played were whatever my dad could pirate from buddies at work (and later, whatever I could pirate from friends or the internet on dial-up). From when I was 10, having my first PC experience in 1993 until ~2011, I played less than 50 unique games. Of that, only about 10 that I ever played religiously. All that to say, very good list. Had not heard of 99% of these and they all look great. Adding this to watch later, for whenever I'm bored and feeling DOSy :)

I always look at these to get ideas to make new game, in a way there is nothing new just improvements of what people make in the 90s

Loved Lands of Lore, much enjoyable than Eye of the Beholder and similars, specially the flexibility in character progress, even if you chose the muscle guy at the beginning he still could learn and use magic and rogue skils. The Mortal Kombat port for MS-DOS being the best domestic version of the game was a very nice suprise back in the day, during the 80's MS-DOS used to have worse arcade ports than consoles and other computers, the boxes of a lot of PC games used to have the images of the Amiga version in the cover.

Iron Helix is a great 1993 game, if you've not played it before. Unique gameplay with great graphics. Also, Betrayal at Krondor.

And again I cant overexpress the vibe of this collection! From now it seems that I've lived the significant part of life in half of the set. Music from Furries, Vikings and Xeen is a separate brilliant/ TY again.

Another great list, captured all the essentials!

Man I used to smash Frontier Elite II on the Amiga!

Cannon Fodder - Never actually played it (don't remember why) but I love the song from the intro video (War! Never been so much fun! ) Flashback - Played it, like it, never finished it. Will return to, perhaps soon. Frontier: Elite II - I had Elite 1, it was one of my first games, and as I child I could never understand it, so I skipped Frontier too. Innocent Until Caught - Never played it but high on my list, I plan to play this one and the sequel, Guilty Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen - One of my all times favorite RPG games, I beat it numerous times and plan to play it more. It has such an epic intro! Fury of the Furries - Played it and liked it both as a kid and recently, awesome game but it get very hard on later levels, always made me give up near the end. Pinball Dreams - I liked it... for a day or two, before I got Pinball Fantasies which became and remain my all-time favorite pinball game. Star Trek: Judgment Rites - Haven't played it, but all those Star Trek P&C adventure games are high on my list. Star Wars: X-Wing - I think I played Tie Fighter, the sequel. Or was it an add on? I don't remember. But I do remember it being very cinematic and fun, and me sucking at it. The Lost Vikings - Also one of my first and all-time favorite games. I love the sequel too, even though it's a tad inferior. Ultima VII: Part Two - I'm a huge RPG nerd but for some reason I could never get into Ultima games, they all always seemed archaic and complicated somehow. Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle - One of my all-time favorite P&C adventure, a true gem. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers - I played it and liked it as a kid, but never gotten far. This one is also very high on my list for a replay. Doom - I got Doom 2 before Doom 1 and so never really liked it so much, the sequel is basically the same game only better. And an all-time classic, of course. Syndicate - Never actually tried, it seemed too complicated for the young me, and also I'm not that much into tactical strategies. SimCity 2000 - THE city-builder game! Simon the Sorcerer - Loved it. The sequel is even better. Great looking and very funny games, but some of the puzzles can be a bit on the moon logic side and therefor hard. IndyCar Racing - I might have tried it, not so much of a fan of racing games. Wing Commander: Privateer - Never played it, see Frontier note Pirates! Gold - Never played this one either, but I played some inferior clones Mortal Kombat - Played all versions, arcade, Sega, PC... It was THE game and it still is. The Incredible Machine - Loved all TIM games, but I don't think I ever completed them, I play to play the all again soon. Master of Orion - Haven't played it, but I have played a similar game, can't remember the name now Lands of Lore: Throne of Chaos - Haven played it, but I plan. I love dungeon crawlers, especially those with good graphics like this. The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate - I've played and replayed the first two Kyrandia games several times, once in a while I play the again because they are forgettable and enjoyable in the same time.

Gabriel Knight:Sins Of The Fathers, is my favorite point and click adventure title. and boy do I love the pixel art in it. and the narration is just awesome. sometimes I swear she was just like "lord this child is foolish" depending on what you would try lol.

Cannon Fodder is one of my all time favourite Amiga games! Running it on a modern PC in Open Fodder is fun but doesn’t quite scratch that nostalgia itch in the same way but it’s still awesome. Although it’s not the same playing with a controller either the Game Boy Color port was surprisingly good for what it was too. Speaking of my favourite Amiga games, Flashback! I must admit we did just kind of believe it was a sequel to Another World, especially if the *copies* you had didn’t come with a manual… if you know what I mean? After loving it on the Amiga, playing the Sega CD (etc) version with some of the worst ‘stick a mic in front of anyone on a brake’ voice acting surprisingly added a new dimension of fun to the game. I don’t know if it would have enhanced the game had it been my first introduction to Flashback but I just remember laughing my a*s off hearing the guy with the broken leg near the beginning speak for the first time. (& several times after that.) 😂 Frontier was fantastic on PC. I risk being dead to you this time but the Amiga version was too slow & choppy, at least on an A500 & whilst running it on a 50MHz 486 still wasn’t perfect it was such a step up. Fun fact, I first played it on a 50MHz 486 laptop with no sound chip, so playing it with sound a few years later was actually fascinating for me, even though it wasn’t really a sound heavy game. Innocent Until Caught is new to me. It looks like something I would play though? Fury of the furries is one I learned of from you & it’s a blast. Definitely recommended for anyone getting in to DOS gaming. We’re back to my Amiga favourites with Pinball Dreams. One of the best video pinball games on the Amiga & just as good on PC. Star Trek: Judgment Rites is great! They did so much on limited hardware & sure, it helps to be a fan but I am. Star Wars X-Wing was pre-3D accelerators (there was a later patch I believe?) but it was so good for software 3D & in my youth it made me feel like I was really flying rebel ships in the Star Wars universe! 😄 A great game with some great sequels but even if you’re not a Star Wars fan it’s still a fantastic space shooter. If you are a fan just try to ignore the wrong voices & non too great “acting,” it’s still worth it. I think of The lost Vikings as a SNES game but obviously it came out on pretty much every platform of the day. The Game Boy Advance version’s just as good. Day of the Tentacle is fantastic! I love it & have it installed on a retro PC right now. My ex played through it first on the Play Station 3, of all platforms. 😄 Sins of the Farther is great. The whole Gabriel Knight trilogy is & are a must for retro/point & click fans. You haven’t played doom until you’ve played it in a LAN party on a bunch of POS tills when you’re supposed to be doing an overnight stock inventory… not that I would do that! Obviously not, that would be unprofessional! 😄 That being said Doom has been ported to so many varied & obscure devices, along with every mainstream device that a till seems positively pedestrian. FYI playing it in PrBoom3DS is actually hard on the eyes as the 3D is a bit weird but still very cool to see it in true 3D on a ‘New 3DS’ XL. Syndicate is another of my Amiga favourites but to be honest I also have fond memories but find it hard to go back to now. Shame really. I know being indifferent to the Simcity series makes me some sort of heathen but I just can’t get in to a “game” that has no goal or end. Sorry everybody. Simon the Sorcerer was excellent! It was aimed at younger audiences but is just as much fun for adults & I’m sure got a lot of younger players in to point & click adventures. Indycar wasn’t really a thing in the UK back then, we had F1 but Indycar Racing was still impressive back then. It really gets a lot out of software 3D rendering & plays well if you’re in to sim racers. Privateer manages to be something worth playing even though it was another Elite/Frontier/Wing Commander clone. One to play if you’re in to that sort of thing. Pirates Gold is Pirates but goldierer & that’s great. It’s a game I can sink lots if time in to. Definitely one if you’re looking in to the history of gaming. Remember all the moral outrage over Mortal Kombat? I played it & I’ve only murdered a couple of 4 armed monsters & people able to fly just above the ground. The Incredible Machine is, well Incredible. I actually have the Mac version on my G4 Cube right now. Never played Hand of Fate. No particular reason, you just can’t play everything, no matter how hard I’ve tried. 😄 Quick rap up there, seems like this was a long list for you too? Great list though with some of the most influential games of all time there, thanks. You should be proud of the fact I watched it all the way through with my short attention span. 😄

Countless hours on my amiga with most of these games. Great memories...

Given how PC-centric my gaming is now, it's always interesting to look back to the early 90s to realize I really wasn't a huge PC gamer yet. I did play some stuff like Civilization 1, MoO, Warcraft 1, X-Wing, Battletech Crescent Hawks' Revenge, Star Control 2, Starflight 2, etc, but I think probably 60-70% of my time was SNES games back then. This caused a lot of things I would've loved to slip through the cracks. I'm certain if I'd played more M&M games (I think I just had cloud of xeen) I'd have enjoyed those more, and I definitely would've been into Syndicate. I _might've_ been ready for Pirates Gold, but I was like 14 at the time so patience wasn't a strong suit yet. Privateer? Well, I enjoy the concept, but hard to see myself enjoying it due to that _ridiculously_ restrictive view screen. (I think I prefer X-Wing's simpler ships, if that's what it takes to be able to actually see.) Elite 2 I probably would've loved, because I played Elite on C64 quite a bit (though I was absolutely awful, I would've been like 9 years old haha).

This list should be called best Amiga games of 2023. 😅😉

1993 was an impressive year, good list but it shouldn’t be missing Hired Guns.

I'm disappointed that the '92 '93 videos don't have Comanche: Maximum Overkill. That game looked amazing for the time, and was very fun.

Great nostalgia video

Some of my favourite games as a teenager!

Great collection, Simon 1 & 2 are so good

Man, what a year that was, and in so many genres...

I miss the DPaint2 era of computer gfx. You can tell immediately graphics that were drawn with it.

🎵WAR, has never been so much fun~~🎵

Incredible video✊🔥

I guess Space Quest V didn't make the cut with these other great games but to me it's the best! Damn such an amazing year for games and graphics..

The incredible machine was installed on every pc in my school district….

That was the entry year for me. 80486 DX2-66 and three games: Privateer, Day of the Tentacle and Wizardry 7. Just one thing sucked: my skills at Privateer. Never got past one of the earlier missions. 😅

Very good set of games.

It's sad to see that out of all these great titles, only Doom still has an active community, churning out mods like it was a brand new game. I bet the people at 'Id' never imagined their game would still be fervently played 30 years later! 🥳

This list is definitely missing "The Settlers"! :D Also I would have taken Sam and Max, Space Quest 5 or even Larry 6 over Innocent Until Caught or Judgement Rites and personally I would have tried everything to snuck "Skyroads" in there as well. :D

1993 was a great year.

My only complaint is that Betrayal at Krondor - one of the greatest (if not the greatest) cRPG games - was not included.

Transport tycon is missing! absolute must play man. or ascendancy.

Man, watching someone fumble around Doom's Nuclear Plant like it's their actual First Time is super weird.

Good work as always. I don't know if you already covered it, but have you played Ascendancy? It's like Master of Orion and and also for DOS but came out in 1995, and I remember loving it. Nostalgia glasses being what they are, it certainly was more visually appealing than Orion to me in terms of the alien appearance and the interface. Despite being terrible at it, I just had to keep playing it. Also it's worth mentioning that I think the shapeshifting toilet seat that was spying on you was your boss' wife the whole time, which explains why she's so insufferable toward you.

Cannon Fodder probably inspired Diablo Frontier Elite 2 is No Man's Sky of its time.

Look up Remnants of the Precursors for a modern direct remake of Master of Orion. Different art and race names for copyright reasons, but it uses the same rules with major bugfixes. As well there are lots of mods and evil optional AI.

Awesome!!!Big Like 🌟💗

good old dos days

Cannon Fodder: One of the most difficult games to get running with CDRom, sound and mouse drivers in Conventional memory. Now that's a talent I don't get to use much these days ;P Was it worth it? Yep

Calling cannon fodder one of the best arcade shooters with games like Gradius thunder force etc is a pretty bold claim imo 😅

Did you hear about DOS 4.0 being made Open Source? I wonder if we're going to see some new DOS games in 2024

Instead of the Incredible Machine, let me suggest Sid and Als Incredible Toons.

Oh, I've not only heard of most of these games, but even played several. Pinball Dreams especially :D it had some nice tables and music. Though the version I have seems to be an Amiga emulator launcher XD And that being said, I've just hit another high score while writing this... The adventure games you mentioned are all really good. I've only played Kyrandia 2 to completion. Had no idea about the Star Trek one. With original voice actors? Yes, please :D And Doom. Well... I've heard it runs on anything with a screen ^^ Btw... shapeshifter toilet seat? Creepy...

Think this was the year until the PC took over totally. The last year I used my Amiga, next year would mean the purchase of my first PC.

2:31 I dont think so. For another world, Delphine Software acted more like a publisher. The game was solo developed by Eric Chahi and he did a really great post mortem for GDC a few years ago if you''re interested in the story of the games development. I don't think he had anything to do with Flashback. If im not mistaken Delphine acted as their French Publisher but had another international publisher as well.

SUBBED/LIKED/BELL PERIOD

I was sad when the Amiga went down the tube.😢

46:06 the shapeshifter wife of your boss that spied on you as a toilet seat tried to poison King Dick? That's terrible!

what about betrayal at krondor?

6:56 uh, why is the mouth icon on his nether regions?

Ohai

Hmmm... I noticed that is X-Wing there are no diverse strong female or non-binary characters...

No Prince Of Persia 2?! Seriously