Lord British
Member
I'm gonna have to give it to Monster Bash, but there's a lot of terrific competition. Jill of the Jungle, Cosmo, Commander Keen 6.
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What's your favourite old-school DOS platformer?
- Thread starter Lord British
- Start date
capitalCORN
Member
Abuse.
Lord British
Member
Barely a platformer, really. Fun though pretty samey, and great atmosphere.
DownGrader
Member
Jazz Jackrabbit was fun and nice-looking but had some notable flaws. They were fixed in Jazz Jackrabbit 2 for Windows, which is an overall better game, but I wasn't a fan of how things looked really small and faraway in that game.
Lord British
Member
Correct me if I'm wrong but is Mystic Towers a platformer? I thought it was more like a Head Over Heels style exploration isometric thing.
Not DOS, I think?
Airola
Member
Why would you do that?
Member
Depends on how far old school you go, but overall I would probably say Jetpack and Jetpack: Christmas Edition.
Keen 4 is a close second, though.
Absolute best part is that it has a level editor!
Keen 4 is a close second, though.
Absolute best part is that it has a level editor!
You may be thinking of the sequel, Baron Baldrick?
Or he might be.
There was certainly one platformer and one isometric.
EDIT: Baron Baldric was the platformer,
And Mystic Towers was isometric.
Melkezadek
Member
All day.
JustSomeone
Member
Commander keen 6
Loved the Jazz Jackrabbit games. I thought he was going to be the next big thing!
The Commander Keen games were also great!
Me, I liked Skunny:
Got to save them pizzas! (Not great or anything, but it inspired my first comic book character: Bicep Beaver. So, I've got to give him that!)
I also liked the Dizzy games, but that might not be quite what you're looking for!
I remember where you used to be able to buy CD-ROMs with huge collections of games, both freeware and shareware. It'd be like, "1,000 Awesome Game Collection" and you get all excited and find out 150 are solitaire clones. I'd think with BDs now you could get thousands upon thousands of those games on a disc and just make it so they'd run on modern PCs. Let the new generation experience the joys of these classics in one handy package!
Lister
Banned
You're right I think. I was thinking of Hocus Pocus (?). You're a wizard in the game.
You know, while I owned and played a lot of platformers in DOS, I actually found most of them disappointing due to low frame-rates. Coming from 60fps console platform games, the PC titles just felt choppy in comparison.
That's why Jazz Jackrabbit really sticks out to me. It actually achieved a very smooth frame-rate on PCs of that day with an amazing soundtrack. The level design isn't great and the parallax scrolling is, admittedly, very limited compared to what we were seeing on consoles, but it was still memorable.
Most other games, though, just didn't run well enough and it was clear that the visual quality was nowhere near as impressive as 16-bit games (and often below great NES games).
If we're counting games that were also on other platforms that I first played in DOS, my favorite would be Rayman 1. It looked great and ran well on my 486. Fantastic game.
I will say that another DOS game I played a lot when I was younger was Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 on the PC. While the console versions still scroll smoother, it was pretty close here and the actual color palette was improved. It looked like the Genesis game with more colors as opposed to the squished SNES title. EWJ2 looked especially nice and unlike other versions - it did NOT look like the ugly Saturn version either with its pre-rendered sprite work.
That's why Jazz Jackrabbit really sticks out to me. It actually achieved a very smooth frame-rate on PCs of that day with an amazing soundtrack. The level design isn't great and the parallax scrolling is, admittedly, very limited compared to what we were seeing on consoles, but it was still memorable.
Most other games, though, just didn't run well enough and it was clear that the visual quality was nowhere near as impressive as 16-bit games (and often below great NES games).
If we're counting games that were also on other platforms that I first played in DOS, my favorite would be Rayman 1. It looked great and ran well on my 486. Fantastic game.
I will say that another DOS game I played a lot when I was younger was Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 on the PC. While the console versions still scroll smoother, it was pretty close here and the actual color palette was improved. It looked like the Genesis game with more colors as opposed to the squished SNES title. EWJ2 looked especially nice and unlike other versions - it did NOT look like the ugly Saturn version either with its pre-rendered sprite work.
MrChocolate
Member
Can't say much else but
This game was awesome. Most hardcore shit ever.
Bl@de
Member
SpiceMelange
Member
Jack Jazz Rabbit. Wish they'd make a new game or something
Lord British
Member
I love how there are so few words in the thread title and yet we're still getting Windows games and non-platformers. XD
Not being a dick, I genuinely think it's quite funny.
Great picks so far. I'd forgotten all about Skunny.
Not being a dick, I genuinely think it's quite funny.
Great picks so far. I'd forgotten all about Skunny.
Davey Cakes
Member
Duke Nukem 2 will always be one of my top picks. Great and fitting soundtrack by Robert Prince, too.
Obviously Commander Keen is ace. I have a soft spot for the original trilogy of episodes but the Goodbye Galaxy episodes, Keen Dreams, and Keen 6 are obviously a bit more refined.
Obviously Commander Keen is ace. I have a soft spot for the original trilogy of episodes but the Goodbye Galaxy episodes, Keen Dreams, and Keen 6 are obviously a bit more refined.
I posted a picture of a game called "screamer". was a great car game back in the day.
MrChocolate
Member
TBH, even when I had Win 98, I still booted up DOS to play most of my games. I don't know why. I won't say they ran faster or anything, but it was great to just get into the old C:\ screen, write a few commands and game on.
OhItsJustDaniel
Neo Member
Bio Menace. I always loved the setting and the enemy designs.
Davey Cakes
Member
Crystal Caves is good fun. I'm also a fan of Secret Agent, which is quite similar.
Lord British
Member
Lemmings, puzzle-platformer:
Weeeeell more of a straight puzzler.
But also, it's basically my favourite game ever.
djplaeskool
Member
Alley Cat
Arctic Adventure
Monuments of Mars
Pharaoh's Tomb
I had forgotten about these games. Good stuff.
A) Not going to lie, I have half a mind to post Traffic Department 2192 and One Must Fall 2097 anyway.
B) Everyone I know that had a PC had at least one Skunny game. For some reason, I always assumed that it was a Taiwanese series like Sango Fighter.
Baloonatic
Member
I have really fond memories of Hocus Pocus.