Several months ago, I wrote about the role of digital preservation in gaming history. One of the resources I talked about is Retro-eXo, a gigantic project aimed not only at preserving software, but also making that software as easily accessible as possible to the average user. This means making the games as simple to run as they would be via a digital launch service like GOG Galaxy or Steam, so even people who have never seen a DOS prompt in their lives can get their chosen game up and running quickly and easily. Along with the game files, the project also attempts to catalog and preserve any extras that came with the games, like instruction manuals, reference sheets, videos, soundtracks, and other goodies.
As great as the eXo projects are, there's one downside. We'll use eXoDOS as an example: in the project's current state, version 6.04 as of this writing, you have access to over 7,800 individual titles. That is more software than any but the most dedicated neckbeard could possibly play in a full lifetime. Now, I'm assuming that most of the people reading this are around my age, somewhere between their mid-thirties and their mid-fifties, and if that's the case, most of you probably grew up in or adjacent to the MS-DOS era of computing. That means you probably have at least a handful of favorites from the late '80s to the mid '90s you already know: Doom, Quake, Tomb Raider, Wolfenstein 3D, King's Quest, Maniac Mansion, SimCity, Duke Nukem 3D, Ultima, and a whole bevy of Star Wars titles from Dark Forces to TIE Fighter. These are obvious choices to start with: all but the youngest gamers have probably heard of some of them, even if it's only from Dad talking about how, back in his day, you could just play a game and didn't have to wait for a 7 gigabyte patch to install.
You can absolutely find each and every one of those games in eXoDOS's colossal launch box list. If what you're looking for is high-octane nostalgia fuel, then these games alone can offer you literal years of enjoyment. But at some point, you'll want to explore off the beaten path, so that's where this post comes in. I'm going to share some of my favorite gems available in the eXoDOS package. They aren't all necessarily hidden gems, and not every game will knock the socks off of every reader, but I'll talk a little about each title, why I included it, what it's similar to, and any information that's good to know before you start playing it (like optimal sound or control settings). Ready to explore with me?
01) Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure
What is it?
Released in 1995, this is a graphical adventure developed by French studio Cryo Interactive and published by Mindscape in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics. It's called "A Comic Book Adventure" because it's an adaptation of the Aliens: Labyrinth mini-series put out earlier by Dark Horse. This places it in comic book continuity as opposed to being a sequel or side story to any of the films.
What's going on?
It's 2157, and the Sheridan is returning to Earth after a successful terraforming mission carrying its four passengers: Herickson (Mission commander and former Colonial Marine), Capt. Williams (Pilot), O'Connor (Science Officer), and McGuinness (Medical Officer). While passing by a remote outpost on Planet B54C, the shipboard AI detects an emergency distress call, and diverts the Sheridan to the colony. You've seen the box cover, so you should know what to expect when you arrive.
Why is it worth playing?
I mean, it's an Aliens game. There aren't too many of them out there, and while most center fighting with the xenomorphs, this one focuses almost exclusively on the story. There are a few combat encounters, and each of the four chapters comes with built-in time limits for story-related reasons, so you still have to think on your feet or risk a Game Over. But on the whole, this is more cerebral than, say, Alien Trilogy or Alien Resurrection, but nowhere near as scary as Alien: Isolation.
If you've played a point-and-click adventure before, you'll adapt to the interface in no time. Moving your mouse around the screen brings up context-sensitive instructions you can click on in order to execute that action. Moving between most areas triggers a short cutscene that plays to smooth out the transition. Since this is a CD-ROM title, dialog is voiced to varying degrees of quality.
What should I know?
Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure originally shipped on 2 CDs, so at the halfway point, you'll be prompted to insert Disc 2. When this happens, press Ctrl+F4 and you'll be able to continue. The game reminds you of this each time you start it up, but it's still good to know in case you forget.
There are numerous points where it's possible to softlock your progress if you make a mistake, so be liberal with your save files. At the bare minimum, you should make a new one each time you get to a new chapter. That way, if you find you're running out of time, you can revert to an older file and use what you already know to alleviate the time crunch that comes later.
On the title screen, click on 'Introduction' to play the opening cutscene. Then, once you've watched that, click 'Play'. Otherwise you'll get dropped into the game without any idea of what's going on.
Your crew has a hunger meter that drops as you explore your ship and the mining colony, so make sure you head to the ship's cantina and fill everybody up on food before you exit, or you'll find yourselves fainting from hunger after a while.
Unlike most graphical adventures, your characters don't have infinite storage. Each member of your crew can only hold a maximum of 8 items at one time, so don't be afraid to leave certain things behind if you aren't sure you need them right this second. On the other hand, leaving too much stuff behind can get you in trouble if you reach a point where you need that item but don't have the time to backtrack and pick it up. Make sure you're saving in multiple slots so you always have a redundancy or two to fall back on.
Zorker's Rating: 6.75/10.
There's a lot of enjoy with Aliens: A Comic Book Adventure, especially if you're like me and like point-and-click titles. The music is good, the cutscene area transitions are well done, and the art direction is unmistakably '90s in style and tone. That said, it's also frustrating in places, especially when it comes to the timed segments, and there definitely isn't time to go everywhere and see everything in a single playthrough. The voice acting also isn't going to win any awards. This isn't my favorite adventure game, not by a long shot, but if you're a fan of the Alien franchise (especially if you read the Dark Horse Comics books back in the day), then you should give this a shot.
02) QBasic Gorillas (aka: GORILLAS.BAS)
@blewitt: a conflict now raging for over thirty years.What is it?
If you walked into any Best Buy location in the early '90s, there was a good chance you could find this piece of software running as a demonstration on all of the IBM PCs at the time. If you weren't old enough to walk into a Best Buy in the early '90s, ask your parents if they remember it. It shipped as a free demonstration application with the QBasic interpreter which came built in to MS-DOS 5.0.
What's going on?
You and a friend (assuming you have any) are each gorillas, attempting to assert dominance over a city with randomly-sized skyscrapers. Enormous as the city is, it's only big enough for one of you. Thus, in the time-honored tradition of Gorilla Dueling, you have each brought a stack of exploding bananas which you will hurl at one another, alternatingly, by setting the angle and velocity of your throws then letting physics do the rest.
Why is it worth playing?
This, right here, was an awful lot of peoples' introduction to games in an MS-DOS environment. Beyond that, because it was a BASIC program, it was easy to open up the source code and edit it yourself, which made it the first experience a lot of young people had with modding a game built by someone else. Like the best games, it's incredibly simple while being stupidly fun. GORILLAS.BAS was teaching people about Deathmatching years before anybody heard the name Doom.
What should I know?
Virtually everything about the game, from the physics to the size of the buildings to the magnitude of the explosions can be modified just by tinkering around with the code.
What goes up must come down. Bananas can travel off the top of the screen and re-appear further over. They only stop traveling when they reach the side of the screen.
Tossing a banana into/through the sun will change its expression for a short time.
It's really simple. Like, seriously, you can figure out how to play this in twenty seconds. Even if your partner isn't a gamer, you can probably convince them to give this a try with you.
@blewitt wasn't at my house, I just managed to kill myself with a lucky shot on his turn.Zorker's Rating: 5/10.
Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this: the game is fun, and unbelievably simple, but it also doesn't have a lot of options going for it either, unless you get under the hood with the QBasic source code and fiddle around with numerical values. GORILLAS.BAS is very much a one-trick pony (er... gorilla?), but it performs that trick exceptionally well, and even back in the day, you didn't have to pay extra for the privilege.
Even if you only load it up once, and uninstall it immediately afterwards, you owe it to yourself to (re)visit this absolute classic. It won't change your life, but it will make you smile.
03) Don't Go Alone
What is it?
A horror-themed, first-person perspective role-playing game set in the modern day era of the late 20th century, developed by Sterling Silver Software and published by Accolade in 1989.
What's going on?
Every neighborhood has that house. The one the kids always pedal by a bit faster on their bikes. The one the local teenagers dare one another to knock on the door of after midnight. The one every adult on the block tries their best to ignore, hoping that one day it'll just burn down so nobody has to look at it again.
For years, it was your grandfather's obsession to figure out just what precisely went wrong in that house. The drive to learn, to know, drove him mad. But now you're all grown up, and grandpa's obsession has become yours. But you aren't going to make the same mistake he did. Oh no: you've brought with you a team of rough-and-tumble types who aren't afraid to look death in the eye. A chemist, a technician, an adventurer, and a psychic -- together you will enter the house in search of answers. It's going to be a long night....
Why is it worth playing?
There are literally dozens upon dozens of Eye of the Beholder clones for MS-DOS, but this one is a standout. Released the same year as Sweet Home on the Famicom in Japan, it's never had the attention it deserves, probably because it's virtually impossible to play these days. You won't find it on any storefronts like GOG or Steam, and it hasn't caught the eye of the retro horror community the way Capcom's precursor to Resident Evil did.
Unless you were hardcore into RPGs on the personal computers of the day, you've never heard of Don't Go Alone. It's Autumn, spooky season is upon us, and you owe it to yourself to play something a little different this year. You're welcome.
What should I know?
The mansion sprawls over ten floors in total. Fortunately the layout never changes between games, and the automap helps with navigation. That said, if your group gets overwhelmed by fear, they'll pass out and wake up in a random part of the floor they're currently on, which can make an absolute hash of things. Save often.
It should go without saying since this is an RPG, but scour every inch of every floor. You aren't just looking for better gear or healing items, you're also looking for monsters to fight so you can increase your experience levels. Defeated creatures sometimes leave behind necessary items to help you solve puzzles or acquire new formulas for your attack and defense magic.
While early floors are relatively straightforward, later ones contain all manner of disruptions, including one-way passages, illusory walls, teleportation tiles, dark hallways, and other chicanery. Keep a notebook handy to jot down important things like item locations in case you need to return and pick something up that you left behind earlier.
All four investigators begin the game with the same Chemistry Book, Vol. I. You'll find others as you explore, but it's important to pass them around to your entire group so everyone can learn the requisite formulas. Don't rely on one character to do all the magical stuff, because if they bite the dust, then you're screwed.
Zorker's Rating: 7/10.
Don't Go Alone is far from perfect, and is, in fact, full of frustrations and annoyances that were commonplace in similar titles of the time but that have been hammered out of mainstream game design over the last forty years. But part of playing retro games is coming to terms with the fact that things don't work the same as they did back then, and learning to lean into those faults. Despite the game's flaws, it's still a great little hidden gem of a title that time has overlooked. If you can't stand RPGs, then Don't Go Alone isn't going to set your hair on fire. But if you feel like you've played everything under the sun, and especially if you enjoyed Sweet Home, then Don't Go Alone is a must-play in my book.
04) Pyro II
What is it?
A shareware puzzle/strategy game created by Michael O'Brien and released in 1990. The original Pyro was programmed for IBM's AT line of personal computers, and never achieved wide distribution. O'Brien's sequel features an expanded roster of stages and allowed players who achieved a high score to submit their names for recognition in later releases and receive access to the second half of the game in turn.
What's going on?
Enough is enough! You are a serial arsonist with a hate-boner for the way your government has been treating people, and a plan to teach them a lesson. During the day, you sneak cans filled with fuel into your target building, several per floor. Then, before the day ends, you hide yourself away on the highest floor and wait for the building to empty. Once everyone's left for the evening, you emerge from hiding with your giant bundle of cotton string serving as a massive fuse.
Your goal is to quickly spill and throw the gasoline over as much area as possible, then retreat down the stairs to the next floor while the one above you burns. Floor by floor, you will have your revenge! But fires are fickle things, and you only have a short time to plan your movements on each floor in order to create your conflagration.
Why is it worth playing?
While the subject matter is, shall we say, dark, there's still an addictive and entertaining game hiding behind its simple graphics. Your brain will always come up with a potential gameplan that could have earned you more points on the level you just finished, which makes it likely you'll pick it up and try again, never settling for 'good enough' on a floor clear.
What should I know?
The first time you start the game, it will suggest you read through the instructions. Do not ignore this advice: this is where you'll learn the controls and get a demonstration of how the mechanics of picking up gas cans, spreading their contents, and avoiding a fiery demise all work.
Never cross back over your fuse as you're moving around a level unless you have no other choice. In later levels, you need as much time as you can to complete your nefarious activities, and crossing over your fuse is the quickest way to shorten that time.
Turn your volume down. Pyro II uses the PC speaker for sound, and you don't need that shrill, harsh screaming blowing out your eardrums.
05) Acid Warp
What is it?
An iconic example of eye candy screensaver technology, released as freeware in 1992 by Noah Spurrier, updated in 1993 by Mark Bilk.
What's going on?
You're watching the pretty colors and preventing image burn on your screen at the same time.
Seriously, that's it.
Under the hood, it's running some mathematical equations to generate interesting formations, and "warping" them using palette rotation to give them that trippy effect. But otherwise, it's just a fun thing to zone out to.
@triverse is not allowed to use this software.Why is it worth playing?
Acid Warp is an iconic piece of software that basically everyone who had BBS access in the early and mid-'90s had a copy of. After Dark, the Microsoft Plus Pack for Windows 95, and other screensavers were more broadly known, as you'd see them even in office environments and schools. But if you were in the know, or at least had a friend in the know, you were using Acid Warp on your own machine.
What should I know?
When you start it, the program gives you the command 'Ctrl + Break' as the shortcut to end it. This works in an actual old school DOS environment, but it won't work under DOSBox (which is how eXoDOS runs it). Use the 'Ctrl + F9' key combination to shut it down instead.
Acid Warp is still being maintained and released for new environments to this day. It's most recent port was to Android in 2025 by Matthew Zavislak.