MS Dos Games equal or better than Amiga games

[Fred the Fop]

What I have noticed on this board.
Nary a being discusses or praises MS Dos gaming.
I know, the intricate problems with VESA, EMS memory, and sound card incompatability in the days when MS Dos started to overtake Amiga as king of the computer gaming platforms leaves a bad taste in our mouths.
But when the game makers got it right, utilizing the fresh new VGA video and the legendary Soundblaster 16 or Ad Lib sound cards, the games often matched the Amiga versions of the same game.
I noticed, while testing abandonware on DosBox, that around 1992, many MS Dos games were exclusive to x386 and x486 platforms.
Not that Amiga could not handle many of these games, but the developers decided MS Dos was the way to go.

In any case, I've started this thread to see what you guys think of this..

Also, here is the place to get the superb DOSBox emulator.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/news.php?show_news=1

[Big-Byte]

Personally I woudlnt know. I had an Amiga at the time and had no interest in PC's at all.

Anyway, the First DOS game I ever played was Doom. That game alone made a big dent in my interest in Amiga.

[Fred the Fop]

Yes i know. It eventually made it to the Amiga, but far too late
Panzer General, another classic, would have been a wonderful game for the Amiga.
This game sold many PCs as well, at about the same time as Doom, Aces of the Deep, Warcraft and a few others that really got the PC as the dominant gaming platform.

[Amiga1992]

Flashback
Fury of the Furries

Those two were good on MS DOS. Flashback might have been better except for the music (more speed, colors and extra in-game animations or more lengthy/detailed animations)

[Bloodwych]

With DOS games not being big over on the European scene at the time, we never really got much chance to sample what others may consider classics, a few of which I’m sure will show up in this thread. I’ve played loads of old school PC titles recently however and enjoy experiencing what primarily the American games market were glued to back then. One I’m playing at the moment, Betrayal at Krondor, is an Amazing in depth game even by today’s standards.

What I can’t get anywhere near is the even earlier PC titles, they were woeful. EGA beeping crap awful piles of dung from the days when Amiga owners were laughing at PC’s.

Getting back to the early to mid nineties, my friend had a 486DX and sb16 in the old dos gaming era, cost him a fortune! He was a little pissed off that the sound was so crap out of the sb16 in comparison to the Amiga. More channels perhaps, but Settlers, Eye of the Beholder, Dune II etc were all inferior sound wise and more or less identical graphically to his PC at the time. Midi music just doesn’t compare to the Amiga and its custom samples. I also just couldn’t get used to those blocky graphics in VGA mode – games at this resolution looked better in good old TV 50Hz!

Out of those old School DOS games my friend owned, titles such as Wing Commander, X-Wing/Tie fighter and some of the adventures really made me want a PC. Those were the titles starting to make use of the pure CPU horsepower available from the 486. Like you said, it was the time when 3D gaming was beginning to blossom and the PC began to get exclusive titles thanks to its popularity in the US. I have to say however that when we went round we’d play ten times more on the Amiga than the PC – it just had better onscreen multiplayer and in most areas superior 2D games, a department where the PC still struggled.

PC’s of that era (in fact very similar to today) are great for individual gaming in 3D, completing graphic adventures and Simulators. In a time before internet or serious LAN, they were not for groups of kids wanting multiplayer mayhem and that’s what we were primarily doing over here at the time - kicking each other arses at Sensi Soccer, Speedball, Supercars 2, deathmatches on Bloodwych , Biplanes, Stunt Car Racer/Populous linkups etc etc.

Over here, consoles such as the SNES and Megadrive were next in line in our gaming hearts, well before the expensive PC made any kind of serious impact. So yes Fred we here at EAB are in need of a Classic MSDOS gaming guide! It certainly must include some of the best single player titles of the mid nineties.

As I’ve already mentioned, my Choice is “Betrayal at Krondor”. Story line written by a recognised Author, great cut scenes, unique battle system and first person walk around perspective. The midi style music works perfect for this kind of title also. A true classic from 1993 and must rate as one of the most in depth, non-linear adventure titles ever to be released. Best of all it’s true freeware and can be downloaded from almost anywhere. Go and get it now!

[Bloodwych]

Oh, ok. I'll add a pic.

[Enverex]

I didn't get a PC till 1998, so I have pretty much lived through Amiga from start to end, but going back through a few games, I would have to say Syndicate looked interesting on the PC with the animated menus and High res graphics, but it has one problem, the colours look crap in game, you know what I mean, the checkerboarding colours.

But anyway, Doom didn't bother me, I just played it on my Amiga instead

[Drake1009]

Actually I didn't notice any difference in the animations in Flashback on the Pc and the Amiga. At least not when the Amiga version had been HD installed.

The PC was the fairly cheap computer to get which was upgradable. Nice cheap upgrades and at the mentioned time most PCs were considered to have a harddisk so the games could require HD installation. I think that's what really made the developers want to do more DOS games over Amiga games.

[CPC464]

I loved Playing games in DOS

Thanks for the link

[RetroMan]

Yeah

DosBox is really great, just played Wing Commander, System Shock and Cannon Fodder in DOS

Oh and btw. the Mouse Control for CFodder in DOS is ugly Better play the Amiga Version

[SilentBob]

I didn't get a PC of my own until mid-90s, but my mother got in 1990 a 286 machine @ 10 MHz which could be used for simple VGA games.

I played EOB II on that thing, and it was a bit more responsive than on the ol' A500. Also, Sierra games were better on the PC, as the lack of a harddrive and the larger amount of disks made it difficult and annoying to play on the 500.

But for fast paced arcade games and such , and other classic Amiga stuff, the A500 was the better machine. Not to mention for serious stoff. After I upgraded to Kickstart 2.04, then it was even better. The 286 PC could hardly run Windows 3.0.

Then my A1200 with a harddrive came along and nugded the 286 PC out of the picture completely.

[Unknown_K]

The PC was a good gaming machine way before 3d games came along. Once the soundblaster pro 2 came along (8 bit stereo sound) and games turned to VGA (640x480) I would say DOS games on the PC were as good or better then anything on the amiga (exceppt for shooters, they were never big on the PC).

SVGA and 16 bit audio + quality midi killed anything on the amiga, but by that time Commodore was on the way out anyway.

[Bloodwych]

Originally posted by Unknown_K
The PC was a good gaming machine way before 3d games came along. Once the soundblaster pro 2 came along (8 bit stereo sound) and games turned to VGA (640x480) I would say DOS games on the PC were as good or better then anything on the amiga (exceppt for shooters, they were never big on the PC).

SVGA and 16 bit audio + quality midi killed anything on the amiga, but by that time Commodore was on the way out anyway.

I don't agree with most of this for reasons already stated in my first post - the points are too simplified but I respect you're entitled to your opinion unknown.

Anyway, isn't this thread meant to also be about posting games equal or better than Amiga games? In other words MSDOS classics! Where are your suggestions of decent titles peeps?

[Amiga1992]

Originally posted by Bloodwych
One I’m playing at the moment, Betrayal at Krondor, is an Amazing in depth game even by today’s standards.

I think Fred was asking about games tha thad versions for both the amiga and MS DOS and that equalled or outperformed the Amiga. In that case stuff like XWing or Betrayal won't fit. But let's ask Fred about this...

As for Flashback I DO remember the animations having extra scenes, and a few more animations. I had it installed in my Amiga HD and stuff like the intro had a couple more scenes on PC for sure. I can't clearly remember about the others but chances are they were a bit more long as well...

Fury of the Furries added some loading pics and stuff on the PC, which I think WERE present in the Amiga if you HD installed, but I never got to HD install it so I cant check.

[Bloodwych]

Originally posted by Frederic
And also, I'll add (you do so as well, if you like) mini reviews of Ms Dos exclusive games.

There is your answer Akira.

You're probably right about little extras here and there in certain games, just because PC floppies held more info and hard drives were standard.

[CodyJarrett]

Fred's talking about both MS-DOS games that equalled/bettered Amiga versions and MS-DOS exclusives.

I only started playing PC games around the time of Dark Forces, on somebody else's PC. When I did get a PC I had Windows 95 and games like Civilization 2.

However, I did play some games that only really ran in DOS e.g. Ultima 7, Ultima Underworld 1&2. There are now patches and conversions of these games that allow them to run in Windows.

[Drake1009]

Could you direct me to the ultima underworld patches Cody? All I've been able to run them with is Dosbox and that's still a bit slow on my system.

And you're right Akira. Fury of the furries did indeed both load better and have load screens on teh PC version. It also included one or two extra levels as far as I recall.

I always found that Prince of Persia worked better on the PC as well. Less delay when exiting a screen and entering the next, that goes for Flashback too.

[CodyJarrett]

It's available here:

http://www.sircabirus.com/ultimaunderworld/pages/

You'll still need to sort out the sound.

[7-Zark-7]

I would've thought the in-built HD advantage with the PC gave it a signifigant advantage on any of the later Sierra or LucasArts adventure games-eg: the difference on playing say Leisure Suit Larry 2,(quite tolerable on floppy), to Larry 3,(a pain in the butt).

Although I can only compare the PC CD versions of Indy & the Fate of Atlantis & Monkey Island 2, the extra colours & CPU power & fast HD access started to show the US programmed "ports" really struggled on Amiga Floppy. Revolution showed what could be done with the likes of Lure of the Temptress, BASS etc., but the differences were still there to see.

[Mangar]

My favorite Dos games had to be Ultima Underworld 1 and 2.

The reason why I bought a PC actually when I found out Origin were no longer developing for the Amiga.

One of the saddest days, I tell ya...