Spotlight: 15 DOS oldies still updated in 2020s

Blogartikel von MrFlibble

It's been over 30 years now since the golden age of DOS gaming (if you're counting from releases of such hallmark games as DOOM or Warcraft II), and while DOS is no longer widely used anymore, we can still enjoy the oldies using emulators like DOSBox. But wait, what if some games continued to get updates to run natively on modern systems? It's perfectly possible if the source code is still around. Some games receive continuous updates through the years, in many cases thanks to community efforts of dedicated maintainers. Let's have a look at some of these beauties.

Abuse (1995)

Dave Taylor, the creator of this interesting sci-fi platform shooter, is a disciple of John Carmack and a proponent of Linux gaming, so the source code was declared public domain together with a good portion of the game's assets (the full game eventually going free as well later on) very soon after its commercial release. Since then, a number of fan-made source ports appeared, with one of most recent ones having a 2022 release. The ports are faithful to the original game and allow it to run seamlessly on modern PCs.

Play in browser or download the original 'Abuse' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'Xenoveritas Abuse' for Windows from GitHub

Brány Skeldalu / Gates of Skeldal (1998)

This Czech party-based fantasy role-playing game, often compared to Lands of Lore, was a labour of such deep love that the author legally changed his name to Skeldal. The source code has been around for some time, as was the Windows port, but in 2025 the game made a major comeback to Steam with a proper English translation and a spiffy new Windows version. Brány Skeldalu looks and sounds very good, and plays nicely too if you're into retro role-playing.

Play in browser or download 'Gates of Skeldal' from DOS Games Archive
Purchase the current version of 'Gates of Skeldal' from Steam

C-Dogs (1997)

An overhead shooter that developed a sort of a cult following, owing in no small part to its frantic gameplay and vast modding capabilities (ever wanted to play Wolfenstein 3-D from a bird's eye perspective? Now you can! It seems that C-Dogs has been continuously updated through the decades, the most recent version having come out just… yesterday? Not really, but it’s not that far off; chances are there will already be another update when you’re reading this. Also, as you might have guessed, there are tons of user content for this game.

Download the original 'C-Dogs' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'C-Dogs SDL' for Windows, macOS and Linux from the official site

Depth Dwellers (1994)

Alright, this one came as a complete surprise to everyone. Really. Depth Dwellers is not on the top of your list when someone asks for "90's Wolf3D shareware clones". It's probably not even in the top 5. But, the game made a sudden comeback in 2025, first as the usual DOSBox-bundled original, and now as a native Windows programme as well. Who'd expect that! And now, a new game mode is also added, and possibly even more is coming up too! This game is, however, not open source, sadly.

Download 'Depth Dwellers' shareware from DOS Games Archive
Purchase the full version of 'Depth Dwellers' from Steam

Beats of Rage (2003)

This side-scrolling beat-'em-up started as Streets of Rage fangame, but quickly became a thing of its own. The source code release made way for one of the most popular free engines to produce various side-scrolling games, some not even related to straightforward fighting at all. However, you can still download OpenBOR (so the engine is called) and play the original Beats of Rage in it natively instead of using DOSBox. The latest engine update is from 2024. Happy punching!

Play in browser or download 'Beats of Rage' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'OpenBOR' for Windows, Linux and Android from GitHub

NetHack (1987)

No list like this would be complete without the legendary roguelike, NetHack. The game continues to evolve and gets more features as time passes, non-stop since 1987. It is more astonishing that the DevTeam has resumed making DOS builds after a hiatus, than that there are versions for modern systems.

Download 'NetHack' from DOS Games Archive
Download the most recent version of 'NetHack' from the official site

Sopwith (1984)

This game was never meant to be anything more than an electronics expo tech demo for a corporate networking system, but it successfully "escaped the lab" and won the hearts of thousands of PC users of the time. Author Dave Clark generously provided the source code to the fans and licensed it under the GNU GPL, after having removed all legacy proprietary components. Thus the game lives on as SDL Sopwith, developed since 2001 and to this day.

Play in browser or download the original 'Sopwith' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'SDL Sopwith' for Windows or Linux from the official website

Tyrian (1995)

This game is a work of art. Lovely visuals, brilliant music and addictive gameplay. Lots of weapons, enemy ships, secrets, alternate playthrough routes and various game modes. It was a love letter to all the great shoot-'em-ups of the arcade era, and the creators felt it appropriate to share the love with the whole world, releasing both the game and the source for everyone to play freely. Tyrian is available for DOS, but also lives on as OpenTyrian for modern platforms, continuously updated.

Download 'Tyrian' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'OpenTyrian' for Windows and Linux from GitHub

Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994)

This one is tricky. Raptor is originally a DOS game that saw an early Windows port by the developer, who kept updating it on and off, but the source code was not available publicly. Then fans reverse-engineered the game and made a cross-platform port, but eventually Raptor's author Scott Host also provided the original DOS source code. There is a 2015 official Windows version of the game, while the reverse-engineered port is still being updated.

Play in browser or download the shareware version of 'Raptor' from DOS Games Archive
Purchase the 2015 version of 'Raptor' from Steam
Download the unofficial port of 'Raptor' for Windows, Linux and Android from GitHub

The Catacomb Abyss (1992)

The source code of this early id Software first-person shooter (a spiritual predecessor of Heretic of sorts) was released in 2014. ReflectionHLE (historically known as Reflection Keen) is a multi-game port that allows to play many of the early id Software-related titles, including the Catacomb games. The port is actively developed and updated, but comes without any game data. You need to download the original shareware version of The Catacomb Abyss to play.

Play in browser or download the shareware version of 'The Catacomb Abyss' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'ReflectionHLE' for Windows, macOS and Linux from GitHub

Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space (1993)

The originally commercial computer adaptation of the board game Liftoff! (where you are either the US or the USSR during the heat of the Space Race) was made freeware by its author Fritz Bronner along with the source code in 2005. Since then, fans have ported it to modern platforms, fixed bugs and added more quality-of-life (QoL) features, and generally kept the game alive, under the title Race Into Space. In 2025, the project received a major update that bumped the version number to the milestone of 2.0.

Play in browser or download 'Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'Race Into Space' for Windows and Linux from GitHub

Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters (1992)

The epic space adventure/strategy game became an instant hit back when it was released, and later on it became freeware and open source. The current project exists as Free Stars, and recently arrived to Steam as a free game.

Download the playable demo of 'Star Control II' from DOS Games Archive
Get 'Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters' for free from Steam

Berušky (1999)

A very cute and colourful puzzle game that will remind you somewhat of Soko-Ban, but with a few twists. It went open source and was ported to more modern platforms since, with numerous updates. The most recent version is from 2020.

Play in browser or download 'Berušky' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'Berušky' for Windows or Linux from the author’s website

Kaos (unreleased)

If you never heard about this game before, don't worry! It's a very obscure first-person "DOOM/Wolf3D clone" from Italy that was never completed. But even in its unfinished state, Kaos manages to grasp the aesthetics and "feel" of early first-person shooter games, and is very playable! The developers released what they had along with the source code and editing tools in the early 2000s, but since then the game received only sporadic attention from first-person shooter fans. The port came as a pleasant surprise, and one might hope that some further community development might take place as well.

Play in browser or download 'Kaos' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'Kaos' source port for Windows from GitHub

SimCity (1989)

Did you know that the classic city-building title was released as a free and open source game in 2008? It was re-branded to Micropolis (the original working title) for trademark reasons, and unfortunately there was no single definitive Windows port made at the time. However, fans work on this game now and then, and there are recent Windows builds that don't require Java or other third-party dependencies to run. A project called WinTown should cover all your city-building needs, but the graphics look pretty small on modern screens!

Play in browser or download the demo of 'SimCity' from DOS Games Archive
Download 'WinTown' for Windows from GitHub