MS-DOS gaming

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/1030753

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In 1996, at a time when Realtime Strategy Games were more popular as ever, one game series decided to take a different approach to the genre and remove direct control over units and production. Like an actual Roman commander, in Blue Byte's Settlers II you don't tell each of your soldiers directly what to do, or what to produce. Rather, you give orders like "conquer that fortress", "attack those barracks", or "allocate more iron to the forge". And then your friend comes over with a second mouse so you can fight it out in split screen.

Join us as we discover what the word "Wuselfaktor" means and whether an indirectly controlled strategy game makes any sense at all.

Our hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are joined by DGC members Wes ("Wesbat") and Benedikt ("Eulisker"), as well as Christopher ("Spike") from the "Return to the Roots" project.

document.createElement('audio'); https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2026/03/ep114.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (160 mins, 184 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for helping to make the podcast happen, and thanks to DGC member Console for editing the audio.

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

• Return to the Roots is a faithful reimplementation of the game

• Our guest Christopher (Spike) made a video tutorial about training soldiers efficiently

• Settlers II review on GoodOldDays.net by DGC member Mr. Creosote

• The Settlers II.net is an online encyclopedia on "The Settlers II Gold Edition" and "Return to the Roots"

• A large collection of custom maps on Isch und Ivans Settler II page

• Siedler 2-MissionCD is an unofficial game extension by Jürgen Nagel

• Christoph Kamon's bachelor's thesis.

• Widelands is a free, open-source real-time strategy game inspired by Settlers II.

• Official Amiga-version of Settlers II released in 2025

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/pcgaming/p/993031/playing-wolfenstein-3d-with-one-hand-in-2026

Over three decades later, this historical curiosity has more than a few rough edges...

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34761352

(Thanks to /u/O_MORES for posting this elsewhere)

There's a brand new HD audio driver for Windows 98/Me called WDMHDA.

Since it's a WDM driver, it will play nice with the Sound Blaster Emulation Layer built into Windows 98/ME (sbemul.sys).

And it actually works. Here's Windows 98 and this codec tested on a Ryzen 9 PC: https://youtu.be/uhWyH0TsrCc

Dynamix is a studio mostly known for their excellent 3D simulation games, such as 1990s "Red Baron", so it was a little surprising to see them behind the 1993 fantasy RPG we looked at in December 2025: Betrayal at Krondor. Like blobbers of the 1980s, you explore the world of Krondor in a turn-based fashion, one tile at a time. But unlike those old dungeon crawlers, Krondor is a fully explorable 3D open world. Despite being based on Raymond E. Feist's "Riftware Cycle" universe, Betrayal at Krondor has an original story and is not based on any specific novel. In fact, it's quite the other way around, because in 1998 the Feist novel "Krondor: The Betrayal" was published, a novelisation of the game! As you can see, there's plenty to talk about with this one.

Sadly host Martijn ("Tijn") isn't joined by Florian ("rnlf") for this one, as he was ill when we recorded this, so he had to cancel. Luckily Richard ("Pix") was able to step in, who of course was on many an episode and is also a keen RPG player. Furthermore we're joined by first-time podcast guests Jens ("Jan0sch") and "VGA256". VGA has a special relation with the game, because he is the maintainer of long-time Krondor fansite Dimwood.net. See the links below for more!

We also received a voice message from DGC member Red.Hexapus, which we are very thankful for. If you also want to contribute a voice message for a future episode, please email it to club@dosgameclub.com

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2026/02/ep113.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (159 mins, 183 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for helping to make the podcast happen, and thanks to DGC member Console for editing the audio.

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Dimwood.net is the current address of one of the oldest and most expansive Betrayal at Krondor fansites on the web, maintained by VGA256

* Pix's Origin Adventures is Richard's website, offering many blog posts and interesting download links on many classic games

* Neal Hallfor's blog tells the story of how Betrayal at Krondor was developed

* CRPG Addict's review of Betrayal at Krondor published only last week!

* Mages & Modems is VGA256's book about their computer history of the 80s and 90s

* Commodork by Rob O'Hara is another personal computer history book, focusing on BBSes and Commodore

* The Riftwar Cycle on Wikipedia, the novel series Betrayal at Krondor is based on / set in

From DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

The Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun Show needs more cute cartoon characters, and animator Drew Blanc is the guy who has to come up with them... by tomorrow morning! Working through the night, his TV suddenly starts acting up and he's sucked into a world filled with toons! Or maybe it's just a dream, who can tell? Either way, Drew is now stuck between a host of different zany cartoon characters as he tries to get back home somehow. That's the premise for Toonstruck (1996, Burst Entertainment / Virgin Interactive), starring "Doc Brown" from Back to the Future, Chris Lloyd. He's joined by an all-star cast of famous voice actors, including Tim Curry, Dom DeLuise, the list goes on. This game is a huge production, but is it any good? Let's find out!

Hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are joined by three guests on this episode. First of all we have returning member Lars ("fastwinstondoom"), who not only has been on many episodes before, but who also suggested we play this game! We're also joined by Daniel ("ainmosni"), who's brand new to the show and only has been a member for a couple of months after he found us through our Mastodon instance. And last but not least we have Ben ("ps_garak"), who previously joined us for Discworld. He streams adventure games on Twitch and is one of the hosts of Quest Quest, a podcast about adventure games.

We also received a voice message from DGC member Watchful, which we are very thankful for. If you also want to contribute a voice message for a future episode, please email it to club@dosgameclub.com

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2026/01/ep112.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (133 mins, 153 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for helping to make the podcast happen, and thanks to DGC member Console for editing the audio.

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Ben's Twitch channel

* Quest Quest, the adventure game podcast hosted by Ben and Jess (who was on our Space Quest episode)

* Advertisement for Toonstruck which focuses on the kinky cow scene, from Computer Gaming World issue #142, May 1996

* Great article about Toonstruck on the Digital Antiquarian by Jimmy Maher (who was on our episode about Planetfall not so long ago)

* While searching for audio clips, we found this great resource of unused media found on the Toonstruck disc

* Thread on our own forums about how to get subtitles in the cutscenes when playing in ScummVM

* And speaking of our forums, as always Pix has scanned in some magazine reviews for us

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

As regular listeners will know, our podcast usually includes a bit where we dive a little into the history of how a game came to be and who was involved with its creation. That part was missing from our recent Halloween Harry episode, and with good reason, because we got a chance to sit down with Halloween Harry creator John Passfield and hear it all from the man himself directly.

He brought his friend and long-time collaborator Pete Mullins along, who among other things helped with making the box art for Flight of the Amazon Queen, another game from the mind of John Passfield. Together they are working on a brand new Halloween Harry game that will be available in the near future.

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/12/ep111.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (73 mins, 84 MB)

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Various clips from Australian TV covering Halloween Harry and Zombie Wars back in the 90s on YouTube

* John Passfield's personal homepage and his game studio Red Sprite Studios together with Pete Mullins

* Archived copy of Apogee/3DRealms' legacy site which hosts the freeware release of Halloween Harry and Alien Carnage, the original page has sadly gone offline recently

* Download Flight of the Amazon Queen (freeware) at scummvm.org

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

We like to pick spooky games for October, as we feel it fits with the Halloween season and everything. Now we wouldn't say Halloween Harry (1993, developed by Interactive Binary Illusions and SubZero Software, published by Apogee) is particularly scary game. It does feature a lot of zombies. But more than anything it has "halloween" in the name, and that's all we need to be convinced to put this on the roster!

Hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are joined by three veteran DGC members: Bjorn ("TigerQuoll"), Shawn ("DJ Hip") and DRS ("dr_st"). The first two guests are both from Australia, which is apt, because that's where Halloween Harry was developed, by John Passfield and his team. More on that in the next episode, in which we get to talk to John Passfield and his business partner Pete Mullins.

Enjoy!

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/12/ep110.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (96 mins, 111 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for helping to make the podcast happen, and thanks to DGC member Console for editing the audio.

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Archived copy of the Halloween Harry Webshrine, an old fan site

* John Passfield's personal homepage and his game studio Red Sprite Studios together with Pete Mullins

* LGR reviewed Halloween Harry on YouTube 12 years ago, and also covered its sequel Zombie Wars no less than 15 years ago

* Archived copy of Apogee/3DRealms' legacy site, the original has sadly gone offline recently

* Blog post about why Elvis Presley randomly showing up was considered absolutely hilarious in the 90s

* More Apogee in DGC episodes: 9 (Commander Keen), 16 (Duke Nukem 3D), 18 (Death Rally), 55 (Rise of the Triad), 65 (Raptor), 93 (Wolfenstein 3D) and 95 (Wacky Wheels)

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/post/671474

As noted earlier, we seem to be having a bit of a space-themed streak at DOS Game Club this year. And it continues with September's game: Ascendancy, a 4X turn-based strategy game from 1995, developed by The Logic Factory. Pick one of the wild and very imaginative alien species featured in this game and get ready to dominate the universe!

Hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") are joined by no fewer than three guests for this episode. First of all Lucas ("Cas") is back, who is also the one who suggested we play this game. He is joined by Hannes ("Mr. Creosote"), who has written a review of Ascendancy for his website GoodOldDays.net (see link below). And last but not least we are joined by Juan ("Reidrac"), who not only plays retro games, but also makes brand new ones for various old platforms, including MS-DOS! See the links below for his website where you can find his games.

We also received a voice message from Peter ("pointer"), who has put together a possibly helpful script to combat the micromanagement that plagues this game, by automating a lot of the clicking around you have to do otherwise. Again, see the links below for the forum thread, we love seeing stuff like this!

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/11/ep109.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (139 mins, 159 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for helping to make the podcast happen, and thanks to DGC member Console for editing the audio.

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Ascendancy review on GoodOldDays.net by Mr. Creosote

* Juan's retro games

* Pointer's AutoHotKey script

* List of alien species, the website has other cool Ascendancy info as well!

* Ascendancy official strategy guide, with a foreword by Logic Factory co-founder Jason Templeman about the history of their game development studio

* We mention Master of Orion 2, another space-themed 4X game, which we discussed on episode 024, back in November 2018

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

We've done some multi-game episodes, where we take a look at a whole genre of (typically) sports-type games. We've looked at skiing games, we've looked at pinball, we've looked at cricket. But this month is our most ambitious one yet, in which we venture into the world of PC golf. No fewer than 50 games have been discussed on our forums, ranging from humble text-only beginnings in the 1980s to fully featured multimedia presentations that really show what your late 90s machine is capable of. There's a golf game for everyone!

Alongside hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") we are joined by two excellent guests. First of all long-time DGC member Richard ("Pix"), who took the deepest dive of all this month and documented his findings on the forums, where he reviewed all 50 golf games for MS-DOS we came across. We are also joined by Corwin ("Wildweasel"), who is the maintainer of the "golfshrine online", a webpage dedicated to a physical cabinet which he uses to showcase his vast collection of golf videogames for various platforms.

Both Richard's forum thread and Corwin's golfshrine are well worth a visit, see the links below!

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/10/ep108.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (114 mins, 131 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for helping to make the podcast happen, and thanks to DGC member Console for editing the audio.

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you!

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Pix's golfing grand tour forum thread

* Golfshrine Online by Wildweasel

* Lot's of Jack Nicklaus custom courses can be found online through discmaster.textfiles.com, such as: this one or this one

* We mention the Sierra Imagination Network at some point, which can still be accessed today through INN Barn

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

cross-posted from: https://retrolemmy.com/post/27625507

What happens when a lowly Stellar Patrol ensign, stuck with endless busywork aboard the S.P.S. Feinstein, suddenly finds himself the lone survivor on a mysterious, crumbling outpost? Intercom's 1983 Planetfall isn't just another text adventure. It's a mix of sci-fi exploration, survival, and an emotional punch to the gut. Will we uncover the secrets of the abandoned alien world? Can we repair the failing base before it's too late? And what about that quirky little robot who insists on following you everywhere? Friend, nuisance, or something more?

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode we have three guests to discuss the game. First of all returning DGC member Hannes ("Mr Creosote"), who wrote a review of Planetfall for his website GoodOldDays.net. Also joining is Tony Longworth, a music composer who contributed music for Jason Scott's "Get Lamp" interactive fiction documentary and also made an album inspired by Infocom games called "Memories of Infocom volume 1". Last but not least we are joined by Jimmy Maher ("The Digital Antiquarian") who has written about the history of videogames in general and Infocom in particular for many years for his website Filfre.net.

We received a voice message by Jon ("BogusMeatFactory"), for which we are very thankful! If you, too, want to be part of a future episode you can send one to club@dosgameclub.com

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/10/ep107.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (230 mins, 263 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix for making us all stick to actual schedules (did you notice we're not really lagging behind anymore?). And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you're a lifesaver!

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you.

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Mr. Creosote's review of Planetfall on GoodOldDays.net

* Memories of Infocom - Volume 1 by Tony Longworth (also available as physical release from polyplay)

* The Mind Electric - a selection of music from Get Lamp by Tony Longworth & Flesh-Resonance

* The Digital Antiquarian offers many relevant articles, for example this one about Planetfall and this one about the roots of Infocom

* The Literate Pixel podcast hosted by Jon ("BogusMeatFactory") and Nick

* Get Lamp documentary about interactive fiction by Jason Scott

* Steve Meretzky's personal homepage

* In 2008 Steve Meretzky wrote about how he created Floyd the robot in Planetfall

* Steve Meretzky kept meticulous notes, the ones on Planetfall are available on archive.org: part 1 and part 2

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

I do not remember how or when I acquired this shareware game, but when I briefly lost internet access in '96 I play a lot of it. I have been trying to remember the name of the game for years, this weekend I found the manual in storage.

Time to try getting it to run again and see if it is as good as I remember it being.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aethra_Chronicles

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-aethra-chronicles-volume-one-celystra-s-bane-31i

Update: after reading the Wikipedia entry, I likely got the shareware version via a magazine in '94-96, then mailed away for the full version in '96.

With Earthworm Jim previously and Planetfall up next, you could say we're on a bit of a space-themed streak here. But while those games have lots of other things going on, the Elite series puts the vastness of outer space absolutely front and centre.

When the original Elite came out in 1984 the sheer scale of the game blew everyone away. A whole universe on a floppy disk, who would have thought it possible! It was going to take a lot to amaze the audience again when the sequel was released, a whopping 9 years later. But Frontier: Elite II had kept up with current events. Gone were the wireframe graphics, a new colourful galaxy was there for you to explore. Just request take off permission and fly off, commander!

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") on this episode we have two guests to discuss the game. First of all returning DGC member Brian ("SpaceGameJunkie") who as you can tell by the username is all about space games. See the links below to find his YouTube and Twitch channels as well as the two (!) retro gaming podcasts he hosts. Also joining for the very first time is Tane, for who Frontier is one his favourite games. He also made a cool space visualiser inspired by Frontier that's linked below.

We received no voice messages this time (boo!), but if you want to be part of a future episode you can send one to club@dosgameclub.com

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/08/ep106.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (144 mins, 164 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix, who also recorded the audio clips from his retro hardware which you hear in the episode's intro. And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you're a lifesaver!

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we couldn't do this without you.

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Check out Brian's stuff at spacegamejunkie.com and retrodogfight.com

* teskooano.space is Tane's procedural space viewer

* Ian Bell's website

* Frontier Fundamentals is a fantastic beginner-friendly tutorial series on YouTube by JimPlaysGames

* Great Frontier fan sites: Frontierverse and FrontierAstro

* Some games mentioned on the podcast are: Frontier First Encounters D3D, Oolite and Pioneer

* We mention Starflight, which was discussed on DGC episode 17 and Nomad, which was discussed on DGC episode 40

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

"It's a day like any other. A crow is chasing a worm, a worm named Jim. Today the worm escapes to safety and the crow eats dirt. Jim looks left, then right. It seems he has given the crow the slip. Jim returns to his normal daily life, cruising about avoiding crows and doing other general worm-like things. Jim is suddenly struck by a very large ultra high tech indestructible super space cyber suit." This is all the backstory we get from the manual to explain why a worm is walking around in a space suit. And to be fair, it's all we need!

Earthworm Jim (1994, Shiny Entertainment) is the kind of 2D platformer, with its cartoony graphics and smooth animations, that was becoming quite commonplace on the consoles of the time, but was still pretty rare to see on the PC. As a product of the 90s it's full of bizarre humour, only elevated by its eclectic soundtrack. There's no doubt this game has a great production quality. But is it fun to play? Let's find out!

Joining hosts Martijn ("Tijn") and Florian ("rnlf") we are joined by two guests. First of all DGC member Wouter ("Jefklek") is back, who previously was on the Heretic episode. Newly joining the show is Lukasz ("Red Hexapus") who turns out to be a big fan of the game, so that's always good.

Once again DGC members Watchful was so kind to send in a voice message, for which we are very thankful. If you also want to send in a voice message, you can email them to us at club@dosgameclub.com

https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/08/ep105.mp3

[ download mp3 ] (117mins, 134 MB)

Thanks to our producer Pix, who also recorded the audio clips from his retro hardware which you hear in the episode's intro. And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you're a lifesaver!

Thanks to all who make this show possible, we can't do this without you.

RELEVANT LINKS:

* Earthworm Jim DOS and Windows comparison by DGC member dr_st, who also suggested we play the game!

* Very colourful Earthworm Jim fan site full of drawings and other cool things

* All of Jim's idle animations by Master0fHyrule on YouTube

* Shiny Entertainment was previously discussed in DGC episode 96, on MDK

From Episodes – DOS Game Club via this RSS feed

I loved this game, and this intro is great. Stick around for the 2nd video in the playlist for the "GROK" drop lol and the chief talking. Some real core memories for me.