DOSBox Staging vs DOSBox-X vs Vanilla DOSBox: Which to Use
“Just use DOSBox” used to be simple advice. It still mostly is, except there are now three actively maintained projects […]
Guides
DOSBox
History
The Games That Killed DOS: Windows 95, DirectX, and the End of an Era
DOS gaming didn’t end with a single dramatic event. It ended over roughly two years, as a new operating system
Guides
EMS vs XMS: Why DOS Memory Drove Gamers Crazy
Ask anyone who set up games on DOS in the early 1990s about “memory management” and you’ll probably get a
CGA, EGA, VGA: The Hardware History of DOS Graphics
How IBM’s CGA, EGA, and VGA cards evolved from 4 colors to 262,000 — plus the Tandy/PCjr trick and composite color hack developers used to beat them.
AdLib vs. Sound Blaster: The DOS Sound Card War
How AdLib and Creative Labs fought for DOS gaming audio, and why Wolfenstein 3D sounded different depending on your sound card.
Warcraft II (1995): Blizzard’s Rise and the C&C Rivalry
How a twice-renamed studio called Blizzard beat Command & Conquer’s three-month head start to help define the real-time strategy genre.
Clouds of Xeen (1992): The RPG Built to Merge in Two
How Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen was engineered to merge with its sequel into one world, plus DOSBox setup and early-game tips.
King’s Quest I (1984): Sierra’s IBM PCjr Showcase
IBM commissioned King’s Quest to sell its failed PCjr computer. Roberta Williams’ game outlived the hardware and invented the graphic adventure.
Beneath a Steel Sky: Dave Gibbons’ DOS Adventure
How Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons helped design 1994’s Beneath a Steel Sky, and how it became a freeware classic preserved by ScummVM.
Epic Pinball (1993): James Schmalz’s DOS Classic
One programmer wrote Epic Pinball in assembly language in 10 months — then used its success to found the studio behind Unreal and Warframe.
Daggerfall (1996): Bethesda’s Buggy, Enormous Gamble
Daggerfall’s procedurally generated world dwarfs Great Britain in size — how it was built, why it broke so often, and how to play it (free) in 2026.
Civilization (1991): From Board Game to PC
How Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley turned Francis Tresham’s board game roots into the 1991 MicroProse classic — the real prototyping story.