God of Thunder (1993): Thor’s Puzzle-Box Norse Adventure
By 1993 the DOS action shelf was packed with corridors full of imps and Nazis to shoot, so a Norse-mythology […]
Platformer
Prehistorik 2 (1993): A Caveman Platformer That Doesn’t Want to Hurt You
Not every DOS platformer needs to be Rayman-level brutal to be worth remembering. Prehistorik 2, Titus Interactive’s 1993 sequel to
Rayman (1995) Review: Beautiful, Hand-Drawn, and Absolutely Merciless
Rayman doesn’t have arms or legs, technically speaking — his gloves and boots just float near where limbs would normally
Earthworm Jim (1995): Shiny Entertainment’s Case for Weird Platformers
An ordinary earthworm named Jim finds a super-powered robotic suit and ends up fighting bizarre villains across an equally bizarre
Disney’s Aladdin (1994) for DOS: A Licensed Platformer That Actually Delivered
Movie tie-in games earned their bad reputation honestly in the early ’90s, which makes it worth pointing out when one
The Lion King (1994): The Disney Platformer With That Stampede Level
Say “The Lion King video game” to anyone who owned a DOS machine in the mid-90s and there’s a decent
Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter (1991), the Episode Apogee Kept Hidden
The Keen Episode Most Players Never Saw Most of the original Commander Keen games reached players through Apogee’s shareware model,
Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare (1994): Epic’s Free Christmas Gift Still Holds Up
Every December, a handful of studios release a throwaway holiday-themed level pack that nobody remembers by January. Epic MegaGames managed
Vinyl Goddess from Mars (1995): Shareware’s Last Great Platformer Gamble
By 1995, shareware platformers were running out of road — Windows 95 was months away, and the floppy-disk-and-BBS distribution model
Word Rescue (1992): Apogee’s Free Vocabulary Platformer
By 1992, Apogee had built its name distributing run-and-gun shareware platformers. Then the company turned its formula toward classrooms with
Math Rescue (1992): The Free Apogee Platformer That Actually Teaches Arithmetic
Can a game built around solving math problems actually be fun rather than something you tolerate because a teacher assigned
Xargon (1993): Epic MegaGames’ Most Overlooked Free Platformer
Long before Unreal, Epic MegaGames made its money on shareware platformers. Xargon is arguably the best of that early lineup,