The Islands that count toward the 54 are; 11 for Area 1 (10 islands plus the boss island Worm Pit). 16 for Area 2 (15 islands plus the boss island Dragon's Lair). 16 for Area 3 (15 islands plus the boss island World's End). 2 for the islands (The Gate and Portal Knight's Sanctuary) that are just after defeating the Hollow King.

This article first appeared at Den of Geek UK.I’d had a for a little while by the early ’90s, a rather bleak looking 286 with kilobytes of memory. After saving up though, I took the plunge one day and purchased a shiny new 486 DX2-66, with many megabytes of memory and an ATI Mach 32.

With that extra power unleashed, DOS gaming had me hooked once more. And it was amazing. X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Doom, and many more took over my life, and my money was spent back in the local computer shops.Join us now as we tweak our Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files and take a look at 50 underappreciated DOS games from various years. Those games that no one ever seems to mention anymore and that have fallen from memory. You won’t find and the like on here, but maybe you’ll recall one or two others. It was pretty basic looking, even for an early DOS game. You were a pink square that needed to be controlled around the floorplans of various government buildings.

Behind you was a fuse that had a flame following it after a few seconds of starting the level. The idea was simple: you needed to set fire to the entire floor, destroying virtually everything in the floor while you legged it down the stairs to the next level. To help you further the conflagration, there were petrol cans lying around that could be picked up and spilt to help the fire spread to the corners of the floor.It wasn’t one to show your mother, and I vaguely recall there being some Mary Whitehouse-like backlash from the idea that you’re setting fire to government buildings. Still, an ace game.49. Dope WarsAnother DOS game that caused something of a stir from various focus groups, churches, parents against things corrupting their young and pretty much everyone on the planet with a moral consciousness.

That didn’t stop a lot of us from buying the disk from computer fairs though.Basically the immoral storyline has you as a small-time drug dealer, in debt up to your eyeballs with a loan shark. The only way you can pay him back is to buy drugs from one location, and sell them for more in another location. It was a stunning game, with the later CD version having stills and clips from the film as well as speech. The floppy disk version though was just as captivating, but those Spice demands were tough. An excellent game, even by today’s standards. 46. I Have No Mouth, And I Must ScreamQuite a disturbing adventure game this, as you play as one of five tortured characters trying to outwit the hateful Allied Mastercomputer, or AM as he likes to call himself.Can you remember the opening? It’s about how much he hates humanity, how if every nanoangstrom of the 387 miles of circuitry was engraved with the word “hate,” that wouldn’t equal one one-billionth of the hate AM feels towards us.

So it’s quite chipper.Anyway, AM takes the character you choose into their past and throws them into their darkest fears. With the voice of Harlan Ellison as AM (who also wrote the short story based on the game), there are some real tense and odd moments. Anyone recall playing as Gorrister and talking to Edna while she was strung up on a meat hook with slaughtered pig carcases? 45. Little Big AdventureAdeline Software International’s Little Big Adventure was a 3D isometric adventure game that featured some of the best graphics of the time, and a compelling storyline. Little Big Adventure was a fantastic game. The CD version had animated cut-scenes, speech and more music. There’s even an Android version available these days!44. Epic PinballEpic MegaGames’ Epic Pinballwas one of the first DOS games I played.

The shareware version, the first couple of tables, came free on the front of a magazine.The Android table was incredible. I recall spending hours playing that – two-player with friends – to see how much of a score we could rack up. Amazingly, the entire game was programmed in assembly, but the music, sound effects, and speed of the ball were simply incredible. If you can get it running, it’s still lost none of its hours-sapping power. 43. Gorillas.BASOkay, here’s a game that I, er, think virtually everyone reading this has played: Gorillas.BAS. Gorillas.BAS was a great game, and exposure to the code helped form the future of many a developer.

Toying around with the code and making the explosions nuclear kept us busy for hours. You can find a modern version of the source code. 42. Rise of the TriadApogee had a lot to answer for back in its shareware days.

Commander Keen, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem were all much loved DOS games. But one of its oddest releases is the one I’ll mention here: Rise of the Triad.Rise of the Triad was ludicrous, gory, and exceptionally fast paced. The modified Wolfensteindevelopment engine was pushed to its limits here, and when you got several players involved, all running around and blindly wiping out everything in their path, it did get a little heavy on the old system resources.Apparently, there were supposed to be more enemies in the game, but technical limitations stopped a lot of them appearing. However, the CD version did have the female enemies’ voices on it, as well as the artwork.

Also, dual pistols! Happy memories 41. D/GenerationMindscape’s D/Generation was a fantastic 3D isometric adventure puzzler, where you had to figure out how to evade the security system on each floor of a building while rescuing the trapped employees. You could collect a laser gun as well, that bounced off the walls when fired allowing you to hit door controls and such like, and grenades, too.

A great game that kept you hooked for many hours. 40. Battle ChessLong before Harry Potter’s deadly game of chess in the bowels of Hogwarts, we had Battle Chess. This is by far one of my most played games in this list. It kept me hooked when the dizzying effects of Rise of the Triad had lost their shine, and I couldn’t handle another game of pinball.Battle Chesswas, as you can assume, a 3D version of chess. The sims 3 supernatural release date. But here instead of just taking the other player’s piece, you got to watch a cool little animation as the pieces got into a fight and took each other down.The fight animations differed depending on the piece.

The knights cut off arms and legs (like in Monty Python), the Queen did a little hip shake and fried a piece with her magic, and the Rook turned into a rock monster and smashed the opposition. Great stuff.39. Albion. The game starts off with the aforementioned sequence, a dream as it turns out, as the hero prepares to take a shuttle down to a planet to explore for valuable minerals prior to the entire planet being stripped of all its resources by some big mega-company.There’s magic, turn-based combat, and countless areas, characters, and items to interact with, and strange teleporters hidden behind the all-seeing-eye symbols on walls. Pushing through Albion is worth it though, even just for the closing sequence.

38. Red BaronEnjoying the flight simulation genre with the likes of Falcon on the ST was a fantastic experience, but these modern fighters lack the intense dogfights of World War I games. This was where Red Baron stepped up to the mark.This was a startlingly impressive game for the time. There were loads of flight options, missions, and just about everything you could list in a flight sim menu at the start of the game. Once you’d got through it all though, and were behind the stick of an ancient flying machine, things certainly heated up.Amazingly, it was one of the few games that actually made you feel every bullet that tore through the canvas and balsa wood frame of your aircraft. And should you progress far enough, and depending on the side you chose at the start of the game, you’d either end up fighting with or against the Red Baron himself.

A bit like fighting alongside Vader in TIE Fighter. 37. Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan MastersTo many of you reading this, and me included, Star Control 2 was one of the most played DOS games we had in our library.It was an immense arcade adventure, where you traveled throughout the galaxy in a quest to help free Earth from the evil Ur-Quan. To do this you needed to gain the trust of the other alien species scattered among the stars and add them to your growing fleet, and gain enough resources to keep your ancient alien technology starship up and running.Combat was handled through a blisteringly fast melee system, where you pitted your fleet of ships against the enemy, with each having its own unique mode of flight, defensive, and weapon systems.Who here remembers waiting around the Circini system for the portal to Quasi-Space and access to the Arilou to open? Or spending a worrying amount of time hanging around Betelgeuse in an attempt to win over the Syreen? Star Control 2is a Den of Geek article in itself, and although now open source, it’s still one of the best DOS/PC games ever. 36. UFO: Enemy UnknownAlthough a turn-based strategy game didn’t sound all that appealing while the likes of DOOM, X-Wing, and other such notable games were available, UFO: Enemy Unknown actually turned out to be one the best DOS games of the time. Modern follow-ups have brought attention back to it, but don’t let this original pass you by.It was an extraordinarily well crafted game with an intense, nail-biting board on which to play.

Locating a UFO, bringing it down, and micro-managing the intercept crew and their weapon loadouts were just the beginning. Once you landed and stepped foot on the terrain where the UFO crashed though, that’s when things tensed up.The turn-based element worked exceedingly well. Rather than going in guns blazing, you had to pick your way through the area, hunting down the aliens and UFO itself while looking for cover and trying to stick together.

Then when you suddenly catch movement at the edge of the screen, you scream. It’s in there! Get it!”All the while, you had to keep a watchful eye on the world politics, looking for governments that may have made secret pacts with the aliens, and juggling your own resources and cash flow. It holds together today too, and is awaiting you on Steam if you have a few coins spare 35.

Alone in the DarkFor a lot of gamers, Alone in the Dark was the beginning of the survival horror genre. Others would argue that survival horror goes back as far as 3D Monster Maze. However, Alone in the Dark was the first of the magnificently graphical modern representations.Based on the feverish mind of H. Lovecraft, Alone in the Dark‘s polygon characters soon became the template for the genre, trapping you as either Edward Carnby or Emily Hartwood in the haunted mansion of Derceto.In a tale of grisly murders, curses, lunacy, devil worshipping, evil power, and a host of other supernatural shenanigans, you had a wealth of puzzles that needed sorting out before you could escape. Death lurked around every corner, and one false step would mean you having to repeat your steps.A fabulous, atmospheric, and often scary game, with hints of old E.A.P. And plenty of content from the Necronomicon. Splendid stuff, this.34. Wing CommanderDOS was no stranger to 3D space combat simulators, and while there were some incredible titles to be had, not many gamers seem to recall the original Wing Commander too much these days.Like some cheesy 80s sci-fi film, the intro credits roll to heroic music, space dogfights, and passing asteroids.

Then it’s to the bar aboard the TCS Tiger’s Claw for a spot of chitchat with the crew, including Paladin’s magnificent mustachios.With girly pin-ups in the barracks, blue hair, scenes of the crew running to their ships, and such names as Blue Devil Squadron and the Killer Bees, Wing Commander was a hit from the word go. It was a breakthrough game, utilizing the current PC hardware to the max. Playing now, it’s amazing how difficult the game actually is.

33. Hard Drivin’Hard Drivin’was one of the titles I really wanted to mention for the, but in all honesty, it was the DOS version I ended up playing after tackling it at the arcades.Fair enough, despite the advanced power of a PC Hard Drivin’didn’t quite have the same look and feel on the desktop as it did in the arcades. Still, it was quite an achievement in 3D graphics and technology for the time.A few questions: did anyone ever obey the speed limits? Did anyone ever make that first right-hand bend to the stunt track without going off-road? The bomber squadron restaurant cleveland.

And can you remember what happened when you hit a cow? 32. Hugo’s House of HorrorsThis is a strange little shareware game I recall picking up at a trade fair once in the early 90s. In terms of graphics, animation, music and well just about everything else, it was pretty dire-looking. However, there was something about it that kept me playing.The fact that I refused to be beaten by it was one element, and that I paid nearly a fiver for it was the other.

It must have taken me days to realize that picking up the pumpkin and smashing it revealed the key, and working out which button for the green-skinned, purple underpants, color-blind Igor to press was a test of patience at its best.An odd, but also rather good Sierra-like adventure at the same time. Magic CarpetBullfrog Productions brought us Populous and Syndicate, both of which were immensely popular. However, Magic Carpet seems to have been largely forgotten these days, which is a shame as it was one of the best 3D landscape games around.The game was spread over 50 levels, each individually named with the player whizzing around the world on a magic carpet, as the title suggests. You collected Manna, which allowed you to cast spells in defense or attack against enemy wizards. All you needed to do was store enough Manna in your castle to restore equilibrium to the world. Easier said than done, though.Interestingly, some versions came with the old 3D red/blue glasses in the box for the game’s Stereogram mode, and it was also compatible with the VR headsets available at the time.

30. Redneck RampageOne of the oddest games I collected over the years has to be Redneck Rampage. This first-person shooter wasn’t the most politically correct of games to ever grace the PC, nor was it all that good to be honest, but it was fun in a strange kind of way.You play as Leonard and Cletus, two deep south brothers whose prize pig has been stolen (pignapped? Feel free to use your own prime minister joke here) by invading aliens. Using a modified Duke Nukem 3D engine, you have to shoot everything that moves to get the swine back.Featuring an immense amount of bad language and redneck stereotyping, there was something oddly appealing about throwing a stick of dynamite at a shotgun-wielding Billy Ray while drunk on “cheap-ass” whiskey across all fifteen levels.Any game that finishes with “You’ve withstood the awesome force of Assface, impressive,” needs a mention.29. ComancheNovaLogic, of Delta Force fame (which was an amazing game), first toyed around with its Voxel Space engine technology in Comanche, or Comanche: Maximum Overkill as it was also known.For those who can’t recall Comanche, it was a helicopter combat simulator, and a very good one, too.

You could zip through valleys, overseas and mountains, and drop down on the enemy to deliver death and destruction from an ultra-modern attack chopper.It looks quite dated now, but if you put a set of headphones on and say “Roger that” a lot, it feels quite realistic. 28. Realms of ChaosRealms of Chaos was one of the last Apogee titles to make it to the desktop, but it was one that’s certainly worth playing again.The shareware version only had the first of three episodes available, and as far as I was aware, it was pretty difficult to get hold of from the game shops in the UK (I purchased it via a 3D Realms BBS).On the face of it, Realms was a pretty bland looking 2D scroller, but it was hugely entertaining, and it allowed you to swap between the Conan-like character to a Wonder Woman-like character with the Space Bar for different combat abilities. The best part was the ability to save at any point in the game for a restart after dinner. 27. Silent Service 2This is one I picked up as part of a compilation MicroProse pack from a charity shop in the mid to late 90s.

Having played a few older submarine combat sims in the past, on various platforms, the extra power a decent PC offered was something I was looking forward to, and Silent Service 2 didn’t disappoint.After much choosing of your sub and the area of war you were planning on taking to the might of the Japanese Navy, Silent Service 2 was a long drawn out game of tactics and choosing your future operations based on intel from CINCPAC. Finally though, if you were lucky, you’d get to face off against the Battleship Yamato. Not many lived to survive that bit, though. 26. Master of OrionMaster of Orion, the game that invented the 4X strategy term.

An immense turn-based game that basically took over your life once you started to play it. I’d probably be lynched if I didn’t mention it in a list of DOS games.Despite its popularity though, it’s barely mentioned today. In my opinion, it’s the sort of game everyone should have played at least once in their lives. It’s hard to compare too much to the moment where discovering Orion and the Guardian results in a complete loss of all your ships. Where colonization, military, research, planning, and combat all come together in such a way as to feel like your brain is melting out of your ears.According to myth, the copy protection scheme used was so good (or bad) that the original game couldn’t even load up at times. Anyone have this issue? 25. Scorched EarthWhere Gorillas.BAS was quite a simple approach to the old artillery genre, Scorched Earth took everything one step further.

“The mother of all games,” as it called itself.You still had to wipe out the other player’s tank by judging the power, angle, and so on against the wind speed and direction, but with Scorched Earth, you earned money for a win which you could spend on more elaborate weaponry.Linux users have enjoyed a 3D version of Scorched Earthfor years, but it was back in the good old BBS shareware days that version 1.2 appeared and we could fiddle around with the physics, economics, landscapes, and weapons. Sadly, I never got to play version 1.0, which the purist would argue is the better version (or 1.0b), but hey it was still an ace game.

Did you know that you could edit the messages that appeared on the screen? I’ve only just found that out.24. Star Trek: 25th AnniversaryQuite possibly the best game ever developed is the 25th Anniversary edition from Interplay. The floppy disk version, which came on about eight thousand disks, took an age to install.

The CD version had voices from the original actors, better sound effects, and music too.The two parts to the game, one where you were on the away mission and the other on-board the Enterprise, were marvelously designed. The point and click adventure mode on the away mission took the majority of the gameplay, from what I recall, and trying to get a redshirt crushed by rocks or eaten soon became the main focus.Taking control of the Enterprise was immense fun during combat. I can only imagine the conversation on the Klingon bridge at watching me trying to bring the Enterprise about and continually missing. “Doch ghe”or “YItungHa’, qaH QaQ ‘Iv?” or something. 23. Simon the SorcererClassic point and click adventure gaming in a very LucasArts vein. Everything was in Simon the Sorcerorthat should be in a graphical adventure. Humor, clever puzzles, great animation, an excellent script, and the odd poke at books such as, Narnia, Jack and the Beanstalk, and so on.Simon’s dog Chippy finds a chest in the loft in which there’s the Ye Olde Spell Booke.

After tossing it to one side, a portal opens and in goes Chippy followed by Simon, where he finds himself on a quest to rescue Calypso, the grand high wizard, from the evil sorcerer Sordid.A great adventure game that’s often overlooked these days, with the CD version having the voice cast of Chris Barrie. And finally, was I the only one who wanted a bed like Calypso’s, tucked away in a window recess? 22. Space Quest II: Vohaul’s RevengeOne more adventure before I move on, and one of the most enjoyable I played on my early PC: Space Quest II: Vohaul’s Revenge.I remember the box had a comic inside detailing the time between Space Quest 1 and this episode.

Sadly, I never got around to playing Space Quest 1, though.The humor in Space Quest II was one of the main draws of the game. Elements such as “We hope you’re not looking for anyone to blame because you died” messages in the About Space Quest 2 menu and the writing on the bathroom wall on Vohaul’s asteroid that mentions the developers and other games. There’s even a reference to Leisure Suit Larry when Roger Wilko is rendered unconscious. Navy FightersCombat simulators were extremely popular for the PC in the DOS era, but U.S.

Navy Fighterswas one of my personal favorites.U.S. Navy Fighters looked amazing. In fact, the DX2-66 I had couldn’t cope with the highest level of graphics. Even my mate’s DX4-100 struggled sometime later. The missions were well conceived, and you could even create your own missions.A pretty amazing combat sim this.

I’ll even go out on a limb and say it was better than Falcon 3.0. Mind you, your wingman had the nasty habit of flying off and taking out a target that was three hundred miles away for some odd reason. 20. SimAntSimAnt was an interesting game I picked up at one of those travelling computer fairs – one that was held in Bolton. I recall there being a huge manual with it, a veritable encyclopedia of ants as well as the instructions on how to play the game.There were several modes of play, where you had to raise your colony of ants, hunt for food, and defend and attack other colored ants as well other insects, which could also be used for food. It was oddly absorbing being an ant.According to legend, Will Wright developed the concept for The Sims while coding SimAnt. And doesn’t the House View remind you of Plants vs.

Zombies?19. Alien BreedThis top-down, Gauntlet-like game was immensely enjoyable back in the day. Developed by Team 17, of Superfrog (we’re coming to that) and Wormsfame, the game was obviously heavily influenced by the Alien films.You played as a space marine-type dude, heavily armed and up against a seemingly unlimited number of aliens. All you needed to do was find the exit to the next level and progress deeper into the station, all the while picking up credits to buy better weapons and health packs to heal yourself with.The levels were huge and maze-like, making them a dream come true for the gaming cartographer. And the two player option was great. 18. ArchipelagosArchipelagos is by far one of most intriguing and absorbing puzzles games ever created.

It’s a little like a cross between The Sentineland Populous, in that you have to manipulate the 3D landscape in order to build land bridges across the 10,000 different islands.When you’ve made it to another island, you’ll need to destroy the obelisk radiation generators on each one. Each generator is fed power through several sub-generators, so you’ll need to wipe them out before having about a minute to finish off the actual generator.It’s one of those games that takes ages to complete, if you ever do, but is thoroughly enjoyable the entire time.

17. SuperfrogSuperfrog is one of the most enjoyable sidescrolling 2D platformers for DOS, an absolute treat. You take on the role of a frog, who was once a prince that has been turned into said Anura by a wicked witch – who has also kidnapped your girlfriend.Naturally, you’ll need to rescue her and get back to being a human again, and you do this by racing through five different worlds, collecting coins and other things. Think of Superfrog as an early clone and you won’t go wrong.Sadly, there’s no detailed intro with the PC version, as there is with the Amiga version. But still, a cracking little game. 16. The Elder Scrolls: DaggerfallWe’re all familiar with the current Elder Scrolls games these days— Oblivion, and of course, Skyrim. However, way back in 1996 Bethesda released the second of series, Daggerfall.Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall was an immense game, so big it actually had a map size of 62,394 square miles (apparently the biggest map in any game – unless you want to count ), complete with 15,000 cities, towns, and hamlets for you to wander aimlessly around, and hundreds of individuals you can occasionally poke your sword at.Daggerfall doesn’t get quite as much appreciation these days as it deserves. Obviously, and Oblivionstill take up the lion’s share of the internet, but despite its age, Daggerfall still has a lot to offer.

15. Lighthouse: The Dark BeingThis is my wife’s favorite Sierra On-Line game ever. A 1996 largely forgotten adventure where you have to find various clues to find the whereabouts of Dr. Jeremiah Krick and his infant daughter, Amanda, in an alien and parallel world to ours.The game was on CD, so featured lots of excellent Myst-like graphics, cut scenes, and tons of sound effects, voices, and so on.