Relive your childhood with online DOS gaming

For many of us, our first experience with PC gaming came in the form of games like Commander Keen, Duke Nukem and Jill of the Jungle. These games ran on MS-DOS, and served as the foundations and inspiration for many PC developers today.

Being over 20 years old, finding a hard copy of these games is rare, but many classic titles are available for purchase legally through game services like Steam and GOG, and others (like Duke Nukem) directly from the developer’s website.

However, there are still many freeware titles that are still available to play online with your web browser, legally and free of charge. Here are the three best websites to play your favourite old school PC games online.

Disclaimer: An up-to-date version of Java is required to play browser-based DOS gaming.

Archive.org Software Library

Archive.org’s Software library has a vast library filled with the best PC games of the DOS era. Games runs off EM-DOSBOX, a web emulator based off DOSBOX for Windows, running extremely smoothly in your browser, however unlike DOSBOX for Windows, it lacks the ability to save. The emulator is currently in Beta, so glitches are to be expected.

Sarien

Listed as one of Time Magazine’s top 50 best websites in 2013, Sarien is an authorised portal to access the first episodes of the King’s Quest, Police Quest and Space Quest series by Sierra Games. The games are available in both multiplayer and single player modes, allowing players the opportunity to play alongside one another, and interact. Sarien has also ported these games to iPad.

 RBG Classic Games

RGB Classic Games has an extensive library of freeware and “abandonware” that is available to play on your web browser. Each game is distributed legally, and though abandonware (software that is no longer supported or released by the publisher) is illegal, RGB Classic Games defines it as software that the developer has abandoned all legal rights to. While the games don’t run as smoothly as those on Archive.org, the website offers a nostalgic, early-internet style charm to its layout and a small discussion forum.

For those who wish to save progress, an emulator such as DOSBOX for Windows or Boxer for OS X is required. RGB Classic games offers a selection of game roms to download.