Oldies remade: the best remakes of old DOS games
Games developed for DOS or early microcomputers (such as the Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro, etc.) date back to the 1980s. Simply put, these games are old. Graphics, sound, user experience, and interface were vastly different compared to recent games.
Game development has made significant strides over the years, and today’s games are in a completely different league. Despite this, some of these archaic games are fondly remembered by enthusiasts dedicated enough to invest significant effort into remaking them.
Some of these old games have been recreated from scratch to varying degrees of faithfulness, whether by major gaming companies, indie developers, or individual fans in their spare time. Some of these remakes are available to download as free games or even as open-source software on various sharing sites. Others can only be played online, and some are available for purchase.
What's the difference between a remake and a port?
A remake is a complete recreation of an older game, developed from the ground up using modern technology.
A port, by contrast, is a direct conversion of a game for a different platform. It isn't rebuilt from scratch and usually retains much of the original code, often requiring minimal changes to work on the new system.
A remaster is an updated version of an existing game, typically enhancing the original with improved graphics, sound, and sometimes refined controls, but without significant changes to the core gameplay or design.
Some of the games on Abandonware DOS are remakes - specifically, older ones. I’ve created a dedicated page to track both these classic remakes and their modern counterparts.
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