10 Essential DOS First-Person Shooters

Welcome to the first episode in a new series, where I take a look at some of the finest DOS games each genre has to offer. It's by no means a "top 10", but showcases some of the essential must-play DOS first-person shooters available.
Let me know your favourites in the comments!
You can find some of these games via these links:
GOG:
www.gog.com/?pp=8026ea3366528...
DOSBox:
www.dosbox.com/
dosgames.com:
www.dosgames.com/category/3d-...
Video sources:
Doom II - World of Longplays (played by JonL)
/ @worldoflongplays
Wolfenstein 3D - TTDLX
/ @ttdlx
Rise of the Triad - TheSeriousCacodemon
/ @theseriouscacodemon
Blake Stone - Gaming And Technology Variety Channel
/ @gamingtechnologyvarie...
Blood - LongplayArchive
/ @longplayarchive
Dark Forces intro - TooCloseToSpawn
/ @tooclosetospawn
Dark Forces - TehNevs
/ @tehnevs
HeXen - World of Longplays (played by JonL)
/ @worldoflongplays
HeXen - Gggmanlives
/ @gggmanlives
Duke Nukem 3D - LongplayArchive
/ @longplayarchive
Redneck Rampage - Cubeface
/ @cubeface
Quake - Jacko Davis
/ @jackodavis969
Shadow Warrior - LongplayArchive
/ @longplayarchive
Redneck Rampage background music:
Lobo Loco - Running Eiskrokodil (Free Music Archive)

[@onaretrotip]

Apologies for the mouth clicks (and some background noise - the cat), I was a bit close to the mic on this one. I'll sort it for the next episode. Let me know in the comments what your favourite DOS first-person shooters are!

[@Adam-FR]

Great videos, I only kind of wish you have some of the game sound in the background, and maybe some points where the game volume is up when you don't talk. Other than that, I love it.

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, unfortunately my editing software makes that really hard to do, but I'll definitely consider it if I can find a way round it. Thanks, Adam!

[@pontusthuren2197]

Great videos! I've been looking everywere for an old game and I was hoping it would show up om this list, but it didn't.. Perhaps you know wich one ut could be? I think The game uses The Old wolfenstein engine, and you walk around in a gigantic mansion, shooting skeletons, and zombies, then on The third level there are witches that are a pain in The ass and you have to use a magic wand to kill them I think.. Sounds wierd, got an clue what it could be?? =D

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks! Catacomb 3D maybe?

[@pontusthuren2197]

@@onaretrotip Thanks for reply =) Sorry, thats wasnt The game. But I did find it. It's called Nitemare 3D kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZvQcoOYrahgn6c

[@Highretrogamelord]

I recommend Strife. It is basically an FPS game with dialogues where you have more than one choice to answer. You are also getting quests you have to fulfill. And if you are a fan of The Terminator, you will like SkyNET and The Terminator: Future Shock.

[@Zontar82]

@Game james very underrated game

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks for the recommendations, I've not played Strife or Terminator: Future Shock!

[@ziscer7570]

strife is rpg

[@pauls4522]

Strife is a pseudo immersive sim. Definitely a must play to get you into an early example of that style of game.

[@Osprey850]

​@@onaretrotip Terminator: Future Shock was pretty groundbreaking. It introduced true mouselook before Quake and had drivable vehicles that you could get in and out of, ala modern shooters. Unfortunately, it kind of flew under the radar because it didn't have multiplayer. FYI, though the game is in 320x200 resolution, if you also have the sequel, Skynet, you can use that to launch it and play it in 640x480 (essentially using the updated, hi-res engine of the sequel to load the levels of the original).

[@theboone3848]

The only DOS FPS I owned as a kid was Catacomb, so naturally I beat it uncountable amount of times. I really do have a lot of fond memories about it, but most people my age has never even heard of it, but it was a gem imo.

[@onaretrotip]

I'm aware of it, but never actually played it. Definitely an influential game though!

[@marccaselle8108]

Do you mean catacomb 3D? I've played the shareware version on a shareware CD I'm the mid 90s. I have the full version of catacomb 3d and it's fun.

[@javelinXH992]

Great game. First thing I got when I got my first PC, the shareware version was pre installed on it. Absolutely jaw dropping after coming from 8bit micros.

[@tequilaburp]

I'm starting to feel the motion sickness after hours of gameplay. So nostalgic.

[@onaretrotip]

LOL

[@marccaselle8108]

That's why I couldn't play FPS games for more than 10 minutes or so, motion sickness.

[@christopherbowen1836]

Owned all of Wolfenstein (including all 3 Spear of Destinies), Dark Forces, full version of Rise of the Triad, full version of Blake Stone, full version of Duke Nukem, and shareware version of Quake. Thank you for posting this - it really took me back to great days off in high school.

[@onaretrotip]

You obviously had great taste! Glad I could stir up some fond memories, Christopher.

[@SevenCompleted]

Bruh going down the fast way from rise of the triad is one of the best pieces of video game music ever composed.

[@onaretrotip]

Love that game.

[@BobBorakovitz]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ronCfJVmmKmBb5o

[@wishiwascooler]

The music is absolutely amazing for the time, and honestly in general

[@JulienVanhoenacker]

Rise of the triad also featured over the top amount of gore that became iconic, eyeballs and all... Along with Carmageddon, I wish to see those games with today's technology...

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, they were both great. Tame by today's standards, but quite a big deal at the time.

[@beardyhat9547]

You forgot about Strife! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strife_(1996_video_game) One of my favorites back in the 90's and with the modern Remastered edition, it's better than ever. It's one of the earliest FPS-RPG hybrids and has you exploring all kinds of different environments and talking to NPC's. Also, when you talk about how great a games music or sound effects are, I'd love to hear a sample of those things. It would definitely help build your case on a game having good or bad sound/music.

[@onaretrotip]

I've not played Strife, but it looks great! Yeah, someone else mentioned the sound effects. I'll consider doing that in future, but could be tricky the way I edit these.

[@jeremyallen5632]

I loved hexen back in the day and remember when I had to make the Wolfenstein screen super small in order to play it on my 286 IBM ps1. The lengths I would go to kill things as a kid. Haha

[@onaretrotip]

Hahaha! Good times, Jeremy.

[@Bangkokian1967]

This is a great idea for a series Pete I’m a huge DOS game fan Great to see Blood on your list, it’s such an atmospheric game with loads of great movie references

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, Ian! Yeah, Blood is awesome. Shame it completely passed me by originally.

[@axtrifonov]

And i also highly recommend to play Heretic, it's kinda Doom but in fantasy/medieval setting.

[@onaretrotip]

Sorry for the late reply, must have missed this comment. Love Heretic, but I already included its sequel HeXen.

[@pauls4522]

I love heretic more than hexen and I also like it more than doom, which heretic is a copy of and is of the same engine.

[@Charly_3006]

pure nostalgia! I played the following: - Wolfenstein 3D - Doom - Rise of the Triad - Star Wars Dark Forces - Hexen - Duke Nukem 3D and also (that I recommend): - Heretic - Corridor 7: Alien Invasion - Marathon

[@onaretrotip]

So many classics there. There was a flood of great first-person shooters after Doom. Loved Rise of the Triad, Hexen, Duke 3D, Heretic, etc. When Dark Forces came out I was ecstatic!

[@Hoshi82]

Played all of them and loved all of them. Most of them I still have standing on my shelf.

[@onaretrotip]

Love it!!! Good to hear.

[@LazyBastard69]

You talk about the sound design, and music of games but you'll let us viewers hear neither of it clearly. A common technique is to say "The blaster fire sounds great", then play a full volume clip of said blaster fire. This would give so much more meaning to what you say about sounds in games. Other than that, great video.

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, I see what you're saying. I'll consider doing that in future, although that could be tricky the way I edit. Thanks!

[@pinnacleproductions6275]

I loved the old DOS Star Wars games too! Tie Fighter blew my mind! And I absolutely loved The Dark Forces series. To me Dark Forces was like the second gen of FPS games, along with Blood, & Duke Nukem which were some of the best FPS games in the 2nd Gen

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, I agree. I wish they'd reboot the X-Wing/TIE Fighter franchise.

[@chrisgould101]

I shall meet you on Endor with the rebel alliance. Commence Rebel assault wave 4

[@avalonjustin]

Blood was so good, I played the hell out of it. The culture references were entertaining. "I live again!"

[@onaretrotip]

Yes, brilliant.

[@phillippi2]

If you were to ever redo this list, I would highly suggest System Shock. It is a highly important game. Without it, there is a good chance that other FPS games wouldn't exist. Though the controls can make it hard to get into, the Enhanced Edition does a lot to remedy this. System Shock was the first true 3d FPS to be fully texture mapped. While earlier games like Doom looked 3d, they were not. System Shock allowed you to look up and down, distorting the geometry correctly. It was also the first game to feature audio logs to relay the games story. The games only real problems are the aforementioned controls, and the fact that the final boss is limited by your frame rate. But there are ways around these. You could play the Enhanced edition which either fixes or mitigates the problems.

[@onaretrotip]

👍

[@RetroGamePlayers]

GREAT job Pete! I love all these games, awesome how thorough you described them!

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, Marcus! Much appreciated.

[@PixelSlayers]

Great video! I'm currently playing Duke 3D for the first time, remastered on the PS4 on the "World Tour" edition. I don't know why I never got to it when I was younger, I loved Doom and the first two Duke Nukem games! But it's still a blast even now.

[@onaretrotip]

Ah, wow, that's awesome! I'll have to get that.

[@rickycat8241]

What an era! I'm playing doom and quake games on steam 😉

[@onaretrotip]

Awesome!

[@HenriqueMelo1989]

*I just adore Star Wars: Dark Forces!*

[@onaretrotip]

Me too!

[@tchitchouan]

OMG this game is epic

[@jothain]

I wanted to like it, but it has so many horrible levels. Like that sewer. Maybe the worst level on any FPS.

[@martinrowley6901]

Watching this video brought back so many childhood memories!

[@onaretrotip]

Glad I could stir up some fond memories for you!

[@Sinisteve]

Really like the look of Blood and Shadow Warrior...will definitely be checking those out, top vid Pete👍

[@onaretrotip]

Awesome! Thanks, Steve.

[@devastator200]

This is brilliant son, great video! Hadn’t realised how many MS DOS first person shoot em ups there is and I throughly love them! Well done dude great work 👍🏼

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, Luke! This is just scratching the surface, there are so many great DOS first-person shooters. It's where the genre was born after all.

[@Bauglir100]

I would've put Strife on there somewhere. That game is great, like the precursor to Deus Ex. If anyone hasn't played it, there's a remaster of it called the Veteran Edition on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and Nintendo Switch. But the original DOS version running in DOSBox is plenty good too. If you like Doom engine games, you can't go wrong with it.

[@onaretrotip]

I've not played that. I'll have to give it a go.

[@jayburn00]

I've played Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, and Dark Forces as well as most of their sequels and reboots/remakes. Of those, my favorite overall was Dark Forces, and I also preferred its sequels as well. My only issue with dark forces vs some of the other games was an often disorienting repeating wall textures, though sometimes this had an immersion increasing almost claustrophobic effect, so it was sometimes a good thing ( but usually it just confused me when navigating without the map and sometimes made depth perception more difficult in the game).

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I'd often get disorientated in dark corridors.

[@AndroidAP.]

DOOM Duke Nukem 3D Shadow Warrior My favourite DOS FPS Trio

[@onaretrotip]

Great taste!

[@correcturegames8389]

Great video! :D I remember I had a cd with demos, among them Rise of the Triads, which I didn't get into at the time. Seeing it now though, I feel like I missed out. :o Blood is amazing! Probably my favorite FPS game - nice looking environments with a lot of interactable objects and a badass main character.

[@onaretrotip]

Thank you! Ah, that is a shame, it was amazing at the time. Yeah, Blood is great, and it passed me by at the time sadly.

[@SEGAZombie]

Awesome video Pete I’m a novice on the old dos pc Games as I was an amiga man back in the day. I remember playing Doom, quake wolfiensten Duke and dark forces when my Dad purchased the first family PC lots of games here I’ve never seen before I need to get into some of these 😍

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, Scott! Definitely some for you to try. I doubt many will run on your 386 though, although Blake Stone and Wolfenstein 3D should.

[@MattyStoked]

Love it Pete! I'd say sufficiently gushy about Dark Forces there. Pleased Quake got some good coverage too, one of my favourite franchises there.

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, Matt! Haha damn right.

[@miguelpereira7934]

Tks for the video...Hexen bring me such good memories.

[@onaretrotip]

Glad you liked it! Me too :)

[@stevemdav]

Chex quest! Best thing to ever come out of a box of cereal

[@onaretrotip]

Haha. We didn't get that over here.

[@BlueHedgehogMan17]

My Dad currently owns Duke Nukem 3D and also DOOM on his Nintendo 64, and he's pretty decent in those games. I don't play these kinds of games, but I think the Multiplayer Mode of GoldenEye 007 for the N64 is what REALLY made te game successful! I'm surprised you didn't mention Turok among these ten games, but maybe you'll include that in a future part of this series?

[@onaretrotip]

I never played Doom or Duke Nukem on the N64, as I think the PC originals can't be beaten. Love GoldenEye though; it has one of the best multiplayer modes ever! Turok wasn't a DOS game, it was Windows.

[@mtshark7]

Awesome video Pete! OMG Blood is one of my all time favorite FPS game (besides the Doom franchise), I was soo obsessed with it when it came out and spent countless hours playing it. It's a shame it was never released on any consoles.

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, Mark! Yeah, it is a shame that Blood wasn't ported; especially seeing as I wasn't that into PC gaming at the time.

[@nosuchthing8]

Is it worth a purchase?

[@pinnacleproductions6275]

I loooooved R.O.T.T. It was the best FPS of its time. I liked Wolfenstein & Doom but R.O.T.T. Was by far the best of the first generation of FPS games.

[@onaretrotip]

Me too, it was so good at the time. Loved it!

[@evildiesel1709]

I remember looking at the Rise of the Triad demo play over and over again in a HMV store in Dublin. I didn't have a computer powerful enough to play it at the time. They had it running on a Gateway which looked amazing. I used to go in especially to see it:)

[@onaretrotip]

Nice. Love those little memories!

[@jesusbear7367]

Good video. Thanks to sales on GOG and Steam, I now own all of these games and all their respective expansion packs. :D

[@onaretrotip]

Thank you! They're great resources for these old games.

[@pferreira1983]

Great list of games. Some I still need to try. Dark Forces is in my top five favourite games of all time.

[@onaretrotip]

Dark Forces was like a wet dream for me as a kid. FPS and Star wars? Hell yes.

[@pferreira1983]

@@onaretrotip Just the idea of interacting with the Star Wars universe like that was amazing. Hearing the Imperial officers and stormtroopers calling me out blew me away. It's still an awesome game.

[@JOGEZAI]

Love your channel bro❤❤

[@onaretrotip]

Thank you so much!!!

[@PR-ot7qd]

Powerslave and Descent were a lot of fun too

[@onaretrotip]

Been playing Descent again recently. So good!

[@majmunx9703]

You could also show and recommend source port for the games that have one (bstone for Blake Stone, DarkPlaces for Quake... ), they add widescreen resolutions and/or hi res graphics, mouse plus wasd controls etc BTW great video as always ! ;)

[@onaretrotip]

Ah, sounds awesome!

[@PizzaGamesFuntimes]

Star Wars! We played that back in the day!

[@onaretrotip]

Nice! Such a great game.

[@nightwatchmanita7092]

Thanks for all these quality contents ! I'm a new subscriber,I want to ask a question : is possible for you to make a video , for the cancelled games series, like " the most famous PC exclusive cancelled titles of all time " . It's only a idea of course.

[@onaretrotip]

Hey! Welcome, and thanks for the sub. I'll definitely be looking to do a PC exclusives episode of the cancelled game series, yes.

[@MarkLangdahl]

I know most don't actually consider these games "true" first person shooters. But two of my favourite DOS era FPS games were Looking Glass' System Shock and Terra Nova. System Shock has a lot of adventure like elements and is a bit of an immersive sim. Terra Nova is a somewhat tactical game where you are a team leader and can command your team mates and is sort of a precursor to the gameplay of games like Rainbow Six.

[@onaretrotip]

Never played Terra Nova. Will check it out.

[@RetroCynical]

I miss the ol days of playing Doom and Duke Nukem on a PC, that's actually probably the last time I played any PC games period. Great video.

[@onaretrotip]

Me too, those were great days. Thanks, Joe!

[@tj71520]

Doom is still Much fun using a modern engine like GZDoom

[@pinnacleproductions6275]

Oh man how could I have forgotten about Blood!! Def one of my favorites! I always felt like Blood made Doom look like a kids game!

[@onaretrotip]

Hahaha true.

[@geekhillbilly2636]

You're forgetting " Lo Wang's RAP" at the the end of the game. Also not mentioned.Low yield Nuclear rockets, great for clearing away hordes of zombies. I fired up my copy of Shadow Warrior inside DOSBOX. The fun has returned. "WHO WANTED SOME WANG?" Strange ans it may seems, A Hazard Ky City Policeman told me about this game. Thanks, Terry."

[@onaretrotip]

Classic Terry.

[@NecroticFleshrot]

In this day and age of reboots and remakes, I'm amazed, and dissappointed, that we have not gotten a Blake Stone remake.

[@onaretrotip]

😢

[@ronniebeumkes4099]

Awesome!! 💯% Respect!👍

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks!!!

[@HamanKarn567]

A lot of great games to this day!

[@onaretrotip]

Absolutely!

[@JohnLane_aka_Jane_Lane_fanboy]

The Ultimate DOOM is by far the only first-person shooter I've played on MS-DOS (via DOSBox). I have yet to play Wolfenstein 3D, Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, Duke Nukem 3D, Star Wars: Dark Force and Shadow Warrior, all on CD-ROM. I'm not including Quake because Quake works on modern computers like the DELL Latitude E6430 without DOSBox (and whoever is wondering why is because I have the game on CD-ROM).

[@onaretrotip]

Ah, you should give some of them a try. Especially Dark Forces (if you're into Star Wars) and Shadow Warrior.

[@Adam-FR]

Oh my god... this brings me back! ☺

[@onaretrotip]

Awesome! Glad it stirred up some fond memories, Adam.

[@ADreamPC]

I came in school with hexen on floppy dics to swap for blood, but the dude forgot.. I would of loved blood back then, however I don't think it would of ran on my 486 Packard bell. Rise of the triad was my favourite game. This is why I like Night dive studios, as they remaster my classics❤

[@onaretrotip]

RotT was a favourite of mine as a kid too.

[@olaf5929]

I like how people say "retro" and I correct them and say "when games were fun". Luckily some of these get functional re-releases on Nintendo Switch or have a competent dosbox setup via GOG. Oh and you can get a lot of them for the price of a AAA crappy current day game.

[@onaretrotip]

Sad what's become of the industry really.

[@thewhyzer]

Wait, Quake used voxels for the power ups / ammo drops? I'd always thought they were more polygons! My favorite DOS FPS games were definitely Duke 3D and Hexen. BTW, I think you had the in-game gamma setting for some of the build engine games like Blood and Shadow Warrior set way too high in this video.

[@onaretrotip]

I may be wrong about the voxels, can't remember my source now. Yeah, Duke 3D and Hexen are def favourites of mine that I still play.

[@vespasian606]

I paid £54 for all the episodes of Wolfenstein (£110 in todays money). It wasn't yet in the shops so unable to wait I mail ordered it. It was well worth the money. The people at id software were pretty prolific and John Carmack was always tinkering with the engine. The downside to that was some of the me too titles such as Blake Stone dated really quickly. Only those with direct links such as Hexen and Heretic felt comparable to the official stuff. I have fond memories of both those games.

[@onaretrotip]

Blimey! That's some serious money, Robert.

[@todd0000420]

Blood looks great!

[@onaretrotip]

Brilliant game.

[@nwcrawford]

Cool video, definitely agree. But a couple misses: CyClones and Cybermage: Darklight Awakening. Also, as cool as a lot of the things in Shadow Warrior are, DUDE, you didn't mention the vehicles! Althought, Cybermage did have those earlier, anyway (one of them being a flying car).

[@onaretrotip]

Not played CyClones or Cybermage. The latter looks pretty cool!

[@gunrose1532]

Blood, duke nukem, doom. Favorite dos game.

[@onaretrotip]

You have great taste!

[@volatile2805]

I wasnt even a star wars fan but after I played dark forces as a FPS super fan, I got star wars curious lol.

[@onaretrotip]

Hahahaha. Who can blame you.

[@keithbeesting]

Great video

[@onaretrotip]

Thank you!

[@markcumbriauk]

All great games, But duke nukem was My fav.

[@onaretrotip]

Good choice 👌

[@KerranKaksi]

My absolute favourite DOS shooter game is System Shock

[@onaretrotip]

System Shock is an odd one to pin down genre-wise. I wouldn't necessarily label it as a first-person shooter, so it will probably make an appearance in a different episode.

[@larkprof]

Good video as always! But wheres mah Cybermage? Lol, I played the shit out of that as a kid.

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks! Not played Cybermage.

[@filipporubsky7621]

Blood, quake, shadow warrior, dark forces, but do you remember Quarantine? Cab driver?

[@onaretrotip]

yes, I put Quarantine in my Driving Games episode, although I do state that it's basically a first-person shooter framed as a driving game. I absolutely loved that game. You could put the CD in your CD player and listen to the music (the game was on track 1 if I recall), so I'd listen to it all the time.

[@Salaminomaxos1981]

Mare amszing Doom Clones, Exhumed and Chasm!

[@onaretrotip]

Got to love a Doom clone.

[@LeBossu77]

There are so many great ideas in these games that it blows my mind that many of them haven't been used since, characters playing dead or stealing a players weapons?! Those are quality ideas, they should be a piece of piss to pull off nowadays. And a voodoo doll? I'm surprised that hasn't been used again, makes a nice change to see something that isn't about projectiles or melee weapons. Never played Hexen, I'm really going to have to nab the PS1 version, it looks great.

[@onaretrotip]

I know, right! Insane. It was a great time for innovation because every developer was trying to one-up the previous FPS. Like you say, the voodoo doll idea is genius! HeXen is great, definitely worth a bash (although I've not tried the PlayStation version).

[@GamerVirgins]

OK, so definitely not a first-person shooter so not really relevant... but I can't see the MSDOS logo without mentioning Theme Hospital! I've literally just started playing it again so I look forward to seeing it featured at some point in this series 😊

[@onaretrotip]

Great game, Sam! It'll definitely appear in an episode coming up ;)

[@chrisgould101]

Memories 0f that one!

[@Zoza15]

The nostalgia is hitting me hard right now 😥.. Lets not forget that a lot of DOS games also had a pile of shovelware and abandonedware garbage. Something that doesn't need to be preserved. Just the good ones tho..

[@onaretrotip]

Yes, a lot of rubbish out there on DOS as well.

[@lokiingvarson3620]

What is the opposite of PTSD? I'm having it right now. ...maybe Post Awesome Gaming Nostalgia? Personally, I can't pick just one favorite - I loved Dark Forces, Blood, Quake and Hexxen

[@onaretrotip]

😂

[@mr_beezlebub3985]

A very good list. But I think Descent 1 and 2 would also be at home on a list of this sort. Good job though

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks! Descent I love, but am going to save it for another video as it's in a sort of genre no-man's-land.

[@BossBash86]

No love for Terminator: Future Shock? Aw.

[@onaretrotip]

I've shamefully never played it (yet)!

[@grandevizier]

I used to play Blake Stone.

[@onaretrotip]

Nice. Decent game that! I actually never played it back in the day sadly.

[@axtrifonov]

Blood uses some resources from Rise Of The Triad

[@onaretrotip]

Oh yeah? Didn't know that!

[@remainedunnamed1695]

Lol, Lo Wang. My wang is hangin lo too. I have to put it down a pant leg.

[@onaretrotip]

It's tough at the top.

[@TheRetroRaven]

Great video, however ... The genre began, with Catacomb 3D (ID Software) - actually, it began even before that, with some weird Arcade tank game, and ID also produced Hover Tank 3D, even before Catacomb 3D (which is quite a good game actually). Wolfenstein 3D was not released exclusively for MS-DOS , it was also released for various other platforms, including the Apple Macintosh. And I really missed "Outlaws", another fantastic game by Lucas Arts, and it has perhaps one of the most fantastic soundtracks ever made for a PC game, that really pays homage to Ennio Morricone's famous soundtrack for movies like "The good, the bad and the ugly" (Ecstasy of Gold).

[@onaretrotip]

I realise that Wolfenstein wasn't the first first-person shooter, I started that sentence saying "some consider...". Wolfenstein was a DOS exclusive in 1992, but sure of course it came to loads of other systems eventually, but not for a couple of years at the earliest. Outlaws is a great one from LucasArts, but not a DOS game. Same engine as Dark Forces I believe?

[@grahamwilson4053]

Yes, Outlaws used Jedi but was Windows exclusive

[@andreaspena837]

tutti eredi del buon vecchio Doom Id-Software

[@onaretrotip]

100%!

[@edhc44]

It pisses me off a bit that when talking about Duke Nukem 3D, no one ever mentions the outstanding 1988 John Carpenter movie They Live, where Duke's most famous line was lifted from

[@onaretrotip]

:(

[@edhc44]

Hey, the video was great, I was thrilled when you mentioned Blood and I even got to see a couple of shooters I didn't know of. But that's a general complaint, everyone seems to miss the reference to what is one of my favorite movies of all time (above Evil Dead) and it makes me feel like people just don't know of it, which is just a shame

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks. Yeah, I get that. I don't think I've ever actually seen They Live!

[@edhc44]

I'll admit the movie is a bit campy, basically being a homage to 1950s sci-fi movies... but it also takes a jab at modern society, and is not subtle at all about it. It also features the longest fist fight ever put to film. Really, it is so long that it becomes mind-numbing, halfway through you'll just wish either it or your life would end already. Honestly the whole movie has an overall offbeat feel to it but I'm a sucker for that kind of thing =D

[@childofthe80s1981]

Dark Forces was good I just wish it had a save game feature instead of lives.

[@onaretrotip]

It does have a save feature!

[@Caleb-fv5fp]

Is quake the only 3d dos fps?

[@onaretrotip]

That would depend on your chosen definition of 3D, but one could argue that Descent was, and it was before Quake.

[@ramoncolmenares4916]

I'm looking for a really old black and white ms dos FPS game. I dont remember the game very well as I was like 8 yo and only played the demo but loved the game

[@onaretrotip]

So all you're giving me to go on is it was black and white?

[@ramoncolmenares4916]

@@onaretrotip black and white FPS 😁

[@ramoncolmenares4916]

@@onaretrotip it was like a Man getting out of a labyrinth and killing kind of clowns monsters

[@Shpuld]

Some points: should use a bit higher bitrate for the videos, some of them were a bit too blurry/muddy to see properly, also quake didn't use any voxel models, just polygonal ones, it was later BUILD games (blood and shadow warrior) that used voxel models

[@onaretrotip]

I didn't record the videos. Ah, I must've got my wires crossed regarding the voxels. Thanks!

[@deemster4249]

Quake DID use voxels for characters and objects, but only if they were far from the camera. When closer, the engine switched to polygonal models

[@Shpuld]

@@deemster4249 sort of, it just used different kind of rasterization method for far away alias models but using the exact same vertex and triangle data as when rendering full tris. it's a really cool trick to speed up the software renderer but a bit far from "proper" voxel models

[@deemster4249]

@@Shpuld Thanks for clearing that up! Since you seem to know a lot about the Quake engine, maybe you can answer a question I’ve had for a while. The Doom engine could not have doors opening horizontally because it used BSP (leaving aside the Hexen polyobjects), but Quake DID have doors opening sideways while still using BSP. How can this be? My guess is it has something to do with doors in Doom being just sectors with their floor and ceiling height being modified, but I am not sure how it works in the Quake engine.

[@Shpuld]

@@deemster4249 Sure, I think this is mostly due to disconnecting any moving parts from the actual world geometry. all doors and elevators are separate entities, and they aren't a part of the VIS precalculation and aren't a part of the same BSP tree as the main worldspawn. this way the QuakeC game code can move around the bsp entities just like any other entities (even rotate, but in vanilla quake their collisions don't work with rotations). If you load a map in a stripped down quake mod that doesn't implement any of the entities you'll just see the map with some parts missing. There's also way less rendering limitations in quake as it's true 3d compared to doom, I'm not that familiar with doom to say if that's part of the reason or not.

[@bizarroman69]

DOS means "two" in spanish, so you should make DOS Juegos esenciales en DOS (in Spanish obviously)

[@onaretrotip]

¡Absolutamante, sí! Funnily enough I have considered releasing the videos again but in Spanish. That's a big audience!

[@bizarroman69]

I can help you with the translation, just send me the script in english.

[@onaretrotip]

Thank you! If I get time to do any I will definitely do that. Can you message me on Facebook or Twitter or e-mail so I have your contact details please?

[@bizarroman69]

i don't use either. Email me at [e-mail]

[@51dodoc]

Anyone knows how to play those DOS fps with mouse instead of arrow keys on emulator?

[@onaretrotip]

No idea I'm afraid.

[@51dodoc]

@@onaretrotip So you enjoyed all these fps playing with the keyboard only?

[@onaretrotip]

@@51dodoc Yes, absolutely.

[@grahamwilson4053]

There are source ports for every game here except Dark Forces, but one is in the works for that too called the Force Engine. For Doom engine games, something like GZDoom would suit you while BuildGDX would work for the Build engine. ECWolf for Wolfenstein, BStone for Blake Stone and ROTTexpr for ROTT.

[@mattuw82]

Voxels in Quake? I don't believe so. I think 3d objects in Quake were all rendered using texture mapped triangles.

[@onaretrotip]

Oh, my bad.

[@phaeton01]

rise of the triad: "HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM . . . . . . MMMMOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHHH"

[@onaretrotip]

😂

[@1luarluar1]

the sprite based shooter and games in general have an advantage compared to 3d model based: they will remain as the technology is frozen in that hand made sprites, while the 3d models are forgettable as with each next year a new and more sophisticated ones substitute the old....probably with the exception of 3d models but heavily based on hand made textures like in the case of Quake...the same is for the lighting system...with ray tracing tecnology at the door, we will have uniform lighting, (physical based), but the hand drawn light will remain as testament of human craft.

[@onaretrotip]

Absolutely true, Rudy.

[@axtrifonov]

Quake engine doesn't use voxels, it uses polygons and particles. But Blood and Shadow Warrior versions of Build engine use voxels.

[@onaretrotip]

Interesting...

[@laladoopsy]

Not a fan of Rise of the Triad, loved it back in the day but now its just passable with bad level design. I do enjoy Blake Stone a lot more now, it just seems to be finely designed. The rest are still good to begin with but later episodes are lacking which is quite common with 90's FPS games.

[@onaretrotip]

ROTT was unreal at the time, but I get what you're saying, perhaps it hasn't aged as well as some of the others.

[@axtrifonov]

9:24 it's not deodorant, it's bug spray

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, I wasn't sure what it was that's why I just said "aerosol can". The deodorant was referencing what we used to do as kids.

[@Freshbrood]

Nice "They Live" reference.. too bad there was never a good game made from that awesome movie.

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, that's a shame. Love that film!

[@kingozymandias2988]

Pain is fol the weak!

[@onaretrotip]

A ninja knows no fear.

[@chaoticsystem2211]

IT BURNS!!!!!!

[@onaretrotip]

LOL

[@chaoticsystem2211]

@@onaretrotip From all the shooters at around 2000, Blood and Kingpin were the most fun. At one time my landlady was guarding the entrance as usual and after the fourth person arrived, she knocked and apologised but had to absolutely know where all those skinny people with their TVs went. And why we needed so many of them. Luckily it was before we shared the magic smoke..

[@Martok77]

I heard that very low sounding E1M1 near the start.

[@onaretrotip]

Yes indeed!

[@williamcase426]

Wat about quest for glory

[@onaretrotip]

I've actually never played that series, but they're not first-person shooters are they?

[@aranerem3767]

Wolfenstein

[@onaretrotip]

Wolfenstein 3D is great, but these days I'd play Doom over that any day of the week.

[@sunvieightmaster88]

Super great list.Nice we can buy old games from gog.com and dosgamesarchive.com

[@onaretrotip]

Thanks, glad you liked it. Links are already in the description, but thanks.

[@metuberob]

shadow warrior was still a notch off duke ... a nice attempt but not quite close enough to knock him off and these two lists duke 3 and warrior 4 behind wolfenstein and doom

[@onaretrotip]

"...these two lists duke 3 and warrior 4 behind wolfenstein and doom" - Sorry, what does this mean?

[@Ribulose15diphosphat]

Come on, you should have Mentioned Descent. I mean, it predated Quake in terms of Technology.

[@onaretrotip]

Yeah, although I do consider it an FPS, I had Descent planned for another video as it's in a sort of genre grey area. Can't remember which video that was now LOL. But absolutely love Descent; played it to death BITD.

[@panelinvitado9792]

Where is the Marathon 2: Durandal?

[@onaretrotip]

I don't know. Have you tried looking down the back of the sofa?