65 MS-DOS games released in 1989

Hello and welcome to the eighth episode of evolution of MS-DOS gaming.
We are in the year of 1989 now.
Lots of games started using VGA graphics and that showed the public that PC, although still regarded as more of a business machine, can also play games with good graphics (and sound if the game supported Adlib or Soundblaster).
And there were a lot of good MS-DOS games released in 1989 (that's why the list is so long in this episode). Games like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Street Rod, Space Quest 3, Budokan, Wasteland... and lots more.
Have fun and let us know in the comments if you think of any games we might have missed.

[@Edgel-in6bs]

I love how even though the sound from the PC beeper made the speccie sound sophisticated, game makers still had a crack. See the music in outrun and afterburner:)

[@retrononame]

Agreed. Soundblaster and other sound boards massively contributed to PC overtaking Amiga as a gaming machine in the 1990s PC Speaker was just a horrible "beepy thing" :)

[@lurkerrekrul]

@@retrononame The sound is one of the things that discourages me from playing many old DOS games.

[@JasperTedVidalTale]

@@retrononame I disagree with you calling the PC Speaker horrible (In fact its the BEST 1-Bit Sound Chip ever made)

[@martynrandles]

So many great games. I mainly played consoles back then, my best mate was at Uni in Liverpool early 1990's, I remember playing Indy 500, after following his hand written instructions on how to switch the PC on and load the game. It was a massive learning curve for a console gamer, but worth it. I raced all day while he was at Uni, amazing sounds, graphics & speed. Still one of my favourite driving games after all of these years.

[@victorspresence1263]

Proof visuals don't always make for a better game. Can't say that (aside from the explore/ RPG types) that these late 80's are more intriguing than many earlier games.

[@tamastabi3182]

At this year, PC had better graphix, but C64 had waaaay better sound chip and thus games had more "soul" on the C64. For me at least definiately.

[@Maxozavrmp3]

Afrer the War looks like ZX game.

[@CATinBOOTS81]

I didn't know that there were so many SEGA arcade game ports on PC back then. Pity that most of them (except maybe Outrun) were awful ports. I played most of them on the Sega Master System, and I have to say they look waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better on the Sega 8 bit console. In 1989 PC already got the 80386 (which is a 32 bit CPU, running at a speed between 16 and 25 Mhz at the beginning of 1989), why they got such horrible ports? Also, I played dozens of hours in the '90s on the PC version of Mechwarrior 2 (expansion included). It was an awesome game, and the CD soundtack, voice and sound effects were top notch. Now, for the first time, I saw the first episode... what a bummer! It looks really awful.

[@retrononame]

Actually I was addicted to Mech Warrior 1 (this original one) in the 1991 when I got my first 286 PC. It's lacking a bit in gfx department, but the story and mechanics are great (at least for me), so I really enjoyed it back then (and still do from time to time).

[@HarikenRed1]

Many arcade ports on PC (as well on other home computers like the Amiga, Spectrum, ...) have been published by the same company: the infamous US GOLD based in UK. They published arcade games like Thunder Blade, Bionic Commando, Street Fighter, Strider, Outrun, Final Fight, Shadow Dancer... US GOLD bought the licenses of the arcade games and even movies, and ordered the port on home computers from third party programmers, who had to develop the game on several platforms (mostly PC, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad) within a few months only and for a very cheap price. They programmed for the least powerful platform (for example Atari ST for the 16-bit platform, in 16 colors only, no scrolling or sprites hardware), and ported almost 1:1 to PC (which could have more colors in VGA and more CPU power) and Amiga (which had more colors, better sound, hardware sprites and scrolling) but without any enhancement. Moreover in 1989, there were still many PCs with CGA or EGA and 286's, and the ports had to run on them, and PCs don't have any hardware sprites and scrolling (unlike the Master System or Amiga), which is quite bad for programming 2D arcade games Almost all their lazy ports have been botched in this way. Their goal was easy money, not quality. People bought their games anyway as it was impossible to know how the game looked like, except from the small thumbnails on the game packaging. US Gold was a scam IMO.

[@CATinBOOTS81]

@@HarikenRed1 thanks, now it's all clear. It was a scam indeed!

[@IkarusKommt]

Original 386s cost about $1000 per chip; most people couldn't afford them at home until 1990 when a cheaper SX version was introduced.

[@tofik5939]

👍👍

[@obregr]

jw kr neki,pa dobrih,sam fora je da jih je vseh ohoho,a pa ti vse preigraš?

[@retrononame]

Za te liste najprej naredim raziskavo (katere igre so bile narejene za določeno leto), malo pogledam tudi če so na voljo kakšne ocene za igre katere ne poznam, ter si naredim spisek iger katere bom posnel. Potem nalagam eno za drugo in odigram 5-10 minut ter med tem snemam. Pri urejanju poskusim izbrati najbolj zanimiv ali lep segment igre (od tega kar mi je uspelo posneti).