Play 7000 PC DOS games quickly and easily (eXoDOS Review)

[@LGR]

Dude, nice overview of what makes this so special! eXoDOS is such a crazy achievement, I love how dead simple it is to use and how little you have to worry about the minutiae of DOS gaming setup. Imagine the same kind of thing for Win9x gaming someday, ahh one can dream. Glad to see the physical box set too, I was happy to support the project by buying that as well.

[@SNARC15]

I can't remember, did you also do a video of eXoDOS as well?

[@rafaelcatarino8372]

I read this with your voice. Oh boy 😅

[@RetroeXo]

My goal is to do a win9x project. We have been collecting the software for years The primary issue so far has been an emulation solution that checks the boxes for portability and performance. I also have Win3x though, and while the games aren't as well known, they are even harder to get running on today's machines. I'm happy to send you a box if you would like one

[@Daniel__Nobre]

The great @LGR! 💪🙌

[@STANI420]

@@RetroeXo win9x will be soo cool, keep up the good work!

[@FirstLast_Nba]

So they have saved the entire library of humanity in the art of gaming from its origins to today. Someone deserves a Nobel peace prize.

[@valiant87]

Ill be going through these games for days because there are DOS games I played when I was a kid that I can't remember the name of.

[@AngryCalvin]

Better than all the criminal politicians and warmongers who got the award. It’s about time someone got the award for gaming purposes.

[@lutfimakarim8258]

​@@AngryCalvinImagine if everyone is too busy for war because they are too busy playing these games

[@RetroeXo]

Very kind of you! Thanks!

[@knightmaremedia7795]

Exo is doing God's work. Thank you Exo. Truly , I mean that. I really, really, wish these modern companies would see they aren't just making some mere product.. It's interactive digital art , I wish they would all take real steps and ensure what they make is preserved without some scummy subscription service. Really looking forward to your next releases!

[@Luuw]

I'm so glad you talk about DOS games 🎉 Many retrogaming channels only talk about consoles and completely forgot DOS and early windows games ! So many good titles and studios (Heroes of might and Magic, apogee games, Lucas art games, sierra, looking glass, etc etc)

[@Scotty-Z70]

i feel the same. i almost got teary eyed thinking of being able to play my old games again that i had on Apple II and Dos

[@fabolous2006]

They only talk about home and/or hand consoles and arcade games,.barely anything on early PC.

[@dutchgameboy8097]

I love the fact that you used footage from Stunts. One of my favorite DOS games and overall favorites. Very fond memories creating my own insane tracks

[@MetalJesusRocks]

I loved that game too. That opening track is iconic at this point.

[@Nordlicht05]

My First 3d racing game.

[@MetalgearCloud]

First played Stunts in my middle school woodcutting class. Awesome game. The competing woodcutting teacher had a Mac in his class, where I mastered F/A 18 Hornet. Teacher let me play during class because I then taught him how to play it. Good times!

[@RTPJu]

One of the most underappreciated games ever. Basically, everybody that played love it... but we are less than 0,001% of total players, maybe way less than that

[@scouserEFC81]

Anyone else remember using the f1 car on those 3 bridges and being catapulted into the stratosphere!

[@ClarkKempt]

Dude, remember how many disks we had to use to install games, ESPECIALLY during that time when they started to come out on both disk and CD? Quest for Glory four was like 15 disk lol.

[@MetalJesusRocks]

And sometimes disk #13 was BAD and would require a REPLACEMENT from Sierra! Oh...I remember those days all too well! 😂

[@ClarkKempt]

@@MetalJesusRocks OMG YES! hehe

[@lmcgregoruk]

First PC my family had was in 1995 (Before Win 95 came out), it had a 2X CD-ROM Drive, and I remember playing a LOT of shareware from magazine cover-cd's. Also some FMV games had multiple CD's, Phantasmagoria, Wing Commander IV, Gabriel Knight 2. I mean the Hard Drive in the PC was 420?MB or so, that would be like if a new optical media came out today that could hold 2TB+ of data and was relatively cheap to mass produce. I think it may have been a Packard Bell Legend 300CD (I remember you could upgrade the Pentium 60MHZ, to a Pentium Overdrive* 120MHZ, which we never did) *Which apparently Socket 4 overdrive chips were/are little known about.

[@RapsCalorie]

And now I'm just like "Hm, I've got the spare room on an m2 upstairs FOR THE ENTIRETY OF DOS GAMING HISTORY"

[@neilarcher2551]

I had MS Office on floppy disk. 20 disks. Thankfully some nice support tech at MS when fixing a support issue asked if I had a CD Rom and sent me a free upgrade to CD.

[@rossvegas7]

Wouldn't be Friday without you mate!! Thank you

[@PixelGameSquad]

I typically forget about some of the DOS games I played as a kid. I need to start racking my brain about what games I put good time into…I honestly forgot half the names of the games sadly 😢

[@balloonedraccoon2503]

Same. I played so many. I would just have to get started here, like MJ is telling us, and start playing.

[@Scotty-Z70]

i still have my old DOS games and lament that i can't play them on these modern computers. this is the solution i looked for

[@ClassicGameSessions]

I love eXoDOS - I think it's such a great project and having access to all these DOS titles on a modern computer is incredible! So glad you covered this MJR, always enjoy your content!

[@JB-mm5ff]

Well... a year later and we are still waiting on a linux script. hmm........... freeware/open source has its issues.

[@GheGho]

Man I'm so happy that I found this video. What an impressive project! Going to be trying this out ASAP. So many cool hidden gems from a time where game development was more about the ideas and the art, and less about making money.

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

Its a big pack, but at the same time, you can store then entire games collection of this era on a single Micro SD card lol. Tech is so fun sometimes. Got ExoDOS a few eyars ago and was shocked by the ease of use. Such a great project and the devs should be very pleased.

[@RetroeXo]

Thank you!

[@Jon-Patrick-S]

This is very impressive how far they've gone for this project, really above and beyond with stuff like removing copy protection and rescanning all of manuals. Later Windows systems support would be insane and I am so eager for that to come to fruition. With this new level of accessibility in mind I would love to see some DOS hidden gem videos in the future!

[@SuperRetroGal]

This is a great video! I have been emulating/running most of these games thru DosBox but finding and purchasing them is a beast. This is really cool. The physical release is beyond amazing, super smart to do that. Thank you!

[@H8llguard]

Holy Metal Jesus ! What a discovery for me, instant download. Thank you for showing us this project. Having flashback from my youth playing some of those games.

[@superdave3093]

Really cool video! Seeing Raptor unlocked memories of me playing DOS games as a kid like 7th Guest, Myst, Doom and StarCraft. Thanks for the video!! 😃

[@eliadefilho]

I love Raptor, I used to play it as a kid way back when, I probably got it from a shareware magazine or a BBS.

[@kylederksen2903]

That game was the best.

[@Bren71319]

I have it on 3.5 inch from Apogee.

[@theblowupdollsmusic]

What I love about the DOS collection is each game feels unique. Console games kind of seem to blend together in style. Given most DOS games used their own engine, the art style and presentation is so diverse.

[@Jorge_Bleisen]

This project deserves all the support possible !! ❤ I'll take a look on this. Thank you, MJ !!

[@Nob1ej0n]

Holy crap, so many gems! I got so many flashbacks with some of those clips you showed. Discworld, TekWar, Epic Pinball, Rama... I love that you highlighted lesser known games and not just the more well-known games like DOOM and Monkey Island.

[@valiant87]

I'm going to have to upgrade my Hard Drive to download this.

[@lucho3410]

Dude, crusader no regret.... I miss it so much. Glad to know i can go back and use this project

[@Golipillas]

My god what a project, not only the games but all the manuals and related media material?! Genuinely insane work, these guys deserve so much praise.

[@RetroeXo]

Thank you

[@cyrollan]

YES, i also grew up with DOS games!! well, i started with an NES as a kid, but got my first 486 PC in 1994 and was all about those DOS games. so many good ones, it's impossible to count!

[@johnclasing4627]

I had a demo disc for Raptor in the 90s and bought it on steam a few years ago. Its excellent.

[@MarcDAntoni]

As soon as I saw your video was about DOS, one of the first games I thought about was Raptor. I loved that game as a kid! We only had the shareware version until I found the full version years later.

[@cutter6900]

Metal Jesus... I love ya, but your channel is always one where I'm like, okay, time to take some notes - I'm definitely going to want that, get that, and check that out. Love ya! And really enjoy the old DOS nostalgia.

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Awesome to see more PC/DOS content here!

[@mattb9664]

Definitely need this. There are so many old legacy games that I used to have, and then games that I remember seeing but never being able to play. I also remember during Win95 and Win 98 transition, they more or less had games still launching and playing from an MSDos environment, launching with a front end loader for the most part. We starting letting go of lots of those older games that were on 3.5" disks at that point, and some of us never bought into the repurchasing an expanded version with more media and speech in a game on CD. 1 TB is nothing- definitely going to get it.

[@kyky121911]

The one review I have been waiting for metal Jesus to do since V5

[@RealGroove163]

thank you so so so much!! showing amazing projects like this is SO helpful for games preservation. we need to support these people.

[@AngryCalvin]

A dream come true! I’m an avid LaunchBox BigBox user having built my custom Multicade and have a large library of DOS games I struggled over the years running on DosBox. Have had the exact issues you have stated with video and sound cards. Really excited to have something user friendly I don’t have to tweak for countless hours. I used a few free emulator frontends over the years. Most of them free. Retro Bat is great and got much better the last year or so but I don’t regret paying full price for Launchbox BigBox. Worth every penny especially the amount of hours I have spent using it and all the new features and contributions made by the dev and community. Just recently after trying to perfect all my other emulations I realized how badly I needed to do something about all the Dos programs I could never get working properly. I saw this program in other videos but this one really gave me the description that made me realize this was the emulator I desperately needed. Thanks!

[@Granduppah]

This is incredible. I only played very few old computer games back then, but man I wanted to play so many of them. Now I can, nice.

[@joeg4707]

This is incredible! I played PC games from early-80s through the 90s. I'll have to check this out.

[@quickcanary]

This is such an important project, and I had never even heard of it. Truly amazing work here!

[@matthewtcarter]

Would love to see a MS-DOS hidden gems video. That's a lot of games so having a list of 15-20 standout games from this collection would be a great start for people jumping in.

[@thebodybeatdownDiTi]

that looks pretty much perfect. I dont have a big history with old pc games but i appreciate them. AND at times have thought about old DOS games because of the nostalgia the history of it all.

[@siterrill]

Dude, this is friggin' AWESOME! Thanks for highlighting this. I've had DOSBOX for a while but this looks so much easier and convenient. Can't wait to check it out!

[@ssj50trunks]

So awesome to see someone mention Raptor! I loved playing that game as a kid. After watching this, I know what I'm doing this weekend!

[@ClarkKempt]

Hey,. you should do a video that surveys some cool games you've discovered while exploring this system! You rule. Keep it up.

[@spacepope8495]

This

[@TheDrisk]

great video and suggestions. There are so many more DOS games I need to play through. Such a special time.

[@jeremiahmacclure]

The Dagger of Amon Ra was the first PC game I played as a kid. Cool to see the box art in the video! If you worked on that game at Sierra, thank you!

[@princesspeach5308]

Very satisfying episode! I recently got eXos. This is an amazing build 😊

[@TheProjectOverload]

Such an amazing concept and so well integrated into one package. Huge thanks to whomever put this together. This brings back memories of early PC gaming without all the headaches of trying to get this to work on modern hardware....Very well done. Thank you!! 😎👍

[@redwizardmatt]

I'm definitely going to have to grab an external drive to put this on. If you do more follow up videos on this I will absolutely watch them. I personally find your videos very educational (and fun!) so I'm hoping you investigate this some more.

[@quietusplus1221]

11:50 Raptor: Call of The Shadows > I spent so much time playing this as a kid!

[@justsomeguy2743]

I probably won’t go near this as it’s not for me but the fact that they have saved all these games for preservation is crucial we need more of this for other consoles/Pc games imo such an amazing job

[@Scotty-Z70]

ABUSE is one of the games i have and miss playing!!! surprised you showed it! it was ALIENS on PC

[@MetalJesusRocks]

Yep! And it's one of those DOS games that I don't think is available on GOG or Steam, so this is the best way to experience it.

[@cyrollan]

OMG, Abuse was EPIC!

[@Scotty-Z70]

@@cyrollan i always loved when my avatar was close to a heart attack. i have never played a game that took that aspect into account.

[@mr.horseshoe2301]

Amazing project! I love reading the manuals. Some of them are massive! Modern gamers missed out.

[@MetalJesusRocks]

Especially those massive flight sim manuals, right?! LOL

[@cosmickatamari]

Been knowing about this project for a while now. Glad to see it's getting more attention. The work this crew has done on this is amazing, this video was great to watch. Also, this is a GREAT resource for getting working copies of your floppies or CDROMs that no longer work (stares at bin full of games). Not to mention, there are tons of great abandonware titles on here. I don't plan on using the frontend because I'm in the process of building out a gen appropriate DOS/Win98 machine. (I completely forgot about some of the nuances from old AT boards compared to how lucky we have it today with ATX).

[@rodfav2656]

This is great! I have a lot of these already like Tekwar, doom and much more. So glad I found this channel.

[@zemiq1982]

Oh wow, thanks Metal Jesus! I didn't know about this but it's right up my alley! I can't believe your video showed a clip of Jones in the Fast Lane... memory unlocked! I wonder if they might have Sea Rogue or Les Manley's Search for the King in there!

[@retrobreit9656]

Great review and great project! Though I have quite a collection of retro computers from 8086 up to Pentium 4, getting old games to run on original hardware can be a pain sometimes. So it is nice to have a convenient way to play them all on modern hardware without tinkering around with settings or hardware issues for hours! Dosbox even supports external MIDI-Hardware, so you can hook up a MT-32 or SC-55 to get the full audio experience in games like Doom or Raptor!

[@crankyknuckles1849]

The eXoDOS project is amazing! Currently using Lunchbox and finally, after all these years, I can play BloodNet without having to swap an insane amount of DISKS!

[@actionvestadventure]

Ah BloodNet... lots of fun concepts and ideas, horrible combat.

[@nightbirdds]

This definitely makes things a lot easier. I love that it's integrated into Launchbox. I've been using 86box, but that comes with all of the complexity of a PC, since you are emulating an entire PC. I could definitely see the team using that as the solution for newer games, though, as it does allow for configuring a machine to an exact spec.

[@Roger__Wilco]

I had no idea of this, thanks for bringing attention to it! Downloading it now, finally upgraded to a gigabit fibre connection recently and was hoping the torrent would be better seeded to make the most of it but I guess I'll have to wait a day lol

[@conzpiracy9382]

Of course you drop this video right after I finally found my childhood pc.

[@Nicomanism]

Oddly enough, I played the side-scroll shoot em' up : Raptor ; as a kid. It was a game that was one of my early 1st introductions to shoot em' ups . Cool hidden gem on PC. Glad you showcased that title.

[@busterwolfs]

1) Amazing video!! 2) You snuck footage of RAPTOR in there!!! I thought that was lost to time & nobody remembered. What a forgotten gem on PC.

[@khreativa]

Thanks for bringing that project to my attention - glorious!

[@AngryCalvin]

Lots of classics I have owned over the years on here. Most of these I had issues running before run great. Pango was a mess though. What is great is the multiple versions are all in one. The disk, cd-rom, and different graphics and sound card options right at the launcher. Stellar 7, Space Quest IV, Ultrabots, and also Jurassic Park running at the correct speed which I could never make happen through DosBox. This is a massive treasure!

[@Pixelmusement]

The main issue I have with projects like this is that there are some developers and publishers, corporate and independent, who still sell their old DOS games this many years later, usually for much cheaper than originally, but little to nothing is done in these archival projects to drive users to properly support the creators of these games. You pointed out Raptor in particular, which is an Apogee-published title primarily made by Scott Host, an independent developer, which is not only for sale over on Steam for just $5 but Scott has an active interest in this old game of his and has been thinking of remastering it once he's done porting over and perfecting one of his other titles, Demonstar. I'm not saying these archival projects shouldn't exist, they just REALLY need to make stronger efforts to drive people towards legitimately acquiring games that are still for sale by the people who made them.

[@EuSouRCS]

Thank you Mr Jesus to bless us with that MASTERPIECE of a project !!! Greetings from Andorra 🇦🇩

[@hewf3zleepy]

Wow, I almost teared up when Commander Keen appeared on the screen at 11:00. I haven't played those games since around 1996. So many memories suddenly came rushing back-I had completely forgotten about that series. My goodness.

[@paul3974]

soooooooooo many memories watching this vid. I know what I'll be doing this weekend and the next weekend, and the next weekend, and the next....you get it.

[@OldMan_PJ]

Nostalgia overload, I miss the days of walking into a game store and seeing many of these games on the shelf.

[@SerenaCrocker]

13:15 okay, Brian Blessed outta nowhere

[@hadesmcfadden2982]

as much as I love this era of gaming as I also grew up on on this all the issues you spoke of in the first 2-3 mins of your video is also the reason I DO NOT miss that era. it was a love / hate relationship and its projects like this which I feel helps bring back just the magic of the game without all the headaches of the old hardware and software.

[@user-lm6me2tz9t]

11:56 I've played Raptor. Found the Shareware version in some magazine free disk. AMAZING game :) I am so happy you reminded me of it, I might finally get to play the full version.

[@HECTORMONTALVO-le9cn]

I was never into PC games because we couldn't afford a computer in those days but saw computer magazines and saw all those awesome games that I would never play. Well now thanks to this project I will be able to play what I missed decades ago. Thanks for the heads up MJR!👍

[@SpookyDeCat]

Thanks for the eXoDOS, cant wait to get started!

[@Malacefire]

this is pretty sweet adding to dl list now, great vid btw

[@darktetsuya]

definitely cool to see! I know GOG probably has some of these, but I'm sure there's a bunch that are MIA. so glad he's preserving all these games (as well as the related print media stuff) all in one place! don't think I have the room for the entire package, but will have to make it a point to check this out soon.

[@silverian]

Always good to know another way to play old DOS games!

[@LoganPowerTV]

Amazing project! I'm behind it 100%

[@thereviewsbrothers3854]

Damn. This looks awesome… if I can get it to run on my steam deck I’ll be so happy.

[@shawng746]

This is great. I played Raptor when I was a kid, and loved it. I'm glad you discovered it and feel the same way. I will have to get this

[@Misq2k]

This is awsome im getting this as we speak. Great find Thanks!!

[@DuecePiece]

My man MJR just casually starting out with "oh I worked for Sierra", like WHOA! That is amazing brother! I absolutely loved their games as a kid, honestly they were my favorite on PC- Electronic Arts (not EA) was my favorite on console. Oh what I would give to be able to boot up those old Sierra games again, they definitely put out some gems! 🤘🔥

[@neilgrimshaw3614]

Great find. You rock Metal Jesus!

[@DevanteWeary]

Thanks for this man. I downloaded 5 a year ago and forgot all about it. Gonna grab 6 right now!

[@Spacemutiny]

Downloading this now! This is pretty amazing!

[@rickr8328]

Raptor is awesome! I actually did play it back in the day but I had totally forgotten about it until I saw it here. Nostalgia!

[@chetamus1845]

It's awesome that you called out the vertical shooter game Raptor, I used to play that as a kid!

[@shawnmulligan3471]

Probably worth mentioning that VGA cards double-scanned (drew each line twice) low-resolution (320x200, 320x240) graphics modes, so there generally weren't scanlines on those games on actual VGA / SVGA monitors. You would only see scanlines of the type the shaders produce when playing 320x200 or 640x200 EGA/Tandy/CGA games. Some FMV at the time was also displayed every other line for performance reasons, which would cause an effect people might think is scanlines now. That said, with larger CRT monitors with a higher dot pitch, you can still see scanlines even with double-scanning or at higher resolutions; my 19" CRT, designed mostly for 1280x1024, has visible scanlines when I run 640x480 or 800x600 software, because VGA doesn't double-scan the higher resolutions and the display is sharp enough to see the unscanned portion between the lines.

[@-RTC-]

If I can play Castle of the Winds then I’m in… In all seriousness though, this is amazing! I can still remember booting into Doom with my cousin and being blown away (and terrified!). Thanks for highlighting this, it’s awesome!

[@dopemopey]

RAPTOR! I had this on an Apogee sampler and I was in love with it!

[@christiancolossus5165]

That is some really cool stuff. Definitely going to go check it all out.

[@djjagster]

Starting with a clip from Dune 2.... My childhood in a game 👏👏

[@sheldonpetrie3706]

I love Raptor, I still have my floppies, but I made a copy of the install directory ages ago.

[@itsaPIXELthing]

Raptor Call of the Shadows was very popular in Europe, one of my favorite DOS games ever 😊 great vid, MJ! Cheers!

[@daniellezcanomadiedo-sm1cz]

I loved Raptor growing up! MsDos games were always so cool!!!! Definitely taking a look into ExoDos!!!

[@Zeldaboy2k2]

This is so cool!! Preservation is so important! I've always hated PC gaming because I didn't understand how to get it to work, maybe this will finally change my mind. Thank you!

[@joshanton2259]

I played Raptor as a kid in the 90s it's an RPG SHMUP, very cool.

[@Breakzoras]

you are a saviour, thank you! I ve been looking for exactly something like this for the past month

[@MetalJesusRocks]

Enjoy!

[@jimmygillard]

Cheers for the heads up on this. Clearing out space on my external to download it now. Great footage of Rama. That game was so good if you had read the book.

[@Joe-Rad]

This is awesome! The gaming community's passion never ceases to amaze me. The people who work on these projects are angels 😇

[@elblanco5]

Really great and succinct video that explains this mega project really clearly!

[@MusicMaing]

I’m glad you enjoyed Raptor. I used to play it all the time growing up. Seeing F22 Lightning was cool too - forgot about that one.

[@TheLastLineLive]

I grew up on the nes, snes, genesis, n64 in my household, but a pc was there as well, and I probably did most of my gaming on that because we had just the 1 TV, so I could only console game when the family wasn’t using the tv. So I spend a lot of time playing Pc games up through high school. I love checking out the old games on GOG but this seems like a great alternative for those old forgotten titles.

[@uorever]

A cool feature is that they have pretty much most of the versions of the game, so I can play the Curse of Monkey Island with the portuguese subtitles like I did when it came out in Brazil in the 90's. GOG does not usually offer those versions.

[@robertjones3223]

Thank you for the video, I am now going loose days and weeks searching through it's archive