All news items:
21 March 2010
- Major Update III: Phase III. Rewrote all of the HTML on the site to remove tags that are not supported in HTML 5 in anticipation of the HTML 5 standard. Game lists in the "Search by Operating Sytem" pages are now sortable by any column. Updated Utilities section with new version of VirtualBox.
7 March 2010
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- RGB Classic Games has its 5th anniversary.
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7 February 2010
21 January 2010
- Classic DOS Games becomes RGB Classic Games! We already had Win9x versions of games that were originally DOS or Win16 games. Win9x games are in desperate need of preservation, so the site's mandate has been expanded to allow Win9x games to be included.
- Added 2 games: Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Where's Waldo? at the Circus.
- Thank you to the fellow who donated 10 cents (presumably as a New Year's gift for 2010). If everyone sent a small donation of nothing more than their pocket change to websites that they really like, it would revolutionize the Internet. Unfortunately, PayPal charges a fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 on all payments, so the fee on a donation of $0.30 or less is 100%. PayPal rejected my suggestion that they allow small donations and charge their fee on a monthly or annual basis instead of per transaction, to allow millions of dollars in small donations to be contributed to websites around the world. 100% of all small donations are kept by PayPal, and I have to refund your money to prevent PayPal from keeping it. I appreciate your willingness to donate, but I'd rather you keep your change than give it to PayPal. Please put your pocket change in a Salvation Army donation globe, or a busker's guitar case, or give it to a homeless person. PayPal has enough pennies already!
31 December 2009
- Major Update III: Phase II. Each game has its own page now! This will allow much more information to be displayed for each game, which would have been a problem on a page with dozens of games. Games now link directly to their compatibility page on the DOS Games Compatibility Wiki. Greatly expanded the information in the companies section. Most companies include a flag to indicate the country of origin. Clicking on the link for Games Developed/Published/All lists all of the games that the company developed/published/both. Improved the appearance of links. Updated Utilities section with new versions of Bochs and ScummVM. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 7 games: Alone in the Dark 2, Atomic Tetris, Gazillionaire, Night Raid, Oxyd, Shih Dao, and Star Wars: TIE Fighter.
- There are now over 350 games on the site!
- Added an interview of Everett Kaser.
15 November 2009
- Major Update III: Phase I. It's been about a year since the last Major Update, so it's time for another massive overhaul of the site. Added greatly improved screenshot software. Redesigned the webshrines to pop-up full-size images of the thumbnails in the level maps to make it easier to follow along as you're playing. Added Arcade genre. Added a thread for recommending games to add to the site. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added a Slam! Webshrine.
- Added 4 games: Chomp for Windows, Hyperoid, Warheads for Windows, and Worm War.
31 October 2009
26 September 2009
29 August 2009
- Added 4 games: Strife, Super Worms, Tomb Raider, and WinTrek.
- Visitors of Classic DOS Games have used 1.5 TB of bandwidth so far this year. It seemed like a notable milestone.
16 July 2009
- Got permission from Escape Programming to distribute Thor's Hammer as freeware, our 26th liberated game.
- Please stop sending donations of $0.01! Some people are still contributing to the long-dead Have a Penny, Donate a Penny campaign, in which I encouraged visitors to donate a bit of pocket change, or even a single penny, to websites that they appreciate. If even a small fraction of visitors donated a single penny, small websites would earn enough revenue to cover their expenses. Unfortunately, PayPal charges a fee of 1.9% to 2.9% on all payments, and they round up to the nearest cent, so the fee on a donation of $0.01 is $0.01. 100% of all pennies donated are kept by PayPal, and I have to refund your pennies to prevent PayPal from keeping them. I appreciate your willingness to donate, but I'd rather you keep the pennies than give them to PayPal. Please put your pocket change in a Salvation Army donation globe, or a busker's guitar case, or to a homeless person. PayPal has enough pennies already!
4 July 2009
- It's July 4th, which everyone knows is a special day. It's the day that Classic DOS Games allows you to play DOS games with sound in your browser!!! JPC now emulates the PC speaker for games that use it. Please read this explanation of the pros and cons of using JPC to play the games on this site. Happy Fourth of July!
- Tandy IBM-compatible games are now listed.
- Games that support more than one resolution from the same graphics mode now have a screenshot for each resolution. The resolution for all graphics modes are now listed for each game.
28 June 2009
27 May 2009
25 April 2009
1 April 2009
- Classic DOS Games becomes 20th Century Games! Did you know that Windows 95, 98 and Me were technically DOS operating systems? They came with a copy of DOS 7! But why stop there? 20th Century Games covers games for all of the operating systems of the 20th Century!
- Added 2 games: Balls of Steel and SimCity 3000.
- In honor of the site's new focus on operating systems other than DOS, I was able to get an interview with Steve Jobs, the man behind the Mac!
22 March 2009
- Phase III of the major update is complete. Added a ton of games to the list of games that can be played in your browser. Site code has been simplified and all known bugs have been fixed. Experimenting with small video clips for the Classic DOS Games banner. Awesome or distracting? Comments are encouraged in the forum. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added Thor's Hammer.
7 March 2009
1 February 2009
- Added previously unreleased game Tron Light Cycles.
25 January 2009
- Added 2 games: Doubolo and Talking ABC's: A Day At The Beach.
- Created a list of DOS games that can be played in your browser thanks to JPC. The site's source code is being simplified and consolidated into a lean, mean, easy to use content management machine! Visual changes are coming soon. Help with graphics and design would be greatly appreciated. Dozens of typos have been corrected (shame on you for not resporting them). The first batch of software has been cataloged and added to the list at the DOS Historical Preservation Society. The accounting page has been updated.
- Thank you to the 482 918 of you who visited Classic DOS Games in 2008. Half a million thank yous for helping to preserve and popularize DOS games!
31 December 2008
- Phase II of the major update is complete. Classic DOS Games has moved to a better webhost. Screenshots now overlay on the current screen so that you don't have to press Back after viewing them. Love it or hate it? Let me know in the forum if you like. The complete game list can now be sorted by title, operating system, genre or year, ascending or descending. Added Game Creation section. Added FIX8X14 to the Utilities section. There are now over 800 versions of classic games on the site. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 2 games: Bow and Arrow - In Search of the Greatest Archer and Klik & Play.
27 November 2008
11 November 2008
- In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
29 October 2008
- Major Update II: Phase I. It's been about a year since the original Major Update, so it's time for another massive overhaul of the site. Redesigned the website to allow games to be searched by developer, publisher, or company (whether developer or publisher). Created company information pages for every company, which will include a short overview of each company, as well as a link to their official webpage if one exists. It took 133 companies and independent authors to develop and publish the games on this site! Added a navigation menu to the About this site page.
- Went through every game on the site and updated ordering information. A great many discontinued games were found for sale on Amazon and, of course, when you use the site's links to buy them, Classic DOS Games gets a small commission.
- There are still many people who don't understand why "abandonware" is illegal to distribute. A new section has been added to the About this site section which explains why abandonware is illegal. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 11 games: Bang! Bang!, Command & Conquer, Descartes Enigma, Floyd's Bumpershoot, Honeycomb Hotel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Kalakh, Knarly Works, Loom, MESH: Falling Hero, and Solitile for Windows.
3 October 2008
29 September 2008
- Added 18 games: The Chaos Engine, Cheezi, Magic Pockets, MVP Bridge, MVP Bridge for Windows, MVP Cribbage, MVP Euchre, MVP Hearts, NHL 96, NHL Hockey, Silverball, SimCity, SimCity 2000, Superfrog, Velcro Mind, World Rally Fever, Worms, and Z.
- Added Borland Turbo C and C++ to the Utilities section.
- Added a Pinball section.
- Removed most of the disk images for games that don't work in JPC. No sense in getting everyone's hopes up.
31 August 2008
- Got permission from Jeff Souders to distribute Gargoyle Medieval Pack as freeware.
- Got permission from Allen Pilgrim to distribute Kiloblaster and Xargon as freeware and release the source code.
- Added 17 games: 1993 Holiday Lemmings, Alien Breed: Tower Assault, The Color Wizard, Cool Spot, Disney's Aladdin, Gargoyle Medieval Pack, The Lion King, Mega Man X, MVP Backgammon, MVP Spades, MVP Word Search for Windows, Rings of the Magi for Windows, The Secret of Monkey Island, Spear of Destiny, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Syndicate, and Xmas Lemmings: 1992 Holiday Edition.
- Games that support multiple native graphics modes now have a screenshot for each graphics mode.
- SVGA games are starting to be listed. Games that use standard VESA modes will be listed first, and games that rely on proprietary chipsets to achieve better-than-VGA graphics (such as MoraffWare games) will soon follow.
- Added maps and a walkthrough of Adventure 2: Savage Stones to The Adventures of MicroMan Webshrine.
- The first batch of Classic DOS Games DVD-ROMs since JPC was added to the site has just gone out. That means it's now possible to use the DVD to play DOS games on a computer that doesn't have internet access or a hard drive (or a hard drive without a DOS emulator). As "cloud computing" becomes more popular, small notebooks with minimal hardware and small hard drives – or no hard drive at all – can be used as DOS game machines. As long as you have an optical drive and a browser, you can play DOS games even if you can't get a wireless signal – even from the dark side of the Moon! Also, the Classic DOS Games DVD-ROM has now been shipped to three continents!
- Classic DOS Games now owns an original Dopefish mug! Apogee's Joe Siegler, who is the curator of all things related to the Dopefish, created mugs with an image of the Dopefish in 1993, and the last two that weren't given as gifts or put up for auction were recently sold on eBay, where one was purchased for our archive. See and read all about it in the forum.
23 July 2008
- Got permission from Ste Cork to distribute Overkill as freeware.
- Added 5 games: Combine 'Em, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, In Search of Dr. Riptide, Mah Jongg for Windows, and Wari: The Ancient Game of Africa.
- Made it possible to search for games by individual independent authors. Corrected and did a minor rewrite of the DOSBox Tutorial.
- Fixed Bio Menace and Commander Keen: Goodbye Galaxy online play. To fix the flashing in Commander Keen, go to the Options menu, select Configure, Options, and select SVGA Compatibility. Then go to Sound and select No Sound Effects to prevent the game from crashing during sound effects. The game is now fully playable, but slow. For technical support for this and other games, always check the JPC help page.
4 July 2008
- It's July 4th, which everyone knows is a special day. It's the day that Classic DOS Games allows you to play DOS games in your browser!!! Classic DOS Games has gotten permission to add a Java-based PC emulator called JPC to the site, and I'm busily making every DOS game on the site playable in your browser. This means that you can play DOS games in any Java-enabled browser, from PCs and Macs to handheld computers, without having to download the game or use an emulator. Happy Fourth of July!
- Please read this explanation of the pros and cons of using JPC to play the games on this site. Only 45% of the games on the site have been added so far. Other than eating and sleeping, I've done almost nothing but add games for the last 24 hours, so I ask for your patience while the remaining games are added. In the meantime, one of the games that you can play now is Duke Nukem II.
1 July 2008
- Added Hubie.
- Getting serious about preservation. When it comes to disk preservation, I've been all talk and no action. Truthfully, my collection was a mess. But no more! I set up a very wide bookcase and filled four shelves with boxes of DOS games and operating systems, and I've actually started making images of the disks. I started with operating system CD-ROMs, recording BIN/CUE images. A .BIN file is a bit-perfect copy of all of the data on a disc, like an ISO. The .CUE file records the physical details of the disc and how the data was arranged. The same can be done for floppy disks. Now that I've finally gotten organized, I'm looking forward to finally saving these disks from oblivion and turning the DOS Historical Preservation Society into a real organization. I've already had an offer of a donation of a bunch of floppy disks, and I appreciate any original disks or CDs that you can send me.
- We had a few entries to the Video Game Haiku Contest, but we can do better. Coming up with seventeen syllables is not hard. You can write about any game on the site. For example, here is a haiku about Hocus Pocus.
A young wizard's quest
To save the world from evil
And become a man
20 June 2008
- Added 4 games: Cipher for Windows, Googolpede for Windows, Salad Scribble, and Wolfie's Music Games.
- Added a long lost question to the Qbix interview that sort of fell through the cracks.
- The Zork Trilogy Petition is on its way to Activision's corporate headquarters! It took 21 pages to include all of your signatures, which I hope will make an impressive statement about our solidarity. If you haven't signed yet, it's not too late. The URL to the petition was included in my letter, so if there are even more signatures when they check it out, so much the better.
2 June 2008
- I've always believed that anything can be explained in 17 syllables or less, so I thought that it would be nice to summarize the games on the site using haiku. I can't do it by myself, though, so I'm announcing a Video Game Haiku Contest! Contest details are in the forum. You can write about any game on the site. For example, here is a haiku about Boppin'.
A triangle head
Throws a block at other blocks
Releasing evil
28 May 2008
- Added Ballistic.
- I felt that it was time for Classic DOS Games to provide more information about games than is possible in a short review. I've begun creating "webshrines" for a select few games, with more to come in the future. Webshrines are pages that include everything there is to know about a game: lists of enemies, power-ups and cheat codes, bugs and glitches, complete maps and walkthroughs, and even speedrun videos. The webshrines are here!
- Added drivers for Sound Blaster 16, and updated the Advanced DOSBox Tutorial to include instructions for adding MIDI sound to Windows 3.1.
- Classic DOS Games has grown in popularity a lot in 2008. In order to support new features, we've had to upgrade to Business hosting, which costs an extra $6 per month. The upside to this, in addition to the new features, is 25 times more web space and 8 times more bandwidth per month, which should be enough for years to come.
9 May 2008
- Added 5 games: Dinner With Moriarty, Duel 2000, Jigsaws Galore, Lemmings, and Tribolo.
- Added a section for previously unreleased games that have been sent to me by the authors of classic DOS games.
- Finally learned how to spell "independent" and corrected URLs and links.
- There are now 250 games on the site!
- One quarter of all games have now been rated by our visitors! For those who don't know how to do this, click on the rating under the title bar of each game to be taken to the forum thread where your vote can be recorded.
30 April 2008
- Added an interview of Jennifer Diane Reitz.
- Added an interview of Qbix.
- All site interviews now have their own thread in the forum so that visitors can discuss how it went and ask their own questions!
- There's a new addition to the navigation bar: Google Ads. Why is it there? Has Classic DOS Games gone mad with greed? Are there straitjackets and white rubber rooms in our future? Actually, it supports a very good cause! You can read all about it in the Forum.
1 April 2008
31 March 2008
- Added an interview of David P. Gray.
- Made some visual updates and fulfilled a number of requests. Changed color scheme so that games are color coded by legal status, regardless of whether or not they are DOS or Win16 games (which can easily be determined in the status bar below the title), and changed public domain from yellow to red, which is easier to read. Screenshot filenames are now more browser-friendly (no spaces).
- Added RSS feed so that visitors can be informed when there are updates.
- Added an anchor to every game on every page, which is the name of the game with spaces replaced by underscores. For example, if you want to send a friend a link to your favorite game on the Puzzle page, the link would be www.classicdosgames.com/puzzle.html#My_Favorite_Puzzle_Game. This will also aid users of voice-based browsers to skip directly to the entry they are interested in hearing.
- Completed a major Quality Assurance campaign. Dozens of typos have been corrected (shame on you for not resporting them). License filenames are now more browser-friendly (no spaces).
7 March 2008
24 February 2008
- Got permission from Robert Epps to distribute Slam! as freeware.
- Got permission from Colin Garbutt to distribute Kye as freeware.
- Added 18 games: The Adventures of MicroMan, Alien Force, Castle of the Winds, Football, Kye, MESH: Hero Defiant, MESH: Hero's Hearts, MicroMan, Sherlock for Windows, SinkSub, SkiFree, Slam!, Space Nightmare, Star Wars: Dark Forces, World Empire II Deluxe, World Empire III, World Empire IV, and Xerix II: The Caverns of Mars.
- Added a new Advanced DOSBox Tutorial with information on running Windows 3.1 in DOSBox, and how to play Super VGA games.
- Added a Drivers section.
- Created a new guide to helping out the website: How to help the site for free.
- The Zork Trilogy Petition now has over 500 signatures, and I'm going to formally present it to Infocom. If you want your name to be included, sign it now!
- Attention Jetpack fans: Adam Pedersen has begun development of Jetpack 2, and you can help! Jetpack 2 has a development blog, and the author is hoping for donations of art, sound effects and music.
31 January 2008
- Phase V, the final phase of the major update, is complete. The site now includes Win16 games, since they also required DOS. There are now 600 versions of classic games on the site! To the best of my knowledge, Classic DOS Games has the most game downloads of any legal DOS games site in the world. Made contact with Pop Software, who are attempting to fulfill orders for the Space Bats games as soon as possible. A new interview is about to be published. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 14 games: Catch, If You Can!, Commander Keen: Aliens Ate My Babysitter, Electranoid, Fuzzy's World of Miniature Space Golf, Hugo's Horrific Adventure, Hugo's House of Horrors, Hugo II, Whodunit?, Hugo III, Jungle of Doom!, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Nitemare-3D, Super ZZT, World Empire, Xatax, and Xerix.
- Added a new "member game" and a new utility.
2 January 2008
- It's January 2, so it must be time for the first freeware release of the year!
- Got permission from Everett Kaser to distribute Snarf as freeware.
31 December 2007
- Added 6 games: Argo Checkers, Hero's Heart, Kosynka, Snarf, Solitile, and Teenagent.
- Upgraded the forum software, which adds some fun new functionality, like birthdays and the ability to change your vote if you find out that a game is much more awesome than you thought.
- Trying out new wallpaper for the site. There are no plans to redo the kitchen.
18 December 2007
- Phase IV of the major update is complete. Games can now be sorted by video mode, and there are now screenshots (categorizing games and adding screenshots is still in progress). Added a Strategy genre. Users can now rate compatibility utilities. The site has been rewritten so that all pages load instantly (on a fast internet connection). A new tutorial is almost finished. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 3 games: Gobliiins, Gobliins 2: The Prince Buffoon, and Goblins Quest 3.
- You can now sign-up for the Classic DOS Games Newsletter! Once a month you'll receive an email containing updates, trivia, and occasionally contests. This is guaranteed to not be spam; your email address will never be given to any other party or used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
11 December 2007
- The second batch of the Classic DOS Games DVD-ROM has gone out!
- The Classic DOS Games DVD-ROM currently has 873 MB of stuff on it, which means that there are almost 4 GB left that could be used for extras. Many gamers like to listen to music while they play, so if you have a band that could use some free publicity, please contact me about including your music. If anyone else has any suggestions for cool extras, I'd love to hear from you. Remember that it has to be your own creation so that I can legally distribute it.
- FreeRice has doubled their donation to 20 grains per correct answer, and the donation level has reached 7 billion grains of rice! But let's not forget that there is hunger in our own communities as well. We should be charitable all year round, but winter is a particularly difficult time for many people, as the cost of heating is a burden in many parts of the world. While you're donating rice to people in developing countries, please donate non-perishable goods to your local food shelter. Our world has enough abundance to feed every human being, but there are even people starving in a land of plenty. Let's think globally and locally and help hungry people wherever they may be.
2 December 2007
- The 2008 fiscal year is about to begin. Classic DOS Games will spend $47.88 on webhosting in 2008 ($3.99 per month). If anyone is able to donate one or more months, that would be really appreciated. Note: Most expenses on the Donations page are listed in US dollars because the goods and services were purchased from US companies who list prices in US dollars. Those expenses are paid for in Canadian dollars from my Canadian bank account! Now that the Canadian and US dollars have equal value, it would really help me out if donations could be made in Canadian funds to prevent me from having to pay a roughly 2.5% currency conversion fee. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. I really didn't expect the site's 2008 webhosting expenses to be covered so quickly.
- The last time I thought up a donation campaign, the ill-fated Have a Penny, Donate a Penny campaign, in April 2006, I noted that Classic DOS Games was getting about 6000 unique visitors per month. Today Classic DOS Games averages over 14 000 unique visitors per month. Thank you to everyone for your support throughout 2007! See the chart.
24 November 2007
17 November 2007
- Added 3 games: Hexxagon, Tubes, and Telengard.
- There are now 200 games on the site!
- Over the years, many DOS programmers have asked me to add their recent games to the site, which didn't meet the criteria to be considered "classic" DOS games. It was never my intention that DOS should stagnate or be abandoned. In the hope that DOS gaming will continue to flourish and grow, I have added a section for new games created by Classic DOS Games members. These games will not be added to the Classic DOS Games game count.
- Those of you who visit regularly know that there are very few things that I promote with this website. Today I make an exception to promote a fun game that saves lives. It's an online vocabulary game called FreeRice. You're presented with a word and four possible definitions. For every answer you get correct, 10 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger. The site is paid for by advertisers, in the form of three small corporate logos at the bottom of the screen. No registration is necessary, and it doesn't ask for any personal information. Don't bother cheating: the questions get easier when you answer incorrectly, and harder when you answer correctly. Just play the game until it finds your level. It's good for your vocabulary, and it's good for desperately poor people who don't even have food, let alone computers and internet access. After donating 10000 grains of rice my Vocab Level was 41, with a high of 44.
8 November 2007
- Phase III of the major update is complete. Every game on the site now has a full review. Each game has a user rating based on votes in the Forum. Performed a long overdue update of the MoraffWare games. Shareware games list whether the game is a full game that requested registration, or a partial game, like the first episode of a series; freeware list whether they were formerly commercial software, shareware, or games that were free. Games can also be searched by those criteria. Rewrote code to make pages load significantly faster. Added glowing title bars. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 2 games: Corridor 7: Alien Invasion and Jetpack Christmas Special!.
- Added an interview of Adam Pedersen.
- Isn't momentum great? The coolest stuff is usually the hardest to implement, so the most exciting changes are still to come!
23 October 2007
21 October 2007
- Phase II of the major update is complete. Added license information to descriptions and a Licenses section to prove that freeware games are free. Added CSS to make link underlines the same color as links in Firefox. Switched to a more standard text size. Improved appearance of title graphics. Reorganized the Forum; polls can now be created in some categories. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Got permission from Larry Tipton to distribute Drum Blaster as freeware.
- Added 5 games: Abuse, Galacta, Space Chase, Vinyl Goddess From Mars, and Xmas Lemmings: 1991 Christmas Edition.
2 October 2007
- On 15 June 2007, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish 2 October as the International Day of Non-Violence. This date was chosen because it is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi had the power to command hundreds of millions of people to violently expel colonial forces from India, but he was prepared to sacrifice his own life to prevent violence. Today should be a day for non-violence not only on a national scale, but at a personal level. Resolve to be non-violent today, and then do it again tomorrow, and every day after, taking it one day at a time. We can choose to create a world where everyone can live a long, healthy, happy, peaceful life. To reflect on what we've done, and can resolve to never do again, enjoy this free video of Linkin Park's What I've Done on YouTube. Make video games, not war!
30 September 2007
- Phase I of the major update I was talking about is complete. It is now possible to search games by legal status and year released. The forum is about to get a huge interactivity upgrade. I finally chose a logo for the DOS Games Compatibility Wiki. If anyone can design a better one, please let me know! I've created a blog so that I can talk more about games and gaming than I normally can in the site's game reviews. I've created a page that explains what distributed computing projects are and why you should choose one, and started a petition to encourage operating system vendors to ask users to select a project during the installation or activation process. A ton of invisible upgrades have occurred to make it easier to add games and new criteria to search them with, and to make it easier to create up-to-date copies of the new Classic DOS Games DVD-ROM. Oh, and since this is still a game site, I added some new games.
- Added 2 games: Mah Jongg -8514- and One Must Fall.
- Dear Chris, Taylor, Kevin, and Melissa: I appreciate your donation of one penny. At this point, if even 1/10th of the visitors to Classic DOS Games would donate a single penny, I could cover the cost of hosting the site for years. Unfortunately, the Have a Penny, Donate a Penny Campaign has failed. PayPal charges a fee of $0.01 on every donation of $0.01, leaving me with $0.00. Allowing billions of web surfers to donate their pocket change to websites they enjoy, and charging fees on a monthly basis instead of on each transaction, could have been a revolutionary way to allow small, non-commercial websites to make money. On a global scale, the market for such donations could have reached millions of dollars per year, and PayPal would have still gotten their cut, but they declined my request to consider such a system. Our loss is their loss. There's no sense in letting PayPal keep the money, so I'm giving each of you your penny back. Best regards.
26 August 2007
- This is it, folks! Some pages were unavailable for a few minutes this morning because I've just completed the most significant database update to the site ever. The change will soon allow games to be searched by any criteria. I can also add new games much more easily than before, and a huge update is on its way!
- Due to popular demand, Classic DOS Games is now available on DVD-R! As you hopefully have noticed, there are no ads on this website, so I depend entirely on donations to help fund the website. I tried to allow donations as small as one penny, but PayPal insisted on taking their "cut", which is 100% of donations that small. As for donations that get into actual dollars, I can appreciate that no one likes paying for something that they can just take for free, so I thought about ways that I could offer something of value in return. With the Classic DOS Games DVD-ROM, you can take more than 500 versions of the best classic games with you wherever you go (still conveniently catalogued in website form), make a donation to the website, and have something interesting to show for it. Please visit the Store for more information!
- The DOS Historical Preservation Society needs an Amiga in order to use special archival software that bypasses the Floppy Disk Controller found in PCs and instructs floppy drives at a hardware level in order to make bit-perfect copies of hundreds of DOS floppy disks before they degrade and become unreadable. This software was developed by other software preservation societies and is critical because it can even detect and correct corrupted bits. If anyone can help me acquire or borrow one, please let me know.
9 August 2007
- Got permission from John Pallett-Plowright to distribute Traffic Department 2192 as freeware.
- Added DOSBox v0.71 and Virtual PC 2007, and overhauled the Utilities section.
- The White House has recently disclosed that United States President George Bush has been treated for Lyme disease. I've made a Get Well card for him that you're welcome to pass along. The card and the President's email address are on this page. Note: this is a joke.
18 June 2007
16 May 2007
- Added 4 games: Chinese Checkers, DND, Dungeons of the Necromancer's Domain, and Redhook's Revenge.
- Classic DOS Games was featured in a podcast on Green Ring Ethos! Originally aired on 9 November 2006, Episode 12 talks about the site from 18:39 to 21:39. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that Classic DOS Games has been mentioned in audio. If anyone is aware of any other articles about the site on websites, podcasts, newspapers or magazines, please let me know!
- I'm back! Didn't know I was gone? My computer, which was already on its last leg, finally gave out in February. One of the capacitors fried and left a nifty burn mark on the motherboard. I've never actually seen a motherboard do that. Anyway, it's a new year, and the government offered me a new contract, which means I have money again. I've paid off all of my bills, and I've built myself a new computer.
9 April 2007
- www.classicdosgames.com is back! After a long battle with my former ISP, I've finally been able to transfer the domain to my new registrar.
7 March 2007
- Classic DOS Games has its 2nd anniversary.
- classicdosgames.com has become classicdosgames.org.
- Added source code for Jumpman Lives!
- Added DOSBox v0.70 and Mo'Slo v1.5.1 to the Utilities section.
- Completed a massive overhaul of the DOS Games Compatibility Wiki, categorizing games that run perfectly in Windows XP, games that play perfectly in Windows XP once VDMSound is used for SB16 emulation, as well as games that play perfectly in ScummVM and TrollVM.
30 January 2007
- Added 11 games: Aspetra, Banyon Wars, Battle for Atlantis, Bolo Ball, Crusher, Crusher Castle II, Dotso, Isle Wars, Numlo, Sea Run, and Spider Run.
- For a change of pace, I've been interviewed by a website called ASCII-World, which is devoted exclusively to ASCII games and art. Learn about the philosophy of this website, my feelings on a number of topics, and find out where all of the games come from! Also, learn how Classic DOS Games got its name, and the name I almost used instead. It's a long interview.
29 December 2006
11 December 2006
- The DOS Games Compatibility Wiki is finally back up! I was able to retrieve the database from my former webhost, so the site should be fully functioning again. If you experience any problems of any kind, please contact me immediately. I apologize for the long downtime. I'm now using a superior webhost and paying less money for hosting! Things should return to normal now.
1 December 2006
- I moved all files to Classic DOS Games' new webhost on 20 November, and called PowWeb on 30 November to advise them to cancel my service on 1 December. This would give me the rest of the day to download things that can't be downloaded in advance: copies of the forum, wiki, and my webstats. PowWeb cancelled my service immediately, in a final example of how lousy their service is. The early cancellation caught me off guard and forced me to update the DNS servers to my new webhost, even though the transfer wasn't complete, and caused the website to be unavailable, or available in a very limited form, for most of 30 November and 1 December. I have uploaded an old backup of the forum to the new webhost, but I won't be able to restore the missing entries or transfer the wiki until PowWeb restores my hosting package on 2 December. I apologize for the further inconvenience. Learn from my mistake: stay away from PowWeb!
20 November 2006
- The site was unavailable for about 8 hours on 19 November 2006 due to scheduled server maintenance by my webhost, which exceeded the downtime allowed by their 99.9% uptime guarantee. Three days of data were never recovered following a botched server migration following their transitition to new management. They continue to force changes on me despite my protests, and they clearly don't read my emails when they respond. I've had it with PowWeb and will be switching to a new webhost on 1 December 2006. The site may be briefly unavailable while global DNS servers propagate the site's new location. I apologize for this necessary inconvenience.
6 November 2006
29 October 2006
23 September 2006
- Added Charlie II.
- Labelled the website with ICRA labels to allow parental and other filtering software to determine the appropriateness of the content of the site.
- New content would have been added sooner, but my webhost is under new management and required a lengthy migration to their servers which didn't go smoothly for Classic DOS Games. When I was finally able to convince them to manually migrate my site because the self-migration tool refused to do so, they migrated a copy of the site that was three days old, causing all wiki entries and webstats from those days to be lost.
26 July 2006
- Got permission from Damon Hastings to distribute Duel 2000 as freeware.
9 July 2006
25 June 2006
28 May 2006
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- PayPal's response to my concerns about charging a 100% fee on transactions and keeping all donations to the Have a Penny, Donate a Penny campaign was that they cannot change their fee structure, so they apparently believe that charging a 100% fee is acceptable and ethical business practice. I have sent two additional emails to request that the policy be reviewed, which have gone unanswered. Rather than let PayPal keep your donations, I have refunded all donations to the campaign. Although I was assured that the fees would also be refunded, PayPal seems to be charging a fee of $0.01 on the refunds, so it appears that PayPal has "refunded" your money, only to keep it for themselves as a transaction fee. I have sent an email to ask why a fee appears next to the refund in my transaction list. Rest assured, I will fight for the return of your money on ethical grounds.
- Added Heroes: The Tantalizing Trio
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18 May 2006
- Added Crazy Eights.
- A major problem has been identified with the Have a Penny, Donate a Penny campaign. I forgot that PayPal charges a commission on all donations made by credit card (but not from bank account or PayPal balances), which is the most common way for people to transfer money. The fee apparently rounds up to the nearest penny, so PayPal is simply keeping all donations. I have contacted PayPal to request that they refund all donations to the donors and have offered a compromise where they can take their commission from all pennies donated on a monthly or annual basis, rather than on every donation, so that they aren't charging a 100% commission. If necessary, I will refund all donations out of my own pocket (through my bank account so that it actually gets to them). In the meantime, please donate your pennies by means other than credit cards, or donate them to charity instead. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.
18 April 2006
11 March 2006
7 March 2006
- Classic DOS Games has its 1st anniversary.
27 February 2006
16 February 2006
- Got permission from Richard Lang and Psion Software to distribute Psion Chess as freeware.
- Created the DOS Historical Preservation Society to preserve the DOS operating system, games, and other software, in both physical and data form.
31 January 2006
- Added an interview of Joe Siegler.
- Added "latest news" section to the website. I had never bothered to keep a revision history, in part because I didn't think anyone cared. Someone asked for one, so I made one. I had to put all of the website's history up until now in one entry.
- Added $0.73 to site revenues.
2005
- Purchased domain name and hand-coded website in HTML, CSS and PHP.
- Drafted mission statement and privacy policy.
- Created 9 petitions to have discontinued games re-released for sale or as freeware, 3 of which have ended successfully.
- Interviewed John Passfield, Nels Anderson, Ken Silverman and Owen Thomas.
- Spent $186.48 on hosting and collected $0.45 in revenue.
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