Search for games by legal status

Some shareware games were full versions that requested a donation to register the software if it was found to be useful. Most later shareware games included the first episode in a series, or had less levels or features than the registered version. Freeware games may be former shareware or commercial software, or games that have always been freeware. Public domain games are games that the copyright holder has officially abandoned all rights into the public domain (abandonware). Whenever the legal status of a shareware game is unknown, it is presumed to continue to be shareware.

All shareware games	All freeware games	Public domain
Full version shareware	Former commercial software
Partial game shareware	Former shareware
	Always freeware

Search for games by video mode

Games are listed by supported video modes. Games that have native support for more than one standard are listed under each supported standard. Video modes that have more than one resolution can be searched by resolution, or all games can be viewed by clicking on the name of the standard.

ASCII refers to games that are text-based; ASCII is not a video mode. Monochrome ASCII games can be played on Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) or higher graphics cards, and color ASCII games can be played on CGA or higher graphics cards; all newer graphics standards are backwards compatible with these text modes.

Text modes

ASCII
Monochrome text
40×25×16c text
80×40×16c text

Graphics modes

Hercules	CGA	Tandy	EGA	VGA	8514
720×348 mono	160×100×16c	320×200×16c	320×200×16c	320×200×256c	640×480×256c
	320×200×4c		640×200×16c	320×240×256c	1024×768×256c
	640×200 mono		640×350 mono	640×400×256c
			640×350×16c	640×480×16c

Games that support "SVGA" graphics may use any of the standards defined by VESA, or any graphics mode beyond VGA supported by proprietary chipsets on SVGA graphics cards. While there are many more VESA standard modes, only the modes likely to be found in DOS games will be listed until games that use those modes are discovered.

Standard VESA
Mode 100   640×400×256c
Mode 101   640×480×256c
Mode 102   800×600×16c
Mode 103   800×600×256c
Mode 104   1024×768×16c
Mode 105   1024×768×256c
Mode 106   1280×1024×16c
Mode 107   1280×1024×256c

Search for games by year

Games are listed by the year the first version was released.

1984	1988	1992	1996	1999
1985	1989	1993	1997	2000
1986	1990	1994	1998	2001
1987	1991	1995