Anyone who has played games a lot has a favorite era that set their expectations and defined what they would find fun for years to come. But it's difficult to talk about classic computer games without dating yourself—either as younger or older—and whether an era counts as "classic" or formative depends on the individual.
In my case, the formative glory days were the 1980s and early '90s, and the platform was MS-DOS. And while I did play popular commercial releases from publishers like Apogee and Epic, I mostly played shareware releases. Today, we're going to look at some gems of that lost era.
My parents were living abroad in Honduras, where I didn't speak the language at first, so my computer was my refuge in those first months, and these games were my favorite pastime. They're burned in my memory as experiences that defined what I expected from games for years to come. Some people have youthful memories of hanging out outside (I do, too, of course), but more than anything, I remember playing DOS games—so many DOS games.To celebrate that era during Ars Gaming Week, I'm going to point out a few of those gems that not everyone has played. If you've played a couple of them, awesome. Let's reminisce! If not, well, then it's always good to discover new (or old) games!
None of these is on sale on any popular digital PC gaming storefront I could find. That's likely because most of these games were, for lack of a better term, indies. They were mainly designed by very small or one-person teams and distributed by shareware floppy disc and mail-in programs around the world.
Some of them were included in CD software collections in the '90s, like the PC-SIG collections. But you should be able to find shareware copies of many of them on classic gaming sites and run them in DOSBox. I played them all recently in Boxer for macOS.
Now let's get started!
Sleuth (1983)
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The title screen to Sleuth. Let's solve a mystery! Here we go.Samuel Axon
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You can name all seven people in the mansion. One will randomly be murdered, another will randomly be the murderer. The rest will give you information to help you figure it out.Samuel Axon
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I named the entire cast after Ars staff. Senior Technology Editor Lee Hutchinson was tragically murdered. Who could have done such a thing? Time to find out.Samuel Axon
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When you enter a room, there are objects to investigate, as well as people to question. All are random between games.Samuel Axon
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We run into Samuel (hey, that's me!) right off the bat. He says he was with Ron, so he couldn't have murdered Lee. We'll look into that.
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We found the magnifying glass. While you can theoretically win without it, it's much harder, as it's needed to quickly ID the murder weapon and location. It spawns in a random room each game.Samuel Axon
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We ran into Ron on the steps, and he confirmed Samuel's alibi along with his own. Neither one is our guy.Samuel Axon
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Some suspects say they were alone. This might seem like a bad alibi, but they're usually not guilty. It's not enough to go on, in any case. You have to disprove the alibi, not just find it suspicious. Note that he said the library, though; maybe if the murderer has an alibi involving the library, this could be evidence.Samuel Axon
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Valentina says she was with Beth at the time of the murder. We'll have to check with Beth to verify that.Samuel Axon
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Beth confirms Valentina's alibi, and her own, while pointing us in the direction of one possible suspect for the murder.Samuel Axon
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Eric says he was with Ron in the library, but we know Ron and Samuel were together, and Ken said he was alone in the library with no Eric in sight. Eric is clearly lying, which means Beth was right, and Eric Bangeman murdered Lee Hutchinson. Scandal!Samuel Axon
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In the game's final stages, the murderer begins "stalking" you. If you walk into the room they're in, they'll trap you and kill you, so we're rolling the dice at this point as we continue to investigate.Samuel Axon
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By examining objects with the magnifying glass, we've found the murder weapon! We're one step closer to victory.
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You can also examine the floor in different rooms with the magnifying glass to see if there's blood there. If there is, it's the murder room. (You can also suss this out based on interviews and character movements, though.) Since we've learned the full truth, we type "ASSEMBLE" in the murder room to make the final move.
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With the entire cast gathered, we accuse Eric based on the evidence we've found.Samuel Axon
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We were right. Eric did it, and he fessed up. Since we also found the murder weapon and room, this was a straight win. The game challenges us to do it faster on future attempts.Samuel Axon
For a very long time, Sleuth—a shareware game made by some guy named Eric N. Miller I've otherwise never heard of since, despite the fact that his LA address in the title screen is five minutes from where I live today—was my favorite computer game. It came out 36 years ago, but I still load it up and play it from time to time.
Sleuth is a murder-mystery game with ASCII graphics and text commands. Seven characters enter a mansion, one gets murdered, and another one did it. You have to find out who the murderer is, what they used for a weapon, and where they committed the murder. Then you accuse them in front of everybody—all before they get suspicious and murder you, too.
I played Sleuth long before I'd ever heard the term "Roguelike," though the game was released after Rogue. But Sleuth was the first game I can remember playing regularly that was totally different each time you played. It was made even more fun and relevant over time by the fact that you could name every person in the mansion. So over the years, I would input pop culture figures, friends, or coworkers and laugh at the strange social happenings that occurred.For a game with only a few interactions and just one screen of play, it has a surprising amount of replayability and depth. I often wish there was a more modern version of it to try out. But then again, I'd be afraid any modern iteration would miss out on Sleuth's DIY, ASCII charm.
For a walkthrough of what a game looks like, go through the images above. You'll get the gist of it—and it's extra fun because I named all the suspects after Ars editors. Who was murdered, and who did it? You'll have to find out. Or you could play Sleuth and see for yourself.
Capture the Flag (1993)
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The title screen for Capture the Flag.Samuel Axon
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"Including Modem play!"Samuel Axon
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This is your starting view in the game. The characters you control are on the right, along with their stances, a minimap, and other relevant data.Samuel Axon
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There's also a map for a bigger picture.Samuel Axon
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Characters have different stances; crawling reduces how closely you can be detected but makes you move slowly.Samuel Axon
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Certain terrain makes walking or running take more movement points. Also, note the red question mark: that's a hidden enemy's last known location.Samuel Axon
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Capture the Flag has fog of war, which is made worse by certain terrain properties.Samuel Axon
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In the top left of this image: if you encounter an enemy player in your territory, you can try to capture them, which results in this fighting animation.Samuel Axon
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Blue was victorious! Red will go to jail for a turn.Samuel Axon
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After the game's end, you can see the whole map to find out what you missed.Samuel Axon
I played capture the flag in the fields of rural Missouri when I was a very young child. While CTF is a mode in many games, including modern ones, none captured it quite like the simulation-like game Capture the Flag. Released by Carr Software in 1993, this turn-based title almost has the depth of real-time strategy (RTS).
When playing against either the computer or another player, you manage a roster of team members by tracking each of their movement points. You move your teammates around the map, set them in different stances, and take advantage of the fog of war and numerous terrain modifiers. It's not the easiest game to pick up and play, but it comes with a helpful tutorial demo. Put in 30-60 minutes, and you'll be in good shape. (This was common for many games of the era.)Capture the Flag has retained a very small, cult-like following over the years. It still has an active website, which charmingly looks like it hasn't changed since the late '90s. You can download the game there, and the website once hosted sign-up sheets for finding opponents for play-by-modem or play-by-mail. (The sheet is still there, but there's no one on the list.)
This game was proof that a tiny team could still produce something you could lose many hours mastering.
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