Wondering if anyone here is interested in PC gaming from the early-mid 90s - you know, DOS, Win 3.1 through 98. I have very fond memories of Jill of the Jungle in particular, back when Epic Games was Epic MegaGames. I also made my dad buy those "25 Best Arcade Game" compilations they used to sell in software stores and WalMart. 

I think these games are semi-forgotten because it's so damn hard to get old computers up and running or even emulating them. Also, I have a large number of early-mid 90s computers that I am trying to optimize for retro PC gaming and sell. I'm also wondering if anyone would be interested in a vintage PC of this sort.

Memories? Opinions?

Hell yeah! PC gaming from that era is great! I would be interested in a pc from that era, I've been trying to find one at my local flea market.

I generally play these games one of three ways. On a laptop via dosbox (Unless it's win95 based), on my arcade machine, again, dosbox, or on my TV via my gaming PC. It's nice to take what was a PC game, and transform it via the magic of joy2key and hdmi output into what amounts to a console game.

^^^ Agreed. There are a ton of games from that era that make the transition to the TV really well. (though it helps that a lot of them used a 320x240 resolution mode to get more colors out of the VGA limitations )

Yes I loved playing DOS games! Wolfenstein 3D, Jill of the Jungle, Commander Keen, Number Munchers, Eagle Eye Detectives...there are a bunch of others whose names escape me at the moment. A lot of it was very kiddy stuff, educational even like Math Blaster, Oregon Trail, etc. But I was really young and I liked the stuff anyway.

DOSbox on an arcade machine? Like one of those custom cabinets with a PC inside? That's pretty cool. You've got those PC games mapped to real arcade controls? I'd love to see that!

 

Oh yeah 90s PC gaming was great. I have fond memories of playing Epic Pinball, point-n-click adventures, and Indy Car with the full steering wheel/pedals setup. I'm thinking about making a mini DOS machine out of a Raspberry Pi, maybe even with a Pi-sized beige 90s PC case, hehe.

That's pretty awesome. I've found that a lot of people are more interested in the case than the hardware inside! Those huge old cases - with the key/lock on the front and that LED display for the CPU or something, with like 6 slots for drives - they're worth real money now. I love the mini-retro case idea haha.
 

I played a ton of old PC games while growing up in the 90s!

Some of my favourites are: Jazz Jackrabbit, Doom, Commander Keen, Halloween Harry, 8 Ball Deluxe, Eco Saurus, One Must Fall, Duke Nukem, Artillery Combat, Prince Of Persia, Blast, Classic Concentration and Simpsons Arcade Game.

Since I didn't have a console during those years, PC gaming was pretty much all I did. Some that I played a lot:

Bubble Ghost
The Last Ninja
Captain Comic
Rick Dangerous
ZZT
Tetris
Space Quest III
Star Control
Star Control 2
Battle Chess
DeathTrack
Rise of the Dragon
Adventures of Willy Beamish
Wolfenstein 3d
Lemmings
Commander Keen
Duke Nukem
Baal
Star Goose
Ancient Art of War at Sea
Silpheed
Thexder
Space Hulk
Neuromancer
Sim City
Robocop
Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O'Fun
Joust
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
Prince of Persia
Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure
F19 Stealth Fighter
Darkseed
Last Half of Darkness
Scorched Earth
VGA Sharks
Falcon AT
Hugo's House of Horrors
Space Station
Stunt Island
Test Drive
Veil of Darkenss
Syndicate
Archon
Islands of Danger
Budokan
Tongue of the Fatman

RPGs were my favorite on the PC but I played a lot of the games above as well. Syndicate was AWESOME, I want to play it now.

My favorite non-RPG of the era was probably Master of Orion.

Was a huge fan of Prince of Persia, Doom, Sim City, Wolfenstein and Spear of Destiny, Jane of the Jungle, Duke Nukem 1 and 2, Tetris, Out of this World, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Need for Speed 1, Then later came stuff like Descent, Quake, Diablo, Interstate '76, Duke Nukem 3D, Tomb Raider, Phantasmagoria, 7th Guest, and don't forget PC Demo disks. So many of those. You'd find bizarre games like Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold, and 3D Haunted Mansion.

Let me see if I can even remember what all we had:

Commander Keen 1-5 (or maybe 6?)
Duke Nukem
Duke Nukem 2
F-15 Strike Eagle II
Major Striker
Bio Menace
Mother Goose
Mega Man
Jill of the Jungle
Prince of Persia
Total War (or something like that, basically Risk)
Battle Chess
Wolfenstein 3D
Blake Stone
Castelian
Adventure
A game, probably Apogee, where you were a green guy and you had suction cups for hands
A Kroz game, or something that looked like a Kroz game

I'll have to keep thinking about it
 

Not anymore, lost the configs for 99% of them in a system upgrade.  Only ones that are still setup would be two windows apps, mugen and legend of princess




Since my joystick is programmable and can be set to analog, plus I have a spinner\steering wheel that works like a mouse with just the X axis, I've been meaning to set up doom and wolf3D on it. Use the stick for forward\back\strafe and the spinner to turn.  I can reach one button no problem on the joystick side (So that's fire), and two on the spinner side, I think for changing weapons.  Haven't decided how to do running yet.
 

"Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure" 

 

Aside from SNES, PC is where I started gaming. Some of my favorites from that era:

Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Hunter Hunted
Slamscape
POD
Chex Quest
Descent
Dark Forces 2

Pharaoh's Tomb starring Nevada Smith was my first game I ever played and I loved it. Also, big fan of Bolo Ball.

Did you ever play through Monuments of Mars?

 

Do King's Quest V and VI count?

No, what is that?!? Sounds amazing. A Pharaoh's Tomb expansion? I did clock in quite a few hours on Mother Goose All Mixed Up or something like that, I forget the title. I haven't thought about it in probably over 20 years. I need to download DOS box.
 

It is a parallel release with basically the same game engine.

 

Mixed-up Mother Goose was an 80's release, 1987. It was very good and a memorable game. The mid-to-late 80's had it's fair share of excellent computer games. King's Quest III comes to mind.

Man, I have nearly as many good memories of 90s PC shareware stuff as I do console gaming! Let's see...I played Jazz Jackrabbit all the time and wondered why it was never on the Genesis. I used to call the neighbors over to make them play the shareware demo of One Must Fall. DOOM is my favorite game of all time. I played the first episode of Hocus Pocus repeatedly. Duke Nukem 3D was the first game I ever played with my dad.

Here's one for you: there was an Epic/Apogee platformer whose name I've never been able to remember. You played as a buff blonde dude in a sleeveless grey shirt, who gets pulled into a different dimension of some kind and goes on an epic quest to save the day and escape, as they always do. Early to mid 90s, might have had a world map, might have started with an X. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

You're "might haves" are all correct: Xargon!! One of my faves too!

This might get you started: 



Man I want to break out my old PC now! 

Pretty much the only PC games that I enjoyed playing were the Grand Theft Autos. Duke Nukems and I was obsessed with the Blade Runner Game. Roller Coaster Tycoon was fun also but I think that was a bit later.