As we have seen in the free games section of this blog, there are many possibilities to play the PC for free (see 30 games to download for Windows Linux and Mac PCs), without having to buy any games and with videogames that, like graphics, variety and playability, have nothing to envy to the commercial ones. Some of these games are open source and nonprofit developed, other times they are supported by sponsors and premium accounts and most of them are also online and multiplayer. Other computer games of the 80s and 90s were a lot of fun but were later abandoned by their creator, later called " abandonware " A possibility sometimes overlooked, however, is to play those old games that until a few years ago were commercial and sold in stores but which have now been freed from copyright and can be downloaded for free without licenses and legally. A lot of commercial games become free over time and completely free. So let's see the best sites to download free old PC games, those called "abandonware", those of old Dos computers and also some more recent ones that publishers have released and no longer developed further. The sites are many, here we see some that collect many titles and that offer the link for direct download.
1) emulator sites of the Super Nintendo and Sega with many old, historical and great online arcade games, all playable via browser.
In another article, the collection of the best classic arcade games to play on the online browser
2) Best DOS and Amiga PC games on the Internet Archive are online and free, including Paperboy, Frogger, Street Fighter 2, Golden Ax, Lemmings, Speedball 2, Doom, Monkey Island, The Punisher, Microsoft Flight Simulator, The Elder Scrolls - Daggerfall.
3) Abandonia is a large index of old games in which the classics for DOS are mainly present.
Abandonware are games (or software) that have expired copyrights, or games that are no longer supported by the publishing house.
At the moment, the Abandonia database hosts 1, 063 downloadable games and has a total of over 100, 000 registered users. Most games are also reviewed with the addition of pictures and an evaluation by the reviewer and users. You can consult and download old pc games by filtering them by name, by year of release, by rating and by category. There are no newer games because the site has focused on the DOS ones, that is, those that were there before Windows arrived. The categories include Action, Graphic Adventures, Sports, Arcade and Shooter, Puzzles, Strategy and several others. Site navigation starts from the top menu with the Featured games menu or from "Site Navigation" going to "Archives". The most popular titles are obviously the famous ones that were played on the PC, on the Amiga or in the game room including, for example, Super Mario, Alone in the Dark 1 and 2, Monkey Island, Indiana Jones, 007, StarFlight, Wing Commander, Theme Park, ghostBusters etc. etc.
4) The Play Classic Games website allows you to play many classic DOS and old console games online for free. Among the best games on the list are, at the moment, Doom, Warcraft, Duke Nukem 3D, Sim City, Wolfenstein 3D, Sid Meier's Civilization and The Lion King.
5) DOS Game Archive is another site focused on DOS games. Their goal is to preserve the old video game glories and make sure they don't get lost over time. It contains over 1, 600 games to download including various different patches and saves. This time the interface of the site is made better and you can browse the games by name, category, date or popularity. There are no reviews but you can find the desired titles faster by also looking at the cover. The games include titles such as: The Settlers, Dune 1 and 2, Warcraft, Powermonger, Sensible Soccer, Leisure Suite Larry, Doom, Duke Nukem, Star Wars, Quake, GTA, Death Rally, Blood and many others.
6) Another site that holds a wider range of games, including non-DOS and therefore more recent, is Retrogames .
This site does not contain any games born free but only commercial ones that have been released from licenses and that, at one time, were paid and bought at the store. The navigation of the site is not optimal and as it is made it is not really easy and fast to find the titles you want to download but, inside, looking for, you can find some really mythical old games. Luckily you can order the games by the given vote thus seeing the best and the most downloaded ones. some of the games can also be played online and, at the moment in the top 10 are: Subspace, Castle of the Winds, Warzone 2100, One Must Fall 2097, Descent, Doom, Wild Metal Country.
7) Wikipedia is definitely the site that contains the most comprehensive list of old games that were previously commercial and now free. In fact, one of their pages is often updated with new older video game titles, in a list that is easy to consult in alphabetical order, with a brief description and the year in which they were released. Since it is Wikipedia, if you don't find a game that you knew, you can easily add it to the list.
8) Classic Arcade makes old games converted into flashgames play directly online; for example you can find fighting games like Final Fight or Street Fighter and games like Pacman and Donkey Kong.
9) The redone and online Atari games are playable on the official website of the famous production company.
10) Classic Reload is a free online site that allows you to play thousands of classic PC games, without downloading anything. The site features games for Windows and DOS, console games and classic games from the old consoles, all in HTML5. Among the most famous games in the collection are Doom II, Sid Meier's Civilization, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Turrican II, Day of the Tentacle, Ultima Underworld, Darklands.
11) The Video Game Museum is a site where you can review images, videos, music, endings, reviews, tricks and names of the old games of the past.
12) MyAbandonware is one of the richest sites in old PC game titles, with many famous names.
Among other resources to find and download Dos games, abandonware and old commercial games for free today we can mention other sites :
- Playretrogames
- TheOldComputer
- DosGames
- snesfun
- Game Oldies
In another article, 10 one-time classic games to play online: Pacman, Invaders, Asteroids, Arkanoid and others
On another page, on the other hand, you can download MAME and Roma to play on PC, the old arcade games arcades .
The history of video games is like the history of cinema, it must never be forgotten even if the youngest ones may not like them as much as we do.
