Talk:Index of DOS games

Good project

This seems like an interesting project, and I wouldn't mind helping in my spare time. I added some info to 0-9, changed the formatting and put game names in bold so that the Publisher name would be easier to tell apart from the game name, and changed the order a little (according to what I hear lists should have numbers in this order; 4 007 1987 20000). I hope you don't mind the changes, and in that case I am sorry, but this seems interesting. After a while though I think this should either be split into List of MS-DOS games: 1984 with alfabetic sorting under there, or List of MS-DOS games: F with sorting by year under that. If not this list will get very long. Anyhow, great idea. Clq 19:06, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks very much for the help, it's much appreciated. I didn't quite realise how huge the list would become when I started. As far as splitting the list goes, it's probably a good idea. Of course, the ideal situation is that all the red links will become filled, and the list will become redundant (everything will be in Category:DOS_games). As it is, categories only contain articles that actually exist, so the list is a good way of seeing what actually exists and what doesn't. Sorry, this has turned into more of a ramble than a constructive comment. --Lucian Gregory 21:00, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

The next days I will probably be mostly busy with real life stuff, in fact I will probably be busy most of this week, but what would be the best way.. One could probably just continue putting on the main page one letter at the time, and in some free time just move them over to pages for each year. I suggest using the List of MS-DOS games: 1984 format, as that seems to be used in quite some of the other lists. Perhaps tomorrow morning I could sort 0-9 into year page for example. It might be better to actually finish off with the info on the main page, and move when everything in a letter is fully done. And perhaps if one gets tired of inputing info/moving one could create a stub for a random red game ;P. This is obviously quite a long term project (was it 4000 games or so?), so if you can think of another good way of orgenizing, that would of course be nice also. Clq 21:46, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

I think for the time being, we should continue to input info into the main page, as having everything in one list makes it easier to quickly check whether or not a game is already listed. Definitely a long term project - even just listing the majority of games will take a long time - and I've been breaking up the monotony of listing by occasionally editing an existent article (I'm new, and don't feel entirely confident about creating articles yet).

As for organization, sorting into the List of MS-DOS games: 1984 format seems to me to be the best way. Sorting by letter would still result in fairly huge lists, and sorting by genre is tricky (and inevitably controversial). Anyway, I'll see if I can get everything up to the end of C in tonight. --Lucian Gregory 23:05, 12 March 2006 (UTC)

Really cool project but it looks like you have your work cut out for you :). I'll try to help out when possible. rCX (talk) 03:50, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Progress

We are now up to page 44 / 142 on the MobyGames list (1098 out of 3536 entries). --Lucian Gregory 00:43, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Up to page 50 Clq 09:01, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Page 56 --Lucian Gregory 16:12, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Modern Interactive Fiction

I have removed 9:05 from the list, as it is not specific to any system; rather, it will run on any system for which there is a Z-Code interpreter (for example, it could be run on a Dreamcast using FrotzDC). I would suggest that games written using Hugo, TADS, Inform, AGT, Alan or Glulx should not be added to the list.

This site might be the best source for PC / DOS specific interactive fiction, although many of the games in that list were created using one of the aforementioned utilities. --Lucian Gregory 23:41, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Apologies

Apologies for starting this project and then apparently abandoning it halfway through. PC / connection troubles have kept me busy for quite some time now. Things should be back to normal now, so expect to see a bit more progress. A very tentative hope is to at least have all the games listed by the end of next week.

On that note, I notice the page is getting rather long. Any suggestions on the best way to split it? I'm thinking something like "List of MS-DOS games (A)", with a navbar on each page.

Length is really not much of an issue for a page like this, in my opinion. Splitting it up would just make it harder to update all at once. Ideally this is a temporary page, as eventually the goal would be to create articles for every notable game and organize them in categories by release date. Until then, it's a work in progress (like most lists). --- RockMFR 07:40, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Regarding the pages for the DOS games themselves

I think under "external links" for the pages for the DOS games themselves, there should be a site in which the game can be downloaded if it is legal and possible to do so. If it isn't, and there's a legal demo (or shareware) version, then that should be included. But only when it's legal :P

What do you think?

Yoda921 02:51, 11 February 2007 (UTC)Yoda

Non MS-DOS game

Unreal isn't a MS-DOS game. It should be removed from the list.207.13.77.56 20:33, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

You are probably thinking about Unreal by Epic Games. But there's also an MS-DOS Ubi Soft Unreal game [1].Calvero2 11:09, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I dont think Caesar II i either! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.153.204.116 (talk) 03:08, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Expansions/Speech patches

The list also has some Speech patches for games! I think the article needs reorganisation. -- Magioladitis 12:57, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Nice work

Great resource, thanks for all the work that's gone into it. Drutt (talk) 05:26, 19 June 2008 (UTC)

It would be nice to have categories. Such as "Adventure", "Action", ect. To make it easier to locate a game. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.129.41.144 (talk) 00:45, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, yes. It would be nice. It would be nice if every game came out with neatly assigned, industry-agreed-on genres. And, admittedly, most games aim for a particular genre. But not all. Games have been known to cross genre lines, incorporating multiple genres into a single game. Heck, games have been known to *introduce* new genres, often unwittingly. (One game may introduce a few new concepts to an existing genre, and a whole new genre is built off of the new concepts)

The point: Defining genre is not as clear-cut as one would like. And, often, finding resources that accurately reflect the true genre of the game is even more difficult -- especially for games that came out before sites like gamefaqs and allgame were established.

Needs Organization

Seems like this page has been paid attention to less than other lists of games. Perhaps it should be redesigned into a table, similar to how List of Xbox games or List of Games for Windows titles is set up? Unless there's a massive amount of opposition, I'll likely just go ahead and do some of it to start it off. --Raikuson (talk) 01:39, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

It's only partially in table format now... looks kinda bad. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.236.151.123 (talk) 02:16, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Article needs to be split

The article is greater than 181 KB and the page is very slow to load, not to mention to edit or clean-up. Need help from expert editor spliters!--Funandtrvl (talk) 21:58, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

How much do you think it needs to be split by? "List of MS-DOS games (A to M)" or "List of MS-DOS games starting with A"? inclusivedisjunction (talk) 19:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Rule of thumb is about 30 KB per page. So, you've got about 6 times that already. It's difficult to estimate the splits because a) much of the table is not filled in, throwing off the size of the current table, and b) I suspect that this is list is nowhere near complete -- splits performed off an incomplete list may need adjustment as the list fills out in the future.

That said, the following looks like a relatively fair split, assuming all parts of the list are equally incomplete:

0-B (2778 lines)

C-E (2381 lines)

F-J (2690 lines)

K-M (2227 lines)

N-R (2500 lines)

S (2206 lines)

T-Z (2558 lines)

Dawynn (talk) 13:07, 13 May 2009 (UTC)

I just checked the length of "0 - B", and it would be over 38 KB. I'm going to say "better safe than sorry" and probably try to plan it to be be split by individual letter, barring a couple groups of letters being smaller than 30 KB even combined. Unless someone has better plans, since it's been over six months. inclusivedisjunction (talk) 12:26, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

 Done. Other than some slight ugliness with the TOC, I think everyone'll be a lot happier with the result. inclusivedisjunction (talk) 16:22, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Looks good. Thanks Inclusivedisjunction. -- œ^™ 05:48, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for splitting it! rCX (talk) 21:00, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

What's with all the Windows 95 games in the list?

Is this a list of MS-DOS games or what? There shouldn't be any Windows 95-only games listed, unless there's both a DOS and Windows version of the game. I think I also noticed several shareware games on the list, (VGA Miner etc.) this list should contain commercial software only. -- œ^™ 07:35, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

Since when are shareware games not commercial? inclusivedisjunction (talk) 11:27, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Ok but can this list really accommodate the huge number of shareware games as well? -- œ^™ 18:43, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

There's already a proposal to split the list off into more manageable chunks. I see no reason why additional games couldn't be added ad-infinitum. inclusivedisjunction (talk) 11:51, 24 July 2009 (UTC)

Well there should definately be a separate list for shareware games list only... as big and unmanageable that list would be.. good luck.. - œ^™ 02:30, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Almost all games of that era had a shareware version of their full retail game. There's probably little point in isolating such games. inclusivedisjunction (talk) 11:39, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Why isn't there a parallel List of Windows games article? 2fort5r (talk) 01:07, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Good question. Why don't you start one? -- œ^™ 03:25, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Is there some specific reason it doesn't exist? I don't mind getting started on it but won't be happy if the thing is deleted. 2fort5r (talk) 04:33, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

A list of lists of games here: Lists of video games. Everything is there except Windows. 2fort5r (talk) 08:24, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

I can't think of any reason why there can't be a List of Microsoft Windows games or List of games for Microsoft Windows (both titles are appropriate). Except for maybe because there's already a Category:Windows games, but that shouldn't matter—categories and lists complement each other. There is List of Games for Windows titles and Games for Windows but those are distinctly different. It probably doesn't exist because noone has bothered to create it yet. Go ahead and start it, I doubt it will get deleted, as long as it's well done and has at least one general reference for verifiability (MobyGames is a good one). You may want to compare with other similar lists.. I know most featured lists are in a table format. If the list seems too long you may also want to further split it up into lists for the different versions of Windows.. such as List of Windows 3.1 games, List of Windows 95 games, List of games for Windows XP etc. -- œ^™ 20:25, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I'm busy ATM but will take a look at this in a few days. I'll see if there's some automatic way to generate a first draft - I'd rather not type out thousands of entries by hand if that can be avoided. 2fort5r (talk) 21:10, 5 September 2009 (UTC)

As I feared, the pests are trying to delete the article. 2fort5r (talk) 21:30, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Discussion here: Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_Windows_games_starting_with_A 2fort5r (talk) 07:48, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

PC Booters

Are "PC Booter" games "DOS"? How should these things be classified? 2fort5r (talk) 19:57, 20 September 2009 (UTC)

That's a good question.. technically no they're not DOS games, yet I would still include them in the list, as they were for the IBM-PC and all IBM-PC's ran DOS back then, and also I think most of them ran their own variants of DOS-like OS's on the floppy. But it would also be a good idea to start a separate list of just PC booter games.. as there is a limited number of them so the list has a chance of being complete. And in fact, I just so happen to already have a list of quite a few of the old PC booters (I used to collect them). -- œ^™ 01:39, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Moby has a list of them here. I've come across several while cleaning up this list and have treated them as regular DOS games, though they should probably be removed unless they were also released in regular DOS format (bootleg hack conversions should not count). Or possibly leave them in but add a footnote identifying them as booters. 2fort5r (talk) 13:16, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Here's a provisional list based on Moby: List of PC Booter games 2fort5r (talk) 14:24, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, to avoid duplicating information I would remove them unless there was an official DOS release and not just a fanmade hack. However it would not be easy to determine and verify just how many of the booters were 'officially' ported to DOS, as most sources would list these old IBM-PC games as DOS anyway.. the Beyond Castle Wolfenstein article for example mentions that it was ported to DOS however it's unclear whether this means it was a PC booter or straight DOS.. so maybe a footnote would be a good idea in some cases.

Oh and I think the list is great.. once I get back to my other computer I'll compare it with my list and see if there's anything I can add, I'll also look into possibly converting it into a table format and add additional details such as year, genre, publisher/developer. -- œ^™ 21:25, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

I've created a table instead of a list for conformity with the MS-DOS and Windows pages. 2fort5r (talk) 23:46, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Do you have publication data etc. already in a list format? I could probably merge it into the table automatically in that case. 2fort5r (talk) 15:01, 24 September 2009 (UTC)

Actually I do! I have a complete database of almost every DOS game from 1981-1994 with all details included.. It's in the old dBase III format, which I can easily export into a plaintext list. But it's backed up on my old HD that's stashed away at my other place.. doh! It may take me some time before I can get to it but I promise I will eventually. -- œ^™ 05:33, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Release dates

Both sub-articles Index of MS-DOS games (A–M) and Index of MS-DOS games (N–Z) contain some release dates that cannot be correct when referring to the DOS version of the games, because they are before 1981, although MS-DOS 1.0 was released in 1981. Some games where in the A-M artioiicle have release dates in the 1970s, which is even too early for QDOS. --MrBurns (talk) 13:46, 30 June 2012 (UTC)

Reverting an action that was done without discussion

Sub-articles Index of MS-DOS games (A–M) and Index of MS-DOS games (N–Z) were created without any discussion regarding merging the already existing 27 articles into these two articles. However, per the section above, "Article needs to be split" the consensus was to split all of the titles into 27 separate articles due to the recommended size limit of list articles. However, a user seemed to have completely disregarded this conclusion and did something bold, and actually, in the process, created more work for editors to do. So now, I'm working on something in my sandbox regarding this (to basically revert the error that has been done.) Steel1943 (talk) 00:02, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Per note in WP:LENGTH (articles Index of MS-DOS games (A–M) and Index of MS-DOS games (N–Z) are too large), I will now carry on my action. When I am done, Index of MS-DOS games (A–M) and Index of MS-DOS games (N–Z) should become redirects to Index of MS-DOS games. Steel1943 (talk) 00:08, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Thought I would note, for the record, that Index of MS-DOS games (A–M) and Index of MS-DOS games (N–Z) are now redirects to Index of MS-DOS games. They have been for a while, but I thought I would make it officially announced on this talk page. Steel1943 (talk) 06:07, 2 February 2013 (UTC)