Community sourced game list for AO486 Top 500

[stefanem]

Just tried on my own discord with the Simple Poll bot and that bot allows only up to 10 answers but that doesn't mean there aren't better discord poll bots out there.

[FoxbatStargazer]

Well there's a question whether we even have 500 working games after testing!

But if you explain your additions with "here's an obscure hidden gem everyone ignored but is totally awesome" I have to wonder. I think A) easy nostalgia trip through most people's childhood and B) games list that really represents the time and the platform, is a better use of slots. A list this large is mostly going to be, someone looked up some awesome games elsewhere and wants to jump in and see if it is here to load up quick and convenient. Not randomly picking through the list trying each game out hoping to enjoy it. The top 500 is more to make the download size and testing/tuning process managable, moreso than a curated list of games you must play all of because they are equally awesome.

[LamerDeluxe]

I enjoy trying some lesser known hidden gems that people are enthousiastic about.

[Schyz]

I see several Windows games in the list. Are Windows games going to be in the pack?

[flynnsbit]

No windows games. Those will be filtered out. Basically it needs to come from the ExoDOS v5.1. Still plenty of chances to get games in the list as we are going to have some fall out for non-working or games that are too new (FPU or Pentium requirements). It wont be perfect, but it will be better than my Top 300 list which I created on my own with zero input from the community.

[Schyz]

Games like Larry 7 and Civilization 2 run in Windows 3.1, so it is possible, with some work, to get them running within your environment, but I'm not sure if you are willing to go down that path.

Another thing that I would like to comment is that some games from the time where re-released in CD without any improvement besides CD-Audio soundtrack. The positive side of using these versions is that the copy-protection is not present on those, but with current CD-Audio support maybe is better to go for the floppy version from the Total Dos Collection. Also the pack will be smaller.

[flynnsbit]

no, the idea here is to have the converter do a majority of the work from exodos. There would be a different pack for Windows 3.1 which would come from eXoWin3x collections. The good news is that the ExoDOSConverter already supports using the eXoWin3x as a base. The bad news is I don't have the energy to attack something like that for Mister. Someone else can pick up that baton.

RE Total Dos collection, that was the original base but it required too much work to do installs for each game. TDC has it's own problems that add significant amount of up front work to get it into a "pack". Great news is all of this is open source and available for anyone to try. It's just work.

[Bennehana]

Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer
Dark Seed
Dark Seed 2
Simon the Sorcerer II
Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice
Full Throttle
The Curse of Monkey Island
Broken sword
Broken sword 2

Are you going to merge it with the 300 pack or can One choose games from that list aswell?

I tried to add Them myself but my account was flagged

[chanunnaki]

Not sure why fallout (1990) isn't on the "original list" but I have it on my MiSTer Top300 image.

I clarified to remove Fallout (1990) and added Fallout (1997).

[chanunnaki]

I think removal of all the Street Fighters probably makes sense to allow room for other games as these games are available as (presumably) superior arcade-perfect cores. Just a thought.

[kikusui]

I've tried to edit the Wiki list with my addition, not sure if I've done it right but I've tried to add "Rusty". It's a Japanese game originally on the PC-88 that was ported to DOS and very much a Castlevania rip-off.

[LamerDeluxe]

I wouldn't want games to be removed because there are superior versions on other platforms. Quite often those inferior ports are the ones people used to play and have nostalgia for.

[Newsdee]

I've added:
- Bloodnet (Cyberpunk Vampire RPG)
- Future Wars (co-created by the maker of Out of this world)
- KGB (same engine as Dune 1, same composer)
- Moonbase (space sim city)
- Pizza Tycoon (Pizzeria SIm)
- T.F.X. (flight sim)

Also added several Steve Meretzky games:
- Superhero League of Hoboken
- Spellcasting 101
- Spellcasting 102
- Spellcasting 103
- Leather Godesses of Phobos
- Leather Godesses of Phobos II

[Newsdee]

Maybe you can consider doing a separate pack for adventure+RPG games? I had a quick look at the current github list and there are more than 140 in those two categories. The Top 500 would then be "everything except adventures".

[DiamondDave]

I'm trying to add Eco Quest I & II but keep getting a "404 error" when I press edit. Can someone else do it for me? Thanks!

And a second vote for a seperate adventure game/point & click game pack!

[manni199]

I missed three very important games in the ‚Top 300 games‘

Dungeon Master
Dungeon Master ‚The revenge of lord chaos‘
Dungeon Master ll

Back in the days I played the the first two on my Atari ST.
Both are fantastic, also today.

manni199

[RascalUK]

We're all giving Flynn a ton of work here. Is there anything any of us can do to help? If not cool, but before this develops into a can we have a sports pack, can we have a racing pack, etc etc and he just gets fed up of it all

[flynnsbit]

Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer
Dark Seed
Dark Seed 2
Simon the Sorcerer II
Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice
Full Throttle
The Curse of Monkey Island
Broken sword
Broken sword 2

Are you going to merge it with the 300 pack or can One choose games from that list aswell?

I tried to add Them myself but my account was flagged

Yeah, the "start" is the 300 pack, with removal of games that we know wont ever work. I am going to leave the ones that are on the verge of working, plus the new games (tested). I've seen this multiple times. What is "flagged" about your account?

[DiamondDave]

Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer
Dark Seed
Dark Seed 2
Simon the Sorcerer II
Call of Cthulhu: Prisoner of Ice
Full Throttle
The Curse of Monkey Island
Broken sword
Broken sword 2

Are you going to merge it with the 300 pack or can One choose games from that list aswell?

I tried to add Them myself but my account was flagged

Yeah, the "start" is the 300 pack, with removal of games that we know wont ever work. I am going to leave the ones that are on the verge of working, plus the new games (tested). I've seen this multiple times. What is "flagged" about your account?

I believe it's because several of us have signed up for accounts and immediately edited the games list, which their filters probably assume are spam accounts and then we get frozen.

I sent a request to get unblocked, but who knows when they will get around to that.

[seastalker]

I am also having trouble with trying to edit/add to the list. I have one game request, but don't know how others would take to it:

Queen: The Eye (1997/1998)

[Newsdee]

Yes, having genres and a separate pack is more work for flynn; and I only suggested it as a way to save space. Another cut that could be made (perhaps less likely to generate requests for subpacks) would be to separate games into an XT/AT era and the rest. It roughly cuts the timeline in the middle with early text/CGA/EGA one one side compared to VGA/SVGA and mouse on the other.

Assuming we keep one pack, then I'd suggest to trim game series to keep only the 2-3 best entries in the series (or the most accessible). The key point here would be to make the pack as varied as possible, instead of trying to make it a complete compendium.

For example, while I love the King's Quest series, KQ5 is enough to be representative of the DOS VGA era; and KQ1 as the game that started it all. Since there is an official remake, we could keep only KQ5 and KQ1 VGA. It would sacrifice historical accuracy but both could be picked up by total newcomers more easily than the original KQ1.

I know this is highly subjective and there is no one good way of doing it. I'm also fine with the current list; the above is just an idea to save space.

[darksakul]

I am convinced there no single good way to actually Enjoy the entire DOS library in one system.
You always lose compatibility with something.

I see it more with actual hardware, but I at times see issues even with DOS BOX, and you can configure Dos box per game.

[chanunnaki]

I wouldn't want games to be removed because there are superior versions on other platforms. Quite often those inferior ports are the ones people used to play and have nostalgia for.

I would understand this argument if somehow games were no longer supported by a particular core, but for personal nostalgia, one is always free to add whatever games they like manually.

This is called "Top 500" and I fail to see how any Street Fighter 2 game represents the best of what DOS gaming has to offer.

I do see what you're saying though, MiSTer as a whole is a massive treasure box of nostalgia, but the line should be drawn somewhere when it comes to these packs, otherwise what's the point of curating at all and not just go the whole hog and include all 7,200 games from the eXoDOS collection? Someone, somewhere is almost guaranteed to have some fond memories of every single one of those games.

[LamerDeluxe]

I wouldn't want games to be removed because there are superior versions on other platforms. Quite often those inferior ports are the ones people used to play and have nostalgia for.

I would understand this argument if somehow games were no longer supported by a particular core, but for personal nostalgia, one is always free to add whatever games they like manually.

This is called "Top 500" and I fail to see how any Street Fighter 2 game represents the best of what DOS gaming has to offer.

I do see what you're saying though, MiSTer as a whole is a massive treasure box of nostalgia, but the line should be drawn somewhere when it comes to these packs, otherwise what's the point of curating at all and not just go the whole hog and include all 7,200 games from the eXoDOS collection? Someone, somewhere is almost guaranteed to have some fond memories of every single one of those games.

Good points, you could add your own with a bit more hassle. Creating a Top 500 for people unfamiliar with a platform is also a bit different from creating one for people who are. Maybe two variations should exist.

In the second case, if an inferior port is loved by a lot of people, it should still end up in the top 500 though it could also be one of the best games for it. (for instance, some of the best VIC-20 games are arcade ports, obviously inferior to the original).

[nukeallx]

Blood!

[cognitivegears]

Not sure if it is too late, but added a few more:

Thexder
Thexder 2 (Fire Hawk: Thexder – The Second Contact)
Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess
Battle Chess 4000
Master of Orion
Test Drive III: The Passion
Rogue
Lode Runner
Pinball Construction Set
BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge
Codename: ICEMAN
Companions of Xanth
The Hunt for the Red October
SimAnt


But, also want to +1 for some of the ones on the list that I actively miss since I played them back in the day:

The Bard's Tale I,II,III
Alley Cat (1984)
Betrayal at Krondor
Battle Chess (1988)
Civilization
Fallout (1997)
Fallout 2
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The
Pirates! Gold
Police Quest 4
Zork I - The Great Underground Empire (1980)

[commander]

Did we reached 500 or how long does it take and the 500 list will be real...
thanks

[flynnsbit]

We reached 840 or so. So there is some work to do to knock that down. I see a LOT of games that are not 486 era or older, or are windows so that part will be easy. I have plenty to work with to get 500 working games.

I put a lot of work into the shareware image this weekend so that is getting closer. Once complete, I will start this. You will know when that happens as I am going to stream most of it so I have reference material later.

[commander]

Looking forward to it.
Have fun and thousend and one thanks to you

[ninjaz0mbie]

Is this project still being worked on, or did it get shelved in favor of the new shareware-focused vhd pack?

Curious if/where I can follow along