Between the bulk of the '80s and the '90s, DOS was the way to go for gamers, and was the backbone of PC gaming. Sure, there were plenty of other consoles and platforms with tons of games, yes, but DOS was where the most innovation was happening. We're talking about experimentation with 2.5D and 3D space, first-person shooters on PC, massive city-building sims, point-and-click adventures, and so much more. Devs were building games for DOS while pushing boundaries, experimenting with new perspectives, mechanics, and genres, effectively laying down the groundwork for modern gaming as we know it today.

Now, what makes DOS games so easy to revisit today, is how lightweight they are compared to tech today. Even a top-of-the-line rig back then might've had a few MBs of RAM and double-digit megabyte storage at best. Even a $100 phone today has significantly more hardware under the hood than that, which means that not only can we run emulators for DOS in our browsers, but also run entire games without breaking a sweat. No excuse not to dive in, then.

15 Dangerous Dave (1988)

Perfect for short platforming breaks between work

Dangerous Dave is one of the first games I can ever recall playing, and wouldn't you know it, it's still pretty darn fun. Does the music still grate a teeny tiny bit on my ears? Yes. Does the game continue to be just as fun as I remembered? Also yes. My first-ever platformer, Dave will have you running and gunning, and heck, it even has you sitting in a jetpack-propelled seat, shooting flying enemies while you collect gems and keys to move to the next stage.

For short breaks during work (or even those I take instead of working), Dangerous Dave on Chrome is one of the first games I go to. Now, let's hope my boss isn't reading this.

14 Sid Meier's Civilization (1991)

One of the most important DOS games of all time

Inarguably one of the greatest DOS games ever made, Sid Meier's Civilization let players build entire empires, take control over the whole world, and use any tool they wanted. Players could employ brute force, diplomacy, and/or technology to build and expand their empires, and through Sid Meier's Civilization, the foundation was laid for all strategy games to come.

For everything Civilization let you do, it's amazing how the game, which once felt like it pushed the boundaries of the medium as well as the platform, is now simply playable in a RetroGames tab in any web browser you might have on your PC. Heck, the browsers take up tons more space and RAM than both the emulator and Civilization's files.

13 Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (1992)

My Arrakis, my Dune, my browser

You've probably heard it a hundred times before, but it bears repeating — Dune II essentially crafted the RTS genre as we know it. Before Command & Conquer and Warcraft, it was Dune II that made base-building, resource gathering, and unit commands feel like a full-blown battlefield on your screen.

Yes, many RTS games came before it, but none came with mechanics as strong, and a blueprint as resonant as Dune II. Its playability by today's standards might not be great, but with a bit of patience, the structure and atmosphere remain just as riveting. Just make sure you keep the tab open if you're playing this in a browser, since that's the only downside to emulating DOS games online.

12 Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons (1990)

Platforming didn't get more colorful back in the day

Before Doom, or Quake, id Software gave us Commander Keen. This game practically defined what PC platformers looked like in the early '90s. Instead of jumping around on some console, you were simply a genius kid running around in a football helmet, bouncing off pogo sticks and shooting aliens with a raygun on your own computer. That's what made the game feel like magic to anyone I talked to about Commander Keen.

I just played Commander Keen on my browser through RetroGames, and it's vibrant, colorfast, fast, and surprisingly inventive. Most importantly, though, it's so much fun. Keen's world is quirky and full of secrets, with the occasional hidden level that put a smile on my face at the time of discovery. It's not nearly as iconic as id Software's FPS work, but the game deserves to be remembered as one of the cornerstones of DOS platforming.

11 Carmageddon (1997)

Back when edgy was actually cool

If someone says 'car combat', Carmageddon is the only game that comes to mind. Alongside Test Drive and Monster Truck Madness, Carmageddon was one of the first racing games I ever played. Now, imagine a three-year-old toddler cackling as he runs over pedestrians and blows up rival cars, and you will just have pictured me in my living room in 2001.

Carmageddon is an absolute classic, and I loved the latest Max Damage entry we got in 2016, too. However, there's nothing like the original, especially considering I can just hop on for a race full of cars and people going splat at the click of a button in my browser itself.

10 Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)

Point-and-click adventures let me lean back in my chair and still have fun

LucarArts' point-and-click golden era peaked with the Fate of Atlantis. It's one of the few Indiana Jones stories outside the films that feels entirely authentic, and in some ways, even better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (okay, low bar, but still). With great puzzles, snappy dialogue, and branching story paths, it's no surprise many still consider this one of the best adventure games ever made.

There's something rather charming about clicking your way through Nazi hideouts, solving riddles, and getting into fistfights as Indy. The Fate of Atlantis was smart, witty, and perfectly paced. It's tough to play longer games that require more hours in a browser itself, I admit. Still, in a time when we still have tens of tabs open from months prior, going to Atlantis as the hat-toting professor is quite alright, and doable.

9 The Oregon Trail (1990)

Started as an educational project, ended up becoming a classic game

Yes, yes, I get it — I've died of dysentery for the tenth time. If you've played The Oregon Trail, you've already heard that voice in your head. The Oregon Trail was interesting, since it began as an educational game for American schools, and ended up becoming one of the most accidentally hilarious and iconic games of the DOS era.

Balancing food, supplies, and oxen while trying not to get wiped out by river crossings or broken legs is what The Oregon Trail was all about, and honestly, we wouldn't have modern survival games if it hadn't been for this game. This is a game that frustrates you with the same fact that it educates you about, which is how fragile our lives and wagons really are.

8 Command and Conquer (1995)

It became a full-blown war machine

Command & Conquer took everything Dune II built and turned it into a full-blown war machine. This game came with FMVs, and boy, did they lend a ton of credibility to the war. Add in a killer soundtrack and some of the most memorable unit barks in RTS history, and this game had the perfect recipe to make you feel like a real commander in the middle of a war.

The mouse-click base building, harvester routes, and tank rushes that Command & Conquer had, were all revolutionary at the time. Every skirmish was an adrenaline-fueled strategy battle, and the series, to this day, goes strong.

7 X-COM: UFO Defense (1994)

One missed shot is all it took

X-COM: UFO Defense was the kind of DOS game that would've laughed in the face of modern difficulty settings, to say the very least. One missed shot or misstep is all it would take for your allies to be eaten by aliens in the fog of war.

Uncompromising, strategic, and deeply addictive, X-COM had you managing your base, budget, and soldiers, making sure that no two runs ever felt the same. My first X-COM game may have been Enemy Unknown on the Xbox 360, but revisiting the classic that started it all didn't feel unfamiliar, or outdated.

6 Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

The grandfather of modern-day first-person-shooters

This was the game that truly laid the foundation for the FPS genre. While Doom got more sales, and consequently, more credit for birthing the FPS genre as we know it, Wolfenstein 3D came a year earlier. It handed you a rifle, put you in a Nazi camp, and told you to go crazy.

Secret doors, dogs, big bosses, yelling nazi soldiers, tons of treasure to collect, and a mecha-Hitler to bring down — Wolfenstein 3D really had it all. At the time, hitting Spacebar to open a door, and seeing a big blue SS guard yell at you felt exhilarating. My favorite part about all of this? It's still just as exciting, and instead of having to jump through the hoops of DOSBox, I can just play it in my Chrome instead.