6 Rarest And Most Expensive MS-DOS Games
DOS was used before Windows. Here are the most expensive and hard-to-find MS-DOS games from the golden age of computers.
In the early days of personal computers, MS-DOS, which stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System, was one of the most famous interfaces. DOS could run on any PC, no matter who made it, unlike rivals like Apple and Commodore. Users could even start it up with floppy disks instead of a local hard drive. Because the DOS market was so big, a lot of game makers made games for it. Not only could they expect a lot of possible customers, but computers could also handle games that were more complicated than what was available at the time.
Also, making a few floppy disks was a lot cheaper than making private cartridges. Some of those floppy disks have become collector’s items, even if they were cheap when they were made. Like many old games, games that used to be common are now pieces of history and memories. Even though the oldest and most expensive DOS games aren’t cheap, collectors still want them a lot.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena ($710)
| Loose | $322.73 |
|---|---|
| Complete in Box | $710.00 |
| New | $1,420.00 |
The Elder Scrolls: Arena came out before The Elder Scrolls Online, Skyrim, and even Morrowind and Daggerfall. A young business called Bethesda Softworks wanted to make a medieval team-battle game called Arena, but as development went on, the game got bigger and bigger until it became an RPG about exploring an entire continent. The only part of the original idea that would remain in the final game would be the name.
The Elder Scrolls: Arena is now free to download from Steam and Bethesda’s website, but it’s much harder to find a real copy. It’s no surprise that original copies of the game have become expensive to collectors, given how big it was and how long it has been around.
Neverwinter Nights ($787)
| Loose | $79.95 |
|---|---|
| Complete in Box | $787.00 |
| New | $1,574.00 |
In 1988, TSR, a business that made tabletop games, took advantage of the rise of computer RPGs by giving SSI the rights to make Dungeons and Dragons. The games that came out of this collaboration are called the Gold Box series because most of them came in boxes that were gold. Neverwinter Nights was a unique addition.
SSI worked with the early internet company America Online (AOL) to make an online RPG that used the same engine as the rest of the Gold Box series. Anyone who used AOL’s service could connect to other players across the internet.Neverwinter Nights wasn’t the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), but it was the first one with images instead of just text. This Gold Box game’s memory lives on in Neverwinter Nights, which was made by BioWare in 2002, and Neverwinter MMO, which was made by Cryptic Studios in 2013.
Commander Keen in Aliens Ate My Babysitter ($886)
| Loose | $556.57 |
|---|---|
| Complete in Box | $886.50 |
| New | $3,195.85 |
Before first-person shooters changed everything, id Software made a series of platform games starring Commander Keen, a child genius and space explorer. These games were played from the side. The first set of Commander Keen games was famous enough for the creators to start their own studio, but the last few games in the series really brought the idea of the PC platformer to life.
The last Commander Keen game is called “Aliens Ate My Babysitter.” It was supposed to be the last part of a trilogy, but the story and settings were different enough that id Software decided to put it out on its own. Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992, which was bad news for Keen fans because the team never went back to making platform games.
Cosmology of Kyoto ($1,001)
| Loose | $455.00 |
|---|---|
| Complete in Box | $1,001.00 |
| New | $2,047.50 |
When they first came out, some collector’s items weren’t very popular, but they had a cult following that kept their names living for a long time. Cosmology of Kyoto is one of these games. Since it came out, it has gone from being a rare and strange title to one of the most expensive MS-DOS games.
Cosmology of Kyoto is a rare Japanese PC game made by a company called Softedge. It was made for PCs. There is no main story in Penalty Kick Online. Instead, players are dropped into Kyoto in 1000 AD and given free reign to explore the city. The game didn’t make a lot of money in the U.S., which was probably because of its strange style and Japanese-only voice acting, but in 1994, Roger Ebert gave it a great review.
Indiana Jones in Revenge of the Ancients ($1,280)
| Loose | $581.82 |
|---|---|
| Complete in Box | $1,280.00 |
| New | $2,560.00 |
A good example of a PC-only game is Indiana Jones and the Revenge of the Ancients. Text adventures were the first adventure games ever made. This means that players had to type in orders using keywords or letters, and the game would tell them what happened in text. Interactive fiction is a type of games like this that are still made today.
Several things make Revenge of the Ancients important. Even though it wasn’t the first Indiana Jones game, it was the first one made for PCs. Next, it’s the only Indiana Jones-themed interactive story game that has ever been made. Lastly, it’s well-written fiction, which wasn’t always the case even when this type of book was famous.
Commander Keen in Goodbye, Galaxy ($2,187)
| Loose | $994.09 |
|---|---|
| Complete in Box | $2,187.00 |
| New | $4,374.00 |
The Commander Keen game Aliens Ate My Babysitter was a good one, but it’s not the one most people remember. Goodbye, Galaxy was the part of the series that broke the most new ground and got the most attention because of it. The game had pretty polished and bright graphics that brought to life how cartoony the story was. It also had great sound design and a creative set of enemies and levels.
The people at id Software used this talent again in 1993 when they made Doom, which is why more people remember Doom than Commander Keen. Still, Goodbye, Galaxy is a fun game, it’s important in history, and it’s hard to find in-box because id used to sell it as shareware. All things considered, it’s not surprising that it became one of the strangest DOS games.
