One of my favourite DOS games from years ago is Tyrian – I forget how I found it, but I remember having great fun playing it. It turns out that the author made an updated version called Tyrian 2000, and released it to the world for free. Two downloads later, one for Tyrian 2000 and the other for DosBox, and I was in business. I’d really forgotten how much fun this game is – it can be frustrating too, the author follows the old-school method of just throwing more and more stuff at you, faster and faster. Works for me though.

Some screenshots – I’ve run from episode 1 to 5, and looped back around, so I’m in a nice beefy ship with everything maxed out (except shields).\

Bonus part about Tyrian (and Tyrian 2000) was typing ‘destruct’ at the main menu and getting a Scorched Earth clone! :)