WELCOME TO WINDOWS GAME CLUB

[Tijn]

#11615

As you might have seen, we’ve published an extra episode on 1 April 2026 to announce we’re pivoting away from DOS games. Let’s face it, we’ve done all the good ones by now.

So to kick things off with WINDOWS GAME CLUB, we’re starting out with Half-Life! Please feel free to discuss that game here in this forum.

And meanwhile perhaps you can think of some other Windows games for us to play & discuss in the future, such as Minecraft, Roblox or Fortnite.

[Tijn]

#11616

Please enjoy our new logo btw

And the new theme tune!

[DJ_HiP]

#11617

Just when we thought you’d run out of ideas, you once again revolutionize the club!

Really looking forward to the future episode on classics like JezzBall, Reversi, 3D Pinball and Hover!

[TigerQuoll]

#11619

It’s about time! DOS is dead – Windows 95 is the future!

As my first suggestion I say we do “Indiana Jones and his Desktop Adventures”. We can do it in June – nobody wants to play Tie Fighter. This is a much better idea.

You chose to pivot on the right day too – April the 1st 1976 is when Apple Computers was founded.

[firefyte]

#11620

Hey, Indy’s desktop adventures is a windows 3.1 game, maybe we should play something more modern like Fury 3, a great Microsoft title?

[dr_st]

#11623

Nice one.

But Half-Life is such an awful game.

You should cover really important and good Windows games, like SkiFree and “Get The Girl”.

[butterburp]

#11624

April fool? Lol
(I apologize if this is a real thing – just funny timing!)

[red.hexapus]

#11625

Haven’t listened to the episode yet (intend to do so over the Easter break), but it’s funny that Half Life is mentioned by Bruno the Bigfoot in this month’s DOS game (Sam & Max Hit the Road) 🙂

Was that intentional or just a funny coincidence?

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[TigerQuoll]

#11629

Seriously though, I’ve often thought it would be cool to make a spin-off podcast about Windows games of the era. This “joke” episode is basically exactly what I imagined!

[Tijn]

#11630

Wow, amazing find about “Half Life” being mentioned in Sam & Max. I wish that was intentional haha

And yeah, honestly the cut-off to only do DOS games is a bit arbitrary. Half-Life is from 1998. We’ve done loads of games from 1997, such as Carmageddon or Grand Theft Auto. Why does a single year make such a big difference, is a valid question to ask.

But then again, we want to draw the line somewhere, because all of PC gaming is just one big continuum really, so if we don’t impose some kind of barrier then what’s stopping us from doing the likes of Fortnite etc.

There’s something to be said to focus on “retro” as a whole, rather than a specific operating system, but idk… I also enjoy the fact we’re only looking at DOS games.

It also makes them easy to play along, because of Dosbox etc. Getting old Windows games to run is a lot more tricky, which makes a gaming club for them a lot less viable.

So yeah, there are no real plans to move away from the focus on DOS for the foreseeable future. There’s still plenty of good games to choose from!

[jan0sch]

#11631

Well played folks, well played! 🙂

[Martli]

#11634

I mean, it ran on Windows 95/98 which runs on top of DOS… so…. kind of a DOS game??

[butterburp]

#11636

I certainly don’t mind Windows 3.x games to be mentioned here and there. Although I generally ran pure DOS in the early to mid 90’s, I did plenty of Solitaire and Minesweeper, and the Windows Entertainment Packs. Oh yeah, and Netscape for netsurfing 🙂

[TigerQuoll]

#11638

There is a significantly different vibe and attitude to DOS games vs Windows games – it doesn’t feel like an arbitrary distinction to me, even if it is hard to pin down sometimes.

[Martli]

#11639

I completely agree. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s something to do with the windowed approach to windows, vs. everything in DOS being full screen. Like you go from a black screen with white text to a full on colour experience (at least in later titles). The OS disappears, whereas in windows you can suspend animation more easily with a quick ALT-TAB or ALT-ENTER and bring yourself back to basecamp. It’s definitely real, though obviously a big overlap in terms of what is a windows vs. DOS game in the late-mid 90s…

[Evil Taco]

#11640

Love it. Love to logo too!

[butterburp]

#11641

Gotcha. I think my view is different because I was brought up on Windows from the very start. My first DOS PC had W3.0 on it and I used it frequently, so the two OS’s almost seemed one and the same to me.

Would this thread be an ok place to put occasional W3x related tidbits? I won’t do it too often, to avoid derailing from the general DOS focus.

[patrick_wd]

#11642

Strictly DOS only PCs were more of an 80s thing; by the 90s, every DOS machine also had win3.x. It existed alongside DOS and you’d switch between them regularly depending on your programs. It wasn’t really until win9x that you were expected to boot into and stay strictly in windows, even running DOS programs in the virtual DOS environment.

For this reason, i think win3.x is fair game for DOS era discussion, in a way that 9x isn’t. Also, there are just relatively fewer big tentpole games that require win3.x anyway. If the club did like 1 per year I think that would be fine.

[Tijn]

#11643

Yeah I wouldn’t object to the occasional Windows 3.x game at all!

[TigerQuoll]

#11650

Win 3.x wasn’t really treated as a major platform for games, so there weren’t that many made for it – at least big serious games. (No shortage of little fun casual games though!)

I think it’s a great idea giving the few there are some love here! It’s not like they’ll take over and change the character of the club.

[watchful]

#11652

For a while I’ve been considering trying to make a Windows Game Club, as a kind of sister podcast. Probably focused on win games from 1990 through 2000. This HL episode pushed me over the edge, so I bought WindowsGameClub.com and am hoping to stand up a coming-soon site and plan an episode zero. Folks can email WindowsGameClub at gmail.

Of course I don’t mean to steal anyone’s thunder or split the community. And I cannot do monthly. Probably going to try quarterly.

If enough people are interested then perhaps a limited forum (board) could be hosted here at DGC 😬? And/or maybe federate somehow? Even just pingbacks.

All that said, according to MobyGames, Windows 16-bit has ~2,200 games compared to DOS’s ~8,400 games. So nothing to shake a stick at. IME most are indeed casual. Windows games from 1995 through 2000 weigh in at ~6,400.

[Tijn]

#11653

Very cool, watchful! I’d love to be on as a guest, if you’d like!

[patrick_wd]

#11654

Yeah, I think a WGC would be best served focusing on the period of time between the first published Direct-X game through End-of-Life for Windows 98SE, which would be roughly 1996-2002. This would nicely fill the gap between DGC’s covered era, and the “modern” XP and beyond era.

[red.hexapus]

#11662

Keep us posted watchful, I’ll gladly listen to you discussing early Windows games, would have a few recommendations too 🙂

[TigerQuoll]

#11668

Awesome, watchful! Definitely keep us in the loop. I’m happy to help however I can.

[AstronautDown]

#11689

Honestly, I would probably not mind the transition if it was for real because that theme music is magnificent!