The number of free games available to players nowadays is unmatched. The free-to-play concept is used by many of the most well-liked online games to draw in players. On Steam, in your browser, and on your smartphone, you may play free games.
You don't always want the most recent AAA game or a free battle royale, though. You want to satisfy your nostalgic need. Fortunately, there are several websites devoted to the love and preservation of vintage games. Here are the top websites for free vintage PC game downloads.
1. Abandonia
An index of abandoned software called Abandonia is "dedicated to classic DOS games." Games with expired copyrights or outdated programmes that the publisher no longer supports are examples of abandonedware. (What exactly is abandonware?)
When Abandonia was established in 1999, the idea of abandonware had only been around for two years. After a few years of inactivity, Abandonia grew into one of the top websites for downloading your favourite vintage games. At the time of writing, Abandonia has over 800,000 users and offers close to 1,400 downloadable games.
Each abandonware game is given a detailed review, screenshots, an editor and user rating, and more by Abandonia. Old PC games are searchable and downloadable by name, year, rating, and genre. You won't find any of the "newer" abandonware games on this website because it is solely dedicated to DOS games, but the enormous DOS library should be able to meet the majority of your old gaming demands.
2. Abandonware Dos
Abandonware Dos is another website that specialises on outdated DOS games and is abandonware. It also offers a respectable selection of Windows games, albeit nothing really new. You can still get classics like Sid Meier's SimGolf and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds after 2002, but more modern games are starting to show up.
A popular website is Abandonware Dos. Each game has a site rating, title specification (such as abandonware, protected status, or freeware), release date, screenshots, a recent-ish video play-through, and tidbits of information about the game.
You may also discover helpful lists and articles to help you in your hunt for the top vintage games to download.
What I appreciate about Abandonware Dos is how transparent it is about its position as an abandoned site. The website's owner makes it very apparent that they abide with takedown orders. The website also offers direct access to GOG.com. These may be found on the highlighted games page and the direct game page of the website.
Organising your library of abandoned software when you begin collecting titles might be challenging. Check out these video game launchers that allow you to add the games you wish to play if that describes you.
3. RGB Classic Games
Numerous vintage DOS games, unreleased games, and even some "modern" DOS games are available at RGB Classic Games. The entirety of the website is "dedicated to preserving classic games for defunct PC operating systems" such DOS, CP/M-86, OS/2, Win16, and Win9x, as well as making them more accessible to play on contemporary computers. In fact, RGB Classic Games is a fantastic choice if you're interested in downloading vintage DOS games.
In addition to the firm name, legal status, year of release, operating system, and, intriguingly, video mode, you may search for games by genre and operating system. A considerable number of games, including Keen Dreams, Hexen, and one of my all-time favourites, are also playable on a site-hosted emulator, which is more evidence of RGB Classic Games' commitment to its objective.
Of course, some of the finest vintage games are not available as abandonware. For another journey down nostalgia lane, check out the top vintage games that are still worth playing.
4. My Abandonware
Old PC games may be downloaded from My Abandonware along with some of the list's more recent entries.
Over 15,000 titles are included, some of which are "very rare titles found in the deep web" and others which have been "sent by our awesome visitors." The tiny crew that runs My Abandonware continuously maintains the website, adding fresh content, abandonware games, vintage DOS games, and more.
A great aspect of My Abandonware is the variety of search choices. The vast collection of games may be browsed by keywords, names, year of release, platform, genre, topic, publisher, and even a particular developer. The developer choice is nice since you can check out several games from the same development team if you find one you like. There are also some vintage DOS games available for download.
5. Games Nostalgia
Hundreds of fantastic games that were released between 1985 and 1995 are included in Games Nostalgia. You may browse games on the Games Nostalgia website easily by genre, tags, new releases, popularity, and other criteria.
Additionally, Games Nostalgia goes above and above by providing each game in a separate emulator that is compatible with Windows (and, in many instances, macOS as well). By eliminating these extra procedures, Games Nostalgia makes it easier to play your favourite classic games. Download it, unzip it, and then launch the game. It is much simpler to play these classic and vintage games when they are packaged neatly in a container, which might be a problem on current devices.
6. Old Games Download
We arrive at Old Games Download, an abandonedware website with more than 2,000 games, after one more walk along Nostalgia Avenue and through your youth. Even better, as more old games are uploaded for other users, Old Games Download constantly has new games added. If you have a collection of vintage games, you should see if you can add to the site's Missing Game List.
Now, in 2022, Old Games Download was compelled to go down for a while. Users were routed to another website once the site was compromised. However, this was fixed, and any problems are now long-gone.
Old Games Download covers several platforms, too, including Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari, DOS, Windows 3.x, and many more.
Honorable Mention: The Internet Archive
A nonprofit organisation called The Internet Archive is committed to maintaining one of the fundamental ideals of the internet: open access to all knowledge. The Internet Archive concurs that vintage video games ought to be preserved.
The Internet Archive preserved some of the finest ancient games in 2014 by bringing 900 vintage arcade games to our browsers. The Internet Archive declared it will save more than 2,300 vintage DOS games a year later, in 2015.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to download the vintage games. However, you may play each game on your browser thanks to The Internet Archive's integration of DOSBox. discovered a book you adore? Note it down! Alternatively, save the page to your desktop so that you can access it with just a click.
What Are the Best Old PC Games?
There are many wonderful vintage PC games available. Finding enough time to play them all is the challenge. The ancient classics are kept alive and well through retro gaming and abandonware games. The simplicity with which you may play and download vintage PC games contributes to the revival. It's now simpler than ever to download and play your favourite vintage games thanks to websites like Games Nostalgia that package downloads with emulators.
