Games released in 1989

Before James Bond was saving the world with cinematic flair, he was crashing pixelated helicopters in 007: License to Kill. This top-down action game takes the movie and crams it into six bite-sized missions of explosions, awkward flying, and questionable hit detection. You’ll drive, swim, fly, and die - a lot. The controls are about as smoot...

Dive, dive! This 1989 DOS simulator puts you in control of a nuclear submarine, though most of the action involves pushing buttons and waiting very patiently. Think of it as the “Microsoft Excel of naval warfare,” only with more torpedoes. The tension builds as you track enemy ships, sneak through sonar nets, and try not to surface into...

Ah, 9 Poker. Released in 1989 for DOS, this game is less a glamorous casino sim and more a smoky backroom full of pixelated cards and questionable programming. You get nine variants of poker to lose fake money in, which is both generous and slightly overwhelming - do you go for Five Card Draw or risk everything on something called Guts? The interfa...

Forget Freddy’s razor glove for a second - A Nightmare on Elm Street (1989) for DOS is terrifying in its own way. Mostly because of the controls. You play as a teen trying to stay awake and alive while navigating dreamscapes full of death and digitized screams. The gameplay is a mix of exploration and survival, wrapped in graphics that look l...

A Personal Nightmare (1989) blends horror and detective work into one spooky little cocktail of 1980s DOS game design. You return to your hometown to find it overrun by demonic possession, creepy villagers, and enough red flags to wallpaper a crypt. The game mixes first-person exploration with point-and-click mechanics, and while it does try to be ...

Explosions? Check. Missiles? Check. Graphics that look like someone spilled gray soup on your monitor? Double check. A-10 Tank Killer lets you pilot a flying war machine and rain chaos upon tiny pixel tanks that may or may not be enemy vehicles. Missions include dramatic objectives like "blow stuff up" and "don't crash," which is harder than it sou...

If you’ve ever thought, “What if Pac-Man got lost in a modernist art gallery?”, then A-Maze is your oddly specific dream come true. Released in 1989 for DOS, this game is a labyrinthine puzzle fest where the graphics are minimal, but the frustration is maximal. It's like being trapped in a maze designed by someone who hates you......

Get ready to drive a tank very slowly while also being very stressed. Abrams Battle Tank (1989, DOS) puts you in the commander’s seat of America’s steel behemoth, and somehow turns desert combat into a tactical crawl. It’s got strategy, explosions, and a lot of brown terrain. Not for the impatient, but if you’ve ever wanted ...

Acquire (1989, DOS) brings boardroom drama to your DOS screen, turning you into a hotel tycoon in a game where the real enemy is... math. It's a faithful adaptation of the classic board game, complete with mergers, hostile takeovers, and the slow crushing realization that your cousin bought all the good stocks before you. There’s no real anim...

Action Fighter (1989, DOS) is Sega’s way of saying, “Why choose between car chases and aerial dogfights when you can have both?” You start in a motorcycle, grab some power-ups, and suddenly you’re flying a jet and blowing things up. It's like Spy Hunter had a Red Bull and watched Top Gun. The controls are twitchy, the pace i...

If you’ve ever dreamed of commanding a WWII convoy while cold, stressed, and staring at a pixelated radar screen, Action in the North Atlantic (1989, DOS) has you covered. It’s part strategy, part simulation, and all tension. You’ll guide merchant ships past U-boats, manage escorts, and occasionally scream at the screen when your ...

You, a motorcycle, and a desert that stretches forever - African Raiders-01 puts you in the Dakar rally with all the elegance of a brick on wheels. Navigate dust storms, sand dunes, and controls that were clearly designed by someone who hates you. But persevere and you’ll find a strangely hypnotic rhythm to its chaos. It’s frustrat...

If you’ve ever wanted to fly a jet fighter at Mach “Oh no, I crashed again,” After Burner is the game for you. This 1989 DOS classic straps you into an F-14 and launches you straight into the danger zone - no training wheels, no brakes, just pure pixelated chaos. The sky is your playground, and missiles are your confetti. It's fas...

Ajax (1989) is like an arcade fever dream: vertical shooter, transforming vehicles, lasers everywhere, and a soundtrack that yells “blast stuff!” every few seconds. One minute you’re flying a helicopter, the next you’re a tank on a hoverboard - don’t ask how, just shoot. It’s pure ’80s adrenaline: fast, lou...

Aldo Again (1989) is the platformer that dares to say, “Hey, what if Donkey Kong but with 100% more confusion?” You play as Aldo, a mustachioed man of mystery (and questionable balance) who’s trying to climb platforms, dodge hazards, and maybe figure out why he’s doing any of this. The graphics are primitive, the physics are...

Step into the rabbit hole - no, really, step carefully, or you’ll glitch right through the floor. Alice in Wonderland (1989, DOS) is a surreal, side-scrolling adventure that loosely follows the Lewis Carroll classic, if Lewis Carroll had a CRT monitor and a questionable understanding of collision detection. You play as Alice, wandering throug...

Alien Syndrome (1989) is a top-down shooter where you save hostages, shoot aliens, and scream internally because you’re always out of time. It’s frantic arcade action at its finest—like Contra had a baby with Gauntlet, then threw it into space. Controls are tight, enemies are relentless, and the soundtrack sounds like a robot havi...

This 1989 game is based on the animated movie where dogs die, go to heaven, then come back for revenge (sort of). The DOS adaptation? Well, it’s more like All Pixels Go Nowhere Fast. You jump, you dodge, you squint at the screen wondering what any of it has to do with the movie. But hey, the music’s charming, and you’re a dog. Kid...

Ah, Apache Strike (1989), the game where you're the lone helicopter pilot flying through blocky cities that look like they were made of leftover Lego bricks. Your mission? Blow up bad guys in a first-person view that resembles a screensaver from a lost civilization. The voice acting is so bad it’s good, and the cheesy radar interface is peak ...

In APB (1989), you’re a cop in a little squad car with a huge attitude problem. Your job? Pull over criminals, avoid donuts, and try not to smash into every tree, wall, and pedestrian. It’s basically Grand Theft Auto if it were designed by traffic school instructors on a sugar high. Siren on, ticket book ready—just don't expect to...

Archipelagos is like a fever dream after watching too much Myst. You’re dropped onto strange, floating islands inhabited by stone monoliths and evil terrain-infecting sludge. Your job? Purify the land by destroying said monoliths - because obviously. The visuals are surreal, the soundscape unnervingly tranquil, and the gameplay strangely hypn...

Doh is back, and he’s mad - presumably because no one understood what he was in the first place. Arkanoid 2 takes the original formula and dials everything up: more levels, more power-ups, more neon madness. It’s still paddle-meets-brick, but now with branching paths, weirder enemies, and a storyline that sounds like it was written on a...

Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur is a text adventure with occasional graphics, in which you, the not-yet-king, bumble your way through Camelot trying to prove you’re not just some kid with a weird haircut. The writing is witty, the puzzles devilish, and the parser only mildly homicidal. It’s part history, part fantasy, and entirely charm...

Artura is a hack-and-slash side-scroller that looks like someone tried to draw Gauntlet from memory after a power outage. You’re some kind of Celtic warrior on a mystical mission, but really you’re just trying not to die while jumping over spikes and stabbing things that look vaguely hostile. The music is decent, the graphics are a feve...

Aspar GP Master is a 1989 motorcycle racing game that invites you to tear up the track with the same grace and control as a caffeinated squirrel on rollerblades. Loosely inspired by Jorge “Aspar” Martínez, the game offers you the thrill of high-speed competition rendered in delightful DOS graphics. You’ll wrestle your pixel...

Operation Getafix (1989) is what happens when you turn a beloved comic series into a game with the precision of a wild boar wearing gloves. You play as Asterix on a quest to help Getafix the druid recover his memory and his recipe for the magic potion. What follows is a mix of puzzle-solving and mini-games that will leave you both confused and oddl...

Before Michael Bay got his hands on the franchise, Autobots (1989, DOS) offered a more... subtle approach to transforming robot mayhem. Well, not subtle exactly — more like confusing. You drive around a blocky city, fight vaguely car-shaped enemies, and wonder if you're the hero or just traffic. There’s a story in here somewhere, probab...