6 websites that allow you to download old PC games for free

Modern gamers have countless free games. Many of the most popular online games use a free-to-play model to entice users. There are free games on Steam, in your browser, and on your smartphone.

However, you don’t always want the latest AAA title or free battle royale. Luckily, there are many websites dedicated to preserving old games. Here are the best websites where you can download old PC games for free.

Abandonia was founded in 1999. After a few years of inactivity, Abandonia has grown into one of the leading websites where you can download your favorite old games. At the time of this writing, Abandonia has nearly 1,400 downloadable games with over 800,000 members.

Abandonia provides each game with a thorough review, screenshots, and reviews from editors and users. You can browse and download old PC games by name, year, rating, and category. Since the site focuses on DOS games, you won’t find any “newer” games here, but the extensive DOS archive should satisfy most of your older gaming needs.

Abandonware Dos is another site that focuses on old DOS games. It also has a catalog of Windows titles, arranged in descending order from around 2002, meaning you can get SimGolf and Sid Meier’s all-time great Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.

Abandonware Dos is also a very active site. Each title comes with its website rating, specs, release date, screenshots, as well as recently played(ish) videos and snippets of game-related information.

You’ll also find useful articles and lists to aid in finding the best old games to download.

The advantage of Abandonware Dos is its open approach to the state of the website that houses its software. The website owner explicitly states their compliance with takedown notices. Furthermore, the site has direct links to GOG.com. They are found on the live games page and featured titles on the site’s home page.

When you start building your old game library, keeping track of every title you have can sometimes be difficult. If this sounds like you, check out these video game launchers that let you add the titles you want to play.

RGB Classic Games features a wide variety of classic DOS games, previously unreleased titles, and even some “modern” DOS titles. The entire site is “dedicated to preserving classic games for defunct PC operating systems” such as DOS, CP/M-86, OS/2, Win16 and Win9x, as well as making them easier to play on modern systems. Indeed, if you want to download old DOS games, then RGB Classic Games is a great choice.

You can search for games by genre and operating system, as well as company name, legal status, year of release, and video mode. Furthermore, testament to RGB Classic Games’ mission, you can play a significant number of emulator titles hosted on the site, including Keen Dreams, Hexen and one of the all-time favorites, Transport Tycoon.

My Abandonware is a great place to download old PC games, along with some more recent additions to the software list.

You’ll find listings for over 15,000 titles, including “some very rare titles found on the deep web” as well as “some titles submitted by our visitors”. The small team that runs My Abandonware actively maintain the site, making updates and improvements, and adding new titles, old DOS games, etc.

One of the best features of My Abandonware is the range of search options. You can work through the huge catalog of games using the name, year of publication, game platform, genre, game theme, publisher and even a specific developer. Developer options are great because if you find a game you like, you can also explore other titles from the same development team. You’ll also find some old DOS games to download here.

Games Nostalgia features hundreds of great games that hit the market between 1985 and 1995. The Games Nostalgia website is easy to use, allowing you to browse games by genre, time period, popularity, etc.

Games Nostalgia goes further by packaging each game in its own emulator, available for Windows (and in many cases, macOS). Wherein, Games Nostalgia eliminates any extra steps to play your favorite old games. Just download, unzip and start playing! Each game is packaged in a neat container making playing these old and classic games much easier.

Old Games Download has more than 2,000 games and there are always new games added thanks to user updates. There was a time in 2022 when Old Games Download was forced to shut down for a while. The website has been compromised and users are redirected to another website. However, this has been fixed and all problems have long been resolved.

Old Games Download also includes several platforms such as Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari, DOS, Windows 3.x, etc.

One more valuable source: The Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving one of the core tenets of the Internet: Universal access to all knowledge. Old video games definitely need to be protected, and The Internet Archive agrees with that opinion.

In 2014, The Internet Archive brought 900 classic arcade games to the browser, preserving some of the best old games. A year later, in 2015, The Internet Archive announced it would preserve more than 2,300 classic DOS games.

Unfortunately, you can’t actually download classic titles. However, The Internet Archive has an integrated version of DOSBox, meaning you can play each game in your browser. Found a game you love? Please bookmark it! Additionally, add the page to your desktop, where it will be available with just one click.

What are the best old PC games?

There are a lot of great old PC games out there. The problem is how to arrange time to play all of them. Classic games are old gems that still exist and have a certain value. Part of the resurgence of old PC games is the ease with which you can play and download them. With sites like Games Nostalgia downloading using emulators, downloading and playing your favorite old games is easier than ever.