Play AEGIS: Guardian of the Fleet Online

Ever wanted to feel like a naval commander sweating over radar blips and missile trajectories? AEGIS: Guardian of the Fleet throws you straight into the captain’s chair of a US Navy cruiser, circa 1994. The whole thing runs on this clunky-but-cool DOS interface that somehow makes tracking enemy jets and scrambling interceptors feel legitimately tense.

You’ve got two ways to play: either glued to the bridge view with all the dials and screens, or zoomed out on the tactical map where everything’s just little symbols moving around. I kept switching back and forth—the bridge feels more immersive, but the radar view is way better when things get chaotic. Missions range from escorting convoys to blowing up enemy airfields, all set in this vaguely Middle Eastern conflict zone that’s just ambiguous enough to feel real.

It’s one of those games where you’ll pause constantly to issue orders, then unpause and immediately panic when three bogies pop up out of nowhere. The campaign mode’s got this nice slow burn where you actually start caring about your crew and weapons stockpile. Just don’t expect fancy graphics—it’s all wireframes and text prompts, but somehow that makes it more intense.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".