Play Cartels & Cutthroats Online

Cartels & Cutthroats came out in 1981 from Strategic Simulations, Inc. for MS-DOS, a time when strategy games were just starting to find their feet on personal computers. It was a text-heavy affair, relying on menus and your imagination more than flashy graphics, which was pretty standard for the era. You didn't get a lot of hand-holding; it expected you to figure things out.

You control a fledgling crime boss, starting with a small crew and a single territory. Your main objective is to expand your criminal empire by taking over rival operations across the city. The game plays out through a series of strategic decisions: you assign your thugs to different tasks like extortion, smuggling, or protection rackets, manage your cash flow to pay off corrupt officials, and deal with the constant threat of police raids or betrayals from within your own organization. The pacing is deliberate, almost methodical, and the difficulty comes from balancing short-term gains against long-term stability. It feels like a tense, calculated gamble where every choice has a consequence.

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