Play Demon Stalkers Online

Demon Stalkers is this weirdly addictive 1987 dungeon crawler that feels like Gauntlet’s moodier cousin. You pick between two characters—a dagger-throwing kid or a crossbow-wielding girl—and dive into this massive 100-floor dungeon full of puzzles and monsters. The scrolls you find tell this grim little story about previous adventurers who got betrayed and slaughtered, which is way darker than I expected from an old DOS game.

Some levels are straightforward mazes, others make you backtrack through multiple floors like some sadistic architect designed them. The enemies are annoying in the best way—ghosts phase through walls, dervishes steal your stuff, and those damn snappers play dead until you shoot them. And then there’s Calvrak, the final boss, waiting in this bizarre cave level that looks nothing like the rest of the dungeon.

Oh, and it shipped with a level editor? Wild for 1987. Also, shoutout to Evil Adam for that metal version of the loading screen theme—way cooler than it had any right to be. If you like retro dungeon crawlers with a bit of janky charm, this one’s got claws.

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