Games that ran on an original 1981 factory configuration IBM PC

[Jorpho]

A lot of the older Apogee stuff (Commander Keen) runs OK, but needs EGA usually.

Keen 1-3 were most definitely not CGA; SoftDisk's objection to its lack of CGA support is said to have led to the creation of id software to begin with. But Keen 4-6 have a CGA mode.

[CMA Death Adder]

Keen 4-6 have a CGA mode.

As does Keen Dreams, though apparently only recently -

http://www.pckf.com/viewtopic.php?t=...er=asc&start=0

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3940020/Keen%20Dreams.rar

[NoahsMyBro]

My Dad purchased an original IBM PC, I thought in 1981, for his office. He was excited to show it to me, and I was excited to see it, until I discovered he hadn't bought it with the Hercules graphics card necessary for anything fun.

I specifically remember that Flight Simulator, a 'game' I'd read about in Creative Computing, required the Hercules graphics card. (For the sake of this discussion I'm considering Flight Simulator a game.)

BUT, my memory might be wrong in a couple of ways. According to this page: http://fshistory.simflight.com/fsvault/msfs1-pc.htm, the game came out in 1982, not 1981. Also, it looks to me like the game required CGA rather than specifically requiring a Hercules graphics card. I wasn't 'into' PCs then - was the Hercules card a CGA card?

[Jorpho]

was the Hercules card a CGA card?

Nope, Hercules graphics was special. Wikipedia has the details.

[Kitsune Sniper]

As does Keen Dreams, though apparently only recently -

http://www.pckf.com/viewtopic.php?t=...er=asc&start=0

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3940020/Keen%20Dreams.rar

... Those people need to learn how to create floppy disk images. They would've saved themselves the hassle of "preserving file dates".