Dangerous Dave
John Romero's platformer before id Software
Emulator
DOSBox-X
Quality
Perfect
Notes
Fully playable in DOSBox-X at original speed.
Included with Velocity
Widely available as freeware. John Romero has not objected to free distribution.
The Story
John Romero wrote Dangerous Dave for the Apple II in 1988. The DOS version came in 1990 on Softdisk's Big Blue Disk subscription service. It's a side-scrolling platformer with a jetpack, a gun, and ten levels of increasing cruelty. What makes it interesting is what came after: Romero used a PC version of Dave's engine to demo smooth side-scrolling to Nintendo of America as a pitch for a Super Mario Bros. port. Nintendo passed. That demo instead became Commander Keen. Dangerous Dave sits at the root of everything id Software built.