Play Double Dragon in Your Browser

About Double Dragon

Double Dragon is a beat ’em up that Technōs Japan made for arcades. It opened in Japan on April 22, 1987, reached North America that same month with Taito as publisher, and arrived in Europe in June. Yoshihisa Kishimoto led development as director and producer, Shinichi Saito co-directed, Koji Kai and Saito designed it, and Kazunaka Yamane composed the music.

Kishimoto built it as the spiritual and technological successor to Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, Technōs’ 1986 beat ’em up that Taito released outside Japan as Renegade. He first pictured it as a direct sequel in the Kunio-kun series, then turned it into a new game with a different cast and setting. It went on to start the Double Dragon series.

Home versions followed fast. The NES release came out in Japan in April 1988, Sega and Arc System Works made the Master System version, Binary Designs handled the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, and Software Creations did the Mega Drive/Genesis one. The IBM PC version, which is the one on DOS.Zone, was developed by Arcadia Software and published by Mastertronic and Tradewest in December 1988. Arc System Works owns Double Dragon today.

How it runs in your browser

Play opens the Double Dragon page on dos.zone in a new tab. There, js-dos, the open-source browser edition of DOSBox that DOS.Zone maintains, emulates an old PC and launches the MS-DOS game inside the tab. The site serves the files, so there’s nothing to install, no disk or copy of your own to find and no account to set up. DOS.Zone doesn’t show ads.

The listing is tagged action and fighting, and players rate it 4 from 5 reviews. The arcade original lists single-player and multiplayer modes, but DOS.Zone doesn’t say whether more than one person can play this version in the browser, and it says nothing about saving either.

Controls and devices

The PC version is played on the keyboard. DOS.Zone doesn’t publish its key layout, so check the game’s own screens when it starts, and click inside the emulator window so your key presses reach the game.

Phones get virtual on-screen controls from DOS.Zone, but this port was built for a keyboard and we haven’t tried it on a touchscreen. A desktop or laptop is the more comfortable choice, and Chromebooks haven’t been confirmed.

Who it’s for

It suits players who knew Double Dragon in arcades or on one of its many home versions and want to see how the 1988 PC port compares, without tracking down an old copy or configuring an emulator. It also suits anyone who wants to try an early beat ’em up from the late 1980s in a few clicks. For more arcade action from the same years, Golden Axe is Sega’s 1989 beat ’em up in its MS-DOS version, and Capcom’s Street Fighter II runs on DOS.Zone the same way.