About Serious Sam: The First Encounter
Serious Sam: The First Encounter is a first-person shooter that Croteam developed and Gathering of Developers published in 2001. It is the first game in the Serious Sam series and runs on the Serious Engine. Other versions followed: InterActive Vision developed one for Palm OS, which Global Star Software published, Gotham Games brought it to the Xbox, and Devolver Digital later published HD and VR versions. Damjan Mravunac composed the music.
The story follows the soldier Sam “Serious” Stone, who is sent back in time to ancient Egypt in 1378 BCE. His job is to uncover information about the Sirians, a technologically advanced civilization whose secrets could help humanity survive attacks by extraterrestrial forces in the 22nd century. You work through linear levels, some enclosed and some on open plains, and fight ever larger waves of enemies with an arsenal that keeps growing as you pick up new weapons, ammunition and health. The original also had two deathmatch modes and co-op play through the campaign.
How it runs in your browser
This isn’t emulation. According to DOS.Zone’s page, the browser version is the work of sergen and caiiiycuk. It is based on martinmullins/Serious-Engine, a fork of the Serious Engine that Croteam released as open source under the GPL, compiled to WebAssembly. The fork’s source code is public.
Play opens the game on dos.zone in a new tab. DOS.Zone’s instructions say to import the game data when prompted and then start the game from the browser page. The data comes from DOS.Zone, so you don’t bring files of your own, and there’s no account and no ads.
When we checked on 1 November 2026, the launcher said the first game launch can take longer than usual. It showed a Start Playing button and an offer to keep the game’s data from being deleted by the browser. Pressing Start Playing brought up a dialog headed “Allow torrent use?”, explaining that torrent can make the first launch faster by loading data from several sources and warning that using torrents may be prohibited by law in some countries. You can choose No or Yes. We didn’t go any further, so we can’t say how the game plays once it starts.
Controls and devices
Serious Sam was made for a keyboard and mouse, so a desktop or laptop is the natural place to play it. DOS.Zone doesn’t list the controls for this port, so check the game’s options once it’s running.
DOS.Zone offers virtual on-screen controls for phones, but we haven’t tried them with this port, and Chromebooks haven’t been confirmed either.
Who it’s for
It suits players who remember Sam’s crowds of enemies from 2001 and want to see the first game again without installing it, and anyone who likes shooters built around big fights in wide-open spaces. For older first-person shooters in the browser, Doom and Duke Nukem 3D both run on DOS.Zone in their MS-DOS versions.
Is Serious Sam: The First Encounter Free, Safe and Official?
Can I play Serious Sam: The First Encounter online for free?
Yes. DOS.Zone’s port runs free in a browser tab, with no account and no ads, and DOS.Zone serves the game data itself. It isn’t made or endorsed by Croteam or Devolver Digital.
Is this Serious Sam running in an emulator?
No. DOS.Zone says the browser version is based on martinmullins/Serious-Engine, a fork of the Serious Engine that Croteam released under the GPL, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs directly in the browser.
Why does Serious Sam ask me to allow torrent use?
When we pressed Start Playing on 1 November 2026, DOS.Zone asked “Allow torrent use?”. It said torrent can make the first launch faster by loading data from several sources, warned that using torrents may be prohibited by law in some countries, and offered No and Yes.
