Play X-COM: UFO Defense in Your Browser

About X-COM: UFO Defense

X-COM: UFO Defense is the North American name for UFO: Enemy Unknown, a 1994 science fiction strategy game developed by Mythos Games and MicroProse. MicroProse published it for DOS and Amiga computers, the Amiga CD32 console and the PlayStation. The DOS version came out in Europe in March 1994 and in North America in May 1994. The PlayStation version followed in late 1995, and a Windows version reached North America in 1998.

Julian Gollop first planned it as a sequel to Mythos Games’ 1988 Laser Squad, and he designed it with Nick Gollop and Steve Hand. Tim Roberts produced it and John Broomhall wrote the music. You command X-COM, an international paramilitary and scientific organization that secretly defends Earth from an alien invasion. The game mixes real-time management simulation with turn-based tactics. On missions, you give orders to individual X-COM troops one turn at a time. At the strategic level, you direct research into new technology, build and expand X-COM’s bases, manage money and personnel, and watch for UFO activity and respond to it. It is a single-player game and part of the XCOM series.

How it runs in your browser

Press Play to open the game’s dos.zone page in a new tab. DOS.Zone runs the original MS-DOS version in an emulated PC with js-dos, its open-source DOSBox build for the browser. The site supplies the files, so there’s nothing to install, no disc to track down and no account to create. DOS.Zone carries no ads.

The listing uses the X-COM: UFO Defense name and files the game with its MS-DOS titles under strategy and simulation, with a five-star average from 117 player reviews. It doesn’t say whether saved games persist between visits, so check before you sink a long campaign into it.

Today the rights belong to Take-Two Interactive, through its 2K label, and Take-Two has asked DOS.Zone to remove games before: the site took down GTA 1 and 2 after a Take-Two request. This listing could disappear in the same way.

Controls and devices

X-COM is played with a keyboard and mouse. The host page doesn’t list the controls, so learn them from the game itself. Click into the game area once it loads so the emulator receives your input.

DOS.Zone’s own description says virtual controls let you play it on mobile, but the game was built for a keyboard and mouse, and a computer is the better fit. We haven’t checked it on a Chromebook.

Who it’s for

It is for players who first met X-COM or UFO: Enemy Unknown on a 1990s PC and want to run the original again without setting up an emulator, and for fans of the XCOM series who want to try this 1994 entry. If you like the mix of planning and turn-based play, Master of Orion II, another MicroProse-published strategy game, runs on DOS.Zone too and has a multiplayer room.