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Drug Wars (1984), DRUGWAR.EXE played in the emu2 emulator

Advance, Frame. 2026. “Drug Wars (1984), DRUGWAR.EXE played in the emu2 emulator.” Version drugwars.zip, holding DRUGWAR.EXE: 49,792 bytes, sha256 3f43f9ec88b9379c9ffa22718612bc715bd4c2b4350665ff0e94476e3239c61c.

Cite as
Drug Wars (1984), played in emu2
Original
http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/PROGRAMS/DOORS/DOPEWARS/drugwars.zip
sha256
b19982bdff3486989b7d8ef1a273334af0b36b4e82ec549535b2a858a3a790fc
Version
drugwars.zip, holding DRUGWAR.EXE: 49,792 bytes, sha256 3f43f9ec88b9379c9ffa22718612bc715bd4c2b4350665ff0e94476e3239c61c
Archived
https://web.archive.org/web/20060429141908/http://www.bbsdocumentary.com:80/library/PROGRAMS/DOORS/DOPEWARS/drugwars.zip
Accessed
2026-10-20
Licence
The game is John E. Dell's, and the archive grants no licence. The atlas keeps the copy in its cache to play it and publishes none of it.
Credit
Drug Wars by John E. Dell. The copy is from Jason Scott's BBS Documentary library, which lists it as “The Original Drug Wars program for DOS by John E. Dell (1984)”. emu2, the emulator, is by Daniel Serpell (GPL-2.0, https://github.com/dmsc/emu2).
Notes
The atlas's own measurements, made by probes/trading/drug-wars.mjs, which plays the game and reads its screen. The executable is compiled (its runtime carries the IBM PC BASIC Compiler's error messages and “Licensed Material - Program Property of IBM”), so there is no source to read and the claims describe what the game shows. The zip is byte-identical to the Wayback Machine's 2006 capture (above), and the Internet Archive's “Drug Wars + Clones” item (Drug Wars (1984).zip) and “Drug Wars, Drug Lord, Pimp Wyld, and CIA MSDOS Games” item (drugwars.exe, a WinZip self-extractor) both hold a DRUGWAR.EXE with the same sha256. The zip stores the file with a date of 3 July 1998, the Internet Archive's copy with 28 November 1986. Local copy: .cache/files/drug-wars-1984-dos/drugwars.zip.

Cited on

Claims (16)

The title screen reads “Drug Wars, a game based on the New York drug market, by John E. Dell, copyright (1984)”.title screenVerified
The instructions set the goal as paying off the loan shark, then making as much money as possible in one month, and put the player's stash in the Bronx.instructions screenVerified
The instructions list six drugs with their prices per unit: cocaine 15,000–30,000, heroin 5,000–14,000, acid 1,000–4,500, weed 300–900, speed 70–250, and ludes 10–60.instructions screenVerified
A game starts on 12/4/83 in the Bronx with $2,000 cash, a $5,500 debt to the loan shark, and a trench coat that holds 100 units.first day of every gameVerified
The player jets between six places, the Bronx, the Ghetto, Central Park, Manhattan, Coney Island, and Brooklyn.the WHERE TO DUDE menuVerified
Each jet takes a day, and the jet out of 1/3/84 ends the game after 30 days of trading, with no 12/31 on the calendar.the DATE field, day by dayVerified
The loan shark, the stash, and the bank are only in the Bronx.the loan shark, stash, and bank questionsVerified
The debt grows 10% a day, rounded down to the dollar, so $5,500 left unpaid is $87,198 on the last day.the DEBT field, day by dayVerified
The bank pays 5.5% a day, rounded down, but the status box can show the balance from before the day's interest.the BANK field after a $2,000 deposit, and a withdrawal on day threeVerified
The loan shark lends at most twice the cash in hand, less $50; with $2,000 he lends $3,950 and refuses $3,951, and the rule holds with $1,500, $1,000, and $500.the loan shark's HOW MUCH TO BORROW questionVerified
Each day every drug gets a new price, a random whole number of steps: cocaine 15 to 28 × $1,000, heroin 5 to 12 × $1,000, acid 10 to 44 × $100, weed 3 to 7 × $100, speed 7 to 24 × $10, and ludes 1 to 5 × $10.the day's prices, every day of the passive gamesVerified
Three prices carry another drug's price from the day before, so cocaine adds the previous day's weed price, heroin adds 4 × the previous day's speed price, and weed adds the previous day's ludes price.the day's prices, every day of the passive gamesVerified
In the probe's 100 passive games, a price event moved one drug on 688 of 3,000 days, about 23%; a cocaine bust or heroin addicts multiply its price by 5, cheap heroin, acid, or weed divide it by 5, and cheap ludes divide it by 7.the event messages and the day's pricesVerified
A mugging in the subway divides the player's cash by a whole number from 1 to 5, rounded down.the CASH field before and after YOU WERE MUGGED IN THE SUBWAYVerified
On arrival the game may offer a bigger trench coat for $200 to $299, which adds 20 units of space, or a gun for $400 to $499.the trench coat and gun offersVerified
Officer Hardass and one to three deputies can chase a player who carries drugs, and never one who carries none.OFFICER HARDASS AND … OF HIS DEPUTIES ARE CHASING YOUVerified