DOS Virus Museum

A historical archive of MS-DOS-era computer viruses, roughly 1986 through the late 1990s. Static specimens, technical writeups, authorship history, and cultural context. No executables. No downloads. Curated by the_curator.

36 of 36 specimens

Creeper message displayed on TENEX terminal: I'M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

Creeper

1971

family: Creeper

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Elk Cloner poem message displayed on Apple II boot screen

Elk Cloner

1982

family: Elk Cloner

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Brain virus boot screen text

Brain

1986

family: Brain

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Cookie virus prompt asking for a cookie

Cookie

1986

family: Cookie

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Cascade virus characters falling on a DOS screen

Cascade

1987

family: Cascade

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Jerusalem virus screen artifact

Jerusalem

1987

family: Jerusalem

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Stoned virus boot message on a DOS screen

Stoned

1987

family: Stoned

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Vienna virus directory listing

Vienna

1987

family: Vienna

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Ping Pong virus bouncing ball on a DOS screen

Ping Pong

1988

family: Ping Pong

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Dark Avenger virus signature screen

Dark Avenger

1989

family: Dark Avenger

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Frodo virus partition table corruption screen

Frodo

1989

family: Frodo

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Yankee Doodle virus dump

Yankee Doodle

1989

family: Yankee

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Ambulance virus ASCII car driving across a DOS screen

Ambulance

1990

family: Ambulance

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Form virus boot sector dump

Form

1990

family: Form

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Whale virus ASCII art rendering

Whale

1990

family: Whale

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Casino virus slot machine ASCII screen

Casino

1991

family: Casino

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Maltese Amoeba virus payload screen with Blake quote

Maltese Amoeba

1991

family: Amoeba

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Michelangelo virus boot screen

Michelangelo

1991

family: Stoned

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Monkey virus invalid drive specification on a DOS screen

Monkey

1991

family: Empire

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Mummy virus ASCII art screen

Mummy

1991

family: Mummy

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Tequila virus Mandelbrot fractal display

Tequila

1991

family: Tequila

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Coffeeshop virus ASCII coffee cup prompt

Coffeeshop

1992

family: Coffee

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Hymn virus speaker output waveform

Hymn

1992

family: Hymn

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V-Sign virus large ASCII V on a DOS screen

V-Sign

1992

family: V-Sign

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Walker virus pixel sprite of a man crossing the screen

Walker

1992

family: Walker

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Barrotes virus prison bar visual payload

Barrotes

1993

family: Barrotes

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Techno virus large scrolling text on a DOS screen

Techno

1994

family: Techno

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Concept virus dialog box showing the number 1

Concept

1995

family: Concept

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Crazy Boot virus colorful ASCII art screen

Crazy Boot

1996

family: Crazy Boot

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Hare virus payload message

Hare

1996

family: Hare

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Kuku virus bird sprite on a DOS screen

Kuku

1996

family: Kuku

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Spanska 4250 starfield animation on a DOS screen

Spanska

1997

family: Spanska

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CIH virus aftermath, blank screen on a damaged system

CIH

1998

family: CIH

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Happy99 fireworks animation from the first major email worm

Happy99

1999

family: Happy99

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Melissa virus email notification in Outlook inbox

Melissa

1999

family: Melissa

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ILOVEYOU email attachment filename displayed in Outlook inbox

ILOVEYOU

2000

family: ILOVEYOU

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