When new genres were being invented, and the Intel was considered to be the gold standard of processing power. This is an era before the popularity of always-online gaming and loot boxes. When pixelated graphics were the norm, and storytelling through games was evolving as an art form.
Many of you reading this article grew up in the 80s and 90s, and you might have experienced these games first-hand as a kid. Or maybe your father introduced you to the world of PC gaming. These days, it is quite hard to find a computer from that era with functional parts. Retro gaming is gaining popularity, and lots of people are revisiting the good old days of PC gaming.
The very first Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Prince of Persia, there are several timeless classics from this era that are still enjoyable to this day.
This is the game that kicked off the first-person shooter craze. In Wolfenstein 3D, you play as the protagonist of the series William B. Set in the World War II time period, this game traps you inside a Nazi mega-prison called Castle Wolfenstein from which you must escape by traversing through various levels filled with guards, dogs, mutants, robots, and much more.
And, the final boss happens to be mecha Hitler who is equipped with 4 chain guns. The gameplay is fast and unforgiving, and there is plenty of blood and gore. Who is the Doom Slayer? What is his real name? Why is he always so angry? But what we do know is that at some point in it was estimated that there were more computers with Doom installed on them, than there were Windows 95 PCs. Bill Gates himself appeared in one of the commercials within the Doom universe.
Except, they are trapped with you. Force your way forward as you rip their guts out with a chainsaw or smash their heads to bits with a shotgun, while metal music plays in the background. This is the game that had politicians screaming about kids being turned into Satanists, and parent organizations were complaining about the excessive gore. There is a slight comedic vibe built into the game, with crude humor and a hero who spouts cheesy one-liners as he blows away enemies with his giant guns.
The plot is fairly simple and exists only for the sake of tying everything together. You play as Jon St.
Jon, fighting off an alien invasion on planet Earth. One of the things that made Duke Nukem stand out from the crop of FPS games at the time, was its destructible environment. It also had a non-linear level design, which meant you could use air ducts and back doors to go around enemies or find hidden caches.
The game is also loaded with erotic elements in the form of strippers who you can tip to get a provocative response. Expand your empire by gathering resources, building armies, and conquering new territories.
A point-and-click graphic adventure game developed by LucasFilm, set in the Caribbean during the age of piracy. Engage in sword duels, follow secret treasures, and interact with a bunch of interesting NPCs in your quest to become a pirate. A sci-fi open-world role-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic future. This is basically Fallout, before Fallout.
Set in a nightmarish version of America, where everything has been destroyed by a nuclear holocaust. Originally, this game was made for the Apple II. Upon its initial release in January of , the game was critically acclaimed and sold quite well. After its success, there were many failed attempts to reboot the game.
Until , when a Kickstarter-funded Wasteland 2 was released. Developed by Interplay and published by EA, the original Wasteland is considered a precursor to Fallout. The very same developers at Interplay took inspiration from Wasteland to create Fallout in , an open-world turn-based RPG set in a post-apocalyptic landscape. In Wasteland, you play as the leader of a ranger group exploring the wasteland. The game mechanics are based on tabletop role-playing games like Tunnels and Trolls and Mercenaries.
However, there was something about it that kept me playing. The fact that I refused to be beaten by it was one element, and that I paid nearly a fiver for it was the other. It must have taken me days to realise that picking up the pumpkin and smashing it revealed the key, and working out which button for the green skinned, purple underpants, colour-blind Igor to press was a test of patience at its best. Bullfrog Productions brought us Populous and Syndicate , both of which were immensely popular.
However, Magic Carpet seems to have been largely forgotten these days, which is a shame as it was one of the best 3D landscape games around. The game was spread over 50 levels, each individually named with the player whizzing around the world on a magic carpet, as the title suggests. You collected Manna, which allowed you to cast spells in defence or attack against enemy wizards. All you needed to do was store enough Manna in your castle to restore an equilibrium to the world.
Easier said than done though. One of the oddest games I collected over the years has to be Redneck Rampage. You play as Leonard and Cletus, two deep south brothers whose prize pig has been stolen pignapped?
Feel free to use your own prime minister joke here by invading aliens. Using a modified Duke Nukem 3D engine, you have to shoot everything that moves to get the swine back. NovaLogic, of Delta Force fame which was an amazing game first toyed around with its Voxel Space engine technology in Comanche , or Comanche: Maximum Overkill as it was also known.
You could zip through valleys, over seas and mountains and drop down on the enemy to deliver death and destruction from an ultra-modern attack chopper. The shareware version only had the first of three episodes available, and as far as I was aware it was pretty difficult to get hold of from the game shops in the UK I purchased it via a 3D Realms BBS. On the face of it Realms was a pretty bland looking 2D scroller, but it was hugely entertaining and it allowed you to swap between the Conan-like character to a Wonder Woman-like character with the Space Bar for different combat abilities.
The best part though was the ability to save at any point in the game for a restart after dinner. This is one I picked up as part of a compilation MicroProse pack from a charity shop in the mid to late 90s. Not many lived to survive that bit, though. Master Of Orion , the game that invented the 4X strategy term. An immense turn based game that basically took over your life once you started to play it. Where colonisation, military, research, planning and combat all come together in such a way as to feel like your brain is melting out of your ears.
Anyone have this issue? Apologies, as always, for having to split this article. Where Gorillas. BAS was quite a simple approach to the old artillery genre, Scorched Earth took everything one step further. Linux users have enjoyed a 3D version of Scorched Earth for years, but it was back in the good old BBS shareware days that version 1. Sadly, I never got to play version 1. Did you know that you could edit the messages that appeared on the screen?
Quite possibly the best Star Trek game ever developed is the 25th Anniversary edition from Interplay. The floppy disk version, which came on about eight thousand disks, took an age to install. The CD version had voices from the original actors, better sound effects and music too. The two parts to the game, one where you were on the away mission and the other on-board the Enterprise, were marvellously designed. The point and click adventure mode on the away mission took the majority of the gameplay, from what I recall, and trying to get a red shirt crushed by rocks or eaten soon became the main focus.
Taking control of the Enterprise was immense fun during combat. I can only imagine the conversation on the Klingon bridge at watching me trying to bring the Enterprise about and continually missing. Classic point and Ccick adventure gaming here in a very LucasArts vein.
Everything was in Simon The Sorceror that should be in a graphical adventure; humour, clever puzzles, great animation, an excellent script and the odd poke at books such as Lord Of The Rings , Narnia , Jack And The Beanstalk and so on. After tossing it to one side a portal opens and in goes Chippy followed by Simon, where he finds himself on a quest to rescue Calypso, the grand high wizard, from the evil sorcerer Sordid. I remember the box had a comic inside detailing the time between Space Quest 1 and this episode, sadly I never got around to playing Space Quest 1 , though.
Navy Fighters was one of my personal favourites. The missions were well conceived, and you could even create your own missions.
Mind you, your wingman had the nasty habit of flying off and taking out a target that was three hundred miles away, for some odd reason. SimAnt was an interesting game I picked up at one of those travelling computer fairs — one that was held in Bolton. I recall there being a huge manual with it, a veritable encyclopaedia of ants as well as the instructions on how to play the game.
There were several modes of play, where you had to raise your colony of ants, hunt for food, defend and attack other coloured ants as well other insects, which could also be used for food. It was oddly absorbing, being an ant. This top-down, Gauntlet -like game was immensely enjoyable back in the day. You played as a space marine-type dude, heavily armed and up against a seemingly unlimited number of aliens. All you needed to do was find the exit to the next level and progress deeper into the station, all the while picking up credits to buy better weapons and health packs to heal yourself with.
The levels were huge and maze like, making them a dream come true for the gaming cartographer. And the two player option was great. Archipelagos is by far one of most intriguing and absorbing puzzles games ever created.
Superfrog is one of the most enjoyable side scrolling 2D platformers for DOS, an absolute treat. You take on the role of a frog, who was once a prince that has been turned into said Anura by a wicked witch — who has also kidnapped your girlfriend.
But still, a cracking little game. However, way back in Bethesda released the second of the Elder Scrolls series, Daggerfall. Synthetic Dimensions System 3 Software Ltd.
Tachyon Studios Inc. Takeru Co. Technosoft Co. Tecmo, Ltd. Teeny Weeny Games, Ltd. Tengen Inc. Teque London Ltd. Teque Software Development Ltd. The Learning Company, Inc.
The SoftAd Group, Inc. The Warp Factory Think! Tiare Tiertex Ltd. Tokai Engineering Tokyo Shoseki Co. Tose Co. Toys for Bob Inc. Treasure Co. Trecision S. Gold Ltd.
Union Logic Software Publishing, Inc. Uranium Software Vectordean Ltd. Virgin Games, Ltd. Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Inc. Visionaires Visual Concepts Entertainment, Inc. Visual Concepts, Ltd. Wave Software Ltd. Webfoot Technologies Webfoot Technologies, Inc. Wesson International Western Technologies Inc. Westone Co. Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. Aegis Development, Inc. Apogee Software, Ltd. Aproman Arcadia Systems, Inc. Atlus Software Inc.
Audiogenic Software Ltd. Black Legend Ltd. Blizzard Entertainment Inc. Campina Capcom Co. Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Capcom U. Publications, Inc. Cyberstyle Cygnus Multimedia Productions, Inc. Digital Horizons Digital Integration Ltd. Domark Software, Inc. Electro Brain Corp. Electronic Arts Ltd. Electronic Arts, Inc. Electronic Zoo Elite Systems Ltd. Epic Games, Inc. Epic MegaGames, Inc. Europress Software Ltd. Expert Software, Inc.
Game Arts Co. GameTek, Inc. Gavaking Co. Hi-Tech Expressions, Inc. Image Works Imagic Imagineer Co. InFluid Software Infocom, Inc.
IntelliCreations, Inc. Interactive Magic, Inc. Interstel Corporation IntraCorp, Inc. Irem America Corp. Kingsoft GmbH knepe inc. KOEI Co. Konami America , Inc. Konami of America, Inc. Wolfenstein 3D, however, focused on the shooting elements and put a lot of detail into the level of violence and gore. Download Wolfenstein 3D here. Capcom was making strides in the fighting game genre by working on their Street Fighter series back in the early 90s.
With Street Fighter II, things were getting more complicated. Capcom introduced a scoring system in Street Fighter II that would grade players on their best combos, first attacks, and reversals. Download Street Fighter II here. It was a video game that required skill, patience and a lot of understanding. Things get very complicated as your city expands in SimCity and the level of micromanagement needed to run a successful city could easily rival high-level Starcraft.
Download SimCity here. The original Prince of Persia title was an absolute classic. While Prince of Persia may not have had many successful appearances in the video game world within the last decade, its influences are still seen in many other popular platformers today, which makes the original one of the best DOS games to hit the globe.
Download Prince of Persia here. The icon that is Pac-Man has outlived many other video game greats, and new games with the Pac-Man name are still being made today. It sits there among some of the best arcade games of all time, such as Space Invaders and Frogger. Download Pac-Man here. Lemmings 2 — The Tribe is a puzzle focused video game that was released in The Lemmings franchise has had its roots firmly in many 90s kids hearts, and for a good reason.
Players were prompted to lead a group of Lemmings to their survival before they inadvertently launched themselves off of a cliff to their doom. It was a game that got players acting fast, and the later levels were a challenge many players never got past.
Download Lemmings 2 — The Tribes here. Tetris is yet another classic video game that deserves all the praise it gets. The DOS version was launched in , and it still stands as a fun game, even today. Download Tetris here. The Oregon Trail was one of the first games to have such an emphasis on the story, and it had some realism to it.
Before The Oregon Trail, we had spaceships, asteroids and all sorts of unrealistic imaginations. The Oregon Trail is a piece of history, a milestone that showcases the potential stories that could be told through the video games. Download The Oregon Trail here.
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