I’m setting up my MiSTer FPGA and want to prioritize a bit. I currently have DOS and Win 95 running, but plan to setup Macintosh and any other worthwhile computer platforms. Any computer platform welcome (I already have the consoles figured out). What are your “must try” game suggestions?
Edit: I just got back to this post and am pleasantly surprised by the response. I’ll probably be adding most if not all of these to test since I have the space. Thank you to everyone who commented.
X-Com - UFO Defense and Terror from the Deep (I remember hacking my demo copy of UFO Defense and bypassing the shareware check. Still my all time favorite strategy game)
Doom
Duke Nukem 1, 2, and 3D
Wolfenstein 3D
Jetpack
Commander Keen
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
Rise of the Triad
Monster Bash (Just pretty much anything 3D Realms or Apogee related was gold)
Moraff’s Dungeons of the Unforgiven(Only ever had the shareware version as a kid, but I played it over and over)
Fate of Atlantis is pretty good
Myth The Fallen Lords and Myth 2 on the Macintosh. This was my favorite multiplayer game I’ve ever played by far.
Other great Mac games from my youth: The Odyssey (1994) by David Larkin Sim City and Sim City 2000 Rogue Sim Ant Prince of Persia The Scarab of Ra Realmz Path Ways into Darkness and Marathon
And my favorites on BBS were Major Mud and Legend of the Red Dragon.
I didn’t have a PC, but when I went to friend’s houses I would play the shit out of Doom.
- MECHWARRIOR 2
- QUAKE 2
- Broken Sword 1
- Half-Life 1
- Jedi knight dark Forces 2
- Police Quest 1
- Aliens vs predator
- System shock 2
- Unreal tournament
- Star Trek Starfleet Academy
- Zork 1 and 2
- Heavy Gear 2
- Jazz Jackrabbit 2
- Pandemonium
- Total annihilation
Baldur’s Gate
Lords of the Realm 2
Descent (1, 2, and 3)
Sim City 2000God I love Lords of the Realm 2. I bought it on GoG and go back and play that every few years for a spell. Rarely see others mention in and it was one of my favorite games of that era.
Yeah, it’s one of the games I consistently return to regularly. Was very disappointed in the sequel.
- Transport Tycoon
- C&C Red Alert and Tiberian Sun
- Anno 1602 (1602 A.D.)
- Theme Park
- Commander Keen
- Doom 2 (and Wolfenstein 3D to some extend)
- GTA2
- Half-Life
- Dungeon Keeper (mainly DK2)
- Leisure Suit Larry 6
- Worms 2 & Armageddon
- Age of Empires 2
- Sim City 2000 & 3000
- SimTower
- The Settlers 2
- Lemmings
- Incredible Machine
- Commandos
- Outcast
- Quake 3 Arena
- Descent
- StarCraft (although I started playing it later)
Obligatory shout-out for any Bullfrog games of that era, especially Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2. Lionhead’s Black & White is 1 year out of your window, but such a good game.
Also:
Syndicate Wars
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Grim Fandango
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Descent
Grand Theft Auto- Quake II
- The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
- Power Dolls
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert
- StarCraft with the Brood War expansion
- Fallout
- Star Wars: Dark Forces
- The Oregon Trail (obviously)
- Syndicate
- Star Wars: TIE Fighter (X Wing was good too, but TIE Fighter was better)
- Dune II: Battle for Arrakis
- Ultima Underworld: Stygian Abyss
- SimCity (1989)
- X-COM: UFO Defense
OP said pre-2000, Starcraft wasn’t released until…
checks Wikipedia
Damn.
Yeah, I know. I felt it too.
- FFVII (and VIII)
- Homeworld
- Shadowrun (Sega Genesis version)
- Parasite Eve
- Wing Commander Series
- Colony Wars: Vengeance
- Gran Turismo 2
- Freespace (can’t believe I forgot about that one)
…I’m in my late forties, so pre-2000 was my peak gaming time. As a result the list could go on and on and on…
Parasite Eve was a great game, but it never released for DOS/Windows 95. It was PlayStation exclusive (and still is).
Whoops. My mistake. I completely skipped reading the “computer” part of the sentence and started listing off games in general.
Parasite Eve, now here is a man who knows his SquareSoft games
Underrated. I’d be all over a remake.
Rollercoaster Tycoon is an obvious must-play. And Zeus: Master of Olympus came out in 2000 but runs on Windows 95. It’s a Sierra city builder, and I have thousands of hours in it.
Some of my favorites in a variety of genre:
- TIE Fighter and/or Freespace
- Planescape: Torment
- Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
- Pharaoh
Also one of Sierra’s adventure games. A popular one is King’s Quest VI.
*your
Doom (1 then 2) Dune 2
Command & conquer: Red alert
Quake 2 & 3 Unreal tournament
Rise of the triad
Heretic
Hexen
Space Quest 4
Quest for Glory series
Simcity 2000
Leisure Suit Larry 6
Grand Theft Auto (top down)The dig. The game is inspired by an idea originally created for Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories series.
- MULE
- Might and Magic VI
- Master of Orion
- Civ 1 & 2
