For me, it was the game Rocket Jockey released by Sega Soft in '96. It was perfect. The game featured a surf rock soundtrack by Dick Dale. The entire premise of the game was to ride around on rockets and using long cables to yank your opponents off theirs. Referees were also fair play. I don’t think I’ve met anyone else who has played the game, so if you have, let me know!
ID games of course (Keen/Wolf3d/Doom), Sim City series. Raptor, Warcraft I&II, LucasArts games.
Raptor and tyrian, 2 great tastes that taste better together.
I was totally sucked into the world when I first played it as a kid. The balance and trade offs between tech and magic are awesome and the incredible dialogue and (OK from what I remember) story makes this one I come back to every once in a while.
I don’t think I ever actually have beaten the game though – but I do that with nearly every game.
Scorched Earth Worms UT2K Quake 3 Arena Tribes Descent Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries You Don’t Know Jack Where in the World is Carmen San Diego
MechWarrior 3 was where I got into the franchise. Those were awesome games.
Theme Hospital I still go back to on occasion. I’ve seen Two Point but it’s not the same.
Star Control 2 Starflight Civilization Railroad Tycoon SimCity Pirates! King’s Quest Space Quest Telengard Lemmings
My childhood! :-)
I keep playing Total Annihilation. I play it at least once a day.
I played the shit out of Rocket Jockey. We only played it once together at a Lan party because I kept tying my friends together. Fun for me, not for them!
I was a big LucasArts graphic adventure game fan. Maniac mansion, Zak McKracken, Indiana Jones, Loom, Monkey Island Then all the Sierra games: leisure Suits Larry, Police Quest, King’s Quest, Camelot…. Good times.
ahem you forgot to mention full throttle ;)
Whenever I smell asphalt, I think of Maureen.
Jazz Jackrabbit, and all of its versions and the sequel. Banging soundtrack too
I really loved Tie Fighter from 1994. The music was pretty cool because it changed based on the state of the mission you were on and star wars music was a cheat code to my feelings.
I also thought it was so cool when you’d complete secret objectives and they’d bring you in to the emperor’s secret order and tattoo your arm. I thought that was just fucking great. Those cut scenes were so cool.
Also thanks to all of you who posted cool older games im going to try some of these. I’m thinking about trying fallout I’ve never played any in that series.
Wait, you forgot to mention that he tattoes your arm with FORCE LIGHTNING.
Lucas arts was so strong at that time. I loved dark forces(?) the FPS
Honestly Lucasarts of the early-90’s to mid 2000’s had such a high batting average.
Tie Fighter really captured the feel of the original trilogy that only a few games have actually done, Dark Forces and Jedi Knight both did the same.
SimAnt holds deep reverence with me since I remember playing it at my friends house all the time as a kid.
Lands of Lore, Ultima Underworld, Wing Commander, and Master of Orion, because I played them with my brother all of the time.
And Police Quest and Number/Word Munchers because they were some of the first I played in school.
The Commander Keen series.
Rebel Assault 1 and 2 – they’re total crap, but if you were a Star Wars fan at the time, they were epic. FMV in RA2 was so good, and introduced story unique to the game.
Descent is really hard to beat for me. I put it above Doom/Quake in terms of actual gameplay. It felt so nice to rush to the exit when you’re really good. Only Majora’s Mask 3-days mechanic has rivaled the anxiety factor of Descent.
Heavy Gear > Mechwarrior.
Starcraft/Warcraft.
Heroes of Might and Magic 1-3.
A shit ton of flash games I can’t remember now.
Me and my sister were crazy about Zoo Tycoon, but we weren’t super good at it. We would run the zoo into the ground and then release the T. Rex.
Releasing the T. rex and plopping guests into the shark tank and removing the ladder were important parts of a successful zoo. I wish the Zoo Tycoon series kept the same level of freedom the original has, the new one was depressing to play.
I didnt know there was a new one. We played the 1st and 2nd ones.
I feel like anything new would lack the magic from back then.
The Moraff adventure games. Moraffs World and Moraffs Dungeons of the Unforgiven.
Also Castle of the Winds.
It’s either tough or impossible to get purchased copies of any of them now, but that means there are sites willing to host the full unlocked versions of them now. As far as I know, the creators of both are still alive though. So I suppose if you tried really hard you might still be able to get money to them.
In both cases they were games I played when I was a kid and they stood out as games I wanted to come back to when I was less bad at stuff. And in both cases I did, and little me was right.
I remember the death messages of Castle of the Winds: RIP Killed by Huge Ogre or RIP Killed by Kobold. I had never seen or heard of an Ogre before and thought it was “org” so I pronounced it that way too for the longest time. Until Shrek was released.
I vaguely remember the death message said “another one bites the dust” and I had no idea what that meant.