1987 ish:
I went down a wiki rabbit hole and found tons of old games I used to love. I always wanted to make a note of some of them because they were a huge deal to me growing up. If anyone wants a long history of all the millions of games I played, here goes. We didn't have a PC at first, I used to play it at my dad's work. They had a bunch of computers and one of them had Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. They were the first games I played on a PC. Police Quest I was too young to really get anywhere, but I used to just drive the little car all over the town and visit the various locations and marvel at the graphics which was way ahead of the Atari or whatever we had at home. Later we got a PC at home which had a green screen and no graphics card. But it could play Tetris which I was hooked on. And it also had a text based game called Trucker where you have to deliver oranges over a long distance by making good decisions. I liked it.
A year or so later we got a PC at home to keep, with a graphics card. We had one of the first Microsoft Flight Simulators which I played a lot. I started getting my own games from computer fairs and things, and then swapping games with the few kids at school who also had PCs. They were mostly terrible but some used to keep me happy. I had some really bad games too, a few were so bad my dad managed to get a refund. But I always ended up with at least a few games a year that I loved and could play over and over. I remember one called APB All Points Bulletin (1987), sort of an early 2d GTA where you play as a cop, it was pretty fun. We also got one called Alley Cat (1983) which was made by IBM and was amazing, one of the best games of that time really. You play as a cat which had to jump on trash cans to avoid being killed by a dog, and then you could jump into the windows of an apartment building and each room had a different mini game. Really well made and impressive for the time. I had one called Airborne Ranger which was quite good too. Battle Chess was a staple that everyone I knew had, and it was fun to play. It made chess fun for kids who wouldn't usually play it. I also used to really love Bubble Bobble and some others I forgot. Jones in the Fast Lane was one that had me really hooked, I played it over and over.
Late 80s:
I got Test Drive 2 which I loved and I completed it every day for weeks. Lombard RAC Rally (1988) was one of the first racing games that felt more like a sim. I enjoyed TD2 more though. Golden Axe, amazing, completed it so many times. SimCity which I didn't particularly like. 688 Attack Sub which I hardly played because I thought it sucked. . Populous which seemed cool but I don't think I understood how to play it. And Hillsfar which was primitive but seemed fun and I liked the atmosphere. There were a lot of Adventure Games in those years too, starting with Maniac Mansion which frustrated me and I never got far in it, but I was kinda fascinated.
Midwinter (1988) was incredible, still today one of my favorite games. I read about it in a magazine and was like wooooah! I couldn't believe you could do all that in a game, when just some years earlier gaming was little more than Pac Man and Space Invaders. This was like a big open world game with so much going on. When I bought it, it was as good as I hoped it would be, if not better. F-19 Stealth Fighter (1988), the second best flying game I ever played. I played a lot of flight sims in those days but they just weren't fun... But this one had you fly into a dangerous area, bomb a building, and then you had to escape. Usually I would get chased by a jet but you could do things like drop a decoy which the other plane would follow. Then things started getting really good, 1990. I got Wing Commander which was way beyond what I ever expected to get from a game. I had played Flight Sims since mid 80s but this was on a whole other level, it had a story and great characters and real missions and a briefing and even when you save the game you would click on some cryo-sleep bed things. It was just so good. Same year, Monkey Island, an Adventure Game really stepping up a level. Also Panza Kick Boxing, best fighting game I ever played, even compared to modern ones. Silent Service II was awesome too, another attack submarine game but I loved this one. And then...
1991, second best year in gaming, ever. All this in one year:
Castles - you are a King and get to build a castle of your own design, kind of a primitive early version of Stronghold but better in some ways too.
Lemmings - one of the best games ever made.
Willy Beamish - Adventure Gaming really smashing out of the park.
Eye of the Beholder 2 - my first real RPG which kinda changed my life.
Gunship 2000 - the best flying game I ever played by far. The flying and blowing stuff up was great, but you also could control wingmen and give them orders and coordinate attack plans with them, amazing, and you could even promote them and give them medals etc, which made them better.
Moonstone - So much fun.
Falcon 3.0 - The most advanced Flight Simulator at the time, and for years after too. Needed a top end PC.
Gods - I don't really like platform games but this one was a really great one.
Leisure Suit Larry 5 - This game was so big! You travel all over the world to interesting places, and I think it made young me feel comfortable with the idea of just jumping on a plane and going to lots of places, which I did years later.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Adventure Gaming continuing to grow. I suspect it was one of the biggest budget PC games of that time. Great game too although a bit hard for me.
Police Quest 3 - I loved it.
Space Quest IV - Really good.
Another World - kind a gaming landmark.
Battle Isle - turn based strategy
1992:
Dune - Yeah Dune 2 was the first RTS, but Dune did it earlier. It also had a story and characters and a world and was amazing. It was like an adventure game and then morphed into an RTS at the end. Blew my mind.
Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis - best adventure game I ever played, and I probably played them all. Sam & Max Hit The Road was close though.
Alone in the Dark - It was so good I felt spoilt playing it. I couldn't believe my luck. The art style was great, great graphics, great sound, great atmosphere and setting, puzzles and items to find etc, yet decent combat too. Really a step forward for gaming.
Space Crusade - I had never heard of it and was never interested in all the little figurines people used to paint and stuff. But this game blew my mind, it was my first taste of strategy gaming and it was great.
Stunt Island - Amazing game, so unique. It was like a flight sim but you were a film director or something and had to repeat a stunt that was shown to you.
Wolf 3d - FPS is born
Flashback - good, but my last platform game. It was hard work.
1993:
Only one or two games I sort of liked.
1994:
System Shock - totally blew me away.
Tie Fighter - ditto
Under a Killing Moon - really interesting but my interest in adventure games was beginning to wane
1995:
Command & Conquer - so good omg
1996:
Total Annihilation - I think this was the start of what seems to me like a new era in gaming. A more modern era.
1998:
Halflife, Baldurs Gate, Thief, Rainbow 6, Unreal Freespace, Delta Force, Starsiege Tribes,
Loved them all, felt like a new generation in gaming. High tech, big games, big budgets.
1999: the best ever year in gaming:
Age of Empires 2, Unreal Tournament, EverQuest, System Shock 2, Tiberian Sun, Quake 3 Arena, Driver, Age of Wonders, GTA2, HOMM3, Hidden & Dangerous, SWAT 3, Kingpin, The Nomad Soul, Delta Force 2, Rogue Spear, Jagged Alliance 2. All of them blew my mind. I'll never forget them. I also started smoking pot and 1999 I basically spent in a haze of pure bliss, getting baked and playing all these masterpieces. In year 2000+ I felt like gaming took a nose dive, but I replayed all these many times, and went back to find all the ones best games from the 80s and 90s I missed.
I went down a wiki rabbit hole and found tons of old games I used to love. I always wanted to make a note of some of them because they were a huge deal to me growing up. If anyone wants a long history of all the millions of games I played, here goes. We didn't have a PC at first, I used to play it at my dad's work. They had a bunch of computers and one of them had Police Quest and Leisure Suit Larry. They were the first games I played on a PC. Police Quest I was too young to really get anywhere, but I used to just drive the little car all over the town and visit the various locations and marvel at the graphics which was way ahead of the Atari or whatever we had at home. Later we got a PC at home which had a green screen and no graphics card. But it could play Tetris which I was hooked on. And it also had a text based game called Trucker where you have to deliver oranges over a long distance by making good decisions. I liked it.
A year or so later we got a PC at home to keep, with a graphics card. We had one of the first Microsoft Flight Simulators which I played a lot. I started getting my own games from computer fairs and things, and then swapping games with the few kids at school who also had PCs. They were mostly terrible but some used to keep me happy. I had some really bad games too, a few were so bad my dad managed to get a refund. But I always ended up with at least a few games a year that I loved and could play over and over. I remember one called APB All Points Bulletin (1987), sort of an early 2d GTA where you play as a cop, it was pretty fun. We also got one called Alley Cat (1983) which was made by IBM and was amazing, one of the best games of that time really. You play as a cat which had to jump on trash cans to avoid being killed by a dog, and then you could jump into the windows of an apartment building and each room had a different mini game. Really well made and impressive for the time. I had one called Airborne Ranger which was quite good too. Battle Chess was a staple that everyone I knew had, and it was fun to play. It made chess fun for kids who wouldn't usually play it. I also used to really love Bubble Bobble and some others I forgot. Jones in the Fast Lane was one that had me really hooked, I played it over and over.
Late 80s:
I got Test Drive 2 which I loved and I completed it every day for weeks. Lombard RAC Rally (1988) was one of the first racing games that felt more like a sim. I enjoyed TD2 more though. Golden Axe, amazing, completed it so many times. SimCity which I didn't particularly like. 688 Attack Sub which I hardly played because I thought it sucked. . Populous which seemed cool but I don't think I understood how to play it. And Hillsfar which was primitive but seemed fun and I liked the atmosphere. There were a lot of Adventure Games in those years too, starting with Maniac Mansion which frustrated me and I never got far in it, but I was kinda fascinated.
Midwinter (1988) was incredible, still today one of my favorite games. I read about it in a magazine and was like wooooah! I couldn't believe you could do all that in a game, when just some years earlier gaming was little more than Pac Man and Space Invaders. This was like a big open world game with so much going on. When I bought it, it was as good as I hoped it would be, if not better. F-19 Stealth Fighter (1988), the second best flying game I ever played. I played a lot of flight sims in those days but they just weren't fun... But this one had you fly into a dangerous area, bomb a building, and then you had to escape. Usually I would get chased by a jet but you could do things like drop a decoy which the other plane would follow. Then things started getting really good, 1990. I got Wing Commander which was way beyond what I ever expected to get from a game. I had played Flight Sims since mid 80s but this was on a whole other level, it had a story and great characters and real missions and a briefing and even when you save the game you would click on some cryo-sleep bed things. It was just so good. Same year, Monkey Island, an Adventure Game really stepping up a level. Also Panza Kick Boxing, best fighting game I ever played, even compared to modern ones. Silent Service II was awesome too, another attack submarine game but I loved this one. And then...
1991, second best year in gaming, ever. All this in one year:
Castles - you are a King and get to build a castle of your own design, kind of a primitive early version of Stronghold but better in some ways too.
Lemmings - one of the best games ever made.
Willy Beamish - Adventure Gaming really smashing out of the park.
Eye of the Beholder 2 - my first real RPG which kinda changed my life.
Gunship 2000 - the best flying game I ever played by far. The flying and blowing stuff up was great, but you also could control wingmen and give them orders and coordinate attack plans with them, amazing, and you could even promote them and give them medals etc, which made them better.
Moonstone - So much fun.
Falcon 3.0 - The most advanced Flight Simulator at the time, and for years after too. Needed a top end PC.
Gods - I don't really like platform games but this one was a really great one.
Leisure Suit Larry 5 - This game was so big! You travel all over the world to interesting places, and I think it made young me feel comfortable with the idea of just jumping on a plane and going to lots of places, which I did years later.
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Adventure Gaming continuing to grow. I suspect it was one of the biggest budget PC games of that time. Great game too although a bit hard for me.
Police Quest 3 - I loved it.
Space Quest IV - Really good.
Another World - kind a gaming landmark.
Battle Isle - turn based strategy
1992:
Dune - Yeah Dune 2 was the first RTS, but Dune did it earlier. It also had a story and characters and a world and was amazing. It was like an adventure game and then morphed into an RTS at the end. Blew my mind.
Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis - best adventure game I ever played, and I probably played them all. Sam & Max Hit The Road was close though.
Alone in the Dark - It was so good I felt spoilt playing it. I couldn't believe my luck. The art style was great, great graphics, great sound, great atmosphere and setting, puzzles and items to find etc, yet decent combat too. Really a step forward for gaming.
Space Crusade - I had never heard of it and was never interested in all the little figurines people used to paint and stuff. But this game blew my mind, it was my first taste of strategy gaming and it was great.
Stunt Island - Amazing game, so unique. It was like a flight sim but you were a film director or something and had to repeat a stunt that was shown to you.
Wolf 3d - FPS is born
Flashback - good, but my last platform game. It was hard work.
1993:
Only one or two games I sort of liked.
1994:
System Shock - totally blew me away.
Tie Fighter - ditto
Under a Killing Moon - really interesting but my interest in adventure games was beginning to wane
1995:
Command & Conquer - so good omg
1996:
Total Annihilation - I think this was the start of what seems to me like a new era in gaming. A more modern era.
1998:
Halflife, Baldurs Gate, Thief, Rainbow 6, Unreal Freespace, Delta Force, Starsiege Tribes,
Loved them all, felt like a new generation in gaming. High tech, big games, big budgets.
1999: the best ever year in gaming:
Age of Empires 2, Unreal Tournament, EverQuest, System Shock 2, Tiberian Sun, Quake 3 Arena, Driver, Age of Wonders, GTA2, HOMM3, Hidden & Dangerous, SWAT 3, Kingpin, The Nomad Soul, Delta Force 2, Rogue Spear, Jagged Alliance 2. All of them blew my mind. I'll never forget them. I also started smoking pot and 1999 I basically spent in a haze of pure bliss, getting baked and playing all these masterpieces. In year 2000+ I felt like gaming took a nose dive, but I replayed all these many times, and went back to find all the ones best games from the 80s and 90s I missed.
Last edited:
I still played it 10000 times though. I also had some rally game which was really good, and a Formula 1 game which I got ok at. But I lost interest in racing as I got older. Had another period of interest with Trackmania though. 
