5 PC Games That Defined the 90s

[Ghadente]

Loved playing all those games, except i never got into Wing Commander. I bought Wolfenstein 3D again from PSN and played it in its entirety with metallic black album playing and had a nostalgic good time. I could still play starcraft and enjoy it with ease, if only i had the time and less other games to play . I re-downloaded the original Doom and Doom II but didn't end up playing them all the way through again. Myst is one of my old favorites. Had it when it came out, got the PSone version when that came out, and even bought it a third time in a collectors edition (discounted price).

All great games, classics for me. Never tried wing commander though, somehow i just missed it i guess.

 

[Shodan1980]

Doom AND wolfenstein seem redundant. One invented the genre, the other refined it, but they'r not diverse enough to justify inclusion.

And there's plenty other 90s games that could have filled that gap. Maybe Baldurs Gate came too late to leave a mark and dropped a gauntlet that no one really picked up since, but Tomb Raider in its ability to define "action adventure" as a genre in and of itself? Final Fantasy VII and its role in making jRPGs acceptable and sough after in the western world? Half Life and its influence on every shooter ever? Street Fighter 2? Each of these games not only defined the 90s, but all gaming in the 21st century, and are for the most part still untouched by age and able to give their offspring a run for their money.

So well put sir. If there's anything that's "of the 90s" it's the original Tomb Raider. I was in High School when it came out and even friends who'd never played a video game in their lives knew of Lara Croft and were convinced she was based on a real person and wanted to sleep with that real person (even though she was imaginary). Swap out Wolf3D for Tomb Raider and Myst for something else and I'd have zero problem with this list. Obviously from my chosen avatar I think the something else should be SS2 but Diablo, Warcraft, HL, Civ, Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Sensible Soccer (in the UK only probably), Cannon Fodder, Worms, Unreal and a host of others would be much better contenders. And then there's FFVII, the game that sold a million Playstations, cemented Sony in the console market and introduced a swathe of the populous to the crazy world of Japan at the time when Anime was becoming huge. Unless it's just a list of games that sold particularly well during the Nineties, in which case sure, lets go with Myst.

 

[RicoADF]

You did not include Command and Conquer, you have failed. Starcraft was great but C&C was made by Westwood, the devs that created the RTS genre with their dune games, also why have 2 FPS games when one of them would do and System shock, Tomb Raider or any other genre could have fit in.

 

[sXeth]

Even being subjective, this felt a little poorly thought out.

Doom & Wolf3d seems excessive. Even Duke 3D would've fit in better then doubling on ID stuff.
I don't even especially idolize Diablo or Baldurs Gate, but their absence is noticeable.

Also the whole point and click adventure genre, whatever your particular choice is there.

Starcraft was very late-90s, and doesn't seem like an ultra-influential pick. It may have been more popular then its Warcraft predecessors, but Command and Conquer or Warcraft would seem like the better option for influencing RTS.

 

[Kinitawowi]

1) Starcraft redefined the RTS for the 2000s, for sure. But it didn't define the 90s; that accolade surely belongs to C&C, which remains a 90s throwback to this day (no other game still has FMVs, a genre that was just bursting open - and falling apart simultaneously, and yes I'm looking at you Phantasmagoria - when C&C first appeared). Dune 2's still my favourite, though.

2) I love Wolfenstein more than Doom, and I still play it today (I'm trying to single-segment 100% Episode 3 in under half an hour, but I keep on running out of ammo in L6); but you really only need one FPS and Doom is surely it.

3) Monkey Island, as so many people have said. I understand the question though - given that it started out on the Amiga, can it truly be said to have defined PC gaming? Maybe MI2, or Sam And Max, or even IJATFate Of Atlantis.

Worms

Great shout, but again, the Amiga problem.

 

[Elberik]

Is no one understanding that this isn't a critique on objective quality? These are PC-centric games that were either first on the scene or the best known. These are games that became household names. The title is games that Defined the 90s not Top 5 90s games

 

[Metalrocks]

quake 2
half life 1
doom
age of empires 2
dino crisis
resident evil 1 and 2


i would like to say system shock 2 as well, but this game is so confusing with its 20 windows what you can do, enemies being bullet sponges. simply just cant enjoy it as such. got it on steam and never finished it.

 

[camazotz]

Doom, Diablo, Baldur's Gate, Half Life and I guess I could see Wing Commander and that's it.

 

[camazotz]

SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2

Also GTA (yes the first one) Quake 2: first of mouse look shooters, and of course HALF LIFE.

System Shock 2, the awesome game nobody actually bought. I'd have it on my list but the first time I acquired a copy was two years ago.

 

[camazotz]

Is no one understanding that this isn't a critique on objective quality? These are PC-centric games that were either first on the scene or the best known. These are games that became household names. The title is games that Defined the 90s not Top 5 90s games

Yeah, but everyone had different games define the 90's for them. I'd argue Wolfenstein shouldn't be on the list because everything it contributed to the genre it forged was stolen by Doom, for example. Baldur's Gate remains a potent memory for gamers and it effectively put the isometric RPG on the map in a memorable way. Diablo took the Rogue Like and made it a genre of its own long before people called them rogue-likes. Then you have critical successes like System Shock 2 that no one actually played until ten years later, so even though it was a crowning achievement of the 90's it's pretty much a ghost of the decade that really owes its continued memory to Bioshock's success.

 

[2xDouble]

Why not mention Magic: the Gathering (1993), because that game pretty much created CCG's as we know them? Don't forget about Warhammer 40k (also 1993), the game that redefined competitive tabletop and practically invented the "pay-to-win" model. Those are also games, you know, and they existed in the 90s... that's two things from the title, which makes them completely relevant.

In less stupid answers, here's a few other PC games that may or may not have "defined the 90's":

Descent. More akin to flight sims than fps, Descent offered unparalleled freedom of movement in 3D space, creating a unique experience in either and both genres.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows. A rare PC exclusive for its genre, this was one of the last shareware-based games, and the definitive "bullet hell" experience on PC for many years.

Duke Nukem 3D. A massive step away from fun, "kidsy" 2d platform/shooters, Duke Nukem 3D's "mature" subject matter, and snarky humor were quintessential 90s "attitudes"... which was supposedly a good thing back then. Ok, maybe Duke 3D didn't "define" the 90s, but it sure as hell encapsulated them.

Might and Magic VI. A first foray (not the first, iirc.) into realism for the series, straddling real-time action and turn-based movements, MM6 set the standard for the party-based 3D western RPG... which was quickly supplanted by the single-character western RPG until the dawn of the MMO. In fact, many modern MMO mechanics and scenarios were, shall we say, "borrowed" from Might and Magic series, and MM6 in particular.

Mechwarrior 3. The best and pretty much only reason to own a flight stick in the 90s. If you owned a swivel joystick, you played Mechwarrior 3. It was the last and best customizable giant-robot piloting simulator.

 

[Micah Weil]

Oooooooh boy. This is fanboy bait if I'd ever seen it.

Honestly, there are a couple of sentiments that I've seen that I can echo; Starcraft, while highly influential, didn't really pick up steam until the 2000s. That could have easily been replaced by Red Alert 1, one of the finest pieces of strategy gaming out there (as much as I'd like to say Total Annihilation fits that bill, since it was published in 1997, it's still Red Alert that, I'd say, dragged a whole lot of us into the genre).

Wolfenstein could have been left out completely. Sure, if it wasn't for that game, we wouldn't have Doom, but let's face it...Doom fits the "defined the 90s" bill a lot better than Wolfenstein.

Probably could have been replaced by a Sam and Max game...or, hell, even one of the Phantasmagorias. Yes, the Phantasmagorias weren't the best games out there. If ya really think about it, though, the 90s were the clumsy, awkward adolescence of video gameing in general - not just PC.

Full-motion video games were just that - clumsy and awkward.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Too many shooters on the list tbh. Shooters weren't -that- defining.

 

[Elberik]

Is no one understanding that this isn't a critique on objective quality? These are PC-centric games that were either first on the scene or the best known. These are games that became household names. The title is games that Defined the 90s not Top 5 90s games

Yeah, but everyone had different games define the 90's for them. I'd argue Wolfenstein shouldn't be on the list because everything it contributed to the genre it forged was stolen by Doom, for example. Baldur's Gate remains a potent memory for gamers and it effectively put the isometric RPG on the map in a memorable way. Diablo took the Rogue Like and made it a genre of its own long before people called them rogue-likes. Then you have critical successes like System Shock 2 that no one actually played until ten years later, so even though it was a crowning achievement of the 90's it's pretty much a ghost of the decade that really owes its continued memory to Bioshock's success.

I see this list as being about games that got into the public zeitgeist. Games that people even outside the industry were aware of. Not, as many people are complaining about here, whichever games revolutionized genres or were retrospectively deemed "the best".

Example, while AoE came out in the 90s and is considered by many to be the superior RTS, there is no slang that refers to AoE.

 

[CaitSeith]

This list is really subjective. These are the most objective parts he uses for his selection (the rest seem to be personal experiences and post-90s influence):

- Wolfenstein 3D: Helped to popularize the FPS genre.
- Doom: Truly popularized the FPS genre. Began the frequently-debunked myth that violent FPS lead to violent behaviour.
- Myst: Best-selling PC game for almost a decade (until 2002).
- Startcraft: Poster child of the RTS genre, and established a huge international following.
- Wing Commander: Dragon magazine gave it six stars (it uses a 5 stars scoring system). It was released to SNES, Sega CD, 3DO and PlayStation too.

Are these reasons good enough for explaining why they are in the list? I think anyone can come up with similar reasons for their favourite 90s PC games to be considered "to define" that decade.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2 SYSTEM SHOCK 2

Also GTA (yes the first one) Quake 2: first of mouse look shooters, and of course HALF LIFE.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!

(I'd say the original "System Shock" though... still my fave game of all time. But its sequel is an excellent game in its own right.)

I know plenty of people who'd say the same thing about "Half Life". As far as more plot-driven shooters with RPG elements go, the "Shock" games were pioneers. And "Half Life" showed how videogames could tell a linear story while still putting the player front and centre, which I think was practically unique at the time (and hasn't been replicated that much since).

 

[Vigormortis]

Wolfenstein should not be on the list. It may have started the FPS genre but it wasn't really a household name. Doom being on the list, and being the more "defining" game, already covers Wolfenstein's influence by proxy.

Now, I absolutely agree on the other titles in the list. They definitely helped define what PC gaming was in the 90s. And though some might not have as far-reaching an influence as others (Myst) their collective impact on the industry and the gaming community during that time period can not be understated.

As to what could fill Wolfenstein's slot, I offer these examples:

Diablo: This game set a standard for almost every game of it's type. As well, it became an almost cultural phenomenon. It was rare to attend a LAN party or similar gathering and not see people playing this or simply talking about it. Doubly so for it's sequel.

Half-Life: Wolfenstein may have started the genre, and Doom may have cemented the genre as a staple, Half-Life defined what the genre could be and what potential there was in expanding on the old ideas. And not just in terms of story, level design, or game-play. It was one of the "watershed moments" in PC gaming during the 90s.

Quake 3 Arena: It wasn't the first online multiplayer FPS in the 90s. In fact, it came out near the end of the decade. However, it was, in a lot of ways, the prime example, the end result if you will, of the inception and progression of the concept of multiplayer, FPS online gaming. It was also incredibly influential within the professional gaming culture.

Unreal Tournament: Just about everything that can be argued for Quake 3 can be repeated here.

Ultima Online: Effectively brought the concept of large-scale, large player-count, online RPG gaming to the public space. MMOs had existed prior to this game but this was, in some ways, the Doom of the genre. Granted, like Quake 3 Arena, it came near the end of the decade. However, also like Quake 3, it was the ultimate example of the MMO concepts being borne out of the era.