Do you agree with this top 50 - from two decades ago?

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

I laughed my ass off at the Ultima Underworld II quote:

THE CLOSEST YOU CAN GET TO VIRTUAL REALITY WITHOUT A HEADSET.

I love statements that completely date things.

 

[xplosive59]

There was a gmae called Fury of the Furries? Dat's hillarious!

 

[Auron]

Some amazing games!

I'm appalled and shocked that Monkey Island 1 is so far back and not entirely too sure about Sim City's spot but mostly all the games I know are excellent.

 

[Lord Penney]

The top 10 seem about right, not so sure about the rest. Though Space Hulk? I've never played it, but it sounds terrible.

Don't you dare bash Space Hulk!
It's based on the Warhammer 40K game of the same name.

 

[BrotherRool]

If this list is right, then the game selection was crud back then. Chessmaster and Pinball Fantasies? Forgive me if one-step above packaged windows shovelware isn't floating my boat.

The write up is even better for Pinball Fantasies 'Normally considered strong in the arcade department, the PC is at last beginning to display it's features' . Pinball, a game designed around the kinaesthetic feeling of pulling levers and watching a small ball bounce around, the pinacle of PC game design. People actually paid 40 pounds for this stuff and instead of feeling ripped off they put it in the top 20 games of all time? 1-6,8 and 15 are good games though. I feel like the rest of them wouldn't even get onto a top 200 PC games list nowadays.


...I mean Plants vs Zombies or Insaniquarium is better than a pinball or chess game right? I'm not mad in saying that?


EDIT: Okay they've got some better games in the higher up numbers. Wolfenstein and Dune II deserved to be in the top 10. I'd say about half these games on the list wouldn't even make it to the top of the Play store if they were free and then 1/4 would and the final 1/4 are genuinely good games that hold up against the tests of time

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

Such a rad find, man! Floppy demo days. Ah, that takes me back.

I still have a yearly play of a good handful of those games: Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island 1 and 2 and Sam and Max Hit the Road.

Good to know that technically games are now cheaper than back in the days of yore, ha ha

 

[Auron]

Now that I think about it, it makes me extremely sad to see the end of Lucasarts(and what it became before the end.), this was likely it's height of awesomeness and creativity.

 

[AD-Stu]

Interesting where some of them rate - there are certainly some games on that list that are still considered PC classics, and some that are less so.

Ultima VII strikes me as an interesting example. Still considered one of the best RPGs of all time and it's right for it to be on the list, but I can only imagine it was the "OMG, first-person is so new and amazing" effect of the time that made the Ultima Underworld games rate higher than it.

Note the number of flight sims and driving games on there too. Yep, that's what PC gaming used to be like. Also interesting to note the number of games with a 1994 release date were included in a "best of all time" list that was only published in April 1994

 

[Nooners]

Ooo...nice find, very interesting to read! Thanks a ton!

 

[bluepotatosack]

Not a bad list. Micro Machines was actually a kick ass little racing game.

The write up is even better for Pinball Fantasies 'Normally considered strong in the arcade department, the PC is at last beginning to display it's features' . Pinball, a game designed around the kinaesthetic feeling of pulling levers and watching a small ball bounce around, the pinacle of PC game design. People actually paid 40 pounds for this stuff and instead of feeling ripped off they put it in the top 20 games of all time?

Hey, pinball games were huge back in the day. Even today we're getting perfect recreations of classic tables with incredible attention to the physics involved being made. Because pinball rules.

 

[scorptatious]

Jeez. I was only two when this came out.

Just goes to show how much of a kid I am compared to a lot of other gamers here. :/

I have heard about stuff like Another World (I think it was called "Out of this World" here in the States) Secret of Monkey Island, and Ultima.

 

[porous_shield]

Wow. That list makes me feel old. I go back pretty regularly and play some of these games and it makes me realize how long ago they came out.

As someone who picked up gaming in 96 (Since I was only four then) I really can't judge, but this is pretty cool. Also I thought Sam and Max was a newish thing.

It started as a comic book in 87.

 

[thesilentman]

I wasn't even alive for most of these. Damn. I now want to fire these up and see what the fuss is.

...Wait, I've played SimCity 2000! That's my childhood right there! I wanna play this again...

Good list it seems though, judging by the replies here.

 

[SKaREO]

It's a good list. Goes to show how many epic games we had to play back then as compared to now. Nowadays I can't find too much that impresses me anymore. I played the crap out of a lot of the games listed here though. Thanks for sharing this list!

 

[Batadon]

How is Star Control 2 only #33?! That should be in the top 10 for sure.

D/Generation owned, but it's in the right spot.

 

[Colt47]

The games I remember the most from that time are Sim City 2000, Gods, Doom, Wing Commander, and X-COM UFO defense. My older brother played the Alone in the Dark games and I heard they were pretty good for the time.

 

[lacktheknack]

Day of the Tentacle needed to be higher... it was even better than Sam and Max Hit The Road.

Also, I find the lack of Myst to be greatly disturbing (unless I missed it...).

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Oh wow, the demos are on FLOPPIES. That takes me back.

I'm oddly jealous. Being Canadian, I got access to the shitty over-the-counter no-cd versions of PC Gamer as a kid. I did find the occasional French import of an enthusiast magazine that game with a truckload of demos, but I've more or less missed the era of PC Gamer add-ons.

I'm just glad I didn't miss the demo culture. My first gamepad from 1993 was a shitty Gravis D-pad with an extra grey nub that could be screwed in the middle for a so-called instant joystick. They came with a measly little CD that had practically everything in Apogee and nineties' Epic Games catalog. I went on for years with nothing but my first OEM Pentium's bundled FMV games, the Pitfall remake, and everything from Doom to Hectic and Hexen.

Remember clogging up your modem connection all night long to grab Quake? Damn, those were the days...

I wouldn't really get into PC gaming before Half-Life, though. That, Myst and pretty much every Sierra adventure game ever served as my first big introductions to gaming.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

They criminally underrated Ultima 7. It should have definitely been top 5 if not first place. Far better than Ultima Underworld 2.

D/Gen and syndicate also should have been top 10.

I also wouldn't have had Sim City 2k as first place. It's a good game, definitely a top 10; but not first place imo. I would have put Doom or U7 there.