I think anything Blizzard made, Sim Tower, Myst, Unreal Tournament, Quake (so good).
I'm trying to think of some old school games to get, so anything unusual or under the radar would be cool.
Roller Coaster Tycoon and Command and Conquer: Red Alert took away hours of my life as a kid. Loved those games.
I used to play Roller Coaster Tycoon with my dad when I was like 5 or 6, but then I started getting better than him. That game brings back some good memories.
Yes this game was awesome. You can spend hours upon hours playing it, trying to build the perfect park. Too bad they haven't made anything recent except for their freemium version :(
All first three versions, with all expansions, are available on GOG I think. Fully compatible with Windows 7.
Love fallout. I never got into it until after playing the new ones. It was a real shock to have a game as complex and daunting as the original fallout NOT hold your hand and tell you exactly where to go and what to do. It made me realize how much new games baby the player and it was definitely a challenge figuring out how to play it.
As a kid growing up in the Windows 95 era, my answer would have to be The Incredible Machine. I actually think that that game, along with LEGO, really birthed my interest in engineering and problem-solving. The concept is simple: given access to a limited set of ingredients (some realistic, like a helium balloon -- some less so, like an antigravity generator) create a Rube Goldberg machine to accomplish a relatively simple goal, like moving a basketball into a net. As a kid I would spend hours constructing huge monstrosities like this: The first two were for DOS/Windows 3.1 but I still remember getting TIM3 and playing it on our brand-new beige-with-cow-logo Windows 95 PC. It might be time to dust off dosbox and fire it up again.
Yes, the incredible machine was... well... incredible.
I enjoyed that one as well. A somewhat similar web-based game is Fantastic Contraption
Loved upgrading my throne room in Civ II back when I was a kid.
I think it was a reward for doing well in your Civ, kind of like "We Love the King" day or something. You basically started with a bare room, then upgraded things from animal pelts, to wood, to stone, to marble. It was pretty neat looking. Here's a pic of the bare room and one of the finished product. I think that last one may have a few mods though. Don't really remember, but you get the idea!
Have they fixed the net code? When I last played with a friend, we were getting desyncs every turn. That was probably about 6 months ago.
Sword of Aragon. This game is one of my favorite games of all time. Fair warning, this game came out in '89, so the graphics are pretty amazing. You are the son of the slain ruler of Aladda, and your quest is to reunite the kingdoms of Aragon. You'll start the game by choosing a Warrior, Knight, Ranger, Priest, or Mage. This guy is you, and you'll see him in battle with a little flag that he carries around. You'll want to recruit other heroes and form regular army units in order to defend against attacks on your city as well as capturing other cities or vassalizing them. In battle, your units and heroes will gain experience and level up, unlocking new equipment and spells (heroes only). You can have lightly armored "sword and board" infantry, or you can give them a huge, two-handed claymore and platemail. Similarly, archers can have anything from crossbows to compound bows, which affect what melee weapons they can carry in case you get charged by enemy calvary. There are plenty of events that happen, some of which require you to choose an action such as sparing the life of an accused killer or seeing him executed. Girls are kidnapped by a minotaur. A dragon blocks your advance on a goblin stronghold. Do you kill these beasts or cower in fear? Your cities require your attention as well. Build up your agricultural, logging, mining, manufacturing, and commercial districts. Build more houses and bigger fortifications. Wait for the local populace to get in line to be recruited or forcibly conscript them into your army. I've played hundreds of hours of Sword of Aragon and continue to get a run in every few months. The game's graphics are nothing to write home about, but the gameplay is fantastic. Best of all, it's free since it's abandonware. Here's a link to download it, if you're interested.
Other notable mentions off the top of my head include Dune (point and click), Dune II (real-time strategy), and X-COM: UFO Defense (turn-based tactics). I'd be happy to give you a run down on any of these games (and possibly others) as well.
Thief 2 is arguably the best stealth game ever made and its gameplay has not aged a single day. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the graphics. Planescape: Torment is the Thief 2 of classic western RPGs. The world in particular is incredibly well-made.
Diablo. That game literally defined my writing career. Background: my first book was Diablo: Demonsbane, and after that I ran a column on Diabloii.net that used Diablo as a jump off point called Garwulf's Corner...which was possibly the first computer game commentary column in the English language. Without Diablo, none of this would have happened.
[meta] I see this happen often on Hubski, the multi-posts, what's up with that?
In my case, I was getting an error that suggested that the connection with the Hubski server had failed, and the message hadn't posted - so I kept trying every couple of minutes. If I hadn't received your reply, I probably would have kept trying. I'm deleting the copies right now.
Hands down Little Big Adventure 2. I adore this game, it's one of my all-time favourites. LBA2 eventually made me fascinated with games. It surely represent the French Touch ones of that era. Games that were gentle yet engaging, fun and smart. The first area - Citadel Island - was a quite amusing open world location where you could check every corner, run around and interact with new NPCs - talk to them our just punch them without any particular reason. And all of that in 3D, I remind you. The soundtrack was just the cherry on the top. Hits me right in nostalgia every time. I strongly recommend everyone to check this game. It's available on GOG.com and is sure worth the money.
Twinsen's Odyssey is the reason I opened this thread. The music has stayed with me many years later, something few other games have accomplished. It was so strange and unique and addictive. It would be interesting to see that franchise get rebooted...
Caesar III was one of the most engaging games I ever played as a young, blooming gamer. Managing your city, from its granaries to feed your people, to the temples to placate the gods, to the armies to defend yourself from attack, it was a totally engrossing experience.
Dune II: Building of a Dynasty Civilization II Doom
Great picks, but the first and third were DOS games. I'm not going to nitpick because all three are just fantastic. Did you play Dune 2000?
For me they came in a bundle stack of CD's and required Windows 95 to run... it was Dune II, Civilization II, Doom, Blue Force, Dark Lands and some others, they may all have been DOS games repurposed for Windows 95, I have no clue. Dune 2000 wasn't too bad, it was a lot harder but was a really good expansion on the original game. I still prefer Dune II, but I loved LAN games back in the day on Dune 2000.
Railroad Tycoon series. I spent many, many hours with them all.
Age of Empires 2 is the game that got me into gaming. So many hours playing, tons of memories. Solid list!
Re-Volt. A small RC racing game made by Acclaim. I still listen to the soundtrack, which rocked, and I'm still looking for a racing game that had the charm and non-seriousness of Re-Volt. It's physics were advanced for the time (there was a physics mode, Realistic, that had proper collision, wheels against wheels would send cars flying, and all geometry was dutifully respected. And it fit the theme - the cars felt zippy, smooth, and light - and they WERE RC cars. Plus the arsenal - all mundane things turned against small cars to slow them down - ball bearings the size of bowling balls to physically block, oil puddles to completely nullify the opponent's grip for a while, some magnetic cannon to send cars flying in all directions in the path of the projectile, an overcharged battery to increase the speed of the vehicle, a shock field to stop other cars, water balloons to derail cars and fireworks that were the game's homing missiles, and the equivalent of the red turtle shells of Mario Kart. They couldn't be destroyed - but I'll be damned if the lighter cars didn't just FLY when hit with them. Then there was the tracks - there was surprisingly few themes for them (I remember five: Ghost Time, Neighborhood, Toytanic (which is, obviously, a parody of Titanic) and Museum), but they were very well constructed - and they ALL were technically double-tracks, as they all had a different path when raced backwards (because of all the jumps, airtime and other step-related blockades). I miss Re-Volt. One day I'll make it's spiritual successor - since the license to the actual IP was sold to a fucking Korean company, which butchered it and made it a horrible mobile game.
Though special shout-out to Liero (even though it was technically a DOS game).
My brother and I played the shit out of Re-Volt. So many great memories with those little RC cars. Kickstart a sequel and you can have my money.
Yeah there's already like four games that I'll have participated in. I'm currently working on something else, but this successor is second on the list (I can't make a sequel because Re-Volt 2 already exists and it's shit. )
X-COM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown in the UK) was a fabulous strategy game. The recent reboot (X-COM: Enemy Unknown) is good, but it largely gutted my favourite strategic components, like base design, base defense, and R&D. Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender (http://www.gog.com/game/rex_nebular_and_the_cosmic_gender_bender) was such a surprisingly fun adventure game by Microprose. It came out when the Sierra adventure games basically owned PC gaming, and this was a fresh team's try at the genre. It's like a cross between Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest. When Rex is captured by the female overlords of a planet and briefed on his imprisonment: Rex: Examination!? What examination?
Intern: We need to determine if your genes are worthy to be mixed with ours. If so, you will serve as breeding stock. If not, you will serve as fertilizer.
Rex: Breeding stock? That doesn't sound so bad.
Intern: You would probably enjoy it. Then again, there may be some discomfort between the 600th and 800th times. Naturally, the second day is worse.
I love SS2. I picked it up when they re-released it on GOG a couple years ago, and I've played through maybe 3 times since then (although I start to lose interest in the last segment of the game... same sort of problem the original Half Life had). Last time I played it through with a mod that randomized key item locations, and that made it much more interesting since I couldn't rely on my memories.
7th Guest and 11th Hour are great puzzle games that'll frustrate you in good ways. (For any iOS users seeing this, do NOT download the iOS version...awful awful port). If you don't mind adventure games, as others have suggested anything Sierra did was great. I recommend the lesser mentioned Colonel's Bequest & Dagger of Amon Ra which are both murder mysteries and Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist which has some reasonably questionable and hilarious comedy. (I've also heard great things about the Gabriel Knight games but have never had a chance to play them.) Or if horror is your thing check out Phantasmagoria for 7 discs of somewhat campy, ridiculously gory, banned in several countries amusement. Return to Zork was also fantastic even if you'd never played the original Zork games. Also kind of a weird one but I really liked playing Inca. You're an Inca (surprise!) who....has a spaceship and fights Spaniards in space and stuff. Because reasons.
For me it has to be Total Annihilation. The game was, for me, an introduction to modding and the community that arises from that type of thing. When I was younger and the game still had a thriving community I would sift through thousands of different units, add them, debug some issues that arose and essentially give the game a second life. I remember I had perfected a copy with a nice balance between Core and Arm units and I shared it with all my friends. We would spend a lot of days after school on that game and I have a lot of fond memories. I lost the copy and unfortunate so did all my friends. I bought it on Gog a few years back but it just isn't the same, maybe I'm just not the same anymore, heh.
For me, the Quest for Glory series takes the cake. In fact, I'd have to say that Sierra was one of my all-time favorite game companies. In addition to QFG, there was King's Quest, Goblins, Police Quest, Space Quest, Operation: Ice Man, etc.
Descent. The first time I saw it, it blew my mind. I became obsessed with it for ages afterwards. I'd never seen anything quite like it. For those who don't know, it was a sci-fi shooter. Mining robots throughout the solar system had gone crazy and started attacking miners. You, the Material Defender, had to fly a fighter craft through the mines, rescue the hostages, and then destroy the reactor and escape before the mine self destructed. Played from a first-person perspective, you had a full 6 degrees of freedom. Want to fly through the levels upside down? No problem. Lots of secrets and memorable enemies, it came out in 1994, but still holds up today.
That was a great game. Not very long after the Wolfenstein/Doom revolution, and similarly game-changing (pun somewhat intended).
Just amazing what those games did, with the limited HW they had available to them.
In my mind, keyboard was the only way to play it.
Anyone have a place where someone could try this game? It sounds cool!
You can buy it and the first sequel on gog.com for $10. It's also available on Steam for a little more. The demo version is probably still floating around the internet, but since it was a DOS game originally, you'll probably have to work a bit to get it running. The Steam and GOG versions should just work out of the box. Here's a gameplay video to help you decide if you want to spend the money: The source code was released a few years ago, and a version's been created that handles higher resolution and transparency effects, so it looks a little nicer. Not sure if any of the sold versions come with it, but I remember it being easy enough to set up.
Skifree was a good way to waste time. I think I even got away from the sasquatch once!
Creatures! I spent way too long with these guys. My only complaint nowadays is that everything takes so long, with time I don't really have.
It sends even if you get the error. Please do not refresh it. It posts a bajillion times.
In 1995 I was 6 years old - I liked Benny Butterfly and Benny .. Bookworm? it had bright colours and had puzzle levels with monsters, collecting things - this was my gateway drug to my N64 with Banjo-Kazooie, Zelda Ocarina/ Majoras Mask, MarioGames, which was my childhood ~ Ok, it's called word rescue The DOS command to load it - after putting in the floppy disk was: cd c:/jlm jlm @u@ and in my head: " 'c' 'd', space, 'c', collon backslash, 'J.L.M.', enter, 'J.L.M.' enter." n___n 
Creatures Sim Tower! Sim Park, Sim Farm, and Sim Ant The Ultimate Haunted House McKenzie & Co <- this is not a good game! Do not download. But it was a favorite at the time Edits: Trying to learn to format
Yoda Stories. I remember playing the demo for this game for years, it was short and fun with an interesting story and setting. Another vote for Age of Empires II, both that and Stronghold formed in me a strong love for the medieval period. Theme Hospital, many hours were lost to treating bloaty heads and squishing rats. Taipei, a mahjongg solitaire game by David Norris. You can download it from here but I cannot guarantee it's safe to run. Edit: Goodness me I nearly forgot to mention Pharaoh! That was a fantastic city builder!
I have a particular fondness for Star Wars: TIE Fighter. I have both the DOS and the Win95 versions. Note that you must have a joystick to play. Hm, I just realized it's $10 on GOG and updated for recent systems ... I could probably justify buying it a third time if I can't get it to work with enough tweaking in either WINE or a VM. I'm very sad that VMs don't support old Windows versions very well.
Wing Commander series was great. GNome was also a favorite for mech fighter with FPS elements.
The Goosebumps games like attack of the mutant.
Whoa, I didn't know they made those. What are they like?
I spent many hours on the numerous Sim games that Maxis put out around that time. Sim Earth, Sim Ant, and of course Sim City. It's a shame what eventually happened with the company. Hopefully a new developer will come along and give the genre a much needed reboot.
God, Mechwarrior II... the intro cinematic with the Timber Wolf and the Mad Dog duking it out... The customisation in Mech II: Mercenaries was also banging. Wish there was a new version of that coming out...
Not happening. The IP was sold to a company which turned into the P2W game Mechwarrior Online.
I played Mechwarrior on SNES. That game was so fun.