Games That Defined PC Gaming of the 20th Century

[BogusMeatFactory]

Yeah, but notice how many more King's Quest games there are than any other adventure series.

I don't disagree with you, I just liked Quest for Glory better.

I would never argue with that as Quest for Glory is one of my all time favorite series. Woooo!!

[HayoVR]

Age of Empires II was pretty big for me.

[Xeogred]

I just want to throw in some 2 cents here.

My parents didn't have much when I grew up and a nice computer laying around was never on the card, until maybe later grade school and up, we had the "family" computer that still couldn't really do much at all.

All that said growing up a console kid, I was exposed to Doom a lot from friends, friends of my parents, magazines, etc, it was a huge deal. Duke Nukem 3D was fairly relevant and popular too. Not to mention both Doom and Duke3D got a lot of ports all over the place, so they were just as iconic as most other big pop culture icons back then and consistently around for years. Unreal and Quake could probably be argued for, but I honestly didn't really know much about them until later and they weren't really in the same league mainstream wise.

From there I would say Star Craft and Half-Life 1 were the other big phenomenons. Even if you actively ignored PC gaming back then, I don't think you could have escaped these few games. They were the game changers.

Is that fair to say, as someone who wasn't exposed to much PC gaming back then? I guess that's up to you, but that's kind of the point I'm driving here.

[Gunstar Green]

Doom was a force of nature that can only really be compared to the likes of Super Mario Bros. in terms of success. Even though Wolfenstein-3D defined its basic mechanics, Doom made the world stand up and notice.

Most people will already give Quake a nod for what it did with its full 3D environment, but it also pioneered early Internet gaming and what would eventually evolve into eSports with Quakecon. Its mark on the the landscape of PC gaming is just as indelible.

Half-Life was also of course a massive hit that altered the course of the genre and thanks to Team Fortress Classic and especially Counter-Strike (which may deserve its own spot on the list frankly) it's one of the most iconic PC games ever. Valve has since become synonymous with PC gaming thanks to Steam and it all started here.

StarCraft is another game responsible for the infancy of eSports.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Doom was a force of nature that can only really be compared to the likes of Super Mario Bros. in terms of success. Even though Wolfenstein-3D defined its basic mechanics, Doom made the world stand up and notice.

Quake's pioneered early Internet gaming and what would eventually evolve into eSports with Quakecon. Its mark on the the landscape of PC gaming is just as indelible.

Half-Life was also of course a massive hit that altered the course of the genre and thanks to Team Fortress Classic and especially Counter-Strike (which may deserve its own spot on the list frankly) it's one of the most iconic PC games ever. Valve has since become synonymous with PC gaming thanks to Steam and it all started here.

And this is also one major reason to break things into blocks of so many years, because there are tons of games the redefined genres and how games are played out. I feel like doom, duke Nukem 3d and quake should all be there and so many more.

[marurun]

Where in the Hell is Carmen Sandiego.

[fastbilly1]

Solitaire? Minesweeper? Spider Solitaire?

Maybe "Games that defined office work in the 1990's."

Id wager to say that Microsoft Solitaire is one of the most played games of all time and is critical to PC gaming of the 20th century. It is the precursor to "casual" gaming.


Any list of PC gaming is going to be woefully inaccurate to where it is just a fan favorite list that is passed over by the other lists. When this subject was last approached we tried to do it by the decade and the list grew to an unmanageable size quickly. I honestly think if you are going to do this, you need to do it by year. Every year in the 90s had atleast a dozen important PC games released.

[racketboy]

Where in the Hell is Carmen Sandiego.

I almost mentioned Carmen Sandiego earlier. It has my vote. Curious if there's a lot of other fans.

[BogusMeatFactory]

Where in the Hell is Carmen Sandiego.

I almost mentioned Carmen Sandiego earlier. It has my vote. Curious if there's a lot of other fans.

The thing is. Oregon trail is much more of a cultural powerhouse in that department. How many Oregon trail style games are made now versus Carmen sandiego?

[racketboy]

Where in the Hell is Carmen Sandiego.

I almost mentioned Carmen Sandiego earlier. It has my vote. Curious if there's a lot of other fans.

The thing is. Oregon trail is much more of a cultural powerhouse in that department. How many Oregon trail style games are made now versus Carmen sandiego?

True but Carmen Sandiego did have a lot of sequels and a tv show (I admittedly watched it a lot)