What Are The Best Classic PC Games Today?
As many of you have probably noticed, we typically focus on console gaming here at racketboy.com. This isn’t necessarily on purpose, it just happens to go along with the gaming habits of myself and a good chunk of the site’s community.
However, I know that there are many of you out there that love classic PC (or Mac) gaming just as much (if not more). So here’s your chance to speak your mind…
First of all, I want to take a little vote to gauge how much interest there is in classic PC gaming among the audience here, so please cast your vote in regards to if you play classic PC games.
[poll id=”8″]
Next, I’d like to know your opinions on which classic PC titles still hold up the best today regardless of the rapid technology growth we have seen on PCs in the last couple of decades. So please list your favorites in the comments section below and I’d love to hear the justifications for your choices as well.
Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network or Amazon Associates.
Basically anything for the PC that was made by lucasarts in the early and mid nineties.
Grim fandango, Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Tie Fighter, Dark Forces…. The list goes on and they were all amazing.
Heh, I actually love oldies.
The ones I revisit the most so far:
– UFO Enemy Unknown
– Alpha Centauri
– Manhunt
– Diablo
– Duke Nukem 3D
– Deus Ex
– Max Payne
– Unreal Tournament
– Vice City
– Planescape Torment
I just found a website that hosts a whole mess of freeware, many of which are old dos games that people are talking about on here.
http://www.abandonia.com
theres even a final fantasy game on here…
Theme Hospital and Duke Nukem are still amongst my favourite PC games.
I am going to try to List some of my favorite, less heard of PC Gaming Classics:
Origin, to me was the perfect example of a classic PC gaming powerhouse! Everything they touched can today be considered a classic PC Game!
Bioforge
Crusader (series)
Wing Comander (series)
Ultima (series)
System Shock
But there are some other Amazing Examples:
Normality
Relentless (series)
Kings Quest (series)
I keep going back to these, even though I hate most old games:
-Need for Speed: Special Edition (best NFS game on any system)
-Sam & Max Hit the Road (SCUMM perfection)
-Secret of Monkey Island / Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (SCUMM perfection)
-Total Annihilation (best RTS to date)
-Urban Chaos (excellent and very under-rated)
Interstate 76 is one of the coolest and most entertaining car combat games ever. Great voice acting, story, and a fun physics engine.
Blood Omen Legacy of Kain had an incredibly amusing anti-hero. Again, incredible voice acting and plot.
I still enjoy the original Sid Meier’s Pirates, and Age of Empires II.
Hexen 2 is an interesting old school FPS.
Oh my god I can’t believe noone has mentioned the resident evil series!! I, like yourselves, was always a console man, but all the resident evils are out on pc and can be downloaded pretty quickly on utorrent and torrentman.com. Also I recommend getting a playstation style USB controller. They’re the way forward when playin pc games, and can be bought pretty cheaply on ebay. I’ve got to say though me and my mates spent many an hour playing the monkey island series’ and loads of other old skool classics and I still enjoy playing them now just as much! also I reckon a lot of the proper classics have a helluva lot more playability then all these new fangled graphics ridden games.
My top 5:
Deus Ex
Gabriel Knight (1,2,3)
The dig
Morrowind (elder scrolls 3)
Alone In The Dark (the first by Infogrames)
I think most that I could possibly think of have already been listed but there are two I’m surprised to not see yet.
Master of Orion 2
Master of Magic
I spent a large portion of my youth playing PC games. I guess it’s impossible for me to choose only a couple. Also it’s hard to define classic since it only takes a few years to outdate any game.
Some of my favorites which I’ve played at least for 1/2 hour each in the past year (gotta love dosbox):
X-com: UFO Defense – hands down best classic.
Abuse – great control scheme, awesome atmosphere, huge explosions.
Dune II – the first RTS I think. played hundreds of hours on it.
Ragnarok – Roguelike with some great innovations and 640×480 graphics. I’ve been trying to beat it for almost 10 years!
Epic Pinball – Sweet mod music!
Fuzzy’s World of Miniature Space Golf – Fun cartoony mini-golf with antigravity and such.
Star Control II (ur-quan masters) – expansive game that’s always been fun.
One Must Fall 2097 – it was awesome to find out you can make your own characters, tournaments and whatnot. the first game I seriously modded.
Raptor – my first shmup.
Jump ‘n Bump – bunny giblets. awesome multiplayer deathmatches.
Stunts – I can still remember when I figured out how to hit top-speed and glitch it out to do even more insane stunts.
Descent – been playing it through on my cell-phone. it’s still really fun.
Pizza Worm – Almost beat my brother’s high score. the trick is to leave enough room in your coil to make it back around again.
Scorched Earth – me and my friends used to play this every day in the computer lab. Gotta love the death heads and funky bombs. the smallest tank can fly.
Action Supercross – The physics aren’t realistic, but that’s what makes it fun.
Jazz Jackrabbit – Better than sonic?!? I thought so anyway.
IBM Alley Cat – This game was designed so well! Look at the filesize!
Dark Legions – Action and strategy and awesome 320×200 Graphics.
Hi-Octane – smooth hovercar gameplay. Awesome intro.
Sim City 2000 (the original’s still pretty good too) – Launch Arcos.
Sim Ant – The sandbox mode is really fun. this is what edutainment is supposed to be.
Terminal Velocity – hi-rez areal dogfights
Sky Roads – unique
The Amazing Spiderman – this game gets very hard. a different kind of puzzle-solving than any game I’ve played since.
Commander Keen 4+ – who hasn’t played this? It came with the Gravis Gamepad!
Dominus – create your own generals to command your armies of monsters using alchemy. then you go out yourself and help kick ass.
Sam&Max hit the road – point and click goodness.
I am glad to see that many of my picks have already been mentioned, but am disturbed at what I see as a strange absence.
No love for the Heavy Gear series? (I&II)
Sure it was completely overshadowed by the Mechwarriors, but I though they had a style all their own.
Quest for Glory Anthology (1-4)
Dungeon Keeper 2
Populous: The Beginning
Settlers 1 & 2/ Serf City
Sorry–forgot Myth 1&2, definitely not to be confused with Myst.
My list off the top of my head of my favorite older games, I’m sure I missed a few.
Gothic 1-2
Dungeon Keeper 1-2
Fallout 1-2
Doom 1-2
Wolfenstein 3D
Duke Nukem 3D
Red Alert 2
Warcraft 2
Quake 1-2
Bioforge
Clive Barker’s Undying
Diablo 1-2
Half-Life 1
Hitman
Mafia
Max Payne
Dungeon Siege
Never Winter Nights
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (might not be really old but it was an instant classic)
Starcraft
Total Annihilation
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption
lol, my god, not one person here mentioned Homeworld. you people do not know your PC games.