Old PC Games: Rediscovering Classic Entertainment

Why were old PC games so good? Partly, it was because they were novel. Developers used them to introduce the emerging gaming community to new concepts and ideas never seen before, not even on the consoles.

But it wasn’t just that. The people making the games were also freer, often working on games as a labor of love. Developers had more scope to be creative and free without getting bogged down by corporate management meetings and goals. As such, many of the titles that emerged were as good as the AAA productions we’re used to today, if not better. Early games captured the imaginations of a generation of young people and set the industry up for today’s high expectations.

But what were these fabled old PC games? Which should you revisit?

Top Classic PC Games to Revisit

Here are the top classics to try:

Doom I

Wolfenstein 3D was the first real shooter on the PC, but Doom I was the perfected version. Released in 1993, the game featured advanced tactics, numerous monsters, and progressive levels that became more challenging as you went along. At the end, you confront the Cyberdemon, a terrifying building-sized monster with rocket launchers for arms.

Doom I had that early PC game eeriness about it. Something about the music and level design put you on edge. Even the sound of the doors opening and introducing you to a new area was unnerving.

When Doom II launched a year later, it used most of the assets from the original. However, it added new monsters and increased the level of difficulty, introducing players to some of the most challenging first-person shooting action ever seen on the PC.

Doom I didn’t have any bullet physics and you couldn’t aim up or down. But it set the benchmark for games that followed, like Unreal Tournament, Quake, and Half-Life. During the early 1990s, there was nothing like it. And apart from ID Software’s latest creations, there still isn’t any shooter that gives you that same feeling of being the Doomslayer.

Warcraft II

Today, almost everyone has heard of World of Warcraft, a game that was released in 2004. But if you want true retro real-time strategy from the 1990s, then few games can compare to Warcraft II. This title was built on the groundwork Blizzard Studios laid with Warcraft: Orcs Vs Humans, offering more sophisticated graphics, level design, strategy, and combat.

Warcraft II was one of the original base-building games set in a fantasy medieval-style world. It pitted you as either humans or orcs and got you to build up your forces during campaigns or full-scale skirmishes before taking on the enemy. You had to use land, sea, and air units to beat enemies on complex maps with geological features, rivers, mountains, forests, and oceans. Furthermore, players had to rely on more than just numbers to win. Many units, like Ogre-Magi, Paladins, and Death Knights that used tactically could overwhelm enemies. For example, mages could call down area-of-effect blizzard spells from the heavens, while Ogre-magi could give their fellow forces “bloodlust,” significantly boosting their attack power.

Command And Conquer: Red Alert

Command and Conquer: Red Alert was another early RTS title, this time set in the early 21st century. It pitted the allied Global Defense Initiative (GDI) forces against the Brotherhood of Nod, a global terrorist organization.

From today’s perspective, the graphics in Command and Conquer: Red Alert were nothing special (and almost appeared too pixelated in the original). However, all the gameplay and strategy elements were there.

What was nice about C & C was the ability to move your base around. You could “pack” the construction unit and sell other buildings, like power plants and construction yards, and move to a different spot for tactical advantage or to be closer to precious tiberium resources.

These days, you can play HD versions of the original C & C series of games. These re-imagine them in high-definition and improve the original music’s bit-rate while keeping the essential gameplay elements the same.

Age of Empires II

Microsoft’s Age of Empires came out in October 1997 and immediately created an impact. The title had you play as various civilizations from the ancient world, including the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Egyptians. However, the gameplay often felt sluggish, and some elements were unfinished.

Then, a year later, Age of Empires II: The Age Of Kings came out. It filled in the gaps left by the original while being set in a knight-filled medieval world that encouraged enormous battles.

Age of Empires II was great because it forced a comprehensive strategy. The best players had to use the game’s balancing elements to their advantage and couldn’t simply rely on building the best economy to win.

What’s more, each civilization had unique technologies and units. For example, the English had the longbowman and elite longbowman, a non-gunpowder-using unit with an exceptional range for ultimate defense and rear-guard action. Meanwhile, the Byzantines had cataphracts, a unique fast-moving mounted unit capable of trample damage, while the Persians had giant war elephants with huge health bars. Players could leverage these differences to capitalize on terrain features or their opponents' weaknesses.

SimCity 2000

SimCity 2000 was a simulation offering players a unique opportunity to construct a city from scratch. The idea was to be a kind of public policymaker (which sounds boring but wasn’t) creating fertile conditions for a metropolis to grow. The game got players to build power plants, water pumps, commercial districts, and police stations to keep the simulated population safe.

However, SimCity 2000 wasn’t just about building. You could also infuse it with disasters, like alien attacks, fires, and tornadoes to see if your city was resilient enough to pop back afterward.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

Monkey Island 2 was one of the most innovative PC games of its time. The title got players to explore a kind of hellish island realm with all sorts of traps and riddles to overcome. Made by LucasArts (the same company that would go on to make the Star Wars games), it saw players control pirate Guybrush Threepwood and explore his misadventures with LeChuck’s ghost, the spirit of his enemy from the original Monkey Island.

Monkey Island 2 didn’t do well commercially – few people had PCs that would run the game in 1991. However, it received critical acclaim and now sees legions of fans returning to it.

Descent

Descent arrived in 1995 for MS-DOS and later for the original PlayStation. Created by Parallax Software, it was a first-person shooter that saw you controlling a small pod-like spacecraft while making your way through various gravity-less stations, tunnels, and compounds. However, unlike most shooters at the time, it gave players six degrees of movement freedom, opening up new ways to play and hunt down enemies.

Like most early PC games, Descent was frightfully difficult. Controlling the craft required exceptional hand-eye coordination. You could move forwards, backward, left, right, up, down, rotationally on the x-axis, rotationally on the y-axis, and rotationally on the z-axis. You could also perform darting and peering movements while firing laser cannons at enemy vessels and defensive installations.

Terminal Velocity

Terminal Velocity by Terminal Reality was a similar game that also arrived in 1995 for PC. It saw players navigating off-world three-dimensional environments in an advanced spacecraft.

The combat flight game had simpler controls than other simulators at the time, turning it into more of a casual gaming experience. However, it was still difficult.

The game focused on the story of the Alliance of Space-Faring Alien Races (ASFAR) in the year 2704 and their betrayal of Earth (a former member of the organization). The game gets you to combat alien space-faring civilizations with a powerful star fighting vessel, the TV-202. During the game, you learn that the cause of the conflict is the Xenocidic Initiative supercomputer, a rogue AI that wants to destroy human civilization. The ultimate goal is to destroy the computer and return peace to the galaxy.

Civilization II

Sid Meier’s Civilization II is perhaps the greatest strategy game ever released. Launched in 1996, it introduced turn-based systems to the masses, leaving players to move units around a world map similar to chess pieces on a chessboard.

However, the grand strategy went far further than this. Players could settle in new cities, research technologies, build railroads, and construct farms. They could also improve their cities with improvements, like temples or factories, to make them more powerful. Diplomacy between civilizations was also part of the game, as was managing natural resources and protecting the environment. Players could win by conquest, cultural victory, or sending astronauts to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star.

Half-Life

Finally, Half-Life came out in the late 1990s and was one of the most exciting FPS games to emerge since Doom II. It added vertical aiming and basic bullet physics, allowing players to battle through more realistic environments than ever before. Plus, it included puzzle-solving elements, further enhancing the gameplay.

Half-Life’s appeal came from its exceptional graphics (for the time) and eerie dystopian atmosphere. It pitted players against a dystopian society with totalitarian AI control over everything.

So, which of these early PC games do you want to revisit?

DISCLAIMER: The games on this website are using PLAY (fake) money. No payouts will be awarded, there are no "winnings", as all games represented by 247 Games LLC are free to play. Play strictly for fun.