Crikey, this is a tough one. Can only comment on ones I played but the most memorable for me were Dungeon Master on my old Atari ST, Elite and, some time later DOOM.
I don't know if it'll get a lot of votes but if you had a sibling or close friend Secret of Mana was amazing. Always battling to be the sprite at the start of the game.
Some of my all time faves... Skate or Die Racing Destruction Set Bubble Bobble Railroad Tycoon Master Of Magic Master Of Orion Ascendancy Doom Stunts (Stunt Driver) Death Track UFO: Enemy Unknown Gunstar Heroes Terminator: Future Shock (done by Oblivion/Fallout 3 devs, same style engine too) Deus Ex Rainbow Six
Bubble Bobble and stunts were amazing games. There was a couple i loved from c64 days that escape me at the moment. Moria was another legend game in its day and even now it can be fun.
I keep a list of my favorite games because I'm weird (insane) like that. The only order after the 1st two is the line breaks dividing what I guess would be tiers. The only ones I still regularly play are FFT, Earthbound, and CS:Source.
I actually hated Doom. Back then I played things like Monkey Island (still do sometimes) and Leisure Suit Larry. I also remember an old game called Double Blocks which was a better version of tetris if you ask me. Games that required some mental skill were best though.
I really enjoyed Planescape Torment, still have the big box lurking around somewhere. Doom and Quake got a hiding as well.
My all time fav games are: Colecovision Pitfall, H.E.R.O., Boulderdash C64 Giana Sisters, Barbarian, IK+ Amiga Syndicate (Wars), Gobliiiiins, Panza Kickboxer, SWoS PC Discworld, Syberia, HL1DM, Trackmania
Man, oh man - the time that I've wast... erm, enjoyed playing all those games. Limiting my choice to only one is cruel I tell you, just plain cruel! C64: Elite - looking forward to Elite: Dangerous Prince of Persia Impossible Mission The Last Ninja 2 Getting lost in nostalgia here. There are probably loads more, perhaps also from the Atari 2600 & ZX Spectrum days, but I'm getting old and can't remember anymore. PC: Pirates! UFO: Enemy Unknown Duke Nuke'm 3D - yeah, I know :roll: but it was just plain ol' fun! PC series: Monkey Island - almost all of LucasArts games (Star Wars, anyone?) Wing Commander - can't wait for Star Citizen to be released, I'm a veteran backer Carmageddon (bloody fun, pun intended) - should be interesting with the upcoming Carmageddon Reincarnated Space Quest - and many many other Sierra Online games Command & Conquer - and a few other Westwood Studio games Age of Empires Baldur's Gate Sim City WarCraft Diablo DOOM ... and this is just what I could recall of the pre-MMO games, I could go on. For the PC, I somehow managed to scrape up enough extra cash, not only for a succesive series of improving SoundBlaster cards, but also a MIDI card and a Roland MT-32 external synthesizer. The effect of sampled sounds/voices and quality music wastly improved the gaming immersion, it wasn't all just up to evolving graphics and graphic cards, even though I've spent a small fortune on that (too :w). Excellent thread!
Top 5 Pioneering games of their time for me 1. DOOM 2. Wolfenstein 3. GTA 3 4. Age of Empires 3 5. Crash Bandicoot Others I liked Mario Cart, Tekken 3 and Rush (N64).
So long ago... these are the some of the ones I've thrashed back in the day: SNES: Mario Kart (Mario always won - rigged) Super Mario World F-Zero Super Street Fighter II - Turbo (This game kicked a$$) Bomber Man! (Kapow!) - One of the best multi player games of it's time. Parapa the Rapper.... (although I didn't play this much the "kick, punch it's all in the mind, if you can do it... I'm sure you'll find...." quote haunts me daily) PSX: Metal Gear Solid Red Alert II Front Mission 3 - feels very immerseful, good turn by turn strategy game. Theme Park Theme Hospital Mega Drive II: Syndicate Megalomania (fkn brilliant) PC: Sid Miers Alpha Centauri (as above, brilliant and yet noone's reproduced a game of this quality of this genre) Lemmings... because why not? The Neverhood (beautiful clay animation) Populus Android: Anything by Kairosoft.... there games have a retro feel to them and are additive.
+1 to all mentioned and kinda made me realise how old I am too. Also have to love: Tenchu - PS1 that was an awesome stealth game Maddog Williams - Amiga (I think it was called that kinda like an adventure Shadow of the beast 1/2/3 - Amiga (loved hte music) Oh man good times!