Lots of great games mentioned so far. I would mention System Shock, Syndicate Plus, Syndicate Wars, Mean Streets, Under a Killing Moon, and Transport Tycoon (NOT the Deluxe edition).

Oh yeah, and Fallout! How can that not have been mentioned yet.

Fallout and Syndicate aren't really for children though

I played Syndicate when I was 13...

That explains much...

Hater Depot wrote:

I played Syndicate when I was 13...

When I was in your age I played this game. Lousy CGA graphic but still....

I would've been ready for Doom (and therefore most FPSs) at 6 if I had had the chance to play it and get used to the environment for a while, but that's me; I already had a college reading level, for example (thanks, Mom!).

Didn't play Doom until I was 13 when it came out in '93.

One of the first PC games I remember playing at a young age was Zork and I believe I was 7-8. I was being babysat at another house on-base and I remember playing the game and looking at the maps that someone had drawn on graph paper. I realized right away that this game was great.

The Lost Treasures of Infocom came out in the 90's so I guess this post counts. 😀

Stunts (aka 4D Sports Driving). You can get it for free at Kalpen.de. Take version 1.1
Grand Prix 2
Civilization
Colonization
Any LucasArts or Sierra adventure game
Theme Park
Theme Hospital
Aces over Europe
Aces over (the?) Pacific
Time Commando
Settlers II
Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri

Hmmm...

Alternate Reality: The City

Lucas Arts
Rescue on Fractalus
X-Wing

I-72 Awesome car wars type game

Fallout: Tactics

Microprose
Subwar: 2050 A very under-rated sub simulator that is more like a flight sim... Damn good graphics for 1994 era games
F19 Stealth Fighter

I know a mom-n-pop shop that sells the original games still in their boxes. They have quite a few titles still laying around for PC and Amigas even. No website but the have a FAX if anyone's interested

Ok, some of these may have already been mentioned, but a little repetition won't hurt (IMHO.) Also, the range is a bit extended, I'm going from mid-to-late 80's through mid-to-late 90's here. Finally, some of these games may not be as good on the PC as I remember, as I originally played them on the C64 or Amiga computers (Ultima III comes to mind, the story and game play were the same, but the graphics & sound suffered greatly on the PC.) I'll try my absolute best not to list anything that did not appear on the PC.

The list, in no particular order (just as they come to mind.)

Bard's Tale 1-3 (Tales of the Unknown, Destiny Knight, & Thief of fate - Not the newer one that really has no connection to the older series except the name.)

Ultima 1-8. If you really want the full impact, buy the Ultima Collection from eBay or somewhere and play from the first one all the way through 8. I'm not really a huge fan of some of the changes in VI and beyond, but the story is cool (Until IX at least.) Go ahead and play IX if you want, but it lost its open-ended status, and even the creators were not happy with the final story line.

Diablo. I'm usually not a fan of this type of game, but I really liked this one when it came out.

Noctropolis. This one really impressed me when it came out. I play it occasionally even now.

Alone in the Dark. I only ever played 1 & 2, but I liked them. Been sort-of looking for 3, but haven't put a lot of effort into it yet. Other games have priority right now.

Archon 1 & 2. Was great on the C64 and Amiga. What I could find for the PC either didn't work or looked lousy. A bit of searching can get you A XP driver that supposedly lets you read Amiga 3.5" disks with your PC drive (then you can play it in an emulator.) However, with my Amiga computer sitting right here, I never bothered to even try them.

Auto Duel. One of my all time favourites. Never saw it for the PC, though I know there is a version out there.

Battle Isle. I first played this on the Amiga as well. Though I have recently purchased almost the entire collection on CD from eBay. Only missing "Incubation - Hidden Worlds" (that's actually a spin-off, but I want it anyways.)

Battletech 1 & 2 (The Crescent Hawk's Inception & The Crescent Hawk's Revenge.) Never actually played the second one, but I loved the first one. Still looking for it.

Battlezone (the Windows 3D version, not the arcade version.) Had lots of fun with this one. Still have it installed on my compatibility (DOS 6.22, Win98, ISA AWE/32,) system.

Dragon Wars. Still have yet to have ever finished that one. I will some day. Too many other games I'm in the middle of right now.

Dune 2. Never played any of the others. If I ever decide to buy it, Dune 2000 might be ok. Haven't even seen screen caps of that one yet.

Dungeon Keeper 1. Again, never got 2. But I liked the reversed approach of 1 😀

Elder Scrolls 1-4 (Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion.) Ok, 3 & 4 are fairly modern, but I'm listing the entire series.

Ultima Underworld 1 & 2. Might have listed it under the Ultima's but the play style is totally different.

Elvira - Mistress of the Dark. Here is one that I "know" is just as good on the PC.

Companions of Xanth. Read the books too, they are hilarious. The first 3 are the best (books,) IMHO, but the series starts getting a little too out there starting around book 6 or so.

Eye of the Beholder 1-3. Haven't gotten that far in 3, though. From what I saw, the previous statements about it not living up to the first 2 could easily be true.

Fantasy General. One of the best turn based strategy games I've played. I liked it because of the play by e-mail capabilities. Make your move, save it to a "turn" file. E-mail it to your opponent (or put on disk and hand to your opponent,) then wait for the return, etc...

Gods. Ok, a platformer, but I still liked it.

Legacy: Realm of Terror. Nice Lovecraftian game 😀

Lost in Time. Puzzle solving. Last time I tried it, though, it had problems in DOSBox. May have been a fix since then, haven't tried it in a while.

Moebius and it's sequel Windwalker. RPG with a strong oriental flavor. Semi-real time combat.

Neuromancer. Sorry, finger's getting sore, going to cut back on teh comments, unless it's really major.

Pirates! Get Gold version for the PC, the others were inferior to the Amiga and C64 versions.

Betrayal at Krondor
Spellcasting 101, 201, & 301
Star Trek, Star Fleet Academy
Star Trek, Starfleet Command 1 (haven't tried 2.)
Star Wars: X-Wing & Tie-Fighter (not the X -v- Tie version.)
Starflight 1 & 2
Thief 1 & 2. Avoid Deadly Shadows (Thief 3,) was a major let down IMHO
Wing Commander Privateer 1 (didn't care as much for 2.)
Phantasmagoria 1 & 2
Stonekeep

A whole slew of text adventures, including but not limited too:
Zork 1-3
Enchanter
Sorcerer
Spellbreaker
9 Princes in Amber (had pictures & mini-games)
Deadline
Leather Goddesses of Phobos
Seastalker
Dragonworld
Planetfall
Starcross
Scot Adams - Pirate Adventure (the absolutely first text adventure I ever played.) I had it for the TI-99/4a, but I know it came out for the PC as well. Also, IIRC, he has them available for download on his web site. don't remember the URL though 🙁

Just about all of the SSI gold box AD&D games. Though, if you play them all the interface can get a little worn after a while (they used the same engine through almost all of them.)

That's all I can remember off hand. Some of them fall prior to your given date (1990.) However, if you like games that make you think, or depend on story to keep you interested, they are worth checking out. 😀

FeedingDragon wrote:

Archon 1 & 2.

Very nice game. I also played Dark Legions, which is quite similar to Archon series but plays better IMO. 😀

FeedingDragon wrote:

Battletech 1 & 2 (The Crescent Hawk's Inception & The Crescent Hawk's Revenge.) Never actually played the second one, but I loved the first one. Still looking for it.

Found a DOS version on ebay.

FeedingDragon wrote:

Dragon Wars. Still have yet to have ever finished that one.

Same here, I'm still looking for the Freedom Sword.

Please don't flame me, but I have looked at every PC game mentioned in this thread and as I own them all still, I can personally recommend every one of them!

For us older (over 50!) gamers, that were actually in a position to live through the late 80's/90's as an adult, buying and playing these games as new releases, reading these threads are excellent even if it not anything that you need! 😀

So go for the 90's games because there will never be a PC games market in the future that is even 10% as interesting as the years 1989-1999!!!! I take the year in the middle - 1994, and share with you what I enjoyed in just one year of PC gaming:

Doom
TIE Fighter
System Shock
1942: The Pacific Air War
Star Trail: Realms of Arkania
X-COM: UFO Defense
Panzer General
NASCAR Racing
Lords of the Realm
Goblins Quest 3
The Way Things Work
X-Wing Collector's CD-ROM
Under a Killing Moon
Creature Shock
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Beneath a Steel Sky
FIFA International Soccer
Aces Of The Deep
Colonization
Descent
Alone In The Dark 2
Desert Strike - Return to The Gulf
Jagged Alliance
Jazz Jackrabbit
Legend of Kyrandia, The - Malcolms Revenge

So enjoy. Because even if not one single decent PC game comes out ever again, you have a lifetime of gaming from the 90's to enjoy!

A lot of games I'd recommend were already mentioned.

BTW. Al Lowe also offers the older games he created for free download:

LINK REMOVED

Those games aren't freeware.

Then there's Ringworld: Revenge of the Patiatrichs and Return to Ringworld; both games were created in the mid-90's.

Yeah I'm sure everything has been mentioned already. Let me add a couple that are off the usual "classic" path:

-Iron Helix (a slowed-down PacMan concept take to a sci-fi space ship with tons of atmosphere to it)
-Terminator Future Shock (if it had come out a year earlier.....)
-The Terminator (1990 game that's basically a city sandbox action game with a timer and two sides to play)
-Lightspeed (space shooter / strategy / adventure)
-Betrayal at Krondor / Return to Krondor
-Star Wars Rebellion (hate it or love it. If you are into Star Wars expanded universe, it's quite dreamy)

Don't forget some of the console games too. The one that always sticks out in my head is Super Mario 64. For some reason the concept of a Mario game that is so exploration-oriented really did it for me. State of the art gfx helped too of course.