Best pre 2000 pc game?

[BFG10K]

Quake, Quake 3, Marathon 2, Unreal, Warcraft 2.

 

[georgec84]

I really, really miss the 90s. So many awesome games in here.

Amazing how many of these games are actually available at gog.com.

 

[olds]

The game that got me started gaming:
Kingpin

 

[HeXen]

The game that got me started gaming:
Kingpin

I liked that one too, odd how everyone looked like they were either fat or on steroids.

 

[George Powell]

The Neverhood

Grim Fandango

2 of my favourites there.

 

[Borealis7]

Quake 2
Diablo
Heroes of Might and Magic 2/3
Freespace 2
Might and MAgic 6
Command & Conquer
Civilization II

 

[46andtool]

i pretty much grew up playing the original half-life along with its outstanding deathmatch (used to play bootcamp for hours, the longjump pack and tau jumping was gaming excellence), along with starcraft + broodwar.

 

[shortylickens]

Master of Orion II
Homeworld
System Shock 2
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Deus Ex (2000)
Baldur's Gate 2 (2000)

These all still stand up.

You.
I like you.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries

 

[crashtestdummy]

Instead of thinking about the games that were the best at the time, below are the games I'd most want to revisit. IMO, the games that have held up best are strategy games, which depend less on the graphics enhancements of more recent computers. Worms Armageddon, IMO, still hasn't been meaningfully improved upon despite many iterations.

Heroes of Might and Magic III
Master of Orion II
Civ/Civ2/Alpha Centauri
Worms Armageddon
SimCity 2K
The Curse of Monkey Island
Age of Empires II

One game from 2000 that I'd want to specifically vouch for is No One Lives Forever. I don't know how this game has become largely forgotten, but it was awesome and one of the few shooters I truly enjoyed all the way through.

 

[jammix]

With not a doubt - counter strike !!

 

[Blue_Max]

Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries

Yeah, I remember when Mechwarrior 2 came out so completely outshining the original it was mind-blowing!! (The 3DFX remake shortly after made heads explode!)

 

[StinkyPinky]

Looking through these lists I think 2000 was probably the best year for gaming (for my tastes). So many classic games released that year. Deus EX, Baldur's Gate 2, System Shock 2, Diablo 2, and Planescape Torment (officially released mid-Dec 1999 but close enough) are all legends of the RPG genre.

 

[Obsoleet]

I feel like a brother with all of you who experienced the 80s or 90s gaming when it happened. I'd like to have a beer with any of you and chat. Hell of a lot more interesting than sports.

That said, picking one game would be really hard. Nostalgia mixed in makes it very hard to accurately say what was the best pre-2K game.

Best pre-2K game, personal favoritism aside, attempting to be objective: Civilization 1.
My personal favorite game pre-2K: Quest for Glory.

Some of the best, innovative games from pre2K are still being churned out, ie Civ series. I played so much Civ1 and 2 that I haven't wanted to see another Civ game since the 2nd..

I started PC gaming on a Commodore. I was there until the 286/386. It took the Intel stuff a long time to catchup to the Commodore, so I was unimpressed for many years till I felt that the audio of the Commodore (SID chip) and graphics looked as good (took forever).

My list would be so varied and long as the 90's in particular was a very innovative time for games. The 80s were fun but PC gaming got more indepth in the 90's.

Honorable mentions for me include Heroes of Might and Magic 1; Buck Rogers 1/2 (D&D Goldbox based games, I loved the break from typical dungeon theme); Mechwarrior 1 (my first "FPS" before Wolfenstein 3D was released I believe); Castles 1/2; Centurian Defender of Rome; Warcraft 1 (breaththrough hit due to presentation, even though I had Dune); Pirates!; Space Quest series.

Dishonorable mentions: most adventure games. Besides ones that mixed genres, the majority did not hold the test of time IMO. I spent years of my life playing them though. Lucasarts, Westwood Studios, Sierra, Zork text based, you name it.

 

[Geosurface]

I had a lot of fun with Jedi Knight in 1997, especially online. Part of this was that it was the last game my brother really got into at all. He gave up gaming, I did not.

 

[schmuckley]

Shadow Warrior

 

[serpretetsky]

Not sure if I've seen it yet:
Starsiege: tribes (multiplayer, you'll need to find servers)

also:
knights and merchants
settlers 3 (didn't play the first two, cant say how good they are)
heroes of might and magic.

 

[BSim500]

There were so many good ones:-

7th Guest (1993)
Age of Empires 1 & 2 (1997 & 1999)
Baldur's Gate (1998)
Cannon Fodder (1993)
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998)
Command & Conquer (1995)
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (1999)
Cyber Empires (1992) (aka "Steel Empire")
Diablo (1996)
Doom 1, 2 & Final Doom (1993, 1994, 1996)
Dune (1992)
Half Life (1998)
Heretic (1994)
Hexen (1995)
Jagged Alliance 2 (1999)
Lemmings (1991)
Lemmings 2: The Tribes (1993)
Quake 1-3 (1996, 1997, 1999)
System Shock 1 & 2 (1994 & 1999)
Theme Hospital (1997)
Theme Park (1994)
Thief (1998)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (1998)
Unreal Tournament (1999)
Worms Armageddon (1999), etc.

+ Pretty much every old LucasArts, Sierra, etc, adventure game listed on ScummVM (Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit The Road, Monkey Island, Space Quest, Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword, etc).

And if you include the year 2000 : Baldur's Gate 2, Deus Ex, Diablo 2, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, No-One Lives Forever, Thief 2, etc.

And like many other people, before the PC's came Commodore 64 / ZX Spectrum, etc, (Boulder Dash, Double Dragon, Gauntlet, Ghostbusters, etc). Happy days. If I could go back in time and swap that lot for a PS4, I don't think I would. Learned so much more growing up with a computer than a console (learning BASIC to start with).

 

[Sho'Nuff]

X-Wing; Tie Fighter; Bane of the Cosmic Forge; Civilization; master of orion

 

[BertolomeoDiaz]

fallout 1+2
diablo 1+2 (fresh meat)
civilization1+2 (our words are backed by nuclear weapons)
age of empires

and my all time favourite pre 2000 game:

alpha centauri (vendetta upon you!)


and if we´re talking c64/amiga era

pirates (they´re flying spanish colours)
wings of fury (ah! ah! ah! ah! ah!...ah! ah!...ah! ah! ah!)
north and south
populous
ports of call
oil imperium
railroad tycoon
maniac mansion
zak mckracken

and my all time c64/amiga game:

elite (incoming missile, activate emp)

 

[turgenjev1]

Starcraft, which was released in 1998.
Quake was out in 1996.
Heroes of might and magic was also an awesome game.

 

[Chime]

I didn't get into PC gaming until the end of this era, but many of my favorite games were released in 2000 or before. I remember how excited I was to play games on my first dedicated graphics card, a Voodoo 3 3000. Quake 2 looked so much better running on Glide than with the software renderer!

Some of my favorites of that time period:
Deus Ex - Such an awesome game. One of the only games I've ever replayed immediately after completing for the first time.
Half-Life - Immersion on a whole new level. I was Gordon Freeman. I still remember my first encounter with the marines. I got owned.
Starcraft - The first RTS I fell in love with. Me and my friends would spend our weekends having mini LAN parties playing this and....
Unreal Tournament - RIP arena style shooters
Counter-Strike - No game has ever addicted me quite like Counter-Strike did. Even on dial up, with a ~400 ping I could not stop playing this game. Hour after hour, day after day, for the better part of a year this game consumed my free time at an alarming rate, and I loved every minute of it.

 

[Revolution 11]

Age of Empires I, The Neverhood, and Tie Fighter were my favorite pre-2000 games.

I can see that everyone's list on this topic is governed mostly by nostalgia because there are many good games from this period, but only a few players have tried most of them.

 

[Zor Prime]

Break out DOSBOX.

Master of Orion (original)
Tie Fighter and its expansions.

 

[shortylickens]

Break out DOSBOX.

Master of Orion (original)
Tie Fighter and its expansions.

Moo2 Disc version actually works great in Windows 7.