EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/J19hU.png)
Forward:
Some weeks ago while posting in a thread about a recent popular game (that shall remain nameless), I found myself getting very frustrated with the lack of perspective that many have on the current state of the PC gaming industry and certain older games. I’m not going to be so elitist to say that games used to be better, that’s entirely subjective. But there is a real lack of understanding concerning some issues. Over the past 15 years there has been a dramatic shift in this industry and the status of the game developers. To understand that change, you need context. And it was in this thought that I came to a terrifying realization: for anyone who was born after 1995 or only got into PC gaming within the last 6 years, they likely have little or no knowledge of a vast array of truly incredible games that shaped this industry and set standards for game design that remain today. Nor do they have a sense of what PC gaming was before WoW and before cross platform development became the standard.
And with that, I realized it was up to me to educate you all with an epic multi part blog series. I’ve dug my 70 something back issues of PC gamer out of the closet, reached back into my memory, and even gone back and replayed some of these games. I want everyone to understand where this industry came from, the truly unrivaled games that it produced, and I’d like to try to explain a little something about how the industry has changed. This is not a chronological history, nor will it be about developers or technology. Rather, the first parts of this blog series will focus only on the games. They are after all the only thing that really matters.
But I don’t just want to tell you about the games. I want you to play these games. As such, I’ve included links to steam game pages where applicable as well as legal downloads for some games and listed some as Abandonware where applicable. If just one person goes back and plays one of these classic games because of this blog, all the work will be worthwhile. There are so many amazing games out there that have been completely forgotten, and they deserve to see the light of day again. Many of the screenshots featured here are from my own play-throughs, and while I haven’t played every game featured here, you better believe that every single one is on my personal list of games I need to get to. This series will be highly opinionated and editorialized in some parts, thus is why it’s a blog but consider yourself warned.
Now, with that out of the way sit back, get a mug of something tasty, and let’s take a ride into the past….
Table of Contents
+ Show Spoiler [Part 1 Contents] +
Introduction
Wait, There’s Four X’s Now?
Sid Meier’s Civilization
Civilization II
Master of Orion
The id Revolution
Wolfenstein 3D
Doom & Doom II
Quake
The Duke
Duke Nukem 3D
FPSs Get Real
Star Wars: Dark Forces
MechWarrior II
Myst
The Modern RPG
The Ultima Series
The Elder Scrolls Series
The Early Days: 1991-1996 Part 2
Seeing Sims
Sim City 2000
Sim Tower
Caesar II
The Real Time Strategy Game is Born
Dune II
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
Warcraft II
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
The Age of the Space Combat Sim
Wing Commander Series
Star Wars: Tie Fighter
Turn Based Strategy Gets Awesome
X-Com
Heroes of Might and Magic
Honorable Mention
Dawn of a Golden Age: 1997-1999 Part 1
Coming Eventually!!!!
Coming Eventually!!!!
Seeing Sims
The Rise of Building Game
The Rise of Building Game
Sim City 2000
Release: 1993 Developer: Maxis Publisher: Maxis Where to get it: Abandonware
In 1989, a small gaming company by the name of Maxis published a game called Sim City. It was the brain child of Will Wright, who saw gaming in a radically different way than others in the industry at the time. Sim City was an open ended game that invited players to take on a god-like role and craft their dream city from the ground up. The game was a smash hit, even prompting Nintendo to adapt the game for release on the Super Nintendo. The SNES version featured a Bowser attack as one of the disasters, a giant Mario statue, and a quirky green hair advisor named Dr. Write (based on Will Wright). I fell in love with the game, playing for hours on end, crafting my perfect metropolis.
And so it was that my love affair with this series began. After releasing a few other fun games including Sim Earth and Sim Ant, which were otherwise commercial failures, Maxis returned to the Sim City series with Sim City 2000 in 1993. The Special Edition, released in 1995, was probably the very first PC game I ever bought myself, and to this day there is still a special place in my heart for this game. It’s crazy fun and addicting, as PC Gamer wrote in 2001, “Sim City 2000 cut productivity in offices worldwide”.
Sim City 2000 expanded on virtually all the concepts of its predecessor; where Sim City was a pick and place sandbox game, Sim City 2000 was a fully involved realistic simulation. You had options to zone land of different density, had to construct water utilities and city buildings, and transportation options consisted of complex mass transit systems and highways. Your administrative options as Mayor now included the ability to pick from dozens of city ordinances, tweak tax and funding rates, and float bonds. You had to weigh the concerns of industry with those of the environment; social programs against tax rates. Of course this meant that the game was far more difficult than the previous game, but the level of depth in the game was extremely rewarding.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/yHUuz.png)
So one day I got really bored… :D
SC 2k is still the only game in the series to offer a choice of when to found your city, choosing between 1900, 1950, and 2000. Starting earlier meant you had access to less technology: less building types and only the most polluting types of power plants. As time went on you’d get access to more and more types of technology eventually being able to build Archologies, massive futuristic self-contained cities. Build enough Launch Archologies and your Sims would blast into space to colonize other planets. (This was actually a tie in to Sim Earth) Interestingly SC 2k was also the only game in the series to build futuristic cities; the rest of the Sim City games simply just exist in perpetuity. It’s something else that makes this game special.
Sim City 2000 was also the first game where Maxis showcased their unique brand of quirky humor that would become an important cornerstone of virtually all their future games. It would also be the start of a long time obsession with llamas that somehow made it into every subsequent game. City news was delivered to the player in Sim City 2000 by means of regularly generate newspapers, informing you of opinion polls or important news such as an aging power plant about to fail. But they also contained dozens of random and hilarious news stories, often related to llamas. If your city was befallen by a big disaster such as a firestorm or nuclear meltdown, a super hero named Maxis Man might sometimes showed, putting out fires and sometimes impossibly cleaning up radioactive fallout. Build a big enough city and you’d be rewarded by being allowed to build the Braun Llama Dome, which to this day I still have no idea what exactly it is. (Though Braun is a reference to Maxis co-founder, Jeff Braun) Maxis’s humor elevated what would have otherwise been a dry simulation game into an exceptionally fun experience; it’s a formula that would lead Maxis to a number of huge successes.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/G3fGN.png)
A city newspaper with a typical hilarious story
The 1995 Special Edition also included an ad-don called the Urban Renewal Kit. It was mostly a mix of sandbox tools that allowed you to build a custom city, but it had one exceptionally cool featured called “Paint the Town”. Since all the buildings in SC 2k were static textures rather than 3D models as in later games, Paint the Town offered the ability to completely remake the tileset in SC 2k without the need for custom mods. Anyone could go in and add their name or a funny picture to the side of buildings or, if you’re actually artistically inclined, completely alter the architecture of your city. It was the cherry on top an already delicious game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/x67vT.png)
Time for some Urban Renewal BITCHES!!!
That’s not to say Sim City 2000 didn’t have some drawbacks, but they were mostly related to the limitations of technology at the time. The game’s midi music gets repetitive quickly, and in-game animations are limited to dark blobs moving through the streets and static images of boats, trains, and aircraft tessellating around the map. The city size limits can at times get a bit frustrating too. But the sheer depth of this game combined with the fun and quirky atmosphere more than made up for the technical shortcomings.
The legacy of Sim City 2000 is fairly obvious, it was a smash hit that rocketed Maxis to the top of the PC gaming industry. The success of SC 2k, would lead to a deluge of “Sim” games, some developed and others just produced by Maxis. They included Sim Golf, Sim Town, Sim Tunes, Sim Park, Sim Copter, Sim Safari, Streets of Sim City, Sim Health, and Sim Tower. While many of these were tons of fun, virtually all of them were commercial failures. They simply didn’t have the depth or mass appeal that Sim City did, a fact that would encourage Maxis to return to the Sim City series twice more.
Overall this game is fantastic, and while it’s perhaps been forgotten at the bottom of the Maxis game library, it clearly inspired many of the later games we’ve come to love.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/pmpvU.png)
A statue of my benevolent self amidst my grand downtown
Sim Tower
Release: 1994 Developer: OpenBooK Publisher: Maxis Where to get it: Abandonware
Given some of the titles on this list I’m not sure this game deserves to be featured here, but I flippin’ love this game. Sim Tower was released in 1994 at the height of the “Sim” game era, and out of all those games it’s probably the best of the non-Sim City games. It was produced by Maxis, but was the work of a brilliant designer by the name of Yoot Saito.
The premise of the game is relatively simple: build a tower by placing offices, condos, hotel rooms, and amenities on successive floors. As your tower grew in size and population, you received additional “stars” on your rating (i.e. 3 star, 4 star) which conferred the ability to produce even more amenities which would in turn be required to attain the next level. Ultimately the goal was to attain the 6th level known as a “Tower” rating, though the format remained entirely open ended just as with the Sim City games.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/DvMKO.png)
Sim Tower Box Art
It sounds simple, but there is a considerable amount of complexity lurking under the surface. As your tower grows, you had to find ways to manage ever increasing numbers of people trying to get where they wanted to go. Hundreds of people have to be transported across dozens of floors using a limited number of elevators, noise from offices bothered condo owners and hotel renters, underground parking ramps needed enough space while not crowding out retail malls and restaurants. Essentially, design is everything. Events such as fires and terrorist bomb threats add to the fun. You can even name your tower’s denizens and follow them throughout the day as they frequent your shops and restaurant.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ApwOL.gif)
Unfortunately, I can’t get this stupid game to work properly and haven’t the time to re-setup an emulator,
so I can’t show you my kick ass tower. This lame tower will have to do :/
There’s no financials to manage, no administrative policies to tweak, and construction is a simple select and place affair. It may not have the depth or realistic simulation of Sim City 2000, but what this game did have was fun. Oodles of it. I’ve sat for hours building up my tower, designing my elevator system perfectly, constructing a sweet underground mall complete with movie theater and subway station, and marveling at what I had built. And like Sim City 2000, there was something about the atmosphere of this game that simply personified the 90s. This game is simple yet addictive, and that’s why it’s on this list.
Yoot Saito went on to make his own follow up game to Sim Tower called Yoot Tower in 1998. It was widely criticized for the extreme similarities in graphics and game play to Sim Tower. Though Yoot Tower did offer a lot of new construction options like apartments and sky bridges and included new content such as a number of scenarios; it was still essentially the same game. And by 1998, the consumer PC market and the gaming industry were radically different. Gamers were expecting more for their money, Maxis would make a radical shift in the direction of their game development. And with that the era of the “Sim” games, or “software toys” as Maxis called them, was over. But during the heyday, they made some real gems that we can still play today.
Caesar II
Release: 1995 Developer: Impressions Publisher:Sierra Where to get it: Abandonware
City building games in the early 90s weren’t confined to just Sim City games. This game is here not only because it’s amazing but also because its developer, Impressions, had an impact on early PC gaming worthy of their namesake. Impressions excelled at making games which blended genres, and they were responsible for some amazing historical strategy and city building games in their time. The Caesar series would become one of the most respected and lauded of those. The original Caesar was released in 1992, and was essentially little more than Sim City in Roman times with some additional military aspects. But in 1995 Impressions released the sequel, which revamped the concept into a dynamic and exciting blend of genres.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/mIy7l.png)
My awesome contribution to the glorious empire!
Caesar II truly put the player in the role of Governor of Roman Province. You have to not only build up your capitol city, but also build provincial roads, industry and manage defense of the province by raising and commanding an army all while still managing to pay your tribute to Rome and responding the Emperor’s regular requests. Military battles are done in real time, with a battle interface that’s pretty sophisticated considering the game is still primarily about city building. The goal of the single player campaign was to “civilize” each province by reaching certain set goals such as peace, prosperity, and level of infrastructure. After reaching your goals in a province, neighboring provinces are unlocked. Because there were more provinces than required, it meant that subsequent play-throughs could be completely different. You might go north to take on the dangerous provinces of Gaul with an iron fist, or move south to peaceful provinces to focus on building cities and economies.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Xnhws.png)
The main campaign screen. Caesar II also offered a
City Only sandbox mode for those who just wanted to build
There’s no shortage of strategy here. As Governor, you’re responsible for everything from the city workforce to the military expenditures. Industry starts on the province screen, where you have to build ports and roads to trade with neighboring provinces as well as construct mines and farms to collect raw materials from your own. These materials can be used in factories within you city to make finished goods for trade or export. Forts Garrison troops and military funding levels set the size of your forces. City mechanics are a bit strange, amenities such as theatres send out workers through nearby streets; whether or not residences have access to services depends on whether workers pass their homes. It gets a bit annoying at times when homes right next to the amenities swear they don’t have access; but overall the system isn’t terrible. (Subsequent Impressions games were far worse, making you want to pull out your hair as you watched workers wandering in circles over and over) Defensive buildings such as walls and towers can be built to ensure you city isn’t razed should your provincial armies fail, and temples keep the gods happy. The gameplay can also get a bit repetitive, as you build the same city over and over in each subsequent province. But events such as invasions and battles help give it some variation.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WaY60.png)
Showing the City and Province screens.
Overall, this game was brilliant; it blended RTS elements with the dynamic challenges of a city building game and tied it together with a vivid art style and great music. Impressions managed to make the Roman Empire come alive, you feel like you’re really back in 10 AD when playing this game. It’s all around a brilliant and fun game that blends the best elements of several genres
Unfortunately, Caesar II has been all but forgotten despite the fact that’s probably the second best game Impressions ever made (you’ll have to wait until the next blog to hear about the best) and did such an amazing job blending genres. Most people remember the the third game in the series as being the pinnacle. While Caesar III was extremely fun, the focus was switched entirely to city building; the depth provided by managing both a province and a city was gone and the military aspects were severely dumbed down. Caesar III had a more complex city services system with the inclusion of food and consumer items, but the worker system made this tedious. There was nothing more annoying than having your citizens starve and watching their mansions revert to shacks because the market worker AI couldn’t find the granary or got stuck wandering in circles. What’s worse is Impressions got stuck in a loop, remaking Caesar III over and over with different themes. It’s what caused the rather tepid reception of their games Pharaoh and Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, which inevitably contributed to the dissolution of the developer.
Despite being forgotten in the shadow of its lesser sequels, this game is tons of fun with a lot of re-playability and unique game play; and that’s why it’s on this list.
The Real Time Strategy Genre
How Westwood Invented the RTS Genre, and Blizzard Perfected it
How Westwood Invented the RTS Genre, and Blizzard Perfected it
Dune II
Release: 1993 Developer: Westwood Publisher: Virgin Where to get it: Abandonware
The story of Dune II is the story of how a then unknown developer named Westwood single handedly invented the modern RTS game. Seriously. It was hardly the first game that could be called a real time strategy, but it was the first game to feature the basic format that has been used by EVERY SINGLE RTS game that has been made since. With Dune II, Westwood codified the genre and defined what it meant to be called an RTS. The game would also launch Westwood into the role of the premier RTS developer for a decade. Guys, this game is really important.
The premise of Dune II revolves around Arrakis, the namesake planet from the wildly popular Dune series. The story goes that the Emperor has offered sole governorship of the planet for whichever House delivers him the most spice, thus kicking off a war for control of Arrakis between the Houses. You take on the role of a military commander for one of the three Houses from the Dune Series, Atreides, Harkonnen, or Ordos and set off to conquer the planet.
The game play is strikingly similar to Westwood’s later blockbuster game, Command and Conquer. Units and structures are all build from a single side bar menu rather than structures themselves; which interestingly is the basic setup that would be used for every one of Westwood’s RTS games from the 90s. Each of the three Houses also has their own unique set of weapons and units, and each plays slightly differently. You use harvesters to collect Spice from the dessert which is then turned into credits at a refinery that can then be spent on units and buildings. Dune II also featured fog of war, a minimap, top-down "god like" view of the action, basic unit production, building construction dependencies, hot-keys, and click-and-command style mouse controls. It may sound like a standard RTS, but it was the FIRST game to put all these elements together, and did so brilliantly. The fun and amazing RTS formula that we love today, started right here.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Tp1eb.png?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/LySfy.png?1)
Left: Harvesting spice. Right: Building a base
Dune II combined this brilliant new format with good music, cool cut scenes, an interesting campaign, and great graphics for 1992. Different game ending cut scenes for each house, coupled with a free form style campaign that let the player choose which regions to conquer next from a campaign map, gives this game quite a bit of replay-ability as well.
The backstory to the development of Dune II is also the story of how Westwood rose to become an industry powerhouse, seemingly overnight. Westwood was founded in 1985 and released their first game, Mars Saga, in 1988. Though it was technically a role playing game, it featured a real time combat system with a bird's eye view in which players queued commands which were then carried out by their character. With "BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge" in 1990, Westwood took the real time combat concept even further, putting players in a top down perspective issuing orders to their units in real time. Many people regard this game as a prototype for what would become Dune II, though it was still missing many key features.
The basic concept for Dune II actually came from executives and Virgin Interactive, who had acquired the Dune license. After reading the original Dune book, Virgin Vice President Stephen Clarke-Willson decided a real time strategy approach would be the best way to build a game around the series. At the same time, coincidentally a real time strategy game for the Sega Genesis game called Herzog Zwei was popular in the Virgin Interactive office. Willson apparently saw the potential of it, and convinced Westwood to start development of a resource based Dune game like Herzog Zwei. Go figure.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/QnkiI.png?1)
Dune II cutscene.
Willson would later claim in 1998 that Herzog Zwei was the first real RTS game, this is of course complete nonsense given that there were a number of RTS style games, including the previously mentioned Westwood game, that greatly predate it. Herzog Zwei managed to do some interesting things, but it was Westwood who put together all the key elements into a perfect package that would create the first modern RTS game. Given the scope of earlier Westwood games, I find it unlikely that Willson’s suggestion had much to do with shaping the course of Dune II, and had everything to do with Westwood's amazing vision and sense of what a game should be. But in reality, a lot of factors went into this game, including some entirely outside the control of the gaming industry such as the rapid advances in home computing power. Whatever the real story, one thing is for certain: Westwood made one hell of a great game.
Strangely enough, Dune II wasn't actually a sequel to anything. Virgin Interactive had originally approached developer Cyro to make a game based on Dune. When Virgin got a look at the early versions of the game, they didn't like what they saw and decided to cancel the project. Except no one told Cyro. So while Westwood was developing their Dune game, Cyro was quite separately developing their own adventure game based on the Dune series. When the mess was finally discovered, Virgin had no choice but to publish both games. Westwood's game was renamed Dune II and the rest is gaming history.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/RefMk.png?1)
Combat in Dune III
As far as the legacy of Dune II, I can't really say enough. The influence of this game was profound: it created the modern RTS genre on the PC. 20 years later Starcraft 2 still follows the basic format that Dune II created. Without this game, Warcraft may never have happened and as such neither would Starcraft. The success of Dune II catapulted Westwood to the top, allowing them to go on to make the C&C series, one of the most lauded and beloved series in the history of PC gaming. There's just not enough you can say about this game, but if you still don't understand why it's on this list you're probably quite hopeless.
Dune II was followed up by Westwood in 1998 with Dune 2000, a game that has largely been forgotten amidst the many RTS games of the late 90s. It was widely criticized at the time for its poor production values by 1998 standards and its uninspired design, being mostly a redux of C&C with Dune style units. Shortly after the games publication, Westwood would be bought out by EA, which would bring a quiet end to one of the greatest RTS developers of all time.
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
Release: 1994 Developer: Blizzard Publisher: Blizzard Where to get it: Abandonware
If Dune II invented the modern RTS format, Warcraft perfected it. In the early 90s, Blizzard (then a company called Quicksilver) was impressed by Dune II and saw the potential in the RTS genre. The original Warcraft was a brilliant game and became a resounding success that, for the first time, made Blizzard financially successful and would launch them on their way to becoming one of the most successful developers in PC gaming history.
The story of Warcraft focuses on the happy kingdom of Azeroth and a mad, strange Wizard named medivh. Medivh, for reasons that wouldn’t be revealed until the second game, fractured reality which allowed a clan of Warlocks from a strange world to open a dark portal to Azeroth. The Warlocks were of the orcs, a terrible blood thirsty race of green monsters who sought only to conquer and pillage the Kingdom of Azeroth. The game of course features a campaign for each race, as would become standard in Blizzard RTS games. The setting was great, and created a wonderful medieval fantasy atmosphere that really does add to the game.
The gameplay is a bit different from today’s RTS games, but would be easily recognizable to any modern fan of the genre. Key differences from other Blizzard RTSs include the requirement that all buildings be connected to all other buildings by roads, in sort of a C&C style, and only four units could be selected at a time. But most of the other modern elements are there, including supply (food) upgrades, and basic mouse controls. The game design was “chess style” in that the units and buildings for both sides were perfect mirrors, except for the spell casters who each had their own set of spells. Warcraft would also establish the ‘two resources’ format that would be used by all except one Blizzard RTS.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VZDVY.png)
Basic gameplay
The game’s graphics were good for the time and so were the sound effects, though the music was unfortunately still midi based. Warcraft also did offer multiplayer via modem or local area network, and even included a random map generator. Though the multiplayer would never take off to the level of the games sequel, released a year later, it still represented an important stepping stone for the RTS genre.
And truly, that’s the biggest story with Warcraft. As only the second big RTS ever made, it managed to finalize the basic RTS format that would be used by virtually every future game. Warcraft helped popularize the genre, and would also kick off something of an RTS war between Westwood and Blizzard which would result in a deluge of RTS games in the 90s, among them some of the best games ever made. Not enough can be said about Warcraft and how it shaped the PC gaming industry.
Warcraft II
Release: 1995 Developer: Blizzard Publisher: Blizzard Where to get it: Abandonware??
I’m actually not going to say much about Warcraft 2. Though, I’m not sure how much there is to say; Warcraft 2 was very much a continuation of the first Warcraft game, albeit with improved graphics and gameplay. Similarities aside, Warcraft 2 is a good game that launched an RTS revolution and set Blizzard well on their way to being one of the top PC games companies in the world.
There were a number of significant changes to the gameplay between Warcraft and Warcraft 2. WC2 still stands as the only Blizzard RTS to feature multiplayer naval units as well as a third resource; oil, in addition to lumber and gold, which was used to build the naval units. Warcraft 2 also introduced air units and upped control groups from four units to nine. WC2 kept the same “chess style” mirrored unit sets, with spell casters again being the only difference between the sides. Clerics and Necrolytes were now replaced with a spell caster upgrade for Knights/Ogres and roads are no longer necessary to construct buildings. The inclusion of the self-destructing dwarven and goblin demo squads did make for some extra fun however.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gwx6Z.png)
Gameplay screenshot
I feel the need to say, the inclusion oil as a resource was a strange choice by Blizzard. Warcraft: Orcs and Humans had a solidly medieval and D&D style setting, drilling for oil on off shore platforms somehow didn’t seem to really fit into that. Even stranger, over half the naval units had sails which raised a question; what were they using the oil for? Still though, Warcraft II was a very well designed game, and ended up being loads of fun. The inclusion of air units was a welcome change, adding a lot of strategy. Naval units proved to be not so useful, which is probably why they were removed in Warcraft III.
The graphics and unit models received a big overhaul in Warcraft 2, it’s hard to imagine that this game came out just one year after the first game. WC2 also featured three different tilesets, all with nice higher-res textures. Audio was much improved as well, with great music replacing the stingy midi of the first game and some awesome unit attack sounds. Overall, Warcraft 2 was just much more polished and technically advanced than its predecessor, pretty amazing given the short development cycle.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/z2y7W.png)
Graphical Updates: Warcraft footman (left) and Warcraft II footman (right)
Warcraft 2 also made a huge jump on the multiplayer front, allowing games of up to 8 players via null modem cable, IPX, and internet modem connection. Battlenet functionality wasn’t offered until 1999, after the release of Starcraft, as a separate ‘battlenet edition’. But even without bnet the Warcraft 2 multiplayer community flourished, Warcraft 2 was one of the very earliest RTS games in which I played multiplayer, my brother used to kill me by gryphon rider rushing every time. (I’ve gotten my pay back by resoundingly beating him in every PC game we’ve played since however) The inclusion or a powerful and easy to use level editor also spurred an entire community of map makers to pop up, turning out new content for the growing multiplayer scene. The explosive Starcraft: Brood War and Starcraft 2 multiplayer scene can draw their legacy right back to this game, this is what started it all.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gfG1N.png)
Warcraft II map editor: Am I doing this right?
The one other thing that bears mentioning is how much Warcraft 2 expanded on the lore from Warcraft. Suddenly the world of orcs and humans was populated with gnomes, trolls, elves, goblins, and dwarves. The war expanded far beyond the borders of Azerzoth, and introduced a number of Kingdoms and orcish Clans as well as new heroes. The back story behind Medivh was also expanded and explained, the Burning Legion was finally explained, and the Necromancer Gul’Dan finally emerged as the one behind the orc’s invasion of Azeroth. All of this was expansion masterfully done by Chris Metzen with very little retconning, who was the main driving force behind the design and storyline of WC2. Interestingly though, much of the lore and storylines that would become the basis for Warcraft 3 and WoW, including the storyline behind Grom Hellscream and the Warsong clan and the introduction of Deathwing, was actually taken from the WC2 expansion Beyond the Dark Portal, which was NOT developed by Blizzard. Rather, Beyond the Dark Portal was developed by Cyberlore Studios, whose other claims to fame include an expansion pack for Mech Warrior 4 and most bizarrely a simulation game based on the life of Hugh Hefner. Yup.
You’d have to be blind not to realize the legacy of Warcraft II. It would lead directly into Blizzard developing the acclaimed Starcraft series, as well as the multimillion dollar WoW series. In many ways it laid the foundations for competitive RTS gameplay and set the bar even higher for the RTS genre. But perhaps most importantly, it was fun. The series has been gratuitously retconned and the lore twisted into an absurdly confusing mess, but it’s nice to remember that at the heart of the monolith that is WoW there is a wonderful and inventive RTS. Now if only we could get Blizzard to remember that too…
Random Note: On the disc for Beyond the Dark Portal, there was a funny song called I’m a Medieval Man made from remixes of the unit responses, which was a spoof of the song I’m a Mechanical Man from Westwood’s Command and Conquer.
+ Show Spoiler [I’m a Medieval Man] +
Command & Conquer
Release: 1995 Developer: Westwood Publisher: Virgin Where to get it: Abandonware
The original Command and Conquer (later renamed Tiberian Dawn) is one hell of a good game, and one of the most iconic RTS games ever made. It would launch one of the longest running RTS series in PC gaming history, attract millions of fans, and spawn 12 games. The game has not aged particularly well, but it’s influence on the PC gaming would is indisputable.
Command and Conquer is set in a gritty alternate future, where and alliance of developed nations, known as the Global Defense Initiative, is locked in a world war with an evil terrorist organization called The Brotherhood of Nod and mysterious toxic green crystals called Tiberium are beginning to cover the Earth. Tiberium extracts precious minerals from the ground and concentrates them, making Tiberium highly valuable and the chief resource of the game.
You choose which side to fight for; Nod or the GDI and each campaign plays out a little differently. The game has cut scenes galore, mission briefings are full video featuring actors (called FMV or full motion video in those days) and the end of each mission is accompanied by a short pre-rendered video of in game units blowing things up or fighting cool battles.
The real life cut scenes are a bit weird at first, but help to establish the ‘near future’ setting of the game. And some of them are really awesome such as in the Nod campaign when you first meet Kane, the leader of Nod. The music in C&C is phenomenal, probably the best of any RTS released before 1997, possibly the best of any game in that time period. It adds perfectly to the attitude of the game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3aQCN.png)
GDI cutscene
Gameplay is standard RTS fair, extremely similar to Westwood’s earlier game Dune II. You collect Tiberium crystals, refine them and use the cash to buy hardware and troops. On the normal speed this game is very very very slow, luckily it allows players to crank up the game speed. Base construction is done one building at a time by the Construction Yard (no worker units), and all buildings have to be connected to other buildings or a Construction Yard. The game introduced some fun modern elements to the RTS genre. Axes and swords are fun, but sometimes you just want to blast something with a rocket launcher or grenades. Tanks are good fun too, you can even use them to run over enemy ground forces who make a satisfying squish when you do.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/AuQFi.png)
Man, we have come a long way!
I love this game, but I actually wouldn’t recommend playing it unless you are a huge fan of the C&C series. As I mentioned, it hasn’t aged well. Units are slow moving and do little damage, making battles a tepid affair unless you crank the game speed all the way to maximum. The campaign also gets absurdly tedious towards the end. More often than not you sit for an hour waiting for your harvesters to collect the huge amounts of resources necessary to blast your way through the extremely strong enemy defenses.
The impact of the original C&C was more about its attitude, music, and cool postmodern setting than the gameplay. This game had a huge impact on the RTS genre, and represented Westwood’s first salvo against Blizzard in their RTS war of the 90s. It also had good graphics with positively amazing music and sound. If you like the C&C series definitely play this game, if not, best to appreciate it from afar.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Red Alert series is one of the most acclaimed in PC gaming history, and the first game sold over 3 million copies; making it one of the bestselling PC games of all time. For whatever reason, I’ve never played much of this game. I was always far more into Blizzard’s RTS games than Westwood, but the Red Alert series has become of the biggest ever, and as such it belongs on this list.
Originally, Red Alert was meant to be a prequel to the first Command and Conquer game. The idea was that the Allied forces opposing the Soviets would eventually become the GDI forces, and Nod would rise to power after the decline of the Soviets. Kane is actually featured in a few cut scenes, posing as one of Stalin’s advisors. Though, with Red Alert 2 this continuity was broken, fans have long tried to figure out ways to connect all the games into one coherent plot line. Though former Westwood designer Adam Isgreen sidestepped the whole issue by claiming the events or Red Alert 2 were a second parallel universe (where as Red Alert and Tiberian Dawn were the first). Westwood would later claim that the two series were completely separate, though in some ways this raises even more confusing questions, like why was Kane an advisor to Stalin? It’s almost as confusing as the chronology of Zelda games; but all you really need to know is that Red Alert put together a fun plot with good writing, whatever its real connection to the other C&C games.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZNrW2.png)
Kane in Red Alert… well not Kane… well it is Kane but…
it’s not really... or… screw it just play the damn game
The game play was extremely similar to the first C&C game, used the same mechanics and base building style. Realistically the only thing that changed was the units and back story. Though instead of Tiberium, players collect minerals and ores or sometimes the extra valuable gems to generate credits to spend on more units and buildings. As with the first game, the two sides differed slightly in units as the Soviet’s tended to be more durable but also more expensive like as with the GDI in the first game. Though RA critically introduced naval combat and interesting new mechanics like the mine layer and medic to the series.
Graphically, RA is also extremely similar to Tiberian Dawn, though the art style in RA was a bit more vivid than its predecessor. The music and cut scenes were also great and contributed to an all around brilliant gaming experience.
Given the massive similarities between the two games, I’m not sure why RA completely outran Tiberian Sun in popularity. Perhaps it was timing, or maybe the back story and additional game play mechanics just better captured people’s imagination. Maybe that’s the reason Westwood chose to break the RA series from the Tiberian games? Either way, RA is a good game, and still stands as one of the best selling PC games of all time, having outsold every Warcraft game, all but one of the Civ games, and countless other RTS titles.
The Age of the Space Combat Sim
When Space Sim games were still a thing…
When Space Sim games were still a thing…
Wing Commander Series
Wing Commander 2: Release: 1991 Developer: Origin Systems Publisher: Origin Systems Where to get it:Abandonware
Wing Commander 3: Release: 1994 Developer: Origin Systems Publisher: Origin Systems Where to get it:Abandonwar
It’s interesting to think the Space Sim genre used to be such an important part of PC gaming, given how it’s all but gone extinct. The Wing Commander series was space combat at its best. The places you right in the middle of an all-out intergalactic space war, with great graphics, great mechanics and storyline.
The series is set in the 27th century where humanity is involved in a massive space war with an alien race called the Kilrathi. You take on the role of a rookie space pilot, flying missions against the alien race. The series would become known for its expansive set of choices on how to progress through the campaign, and the outcome of missions often further determined the path. There are plenty of NPCs to talk to and places to visit for the RPG fan, and the combat in the first few games was visually quite stunning for the time.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8xkBl.png)
Wing Commander 2 screenshot
Perhaps the greatest legacy of the Wing Commander series, [i]is the Wing Commander series. It would spawn five games in total, and almost half a dozen spin off set in the same universe. Unfortunately, Space combat games have gone the way of the real RPG. While there have been a few amazing titles such as Freelancer (sorry Eve fans, I hate MMOs) the genre has rather petered out.
It’s hard for me to recommend playing the first few Wing Commander games. While the visuals and music were stunning for the time, they look terribly dated by today’s standards. I’m almost never one to hold dated graphics above game play, but in this case I think it’s appropriate. A Space Sim needs to have graphics that backup the scale of things; it’s what gives games from this genre their immersive atmosphere. But, if you can get over the dated looks, you will find an amazing series with awesome game play and great back story.
Star Wars: Tie Fighter
Release: 1994 Developer: Totally Games Publisher: Lucas Arts Where to get it:Abandonware?
What do you say about a game that’s a legend within its genre? Tie Fighter took everything that its predecessor from the year before Star Wars: X Wing did, and did it even better. Except this time you’re fighting on the side of the evil galactic empire.
The game features fully 3D polygon based enemy ships, great sound, good story—all within the Star Wars universe. Who could ask for more? The game plops you into the role of a rookie Tie fighter pilot, with the story picking up where the previous game’s expansion pack left off. You get to fly all the different TIE ships from the movies and several extended universe ships through dozens of missions. The story is interesting and original and provides an interesting twist at the end as well.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CKqAz.png)
Space combat at it’s best
Sounds are great; blasters have that great “shreeeeekt” from the movies and combined with the com chatter puts your right in the middle of a Star Wars space battle. Combat is made a bit more interesting by an energy mechanic, wherein you have to choose how to dispense power to your systems to avoid having your shield or weapons fail. This game is just all-around awesome.
The only thing I don’t like about this game is the same thing I dislike about Dark Forces: the awful DoS midi renditions of the classic Star Wars music. But considering how awesome every other part of this game is, I think we can overlook it.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter is consistently ranked as one of the greatest PC games of all time, and with good reason. It would spawn an expansion of its own in addition to two subsequent games in the series, both as awesome as TIE fighter. But aside from the series, as with Wing Commander, the death of the Space Combat Sim game makes it rather hard to judge the full legacy of this game. But one thing is for sure, as far as this genre is concerned TIE Fighter is one of the best games ever made.
Turn Based Strategy Gets Awesome
The other kind of strategy game…. :S
The other kind of strategy game…. :S
X-Com
Release: 1994 Developer: Mythos Publisher: MicroProse Where to get it: Steam
You didn’t think I was going to go through this whole blog and not mention X-Com did you? Leaving it off this list would be crazy. X-Com, originally called UFO: Enemy Unknown is regularly ranked as one of the best PC games of all time. It recombined the elements of traditional turn based strategy in an entirely new way, coupled with a cool creepy atmosphere, lots of alien weirdness, and great replay-ability; making it a shoe-in as a real classic.
The game puts you in command of a secret global anti-UFO organization, tasked with taking defending the Earth against an increasing (and unknown) threat by UFOs. You establish a base, shoot down alien ships, reverse engineering their technology, and building bigger and better weapons and bases.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/q7xyw.png)
Original box art
The game starts with you choosing where to place your first base. Your organization is bank rolled by the world’s biggest countries, and those who don’t feel you’re defending them adequately may reduce or pull funding; so location of your bases is very important. After building your base, you use fighter jets to shoot down alien spacecraft, and deploy teams to eliminate the survivors and recover any goodies. The game play moves to a turn based battle, where your team is tasked with killing the remaining aliens and recovering technology. The music is great at building a creepy atmosphere, which is only intensified as your guys approach the smoking hulk of the craft. The aliens are equally as creepy looking, they may be small but their powerful little ray guns make them surprisingly tough opponents. There’s nothing worse than turning around the corner of one of the dark hallways inside the craft and coming face to face with one of the little buggers.
The game play also includes a number of traditional strategy elements as well, including research of technology, hiring scientists, manufacturing cool new weapons to blast more aliens with. There’s also a quasi RPG element to the game that has you equipping your recovery teams with weapons and gear, and watching as your men gain experience and level up. The game’s eventual end is to track down the mysterious force behind the invading UFO, and put a stop to them.
The Yogscast did an amazing video series showing off the game play, take a watch if you have time, Lewis is clearly a huge fan of the game:
Originally, X-Com was slated to be a sequel to a game called Laser Squad, as conceived by Julian Gollop and his brother Nick. But publisher MicroProse (who, if you skipped earlier sections was co-founded by Sid Meier and behind some of the greatest PC strategy games of all time) wanted more out of the game. MicroProse wanted a game that would hold up to the scale and depth of its other strategy games including Master or Orion and Civilization. With some general direction and help from some key individuals from MicroProse the game was revamped into something else entirely. Virtually everything about this game is great, and there are hours upon hours of fun to be had here.
There have been a number of sequels to X-Com, 5 in total. But none of them were ever received with the same fan fair as the original MicroProse wanted to release a sequel within 6 months of the first game, though the developer declined. So MicroProse decided to make the sequel themselves. In six months. Unsurprisingly, the sequel, Terror from the Deep, mostly rehashed the exact same game play and mechanics from the original. Some fans of the series didn’t mind, but for others it was a disappointment.
Subsequent games moved away from the deep strategy of the original. X-Com Apocalypse added some decent new game play features and updated graphics, but it still wouldn’t bring together all the elements that made the first game truly great. The last game, X-Com: Enforcer, wasn’t a strategy game at all. Rather, it was a third person shooter in a separate universe that for whatever reason Infogrames decided to stick the X-Com name onto. A rather sad ending to a series that was never able to live up to its original title.
Overall, X-Com is a brilliant game that masterfully combines elements from a number of different genres into one totally awesome game. The alien weirdness fit in perfectly in the early 90s, especially given that the X-files had premiered only a year before this games US release. If you’ve got some time to kill and a couple of bucks, give this game a try.
Heroes of Might and Magic
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest
Release: 1995 Developer: New World Computing Publisher: New World Computing Where to get it: ?
Heroes of Might and Magic II
Release: 1996 Developer: New World Computing Publisher: 3DO Where to get it: ?
This is the other major series that has roots in the early 90s which I’ve never played. But considering that the series is one of the longest lived in PC gaming, and is generally regarded to contain some of the best games ever made; it definitely needs to be on this list. The first two games in the series were released in 1995 and 1996 respectively, and the latest release in the series was as recent as 2011; meaning the series already spans 16 years.
The HoMM games blends turn based strategy game play with RPG elements within a fantasy world. As in a standard turn based strategy game, player raise armies, conquer cities, and collect resources. But HoMM introduced a number of RPG elements into the mix, including the ability to level up hero units and collect special items.
HoMM served to define an entire sub-genre of turn based strategy, and would be the progenitor of some of the most amazing games including the Age of Wonders series and one of my favorite games of all time, Impression’s Lords of Magic.
I wish I had more to say about the HoMM series, but having never really played it I’ll have to leave it here. But this is definitely another series that’s going onto my list of games to play.
Honorable Mention
The games that didn’t quite make the list but need to be recognized.
The games that didn’t quite make the list but need to be recognized.
System Shock
This game has to be mentioned. Not only is it the predecessor to one of the most popular, best received, and all around greatest PC games ever made; but it did quite a bit of innovating in its own right. Computer hacking, fully 3D environments and controls, an engaging Sci-Fi plot; this game did so many things right. But few people played it at the time, it sold just over 170,000 copies; a weak selling even for 1994. As such, it’s hard to list it alongside the many highly influential games on this list, but make no mistake this is a damn good game. Its sequel would also change the face of PC gaming forever.![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wKTQ7.png)
Damnit System Shock, you deserve a screenshot
Ultima Underworld Series
Two games that were far ahead of their time in terms of gameplay and technology. They were first person perspective RPG games with real time combat that played sort of like an adventure game. Supposedly the first Ultima Underworld game is what inspired John Carmack to make Wolfenstein 3D. In all honestly, these games probably deserve to be on the list, but for the sake of space and my enduring sanity they’re here. But, if you’re interested, these are two great and innovative games.Star Control 2
I have to say, I have to plead ignorance on this one. This game is often listed as one of the best PC games of all time (like top 10), and honestly I know very little about it. From what I do know, this is a giant open world game with a massive universe to explore, dozens of alien races to meet, and the ability to build up and expand your fleet to battle bigger and badder enemies. It probably deserves a full topic, but I seriously don’t know enough about this game. But trust me; it’s definitely going on my list of games to play.There's an open source project devoted to porting this game to modern PCs: http://sc2.sourceforge.net Definitely worth checking out. Thanks for letting me know Probe!
Lords of the Realm II
Another brilliant game from Impressions studios, it artfully combined elements of a real time strategy, simulation, and RTS game into one package. I never played the game myself, but it’s often rated very highly among the best PC games of all time. As with so many others, it’s on my giant list :/Populous 2
This is the sequel to Populous, a game that literally invented the “god-game” genre (and gave Peter Molynuex his first big break, but that’s another story!). But it’s also a great game in its own right, with a cool Greek setting and all the amazing gameplay of its predecessor. While this game most certainly had a major impact on PC gaming, it’s not on the main list simply because it’s quite hard to draw a line between this game and subsequent games. Even the series 1999 prequel switched to an RTS format. What its true legacy in PC gaming is, I’m not sure; and combined with the fact that it’s been almost entirely forgotten has relegated it to this spot. But it’s still a great game from a great series.The Adventure Games
The early 90s were a mini golden age for adventure games. There are far too many to go into detail for each one, but the splurged included some amazing games: Sam and Max Hit the Road, Monkey Island series, Beavis and Butthead in Virtual Stupidity (does this even count as an adventure game? Eh, who cares!), Alone in the Dark, Dune, Fable, and countless others. You could make a blog series on just these games alone. Tomb Raider
Being a console port, I just couldn’t bring myself to put this game on the list next to such amazing and influential titles. But it is a very good game, and was pretty revolutionary for the third person shooter genre. Granted TR2 was better, but Tomb Raider is still a very good, well designed, and overall fun game. Give it a go if you never have.Well, that will do it for this part and for 1991-1996. Make sure you comment and 5 star, and if you could share this as well that'd be great! Next part will start off 1997-1999. I have no idea at all when it will be done, could be two months, but it will be great!
![[image loading]](http://www.myabandonware.com/media/captures/S/solar-winds-the-escape/solar-winds-the-escape_2.gif)
