36 Classic PC Games From The '90s That Still Hold Up

Half-Life brought a new level of storytelling panache to the still-young FPS genre. Instead of just dropping the player into monster-filled levels, Half-Life slowly introduced its situations with in-engine cutscenes, expository dialogue, and deliberate-yet-relentless pacing. You play Gordon Freeman, a mild-mannered nuclear physicist at the Black Mesa Research Facility who gets caught up in a teleportation experiment gone horribly awry. Before long, you're grappling with an invasion of hostile extraterrestrials - as well as soldiers whose job is to clean up the mess by eradicating anything that moves, friend or foe. Overseeing the proceedings is a mysterious G-Man who bears a striking similarity to The X-Files's Cigarette Smoking Man, and whose presence adds a frisson of government paranoia to the experience. Half-Life's creative creature designs, superb enemy A.I., palpably atmospheric setting, and masterful pacing all combined to make it an instant classic, quite possibly the best FPS of all time. Its graphics are quite dated by now, but the gameplay remains superb - particularly the tense encounters with enemy grunts who will take cover and even try to flank you. You can play Half-Life in its original incarnation on Steam, or you can try Black Mesa, an acclaimed fan-made update/remaster that is truly a labor of love.

It's pretty rare to find a game that practically invented a genre and is still fun as heck to play. Although Doom isn't actually the first FPS (that honor probably goes to its predecessor, Wolfenstein 3D), it's the one that put everything together into a completely satisfying experience. Ultima 1, or Dune 2 (arguably the first true 'RTS'), or the first King's Quest have their charms, but you have to make allowances for the time they were made to really enjoy them. Not Doom. You can just dive right in. The demons are out there. Are you tough enough to blow them away? You can get Doom on gog.com or on Steam.

The late 1990s were arguably the golden age of the real-time strategy genre, and one of that age's pinnacles was this fantastic followup to 1997's Age of Empires. The action moves from antiquity to the medieval era, and improved unit AI (check out those sweet marching formations!) makes the battles feel more epic than before. Although the prevalence of early rush tactics means some matches end before anyone even builds a castle, other games can blossom into true empire-vs.-empire slugfests. Some of the greatest RTS units of all time live here, from the deadly English Longbowman to the breathtakingly powerful trebuchet. The game's available on Steam, in both a modestly updated HD Edition and a new Definitive Edition.

Before games like Starcraft came and dominated the RTS genre, there was Command & Conquer. This early RTS epic took place in a fictional modern-day setting where the player would take control of one of two factions, the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) or the mysterious Brotherhood of Nod. Players must build a base and a military, launch attacks at their enemy, and defend their base, all in real time. While the RTS didn't start here (Dune 2, among others, predated it), Command & Conquer's slick production values and commercial success helped solidify the genre's core gameplay. A remastered version of Command & Conquer and its follow up, Red Alert, is set to release in June 2020.

CRPG fans didn't quite know what to make of Diablo when it released in 1996. It didn't have much story, character customization was minimal, and the gameworld was mostly limited to a town and the dungeon underneath it. But Diablo wasn't trying to be Ultima or Might and Magic. It was its own thing - a Skinner-box fantasia in which you clicked on minions of evil, ended their sad little lives, and scooped up loot in their wake. Thus was born the modern action RPG. Diablo was a massive hit, spawning two sequels (with a third on the way) and imitators too numerous to mention. The graphics and interface have dated somewhat, but that old pull remains. Diablo (with its expansion, Hellfire) can be purchased on gog.com.

After the success of Doom, John Carmack and the gang at id Software realized how much potential online multiplayer had in first-person shooters. With that in mind, they reworked the Doom code to create the Quake engine. Its full freedom of vertical movement advanced Quake beyond the "2.5D" technology of Doom and its peers, while the Lovecraftian Gothic vibe opened a new tonal palette for the genre. Quake was also the first game to have maps designed specifically for multiplayer. It allowed for eight players to play in a match, which was double the standard at the time. The modern FPS can be said to begin here. You can buy Quake on gog.com and on Steam.

The Fallout series is still one of the most popular RPG franchises in the world. Although the original Fallout didn't have the fancy graphics and fluid gameplay that exist today, the premise was the same. You controlled a person who is trying to survive a post-apocalyptic wasteland. If you've played the new games, you'll recognize some factions such as the Brotherhood of Steel and features like the Pip-Boy. As you'll notice in your playthrough, many features from the first game have survived for over 20 years. You can get Fallout on gog.com or on Steam. Its 1998 sequel is pretty great too.

Duke Nukem was the spitting image of what little boys wanted to look like when they grew up. He was a handsome dude with machismo to spare, who wore sunglasses and a red tank top, and didn't take crap from anybody. Duke Nukem 3D let you live out this fantasy while battling aliens across highly interactive environments with an array of weird, creative weapons. It's a great game to turn your brain off and have some fun. As for its long-delayed sequel, Duke Nukem Forever? That's a long story. You can buy Duke Nukem 3D on Steam.

Once in a while, a game design comes along that is so perfect, so sui generis, that it transcends both time and genre. One such game was Tetris. Here's another. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to shepherd a not-very-bright collection of adorable creatures who insist on walking forward obliviously no matter what is in front of them. Using special Lemmings with certain skills (climbers, diggers, etc.), you must clear the way to safety. The game was a monster hit in its day, and those interested in gaming history should read Jimmy Maher's fascinating blog entry on its origins. Unfortunately, there's no easy place to buy the original PC version of Lemmings at the moment, though it seems possible to chase down old copies on Amazon. People are definitely asking for a gog.com release, so, fingers crossed.

If you were a gamer in 1999, one of the issues of the day was the battle between Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament. Which would emerge to be the king of the multiplayer FPS genre? The question was never really resolved, and to this day it can trigger flame wars in online discussion groups. UT brought some great things to the table, like dazzling sci-fi settings, a campaign mode that's more fun than a tacked-on single player experience has any right to be, and an impressive array of weapons that added much-needed punch to the imaginative Unreal arsenal. The graphics at the time were best-in-class (and honestly they still look pretty good), and the bot AI set a new standard. You can get Unreal Tournament on Steam and on gog.com.

Civilization is a franchise that continues to make advancements and improve the player experience. There are currently six editions of the game, but the second edition is still a standout; it was immediately recognized as an improvement over its predecessor in almost every way. If you've only played the newer games, the graphics here will look decidedly unimpressive, but you'll notice the core mechanics are quite similar. End-game pollution cleanup can be a bit tiresome, but mostly the game has a zippy pace, and the constant bombardment of decisions gives Civ II a classic "just one more turn" feel. Plus, the inspiring "Wonder" mini-movies have not been topped. Unfortunately, it's not an easy game to find these days. There are still some box copies floating around, but it might take some tweaking to run on Windows 10 systems.

Some games just achieve a kind of alchemy - all the parts fit together and are perfectly of their time. Heroes of Might and Magic II is just such a game. The charming pixel graphics, executed with a sophistication belying their surface naivete; the trilling fairy-tale music; the evocation of a high-fantasy world in which a colorful landscape is dotted with treasures and mysteries begging to be investigated - it all flows together seamlessly. Tactical combat presents an intriguing range of challenges as you learn the strengths and weakness of various unit types, from modest halflings and pixies to awe-inspiring titans and black dragons. There were many subsequent HOMM titles, and some are considered superior, but II has a unique, indescribable charm. You can buy HOMM II on gog.com.

Myst is the best-selling adventure game of the '90s. Actually, it's the best-selling PC game of the '90s. The player starts with a magical book that they can use to hop through different worlds. As they travel from world to world, they must solve puzzles and find missing pages from the book to continue. The objective is to eventually save one of two brothers who are trapped inside another book. Alternatively, if you're feeling a little evil, you can leave them to rot in their prisons. The game's ray-traced 3D environments and strange, eerie atmosphere were like nothing '90s gamers had seen before. You can find Myst on gog.com. If you'd rather be able to move about its environments in real time, check out RealMyst.

The first Monkey Island game was one of the most popular creations of LucasArts outside the Star Wars universe. However, with the second game, they made significant improvements that made it an even bigger hit than the original. The adventure classic's storyline focuses on the pirate LeChuck being resurrected as a zombie after the events of the first game. That's right, Pirates of the Caribbean wasn't the first franchise to feature undead pirates. An updated 2010 special edition is available on gog.com and on Steam.

Though not as acclaimed as Half-Life, the other big single-player FPS of 1998, Unreal continues to be an important game, and not just for the still-evolving tech it pioneered. Fondly (or not-so-fondly?) labeled "Myst with guns" for its emphasis on exploration through vast, atmospheric locales, Unreal is in fact one of the great exercises in FPS world-building. Its beautiful, mysterious planet of Na Pali, inhabited by peaceful denizens but beset by invasion from interstellar races, develops a real fascination. More perhaps than any other FPS, Unreal is a place you find yourself wanting to go back to. The music's fantastic, too. Get Unreal on Steam or on gog.com.

Often, when people ask that old, tiresome question, "But are videogames art?" Grim Fandango gets trotted out as Exhibit A. Its beautifully production-designed world, which is like a '40s film noir crossed with a Dio De Los Muertos parade, is worthy of a Pixar movie, and its offbeat humor is a classic example of adventure designer Tim Schaffer's inimitable style. Some consider it the best game of 1998, which, when you consider the competition (Half-Life, Starcraft, Baldur's Gate, just for starters), is a heck of a compliment. You can find the excellent remaster of Grim Fandango on gog.com and on Steam.

Twenty-plus years on, Thief: The Dark Project remains the definitive stealth game. Its graphics haven't aged well, but everything else has. The sound design holds up beautifully, the gameplay can be as violent or nonviolent as you like (true experts prefer "ghosting" their way through a level without even knocking guards unconscious), and creeping past moaning zombies can be an unbearably tense experience. Add to the mix sprawling nonlinear levels, evocatively moody cutscenes, and an imaginative steampunk world, and you've got a straight-up classic. Thief and its sequels (also worthwhile) are available on gog.com and on Steam.

X-Com hadn't been out for long before it started climbing to the top tier of "best PC game of all time" lists. More than a quarter-century later, it remains the gold standard for tactical combat games, the bar against which everything else is measured. Its tale of a global defense team tasked with heading off an extraterrestrial invasion featured incredibly tense small-scale combat, given meaning and context by a persistent strategic wrapper. You can find it on gog.com and on Steam.

The even-better followup to the already-classic Dark Forces, Jedi Knight brings the franchise into the post-Quake era with fully-3D, mouselook-enabled action. The game takes full advantage of the new tech; while the graphics look poor now, the massive, vertiginous level designs have arguably never been surpassed. Lightsaber combat and potent Force Powers are just icing on the cake. The cutscenes, a relic of the '90s FMV video fad, are on the cheesy side, but actually pretty decent compared to much of what was being produced for games in those days. Find Jedi Knight on Steam and on gog.com.

Day of the Tentacle is a sequel to 1987s Maniac Mansion, the game which pioneered the "SCUMM" style of graphical adventure interface. In this point-and-click adventure, you switch among three characters as they mess around with a time machine. Unfortunately for them, the time machine is faulty, and they're soon separated. It's your job to shepherd them through wacky adventures as they try to reunite. A remastered edition is available on gog.com and on Steam.

In the 90s, many first-person shooters tried to replicate the success of Doom. Star Wars: Dark Forces took the genre to a new level as it introduced new mechanics such as jumping, crouching, and looking up and down. It might seem strange to hear that these mechanics didn't exist before, but they were revolutionary at the time. Additionally, if you're a fan of the Star Wars expanded universe, you'll notice that some of the story points that exist in this game make their way into the expanded universe in later years. Sadly, the critical role played by its hero Kyle Katarn in securing the Death Star plans was overwritten by Rogue One. We still love you, Kyle! Dark Forces can be bought on gog.com and on Steam.

Most first-person shooters take place in realistic or futuristic environments. But Hexen takes the first-person genre to a fantasy world. Once you choose from three classes, you will be released into a world of magic and danger, fighting your way through multiple levels before the final boss encounter. Although the game might not look great today, there are several mods you can use to improve the graphics. With mods to improve the graphics, the game still holds up fairly well mechanically. Hexen: Beyond Heretic is available for purchase on Steam.

Everyone loves a good prison break, and that's exactly what you get in Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. However, it isn't your typical prison break. Instead, you'll be escaping from a meat processing plant that is grinding up the local species into treats for aliens. You will try to save has many slaves as possible. You need to do as well as you can because the ending is affected by the number of slaves you save. You can find Oddworld on Steam and on gog.com.

Everyone loves a good Star Wars game, and Star Wars: TIE Fighter was one of the first on the PC, and its unique premise - putting you to work for the bad guys - made it an instant standout. It is known in the video game community as one of the best space-combat simulators ever made. The energy system is configured so that players can't have everything running on full power at once. As a result, players must decide whether to put their energy into shields, engines, or weapons. Each has a pro and a con, so different strategies are required for different battles. You can purchase TIE Fighter on Steam and on gog.com.

In Civilization, once you build your spacecraft and head for the stars, your problems are over. In Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, they've just begun. You'll have to contend with colonists of other factions, as well as the organisms of a strange and hostile world, if you want to secure your civilization's future beyond its terrestrial cradle. Many still consider Alpha Centauri the apex of the 4X strategy genre. You can buy it on gog.com.

While most real-time strategy games were limiting themselves to a 2D map, Homeworld boldly leapt into the third dimension, imagining what combat might be like in the emptiness of space, where craft can move up and down as easily as left and right. The distinctive gameplay is complemented by wonderfully atmospheric visuals and music. No other game, RTS or otherwise, feels like Homeworld. The tastefully remastered 2015 version is available on gog.com and on Steam.

The second CRPG made with the now-legendary Infinity Engine, Planescape Torment released with somewhat less fanfare than its predecessor Baldur's Gate, but it has since developed a reputation as almost the platonic ideal of good RPG writing. You play the Nameless One, a restless wanderer who is blessed (or cursed?) with the ability to rise from the dead again and again. As you quest for information about your origins against the wildly imaginative backdrop of Sigil, the City of Doors, you are joined by an eccentric band of traveling companions, including a bad-tempered thief with a flicking tail and an Irish brogue, and a wisecracking floating skull. Many consider PS:T the best CRPG ever made, full stop. You can get it on gog.com or on Steam.

Master of Orion is the first true space 4X game, and arguably still the best. Its ultra-streamlined interface, the result of exhaustive playtesting, makes it a pleasure even by modern standards, and the graphics, while dated, retain their pixel-art charm. MOO 2 was beloved by many, and MOO 3 was a famous fiasco, but the original MOO abides. You can get Master of Orion on Steam or on gog.com.

There were a lot of cyberpunk games coming out in the mid-'90s, but a lot of them were dour and pretentiously self-important. So it's like a breath of fresh air to see one that actually has a sense of humor. Beneath a Steel Sky brings a Douglas Adams-esque tongue-in-cheek wit to its dystopian world. Its point-and-click puzzle gameplay is definitely tailored for adventure aficionados, so be prepared for a little frustration if you aren't a genre maven. An added bonus is that the game's cutscene artwork is done by Dave "Watchmen" Gibbons. Best of all, it's totally free!

The first Star Control was a fun head-to-head space-combat game, descended from the original Space War, that had a rather perfunctory strategic wrapper. The second game was vastly more ambitious, building upon its predecessor's core to create a galaxy-spanning adventure in which you sought to free Earth from domination by the malevolent, caterpillar-like Ur-Quan. Almost universally beloved, Star Control II retains a place in its fans' hearts as one of the very best computer games ever made. You can get Star Control II (with the first game bundled for good measure) on gog.com and on Steam.

Based on the Riftwar novels by Raymond Feist, Betrayal at Krondor muscled its way to the front of the CRPG queue at a time when Ultima, Might and Magic, and SSI's 'Gold Box' D&D games were all still going concerns. Bolstered by a well-thought-out literary backstory, Krondor featured some of the strongest writing yet seen in a videogame and an engaging tactical combat system. You can find Betrayal at Krondor on Steam and on gog.com.

The follow-up to genre-founding 1980s space sim Elite, Frontier was a fantastically ambitious game in the 1990s and it's still impressive. Whole solar systems (including ours) are rendered in real time, with orbits changing and planet surfaces accessible. Decades later, No Man's Sky created something of the same feel, but without the sense of scientific authenticity that Frontier still commands. To the lamentation of fans, Frontier can't be purchased nowadays. Modern successor Elite Dangerous is in some ways a much better game, but in other ways, not quite the same experience.

A huge, 3D, third-person open world, populated by NPCs who can be spoken with and seem to be going about their own lives. A trippy sci-fi storyline involving parallel universes, high technology, and intrigue. A mount you can ride, enemy-infested fortresses you can approach from multiple angles, and a plethora of powerful objects to aid you in your quest. Such a melange of action gameplay, RPG mechanics, and ambitious world-building may be par for the course nowadays, with GTA and Assassin's Creed titles dominating sales charts, but in 1999 it was a breathtakingly bold experiment. A few quirks aside, the gameplay still holds up, and there's the added bonus of one of the very best musical scores ever composed for a videogame. You can get Outcast here. If the blocky voxel graphics are too much to bear, there's also a gorgeous, albeit pricier, modern update.

Jordan Mechner is best known as the creator of the Prince of Persia platformer games, but he tried his hand at the adventure genre with this cult classic set on the eve of WWI. While many games of the era tried to take advantage of CD-ROM by cramming lousy live-action cutscenes into the gameplay, The Last Express's rotoscoped animation has aged far better. It remains an enigmatic title whose reputation greatly exceeds its disappointing commercial reception. You can get it on gog.com and on Steam.

After Panzer General was a monster hit, the big brains at SSI decided to take the same formula and game engine, but populate it with bog-standard fantasy elements like wizards, dragons, and mounted knights. Gamers more at home with Tolkien than with histories of Operation Barbarossa could get in on the hex-map fun. Did it work? It worked. You can get Fantasy General on gog.com.

At a time when the CRPG genre was stuffed to the gills with generic fantasy worlds derivative of Dungeons and Dragons, Darklands offered something different - a history/fantasy hybrid setting that imagined what it would be like if the supernatural preoccupations of medieval Germany were in fact real. The result was a fascinating mixture of well-researched facts and speculative fantasy. The game unfortunately didn't do well enough to engender sequels, but it remains a beloved oddity among devotees of the genre. You can get Darklands on Steam and gog.com.