Are they the ‘epics’ of their time, or some things that are less well known?
I played lightbike a variation of armagetron (that imo was honestly superior, it had jumping, boosting, maps that took advantage of that, skins back when they were cheap) but I still play armagettron on ocassion, agains the ai for the most part. Loved that ipod game. I wish it was still popular, think they got scared of licensing disputes with disney and a bit greedy with the microtransactions towards the end, started to effect gameplay through boosts.
I wish some of the changes like jumping and maps that were more than just one grid made it over to armagettron or another pc version but those stayed simple sadly.
I would eat up a modern cross platform tron lightbike game with maps like the ipodgame, jumping, boosts, etc. and cosmetics like rocketleague as long as they don’t give you a leg up. It would be all I play.
Age of Empires
Master of Orion.
I still love all of the 90s FPS games like Doom and Quake.
Same. The rise of the boomer shooter was fun but you can’t beat OG.
Have you tried playing on a lower difficulty level?
Fallout 1 & 2, Final Fantasy 9, Elite
Rogue, Hack, Nethack. Basically nethack, but it built on those before it. Occaisonally Larn. Amiga Larn.
Angband was my jam for a while, and of course that parlayed directly into Dwarf Fortress
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Worms Armageddon
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
Worms Armageddon was a classic
HOMM3 is like a warm blanket when you’re sick and tired.
Quest for Glory series! Betrayal at Krondor
Yeeeeah! I haven’t played these in forever but Hero’s Quest was my first Sierra adventure and holy shit was it magic. And Krondor - Raymond freakin Feist writing games!!
Both absolutely epic! Although in my case we’d be playing fast and loose with the term “youth” this was stuff I played after college but still.
Love to hear it! I read and reread Feist’s whole series as a kid, I remember always being so excited when a new book came out. I cut my teeth learning to read novels on Magician in 3rd grade!
You’ll be interested to learn that Feist didn’t write anything for the game, he just licensed the world and the characters. Neal Hallford wrote the story and dialogue which were brilliant, and Feist later adapted the story into a novel.
I just replayed QfG 1-3 last week on a family vacation and the magic is still strong. Something about these games ignite mythic perspectives in me that nothing else seems to.
Does chess count?
Probably Sims and SimCity, I go back to them fairly often.
I still play through The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past at least a couple times a year though it’s usually with the randomizer these days. It is objectively the best video game ever made, which helps.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Wrath of Cortex. Original hardware, Muscle memory from childhood. Still a banger 27 years after my first time.
Half-Life 1 (and expansions)
SimCity 3000, SimCity 4
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Deus Ex
Zoo Tycoon
Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail
Morrowind
Industry Giant 2
Fallout 1/2
Arcanum
SimTower
Great list. I think I will replay about half your list at some point over the coming years. And might first time play Love For Sail as well.
They’re all well-known: Pac-Man (first game I ever played), Super Mario games, Metroid games. Anything past SNES I feel like I was too old to consider it my “youth.”
Half-Life 1
One mod specifically (Sven-Coop). Been playing almost daily since 1999.
I still fire up Duke 3d and Quake mods from time to time as well. There are lifetimes of user-made content in some of these older games.
The Pokemon games on all of Nintendo’s handheld consoles emulate really cleanly on a smartphone.
I’m a sucker for the Gen 1 nostalgia every now and then.
