Great games you would recommend from before 1990?

Zork (1980), and Nethack (1987) are fun adventures.

Really hot take here: Super Mario Bros (you didn't mention it in your list).

For a game from the '80s on the limited hardware available at the time, they really put a lot of work into the mechanics of the platforming. It's an incredibly responsive game compared to its contemporaries.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is one of the greatest games ever. It's a boxing game that relies heavily on reflex and rhythm, and it plays so smoothly you'll be surprised it's an NES game.

Mega Man 2 is a classic. Most people claim this or Mega Man 3 (1990) as their favorite. Just some great action platforming, if you like to jump and shoot.

Speaking of jumping and shooting, Contra is another insanely fluid game. I really think its gameplay holds up well compared to even SNES-era games, and its vibrant, high-contrast colors are seared into my brain.

Most great NES games are some type of platformer, honestly. Castlevania is no exception. With a gothic horror aesthetic and a killer soundtrack, it's honestly one of my favorites to just kick back and play with a drink.

I would also recommend the original Super Mario Bros., if you really haven't played it. It's pretty good for an early outing.

Oh and, as a rule, NES games are hard. Arcades made you pay quarters for lives, and since games were $50+ they wanted you to get your money's worth in restarts. You would do well to learn the Konami code.

• Hero’s Quest: So You Want to Be a Hero
• Quest for Glory II
• Duke Nukem
• Adventure
• Sim City
• Lode Runner
• The Oregon Trail
• Boulder Dash
• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Here are some greatly-known ones, primarily in arcades:

• Galaga. The ultimate refinement of early shmup design - before this there was Gorf, Galaxian and Space Invaders, all of which had good ideas but less happening for long term play. After this the genre took a turn towards scrolling games where more production values could be thrown at you. You can play Galplus or the other direct sequels, but it's more like different takes than improvement.
• Robotron 2084. Same thing as Galaga but for twin stick games which had a bit of ancestry in "characters moving and shooting" games like Berserk before Robotron, but didn't have it put together into the recognizable twin-stick scenario. The entire genre tries to glue more stuff onto the Robotron template, but it already has what is essential.
• Lode Runner, Boulder Dash. These are pioneers in "action puzzles on a grid with characters and level design", a genre of puzzle game which is hard to imagine not having now, and is essentially timeless. These two were directly preceded by "Space Panic" and "The Pit" in arcades, respectively, but it was on the home computers that these games found their refined and playable form.
• Sokoban. Sokoban, like Lode Runner and Boulder Dash, is a character puzzle on a grid, but with no arcade elements. Also timeless, though newer takes on Sokoban all add undo and other conveniences. Also worth mentioning with Sokoban is Pitman, which is like a turn-based Lode Runner. It had a nice visual update on Gameboy as "Catrap". (Early Gameboy releases are a reliable source of old games that people still craved a port of after 1989)
• Outrun. It's a simple arcade racer. Other games like Pole Position or Buggy Boy could substitute. But aesthetically speaking, the game is The One Everyone Remembers, definitely aged in its sprite graphics and FM sound but still a compelling vision of "driving into the sunset with your girlfriend", with no extra gimmicks like its 2000's sequel.
• Zork. A difficulty of exploring the adventure gaming genre is in how quickly it consolidated itself into genre tropes that emphasize niche forms of challenge. Zork, being one of the first entries in adventures, manages to keep it simple enough: there's a fantasy world to explore and puzzles and some random chance elements. The vocabulary is limited but doesn't strive to get in your way.
• Ultima 4. Roleplaying is probably the genre that is hardest to make recommendations for since it's gone through so many fashion trends. I pick this particular one as opposed to any other in the series because it hits a nice balance of conveying a unique roleplaying world and quest style(follow an ethical code to become an Avatar) versus being a simple and playable experience. Ultima never emphasized combat or grind although it has a little bit of that going on, which makes it unique among most 80's RPGs since the easiest way to pad out these games is to add punishing grinds and gotchas. Earlier Ultima entries are just simple(3 in particular still quite playable), later ones become more burdened by worldbuilding(5 is still worth trying if you want a challenging, sometimes confusing quest). The NES version, though not "authentic" to how the original Apple II game looks and feels, is probably the most accessible port of it. All the Ultima games rely on basic conventions of the genre during this period: write down all the dialogue for hints, make maps of each location. The puzzles are loosely structured and can be sequence broken by knowing what keywords to type or where to search.

And some lesser-known ones:

• Bill Williams' Alley Cat and Salmon Run. Two arcade games that engage with the lives of the titular animals. Relatively simple but creative and fun to play every time.
• Xagon. An arcade game for the Atari computers styled after the more popular arcade hit Q-Bert, this game uses hexagons instead of cubes and its sense of graphic design still works perfectly.
• The Return of Heracles. The approach to role playing in this game is really noteworthy since it figures things like a kind of board game - there is a lot of RNG, a lot of puzzle solutions that will get your character killed, forcing a new one to take their place - and you are expected to roll with it. When people say 80's games had teeth this is a good example of it. That might sound bad, but it's the same kind of tangible risk that made battle royale games blow up in the 2010's.
• Journey to the Planets. This is a game played because it is hyper abstract in the ways that only early 80's games were - the scale of objects, the vague representationality, the flashing colors and strange noises that only Ataris could do. The sense of raw experiment shines through this game, and while you'll probably become frustrated and give up very quickly, it's about the look and feel. Zelda came along and made things boring.
• Alternate Reality: The Dungeon. This was a high-minded, overambitious roleplaying project that got to its second game before giving up because of publisher issues. What's special about it? The depth of simulation, mainly. The first game, the City, had weather effects, diseases, alignment, reputation and seasons, but it was a kind of prelude to the Bethesda-style open world in that there were few explicit goals. The Dungeon added in a traditional questline chain, and explored the worldbuilding (a "kidnapped by aliens, forced to participate in a fantasy simulation" premise) in much more depth. If you are going to play one first person dungeon crawler from this period, this is the one I'd go with. It shows its age, but the atmosphere remains striking and unique. One of the first major encounters in the game is your doppleganger, who mirrors your own stats. You can get sick with the "Crystal Death" which makes you stronger but slower until you freeze. If your inventory is full, "The Devourer" will arrive to reclaim memory by consuming your items. The game has big ideas conveyed in a simple way, and the interface only has a few things that take effort to learn: you can get down to the business of grinding, mapmaking, hint collecting and puzzle solving pretty quickly.
• Project Firestart. This is one of those games that occasionally appears on lists of predecessors to modern survival horror. It's a very fully realized, cinematic take on how to do the genre, despite being stuck in side view and requiring disk swapping to move around the sci-fi, alien-infested ship. It was made for the wrong machine, TBH - it would have blown away a lot of people on Amiga or Genesis. The C64 graphics make it a little weaker aesthetically than it could have been. But I wouldn't call it obtuse or unplayable at all.

Unrelated Image for fun, Blessed Are the Meek

Unrelated Image for fun, Blessed Are the Meek

I've seen someone else mention these, but I have to recommend them as well:

Maniac Mansion (1987). It's the first SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine game that all its successors use (Indy 3 & 4, Monkey Island, Sam and Max Hit The Road, etc). Really hard game play from what I can remember, and it has a sequel too, Day of the Tentacle (1993), which is absolutely hilarious.

Laser Squad (1988) was among my favourites growing up, they are the precursor to UFO/XCOM (the original from 1993).

Elite (1984), a technological marvel for its time. It's still playable today, and if you liked any of the other space exploration / trader / miner games (E:D, Star Citizen, X4, Freelancer, etc) you will love this.

King's Bounty (1990). I could have sworn this was from earlier. No matter. It's the precursor to Heroes of Might and Magic. Has less balancing than its successors and can get really whacky.

Spy vs Spy (1984). Really fun split screen couch pvp. You set traps in a house with doors everywhere in various places that you hope your opponent will forget about while also hunting the other one and beating each other in a brawl. It can get hilariously complex. But needs another player as there's no AI from what I can recall.

Creatures (1990). It's a platformer where you control a cute bear trying to rescue other cute bears from evil potatoes and mushrooms and birds. And that's where the cuteness ends. Every platformer level finishes in a so called torture level where the cute beat to be rescued undergoes some crazy mutilation by chainsaw, sharks, acid. Has a sequel, Creatures II (1992) and a spin-off (kinda), Mayhem in Monsterland (1993).

Summer Camp (1990). Another platformer, story driven with fun mini games. Has a sequel, Winter Camp (1992).

Bubble Bobble

Leisure Suit Larry 1-4

Secret of Monkey Island (released in 1990 actually, but close enough)

Barbarian (1987)

Batman (1989)

Space Quest and King's Quest, at least some of each series but I don't remember which ones.

Just a few I remember from my old Amiga.

Recommendations I haven't seen here listed (so I avoided NES almost entirely):

• (NES,Master System,PC) Pipe Dream:, which is quite fun if you like puzzles.

• The Colonel's Bequest: A Laura Bow Mystery. It is one of the most beloved adventure games from this era and probably one of the best detective games ever made. Obviously it suffers a bit from an outdated UI but I find the EGA graphics ingenious and charming, doing more with less.

• (Amiga,DOS, Atari ST)Defender of the Crown: If as a kid you liked the middle ages, then this would be what you would think of: fighting jousts, siegeing castles with catapults, raid castles and rescuing Saxon maidens. It is a difficult game though.

• (Everywhere)Maniac Mansion: I think no one mentioned it, but either way it is a fantastic adventure worth your time, not all ports are equal though.

• (FM Towns,TurboGrafx,Atari ST, Amiga, DOS)Loom: A unique graphic adventure where you use music to create magic and solve riddles. Recommended FM Towns for the music, though some ports have voice dialogs which are also great.

• (Master System,Arcade)Fantasy Zone II: I didn't see a Master System until I was older, but it has few gems worth mentioning, like this wacky shoot-'em-up that has a lot to offer.

• (Amiga, Genesis remake)Speedball 2:Brutal Deluxe: A bit cheating as it was released in 1990, but both a fantastic sports game and probably one of the few multiplayer games here.

• (Amiga,DOS)North and South: A civil war strategy game with comic style elements, a very streamlined strategy, and some arcade mini-games.

• (Genesis)Herzog Zwei: Mix of real-time strategy and shot-'em-up in a well cared package, good graphics, decent sound and challenging enough to keep you playing for a while.

• (PC, Genesis remake)688 Attack Sub: If you're into simulators and like those tense submarine warfare movies, this is a decent choice. The Genesis remake is newer (post 89) but it is mostly the same with a coat of paint.

• (Amiga)Captain Blood: A weird euro game where you are traveling to multiple alien worlds trying to find your clones to suck out their lifeforce and having to learn alien languages to do so. Very Giger-esque. You can blow-up planets.

• (Master System)Phantasy Star: I got it out of curiosity and while it is rough like the earlier Final Fantasy games, has a nice story and a fun customization approach. In addition if you like this one, check out Phantasy Star II for Genesis (1989).

• (Everywhere?)Marble Madness:A game made to torture you with a marble going through a maze full of traps, but it's so simple to pick and play that it's hard to say no. (Not all ports are equally fun)

• (PC,Atari ST, some consoles?) Gauntlet 2: Unpretentious maze combat with nice multiplayer capabilities. Find keys, kill monsters, get gold.

• (Atari ST, Amiga, PC)Millenium 2.2: Strategy game about being a Moon colony in a universe where Earth got asteroid treatment and Mars is full of assholes. Incredible UI (for its time and complexity) and excellent music in the ST version.

• (Computers and 8-bit consoles)Treasure Island Dizzy: Charming graphics, fun puzzles, so-so platforming, you're an egg.

##Maybe category:

• (Genesis)Sword of Vermillion: It's a very contentious game as it was praised a lot for not being turn-based, but the arcadey mechanics now seem a bit bland. It's a decent RPG from that era, and the early 16-bit graphics are a welcome addition.

• (Maybe everywhere?)The Bard's Tale III: It won't blow your mind because it was a very loved precursor of the western RPG and has both a nice format and consistent pace. That said, the Bard's Tale series has always been known to be very hard.

• (Master System)Alex Kidd in Miracle World: It's like Super Mario but with larger, well detailed sprites and fun mechanics, maybe some of the best to offer by this console before the 90s.

• (Amiga)International Karate+: It is a very very simplistic fighting game that's easy to pick up but hard to master. There's better though in the 90s.

• (Amiga)Laser Squad: Great game at the time, spoiled only by the existence of XCOM 5 years later and the fact that the there are very few missions. The UI is rough.

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (1987)

• Sid Meier's Pirates!
• Centipede
• OutRun
• Spy Hunter

M.U.L.E. (1983) still holds up, though I'd appreciate some QOL improvements. It's a multiplayer game where you develop your production and then sell your commodities at auction to the other players (or what the bank will pay as minimum). The theme song is a banger.

Sid Meyer's Covert Action is a fun espionage game. Break-ins, wiretapping, following clues, etc. Released in 1990, so on the line.

I was gonna say Monkey Island but that's actually 1990. SimyCity was 1989, I'm not sure if that's worth playing these days compared to SimCity 2000 or something. Mario 2 (US) and 3 are probably still good.

Faxanadu

Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, LucasArts, 1988. It's a computer game though. It was never on the NES.

Deus Ex (2000) was popular for mashing together tabloid stories to make a story, but Zak did it first. And it was way cornier. You play a tabloid reporter who is sent to Seattle to investigate a two-headed squirrel when he learns of an alien invasion (whose leader is an Elvis impersonator). The game is awesome and IIRC you almost can't lose at it, at least not now. The game came with DRM in the form of codes written in black on maroon and it was hard to read; when the game asked for a code, if you got it wrong, you were sent to jail for copyright theft. The first time they'd let you out, but the second time ended the game. The one on GOG does not ask for codes. They took that out. You can also die in Egypt to the Sphinx. You can run out of air on Mars. You can soft lock the game on Mars (to avoid this, make sure each of the co-eds on Mars takes an extra tram token with her if she rides the tram, the token dispenser at the other end is broken).

Also, Zak can typically be had for about a buck on GOG sales.

Uninvited, ICOM Simulations, 1986. Another computer game, but this was ported to the NES, along with its more popular cousin, Shadowgate (also an 80s game, from 1987). Short if you know how to beat it. I think they both can be ran in like 20-30 minutes? Zak can be speed ran in about an hour and a half if you're good, and if you're lucky in the mazes, but I'm not sure what the records actually are. These games are long in how they took you ages to figure stuff out before the Internet was a thing.

Hack, 1984, high school students. Not to be confused with the .hack PS2 games (the anime they're based on which later became Sword Art Online). No, this was a top-down D&D type game and one of the first roguelikes (Rogue being the original). I never actually played Rogue though. And Hack was later rebranded to NetHack (though, it's not about hacking online) and you can play it on just about anything. Android and iOS ports exist. I don't think it's on consoles though. But it's a free game, anyone can play it right now. There's probably even a way to play it in your browser. For the longest time, I've said a modern port was impossible. Diablo was kind of based around the same idea (delving through randomly generated dungeons) but Diablo didn't do half the shit Hack did. Didn't do a quarter of the things. Noita is a more modern (Windows only IIRC) roguelike, but it's completely different in form. Still pretty varied in what all you can do. You'll be able to beat the main boss and complete the game after playing for a couple weeks and learning the game, but that is not the main goal of the game. I don't think anybody's figured that out yet. People are still figuring stuff out. There are still mysteries yet to be solved. To the best of my knowledge, Noita has not been "beaten" yet. As in... by anyone. Anyone who can prove it, anyway. Maybe the developers have done so. And maybe some idiot savant out there has, but hasn't publicised it yet. Anyway, Hack can be beat — you delve down 35+ levels, retrieve the Amulet of Yendor (that's Rodney backwards, but I don't know who that is if anyone), which only spawns past a certain level — and then escape with it. I think I did it once? Got the Amulet half a dozen times or more (but not a full dozen) and died many times taking it back up.

Megaman 2 and 3. Super Mario Bros 1-3, Metroid (get a map), Zelda.

Get the emulator BbebEm: http://www.mkw.me.uk/beebem/

Developed for Windows, but ported to a bunch of other systems and OSes.

Then go to the BBC Micro Games Archive. [edit because I forgot the link] https://bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?atoz=C

There are a tonne of games to download, but I’m going to recommend 2, both of which are still incredibly fun to this day.

The first is Citadel, which is a puzzle platformer. Would probably be called a Metroidvania today, as the formula is exploring a labyrinth of screens to find keys, objects, and solve puzzles, but it was actually released a year before either Metroid or Castlevania.

The second is Chuckie Egg. This is a much more straight-forward “one screen is one level” platformer where you have to dodge enemies and collect objects before a timer runs out. Where this stands out from the pack is the physics. Your character is really bouncy when jumping against walls and platforms, which allows you to fling yourself around the stage in a way that’s really fun.

And, if you’ve never played it, I recommend last year’s UFO50 on Steam. The concept is that some game designers found a forgotten 80s console from forgotten studio UFO Games along with 50 cartridges and ported them over. So what you get for £15 is 50 8-bit games, all of which have some modern ideas but which could conceivably have been released in the 80s. It’s incredible value for money, and there’s even a kind of meta-narrative as you watch the studio’s games get more sophisticated over time (for example, the first release doesn’t have any background music) and characters return. And, of course, there’s a huge variety of styles and genres.

It’s not made before the 90s, but if you’re after that feel rather than necessarily specifically games which were actually made then, then UFO 50 is very much worth your money and time. You’ll honestly marvel at how ridiculously underpriced it is.

As a last note, if you are at all interested in archaeology, then Elite Dangerous is basically a modern port of the original BBC Micro game. If you’ve played the former and boot up the latter, you might be surprised how little has actually changed and how much they stretched computing technology to fit that entire game into 8 bits and 16Mb of RAM.

But it really all you’re after is strictly just games made before the 90s which still play well, then try Citadel and Chuckie Egg. The emulator & ROMs are all free.

Prince of Persia, 1989.

This game pioneered rotoscope animation and directly influenced the Tomb raider series in many ways:

• Crumbling slabs that you fall through
• spikes that kill you if you fall on them, but you can walk through them
• Clanging jaws that will chop you in half
• the re-cycling of multi-tier map design, when one big room with many levels becomes a central atrium to which you return many times, just sometimes higher or lower than you were before. Also a very clever use of limited memory resources.
• A random doppleganger encounter that hurts you when you hurt it.
• block-based jump physics with standing, running, and vertical jumping
• hanging from ledges as a mechanic
• little known fact about prince of Persia but if you holster your sword and hold X and T while drawing your sword, the player draws a pair of uzis instead

The Revenge of Shinobi (Sega Genesis)

Hmm. I think that it's hard to find games that really stand up on their own, and haven't had been outclassed in the intervening 35 years. I can think of a lot of games that I enjoyed then, but that's when they were competing against 1980s games and technology. Honestly, you got some of the ones that I'd have suggested, like Tetris and Pac-Man, and even there...I mean, original Tetris is perfectly playable, but I'd probably recommend Tetris Effect: Connected to a new player. Might as well have the extra glitz.

considers

Shmups have generally gotten more fast-moving and bullet-hell oriented. If you prefer slower shmups, you might enjoy playing 1942 or 1943: The Battle of Midway.

I agree with @emb@lemmy.world that Super Mario Brothers 3 for the NES is pretty decent, though I've never played fully through the game. Side-view platformers really did have their heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s, and that was a strong game.

kagis

These guys show marketshare of video game genres by year; platformers were really big in the 1980s:

https://savvystatistics.com/video-game-genres-by-year-1980-2016/

The arcade Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989) is probably fun if you can get some friends together. Probably need to emulate it with MAME or similar. I don't think that the beat-em-up genre has changed all that much or seen many entrants since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jLO1upcd8w

The Simpsons would be a stronger arcade beat-em-up recommend, but that's 1991, a bit out of your timeframe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNpuIHbK3-I

Arcades really peaked in the 1980s, before home console systems and computers started cutting into them. There were some things that arcade games were better at than computers and consoles, like having custom-to-a-game input hardware. If you are willing to get ahold of some arcade-style hardware, like an arcade-style joystick (US-style Happ, or Japanese-style Sanwa), you could play some games that were designed around having a full-size arcade joystick.

There are trackball and spinner games as well.

I think that light gun games are out, unless you're willing to obtain a CRT. Maybe someone's made something that can deal with LCD/LED displays.

kagis

Apparently so: https://sindenlightgun.com/

There were a number from the 1980s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_light-gun_games

I don't know how many of these hold up in their own right these days, but these are the formative games I played before 1990.

• Reach for the Stars - The first 4X game. It created and introduced me to a genre that I still love today!

• Dragonstrike - A dragon riding flight simulator set in the D&D setting of Krynn. It was release in 1990 though, so it's only here if we fudge a little

• Pools of Radiance - The first D&D CRPG. I know for sure this one doesn't hold up, but it was amazing back in the day!
• Tunnels & Trolls Crusaders of Khazan - Another CRPG, this one also from 1990. It sticks out in my memory mostly because I found a "gatling bow" which would empty your quiver by firing all of your arrows at a target when you took a shot. I also found a never ending quiver. It was game breaking. I'd hit things with 30 arrows per shot and just annihilate everything.
• Kings Quest IV Perils of Rosella. A real time adventure/puzzle/RPG game. First game I played with a dedicated female protagonist!
• Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon - Another "Made in 1990" game. It was the first (and IMO, still the best) game in the Railway Tycoon series and I believe it was also the first game in the "Tycoon" genre
• Sim City - The first in the Sim City series, and the first of the "Sim" titled games. I loved it back in the day, even even got to play it at school. It doesn't hold up very well against later games in the series though.

Anyone remember the BBS "turn based" games?

I don't even remember the names, but you would login every day to play your turn. Resource allocation based.

There was a drag car racing one and a space one that I remember.

After searching one that I did play was called "Trade Wars" !

Here's an unusual one: Midi Maze for the Atari ST

Dragon Quest 3 (and the two previous games) are great on NES. DQ2 is one of the hardest RPGs, though, as the developers admitted they never play tested the final dungeon. First turn AOE insta deaths, mini bosses that respawn, etc. there's a reason they're remaking them, though.

Those were inspired by Ultima and Wizardry, though, if you want even older RPGs. Actually, most SSI AD&D games were fantastic, too, and you can access them legally via steam now if you don't want to futz with DOS, although my favorite Eye of the Beholder games are slightly newer at 1991.

Tbh I've tried and most of those games are quite boring aside from exceptions like Mario which are kinda playable. Pretty much all games from that era have a problem in that they don't respect your time at all and they're frustrating as hell to play (limited or zero saves, lots of backtracking etc, stuff like that).

Mother/"EarthBound Beginnings" definitively has the late 80s/early 90s RPG smell with its grindiness and rocky difficulty curve, but is still pretty damn good if that's not a dealbreaker. The official translation came out in 2014, but is reasonably accurate.

Gradius and especially Gradius 2 are classic shmups for a reason, but the much bigger hitboxes take some real adjusting if you're used to modern bullet hell ones.

• Atari Paperboy (there were various ports but the arcade version is the best one IMO). It's fun, unique with no real successor (more are like Frogger).
• Ghosts n Goblins, the 1985 original (there are modern instalments but I think the original is just as fun, just hard af for a filthy casual like me).

can't remember WHEN it came out, might have been 89 might have been 90 but Batman The Videogame for the NES (the first batman game)

absolutely fantastic game, amazing soundtrack, easily one of the best Batman games ever.

Bonk's Adventure for PC Engine/Turbo Grafx 16 was the game that sold that console. It's brightly colored, has fun graphics and large sprites, and easy to pick up. It's pretty easy, and not very long, but it's quite fun. Also since the controllers on that console had a built-in switch to enable turbo on the buttons, the game is built with that in mind. The sequels were released after 1990, but are also quite fun and each add something to the previous games.

I’ve been replaying the Metroid series, as well as the Castlevania series, and I love both.

I think Mega Man 2 (1988, NES) is marvelous, and still holds up. If you're interested in arcade emulation (eg Mame), NewZealand Story is fantastic (also 1988). Good graphics for the time, great music, and cute character design.

If you didn’t like LoZ, you’re discarding a lot of games from that era. Resources were scarce, so games didn’t hold your hand with in-game tutorials, quest markers, etc. Game magazines with tips were really popular, as were official game guides from game publishers.

That being said, you might enjoy early 90s versions. For example, Phantasy Star IV (1993, Sega Genesis) feels more modern than its predecessors, it’s one of my favorites.

Dragon Quest 4 (1990, NES) is the pinnacle of the series on 8-bit. You’ll still have to guess and get lost, but it has many modern features. Playing it first will permanently spoil you for the previous ones.

Shining Force (1992, Sega Genesis) is also a pleasant turn-based strategy game with modern, although simple, mechanics. Shining Force 2 is even better.

Mr.Do! Is quite fun.

H.E.R.O. can become addicting if you don't mind initially learning its tricks through trial and error (the harder path is always the correct one). It can get pretty flow-state when you get a handle on it.

The early Space Quest games from Sierra are fun if you don't mind using a text parser. As is Quest for Glory.

Finally, a Mind Forever Voyaging by Infocom still holds up supremely well if you don't mind pure text adventures. The short story included in the manual alone is worth the read.

Edit: oh, and Street Rod is still a very fun american graffiti inspired racing game.

I really love Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo on the C64

Or, let's say, I like the idea of playing Usagi Yojimbo. Because that game is frickin' hard. I could usually defeat the first few ninjas but I never got close to the end of the game.

It has a nice honour system. You can't just run around with your sword drawn. You have to be polite and bow to other people. Killing innocents reduces your honour. And when it's depleted you kill yourself.

I was really amazed when the character Usagi Yojimbo appeared in an episode of the Ninja Turtles. In my mind he only existed in that game. A modern version could be nice.

From the early 80’s: Qix, Pooyan, and BurgerTime were some of my favorites.

Pong is pretty lit

Populous, Peter Molyneux.

And (1990) Wing Commander, although I'd guess that you have at least played the sequels.

The gold box RPG series: Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, and Pools of Darkness.

These are set in the Forgotten Realms, and using the old AD&D ruleset. They’re very old school and may not be to your liking, but they are classics for a reason. Combat is very tactical, and the story interesting.

BBC - Radio 4 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy https://share.google/rvSbuN9n4gnVMKY2c

Starflight came out in 1986, and if you liked Mass Effect, you should give it a try. IMO it has a deeper and more interesting implementation of the space/planet exploration mechanics, not to mention a solid story to tie it all together.

The UI looks dated, of course, but it's straightforward enough to use. It influenced the Star Control games, another series that holds up (but just barely misses the 1990 cutoff).

Metal Gear 1 & 2

MSX versions. Like from the MGS3 HD Collection.

Playing Wizardry is king of a right of passage. You most likely won't enjoy playing it, but it is worth experiencing in my opinion.

A good place to look for good pre 90s games is the arcade cabinet games. There's a bunch of shumps that are really good and I think smash TV is pre 1990 and is great.

nethack, super startrek (basic), space quest, infocom games, ultima,

one of my favorite games of all time is called Rags To Riches on commodore64. you play a homeless guy getting your life together getting a job and education with very addictive gameplay in my opinion.

there is a pico8 remake you can play oline but the og is better. https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=29519

Dungeon keeper, emperor: rise of the middle kingdom, Rome, theme hospital, zeus/atlantis, pharaoh/cleopatra why yes, i am big on world builders.

Blaster Master

Wasteland. There's a HD version on PC that plays nice with modern systems. No I ain't talking about the weird remake.

Snatcher (1988). Cyberpunk text-heavy adventure by Hideo Kojima. The MSX version was fan-translated and the Mega CD/Sega CD version received an official English localization a few years after the PC88 and MSX versions came out.

Ultima V

E:

Bomb Jack

Klax

Lode Runner

Not BEFORE 1990, but not after either: Stunt Island

For my money, Robotron 2084 and Smash TV are still the best 2 twin-stick shooters of all-time. Recently, we've had games like Assault Android Cactus+ and Nex Machina come close, but the OGs are still untouchable, IMO.

For games that "hold up" look at arcade games. So install mame and go nuts. Or buy one of those cheap "3000in1" arcade joystick systems which plug into your tv. Arcade games really are better played with the arcade "ball stick" and buttons.

Then if you insist on PC, anything by Sid Meier, and then all the quest games by Sierra.

My two favorite arcade games of all time are UN Squadron and Hot Rod

UN Squadron is a side scrolling shooter by Capcom with a solid anime theme. My understanding is it's based on an Anime called Area 88. Quite the quarter eater, but if you like seeing GIANT machines and blasting them with your airplane, give it a go. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.N._Squadron

Hot Rod is a top down racing game by Sega. (The name is so generic that it can be hard to find.) The cool 'hook' on this game was that it was meant to be played with four players standing around a tabletop arcade cabinet, so every player was looking down on the screen. It also had the interesting note that the game never ended, it played much like a campaign where you are championing a racing team. Manage your power-ups, because they break down, and are often the wrong one for the next track (with the artificial difficulty that you can only change 1 part per race). At my home arcade, the difficulty was set low enough that I could loop the game until I got tired of standing, which definitely helped make it one of my go-to games.

I should add - the original version of this game plays kind of slow - there's a lot more focus on car control & driving clean lines. But Sega released a mod chip set for it later that doubled the game speed, which turns it into a 'just hang on & don't hit anything' type of racing. Both are fun, but it's like two different games. https://www.arcade-museum.com/Videogame/hot-rod

Pre-1990, you're mostly looking at the NES library as the go to. The older Atari games I don't think are worth it, outside of the historical context angle.

I'd say give Zelda I and II another shot. They are clunky, as most things from the era will be. But when you engage with them on their own terms, I think they're both really rewarding experiences.Don't be afraid to look for hints, some things can be obtuse - you can probably find old magazines in the Internet archives to reference.

If 1990 exactly counts, Crystalis is a Zelda-like with RPG elements that outdoes Zelda is many ways.

Castlevania is another one that's really great, but very clunky. There's no air control, so once you jump that's your arc. The game challenges are built around that in a satisfying way though.

SMB 1-3 you probably have played before, but if not those hold up.

Even more frictionless, the first 2 or 3 Mega Man games feel just as refined as if they were made today.

Ninja Gaiden is known for challnge, but it also controls super smoothly and feels good to play.

Basically I guess my recs are mostly just explore the NES library. There's some Sega worth checking out and probably TurboGrafx too, but NES had most of the classics.

What kinds of newer games do you generally like?

Xexyz, on the NES, is an underrated gem. It's a mix of platformer and shoot-em-up, and honestly seemed a bit ahead of its time.

A lot of pre-1990 games are pretty clunky, so you kinda have to see them either as someone from the era would or try to appreciate them for what they are today. That being said, a lot of them are still fun with this in mind.

The Gauntlet series is probably my favorite early game. It's better played with 2-4 people, but can be played alone. It's essentially a dungeon crawler, but the levels and enemies are interesting and fun to navigate.

Some other good ones are Dig Dug (pacman but more fun and underground), Galaga or Galaxian (arcade space shooters), Adventure for the Atari 2600 (first rpg and first easter egg in video game history), Rampage (be a giant monster and destroy buildings), 1943 (airplane shmup (shoot em up) with cool powerups and pixel art) and toobin (also a shmup where you're on an inertube and navigate perilous waters. Sounds boring but it has really cool level progression and game mechanics later in the game).

Mega Man 2

Super Mario Bros. 3

Intellivision: Minotaur - Treasure of Tarmin in 1982

Qbert, Space Fury, Looping

First thought was shadowrun on the genesis but the internet says that is 1994 which is really giving me a mandella effect as I really feel it was before that but I mean the genesis came out in 89 and im sure I did not get it till it had a price reduction. So we are talking original master system and nintendo and what limited stuff was on pc including commodores. Maybe wolfenstein and man there was a game based on an manga or anime that was pretty advanced for the time and another were I just remember uncle smoke. gah. reading through I second castelvania. I think shinobi and double dragon (sorta have to play two player to get the full effect)

Star Flight. Really a must-play, and get the run speed down low so you have some suffering on the long trips. Then you get really excited to find a wormhole.

Atari Real Sports Tennis, no lie it’s great

Not everyone's thing, but there are pre-90s shmups that are ok...

Here are some games I've played

• Scramble
• Xevious
• Stinger
• Liquid Kids (excellent)
• NewZealand Story (excellent)
• Rastan
• Omega Fighter
• Growl
• Darius I / II
• Gradius
• X-Multiply
• Contra
• TwinBee

Metal Gear (1987)

Pasted thread into my list of gaming suggestion requests from other communities over at !videogamesuggestions@lemmy.zip, trying to be the Fediverse version of r/gamingsuggestions. Great question!

Controversial take, perhaps, but I don't think there are any games from the 1980s (or earlier) that I think hold up. Wasteland form 1988 is impressive but ugly (and a remaster exists that is better) and other than that, uh...

TLoZ is so utterly hideous that it repulses me. The NES colour palette is just so tremendously ugly.

Tetris is fine, I guess, but I've always found it a bit plain. Much like picking up individual grains of rice with chopsticks it requires skill but as with that it's only your own time you're wasting - unless you enjoy it, which I don't. Or to put it another way - I don't find the core gameplay loop rewarding.

There's plenty of cool stuff from the early '90s but the 1980s are pretty much a case of "it was good when we had nothing better" territory, in my opinion.