PC Best old 90s/2000s pc game?

[diet_orange]

I swear if CD Project Red ever manages to cut a deal with Microsoft to put Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries on GOG you guys won't hear from me for a very long time

 

[eroguro]

When I think in a 2000s game, the first one I remember, is this one:

 

[DjQuick2008]

Post automatically merged: Aug 7, 2025

 

[Segadude113]

 

[DjQuick2008]

 

[zacharinolongpants]

My favorite might be Alpha Centauri. I think it was first released in 1999.

YES. My favorite of those Civ style games by far. Love the writing and setting.

 

[Segadude113]

HERETIC AND HEXEN ARE BACK!

 

[DjQuick2008]

just picked this up on steam i lost hours to this in the 90s titanic was built in my country so always had massive interest in the stories.

 

[diet_orange]

When I think in a 2000s game, the first one I remember, is this one:
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I have the PS1 port. Pretty fun little game

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

I didn't have a PC during that era, so all mine were well after the fact. I really liked most LucasArts adventure games. Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Sam & Max Hit the Road etc.

 

[SherionVane]

View attachment 97999

just picked this up on steam i lost hours to this in the 90s titanic was built in my country so always had massive interest in the stories.

can we kiss rose on that game like movie ?

 

[DjQuick2008]

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can we kiss rose on that game like movie ?

it would be sweet lol apparently this game inspired james cameron for the movie as well

 

[MegaDrive1987]

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I have Theme Hospital installed. CorsixTH.

 

[fthealgorithm]

Dark Souls before Dark Souls

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

There were so many great thing coming out of those years...

Pandemonium!, Strife, Heretic, Hover!, Road Rash, Little Big Adventure, Cyberia, the entire LucasArts catalog... And that's just scratching the surface -- I could be here three hours just listing them all, and I would still fall short :P!

 

[MegaDrive1987]

I loved Vietcong back in 2002, I remember downloading it using Newsbin.

 

[job32]

Well perhaps the most important thing to say about this topic is some old games were way popular at the time compared to how some old games got popular later as if only they were popular. For example when people imagine early days of PC FPS they think Half-Life 1 was some hot shit but I personally disliked the game but instead liked this game lol: https://store.steampowered.com/app/328460/Redline/

And after internet got popular reading reviews it seems like paid reviews created a hype so hard it distorted the reality of people in a way they are biologically programmed to believe "only Half Life 1 was a good FPS at the time on PC" lol. Dude you can even drive cars in Redline and it can shoot too lol. Maps are interesting, fun missions and it doesn't feel like you are buried in six thousand feet underground like Half Life 1 lol.

Other than a FPS game mostly point and click games were popular to people who loved them but it made most people not interested in early days of PC games. At most there were CRPGs but these games made people think "PC gaming is for nerds" so they naturally leaned on arcades and video game consoles for action games. This is the way why that era in gaming is not mentioned much and when people talk about it they just mention the most popular ones that has relation to today like The Elder Scrolls series, Diablo, Doom, et cetera. Otherwise we can talk about The Last Express, Deja Vu: MacVenture Series, Life & Death series, Street Rod series, King's Quest series, Space Quest series, Monkey Island series, et cetera but these games could hardly interest people who never experienced the era because since 2000s video game industry got more focused on generic action games or character drama simulators further so today's people may cannot understand why I seriously played surgery simulator game and had fun thanks to Life & Death series lol. Now people are biologically programmed to believe games are supposed to be some NPC talk and you should care, so when they ask you to bring an item you should otherwise it's the end of the world lol. And then you just always have to kill someone/something between A to B walking and follow direction of some NPC to follow some generic revenge story and/or looking for someone and/or some evil endangering life of many people lol. I assure you video games were beyond this back then lol.

Problem is, if you don't do these quests, potentially you are missing out on a decent bit of equipment that makes the battle smoother. Also, if they aren't obvious villans leading you into a trap, why not? It's the generic repetitiveness in many games is an issue. I prefer the older games mentality. There was more intelligence and imagination. I just wish many of them had the better game controls we have today. Slightly better graphics for some, just slightly for some.

 

[Sheepy765]

I'm a big fan of Killing Floor (2009) and American McGee's Alice (2000)

 

[RETRO-VETRO]

 

[DjQuick2008]

I have Theme Hospital installed. CorsixTH.

I have theme hospital on my laptop too all in 1 dosbox app.

 

[qw90700]

I have theme hospital on my laptop too all in 1 dosbox app.

I have Life & Death series instead as surgery simulator games!!! lol

 

[iamthemilkman]

90s/early-mid '00s was peak PC gaming. After Crysis in 2007, developers no longer pushed PC hardware like they once did. I feel like developers have gotten a lot less ambitious in general, though. They used to talk about physics, AI, etc., now they just talk about prettier graphics, which often means UE5 games with a lot less interactivity than games from 20 years ago. Mafia: The Old Country is the most recent example of that.

 

[MegaDrive1987]

I have theme hospital on my laptop too all in 1 dosbox app.

Have you tried CorsixTX?

 

[sucrose1]

Anyone remember a possibly shareware Windows 98 game?

It featured random procedurally generated 3D landscapes, mostly really tall red mountains and bodies of water, it had draw distance fog, it was your average late 90s 3D game of the day. I'm pretty sure it was a racing and flying game, with cars and planes, I remember the flying physics being tricky, you needed enough speed to actually get some air. I remember the goal being a sort of capture the flag, or deliver objects to the destination under a time limit (think Crazy Taxi).

Does this ring any bells for people here?

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

Anyone remember a possibly shareware Windows 98 game?

It featured random procedurally generated 3D landscapes, mostly really tall red mountains and bodies of water, it had draw distance fog, it was your average late 90s 3D game of the day. I'm pretty sure it was a racing and flying game, with cars and planes, I remember the flying physics being tricky, you needed enough speed to actually get some air. I remember the goal being a sort of capture the flag, or deliver objects to the destination under a time limit (think Crazy Taxi).

Does this ring any bells for people here?

Makes me think of some old Lego games, but I'm not sure that's what you're thinking of