this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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Patient Gamers

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I noticed that pretty much all games I played in my life have been released after 1990. So now I'm asking those with earlier experience here:
Which games can you recommend from before that time?

But: they should still be fun in their own right and not just interesting to play in an historian sense of trying to understand how genres developed.

Games I played that are older than 1990:

  • Tetris (classic for a reason)
  • Pacman (interesting but simple)
  • Prince of Persia (was too young to understand how to correctly play this game, I should maybe try to play it again)
  • The Legend of Zelda (too old school and clunky for my liking)
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[–] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

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.