Top 10 PC games

  IF you ask old codgers like me, the golden age of PC games was at the end of the 1990s, where home computers got powerful enough to provide next-level experiences. But some believe that the real golden age was the beginning of the 90s, when we saw innovative mechanics from some of the industry’s greatest minds. Hell, other long-time gamers feel that the end of the 80s was the actual best time to play.

Whatever your opinion, there’s one thing we can all agree on: there’s a ton of amazing old games out there just waiting to be re-discovered. Or re-invented. While we often scoff at remakes in the movie world, in gaming bringing a title from the past in line with modern expectations can yield fantastic results. Think about the remastered versions of Grim Fandango or the various Source Engine remakes of classic shooters.

In this feature, we’re going to take a trip back into the floppy disc vaults and come out with 11 titles from PC gaming history that need to make a comeback. From iconic turn-based strategy games to action, FPS, and the indescribable.

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream

The adventure game genre got kind of a bad rap towards the end of the 1990s for offering up illogical puzzles, confusing motivations, and general weirdness. But a few games from the genre still captivate today, and none is as fascinating as I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.

Based on a short story by Harlan Ellison, the 1995 game puts you in the shoes of the last five humans on Earth, being tested by a malevolent supercomputer that has tortured them for over a century. It’s a serious head trip that expertly combines horror, sci-fi, and psychology into something unique. You can play the original on GoG, but a slick remake would be awesome.

The Gold Box Games

We’re going to lump all of these into one entry, otherwise we’d be here all day. When TSR saw how well the Ultima series was selling, they jumped into the PC marketplace with both feet, partnering with SSI to create a pile of Dungeons & Dragons games known collectively as the “Gold Box” series.

These role-playing titles were way ahead of their time, with advanced tactical options for battles and the ability to transfer characters from one game to another. You can run them in DOSBox fine, but a slick, polished version that combined all of the adventures into one massive campaign would be amazing to play through one more time.

Fragile Allegiance

Even though we consider “sandbox games” to be a relatively modern invention, PC game designers have been crafting rich open-ended experiences for decades. 1996’s Fragile Allegiance from Gremlin Interactive was a trailblazing strategy title that put gamers in charge of an upstart mining operation that had to milk resources from a mineral-rich asteroid belt while contending with a number of alien races with the same objective.

A strong focus on diplomacy made this one stand out from the pack, but the game is virtually unplayable on newer Windows machine. Updating it with better graphics and the ability to play as the aliens would bring this epic to a new audience.

Pathways Into Darkness

Bungie is probably going to be busy with Destiny for some time, but what we really want to see is a modern take on one of their most unique games. 1993’sPathways Into Darkness was a Mac-exclusive first-person adventure that blended Doom-style running and gunning with robust puzzle solving and exploration.

As a Special Forces soldier you are tasked with preventing a slumbering Elder God from awakening. A real-time game clock added a sense of urgency to the mission, and a text parser-based dialogue system makes conversations more interesting. A souped-up version could bring all the coolness to a new generation of gamers.

Anachronox

The last days of Ion Storm were some of the most miserable times PC gaming ever saw, with the “dream team” of former Doom developers brought low by their own hubris. Everybody remembers John Romero’s doomed Daikatana, but what about the other Ion Storm game of 2001, Tom Hall’s ambitious console-style RPG Anachronox.

Pushing just about every technical envelope he could, Hall and his team created a unique experience that was critically praised on release. Unfortunately, it was also buggy as hell and didn’t get the commercial success it deserved. A modern remake could bring this charmer up to date and maybe even resolve the cliffhanger ending.

Twilight 2000

Based on a tabletop role-playing game, 1991’s Twilight 2000 is widely regarded as one of the best strategic RPGs of the era. Set in an alternate universe in which NATO and the Soviets waged nuclear war, the game puts you in command of a squad in post-apocalypse Poland taking care of security missions around the region.

Both 3D terrain navigation and isometric turn-based warfare are featured, with a staggering array of weapons and equipment. It’s sort of like a more realisticXCOM, if that appeals to you (it should). The interface is pretty clunky, so a cleaned-up take on the concept would be amazing.

Quarantine

We all think of Grand Theft Auto as the progenitor of the automotive violence genre, but 1994’s Quarantine might have something to say about that. The first-person driving game put you in the seat of a taxi driver in a dystopian future where you had to both pick up and drop off passengers as well as blowing up anybody who screwed with you.

The game required a seriously beefy computer at the time to run well, so it didn’t perform as well financially as the developers wanted. It’s still both seriously fun and uniquely warped, making it a perfect choice for a HD remake with high-poly environments and lots of gore.

Theme Hospital

Simulation games are a dime a dozen on the PC, but a few of them rise above the crowd. Bullfrog’s quirky 1997 Theme Hospital was a huge success when it was released, selling millions of copies, but the franchise didn’t go anywhere after the PlayStation port.

The basic gameplay will be familiar to anyone who dug Prison Architect or similar games, but the goofy sense of humor that Bullfrog brought to the patients coupled with whip-tight mechanics make this one a legend. Better graphics and more optimized code could make this a serious contender in 2016, and although there was a fan group working on something they’ve never made a final release.

Freedom Force

Real-time strategy is a genre that’s going through a bit of a rough patch right now, but a few awesome games could bring it back. Irrational’s 2002 Freedom Force took a more tactical approach to the genre in a way that predated today’s MOBA craze. Players took control of a squad of superheroes with a panoply of awesome powers and let them battle evil in remarkably deep skirmishes.

The variety of abilities made the combat more than just “point at that guy and shoot him,” and the robust character creator let you simulate just about any hero from the funnybooks. A polished-up remake that kept the sense of freedom of the original but added some more multiplayer options could be a huge hit.

Privateer

Sure, Chris Roberts is pretty busy with Star Citizen right now, but no matter what you think of that project, it’s undeniable that his earlier games were pretty incredible. Set in the Wing Commander universe, 1993’s Privateer gave the player a new level of freedom as they traveled the spaceways, letting you engage in trade, rob other ships, or take missions for paying clients.

It’s a concept that has been duplicated dozens of times, but the original nailed it with aplomb. The game saw a sequel in 1996 that’s best noted for its live-action FMV sequences (that was cool back then). If a dedicated developer could take everything awesome about Privateer and make it work for a modern audience, we’d be psyched.

X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter

Star Wars video games have a pretty checkered history, with some very good games and some very bad ones. One of the best was 1997’s X-Wing Vs. TIE Fighter, which let pilots duke it out in two of the franchise’s best-loved spacecraft.

Designed entirely for multiplayer, the game featured both competitive and co-op action. Unfortunately, the netcode was hampered by the technology of the time, which required all player movements to be sent over a Web service, and it was pretty janky. A modernized update that kept the slick controls and excellent mission design coupled with more modern player-to-player interfacing would be the must-have game of the post-Force Awakens era