Top 10

Today we go back to the 90’s and find some computer games that I played over and over again

MY TOP TEN OLD SCHOOL COMPUTER GAMES!

I’m skipping consol games, only because we didn’t get a consol until late in the N64 cycle, and thus missed out on most of the video games from then.

FIRST: A couple of honorable mentions.

Jill of the Jungle-a fun little platformer with shapeshifting puzzle rooms.

Duke Nukem-another platformer that was great fun, and the replay factor was very high.

Pipedream-a puzzle game where you tried to make a path for the slime though the pipe pieces given.

Wolfenstein-Doom for the WWII crowd, I didn’t play this one so much as navigate for other playing.

Sim Farm-Run your own farm!  What not to love, besides escaped animals, buggy fields, encroaching towns, and polluted water supply?  It was a fun little diversion, though

And now... 

Number 10:

Sim Ant

This game was great.  I loved sending new colonies out, and letting them expand territory, and thus winning the game without actually having to do any of the heavy lifting.  Plus there was the whole sending out an army of ants to kill a caterpillar, or even better, the dastardly spider!

Number 9:

Oregon Trail

It was so sad, losing members to dysentery, and yet, that was the norm in this game many kids were forced to play in school.  And once we realized it was fun, we couldn’t wait to play it again and again!  Going hunting, fording rivers, and fending off disease were par for the course in this interactive history lesson.  Sure, anyone could beat it as the banker, with one extra person, but if you could do it as a teacher with 6 party members, you were the Oregon Trail star!

Number 8:

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

The world may never know where she ended up, but we loved trying nonetheless!  From Italy to Columbia, Japan to Canada, the tricky lady sent her lackeys all over the place, and trying to figure out where they were without resorting to cheating by looking up the answers was one of the best ways to spend an afternoon.  In looking back, the clues are rather obvious, but to an eight year old, it was super tricky, and really fun.

Number 7:

The Incredible Machine

This was another game introduced at school, but had mad replayability at home in my free time.  I remember making a basic square room, and nearly filling it with the super balls, and just watching the bounce and ricochet everywhere…I could be amused for ages.  And the actual gameplay itself was pretty fun as well, solving scenarios with minimal items and just a few clues as to how to do it.

Number 6:

Roller Coaster Tycoon

Ahh, the joys of building your own theme park.  Attempting to build a roller coaster that wouldn’t kill people with g-force while simultaneously not bore them to tears.  Setting the janitors around on precise paths so as to optimize throw up clean up.  Dragging one random sim to a single tile of path to have him wander endlessly for all time, waving and getting terribly pissed…oh, that was just me?  Never mind, then!  This game had endless replayability, and the sheer number of ways you could kill sims was truly macabre.

Number 5:

Stunts

The terrible graphics.  The loopdie-loops.  The indy car going through a random town.  This game had everything you could want in a racing game.  Even though it required a stupid pass key to log in, it was still the most fun racing game I remember playing.  We first saw it on a trip to Washington state to visit family, and we brought it back for all the cousins to play at every family gathering after that .  It was fantastic fun.

Number 4:

Commander Keen 4e

I played this game soooo much, and yet, I don’t think I ever beat it even once.  The underwater levels always threw a wrench in my plans, those stupid bug fish got me every time.  But even if I couldn’t beat it, there was that great game of pong in the start menu, and the woggily eye creatures were terribly fun to stomp on all the time.  The original game was enjoyable, but it had nothing on this sequel.

Number 3:

Command and Conquer: Red Alert

Killing Commies was never so fun.  I loved building up the tesla defense, and building tons of planes to kill the enemies by air, so as to avoid man-to-man combat whenever possible.  I always hated losing my little guys.  Getting the nukes, and the V4 rockets were also a highlight of this fun RTS game. 

Number 2:

Mixed-Up Mother Goose

Yet another game first played at school, Mixed-Up Mother Goose was amazing.  Putting all the nursery rhymes back together, and beating your previous times was just great.

And finally... 

NUMBER 1:

Sim City 2000

I LOVED this game.  I remember making the perfect map, a flat piece of dirt with a perfectly straight shoreline for optimal sim building placement.  My rows were neat and organized little lines, and by the time I got to the arcologies, everything was exactly as I wanted it.  AND THEN!  After you build enough of the right arcos, they all launched into space!  This game was so amazing.  Every time I beat it, I just went and build another city exactly like the last…I think I had a problem.

And that’s my list!  Did I forget your favorite game?  Should I have put something else on top?  Let me know in the comments!