For some reason I have recently felt the urge to play some classic PC games but sadly I am to young to know which are the good and which are the bad any ideas?

I think @ArbitraryWater is uniquely qualified to answer this.

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/kidavenger/pc-gaming-classics/46-74143/

@Kidavenger: That's a good jumping-off point, but kinda limited. I have too many to list, but maybe try Descent? There is a good source port, though I can't recall the name at the moment...

The sims 1 :)

A list of Good Ole Games 5 star games.

http://www.gog.com/mix/the_best_gog_can_offer_5_star_rated_games_only

If I were to only snag 5 games, they'd be:

Freespace 2 (Huge mod community. The SCP has an installer that lets you pick and chose mods. It then downloads and installs them. Super slick and one of the best in the space-sim genre.)

Baldur's Gate (1+2+expansions) Its regarded as the best CRPG of all time.

Planescape Torment. Regarded as the best CRPG of all time.

Fallout 1/2. Regarded as the best CRPG of all time.

Total Annihilation My personal favorite RTS. Of all time.

@GreggD:

Duke Nukem, I think everyone should play it at least once. Serious Sam was also really fun. Sim City, any of them. The System Shock series. Sims 1 or 2. Unreal Tournament 2004. Deus Ex. Call of Duty 1 and 2. Grim Fandango. Morrowind. Sid Meirs PIRATES! Civ 1,2,3. Fallout 1 and 2. X-Com. Turok.

@BillyTheKid: All of those are excellent, and ones I had considered mentioning. And yes, that is indeed the one! Thank you. :)

Even though I'm only 15 I have a love for many classics. I highly suggest Baldur's Gate as it was one of the major genre defining games of the RPG genre. It is like midway between playing a modern RPG (Say, oblivion) and sitting at a table playing D&D.

Depending on what sort of time you have, Ultima VII is pretty incredible. Imagine an isometric version of Skyrim, but with about a bazillion times more depth.

@Zelyre said:

Total Annihilation My personal favorite RTS. Of all time.

Listen to this. The man speaks the truth.

@jeffrud said:

Depending on what sort of time you have, Ultima VII is pretty incredible. Imagine an isometric version of Skyrim, but with about a bazillion times more depth.

This. Ultima VII blew my mind the first time I played it. YOU CAN BAKE BREAD AND SHIT.

@GreggD: No problem. I saw it on some youtubers channel and it seemed intersecting and I happened to remember it! :|

Also anything ID made up until Doom 3, and anything Blizzard have made ever is GOLDEN. You just can not go wrong.

@BillyTheKid said:

@GreggD: No problem. I saw it on some youtubers channel and it seemed intersecting and I happened to remember it! :|

Also anything ID made up until Doom 3, and anything Blizzard have made ever is GOLDEN. You just can not go wrong.

...including Doom 3? Right? I mean, you can skip out on Rage, it's good but not terribly memorable, but Doom 3 is pretty awesome.

Anyway, you should play:

• Deus Ex
• System Shock 2
• Doom 1 and 2
• Quake 3
• Half-Life
• Thief 2
• Planescape Torment
• Baldur's Gate 2
• (Probably one of the Ultima games. Fuck 90's RPG's, this shit startedin the '80's).

@believer258: Ya dude, I liked Doom 3. It was a different type of game but good in it's own right. And there was some pretty bitchin' mods.

Any of the LucasArts adventure games.

Psst, over here.

Alpha Centauri. It's on GOG. The drones need you.

@GreggD: I appreciate the sentiment that I am somehow qualified to answer this question.

In any case, if you want to go down the classic PC hole, that means Strategy and that means RPGs. Thus, I'll go with my standard: Fallout series, Might and Magic series, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, Age of Wonders, and Temple of Elemental Evil.

@ArbitraryWater: Honestly, if I had a question of anything between DOS and Windows XP, you'd be my go-to.

@TheFreepie: i am 15 as well and i am trying to grow a strong appreciation for classic pc games

thanks to everyone i have a big list of games to play now also i was wondering if Hexen was worthing digging into

@christopherson329 said:

thanks to everyone i have a big list of games to play now also i was wondering if Hexen was worthing digging into

Heretic/Hexen was super awesome for it's day. I don't think it's really aged well, though.

Doom stands the test of time because the core gameplay is simplistic. Heretic/Hexen built on Doom's gameplay and added gameplay mechanics that at the time were different. Even for its time, I felt some of the level design was weird. In Doom, I always felt like I was on a space station or some weird, other-world. In Hexen/Heretic, there were some maps that were too ambitious. They tried to create villages and towns that just seemed... off.

If you want more Doom/Doom 2 gameplay, you'll get that and a bit of growing-pain jank on the side.

Also, I'm not sure where you can get a copy of this legally, but TIE Fighter and the expansion packs were fan-fucking-tastic.

Plenty of good choices in here. I think the big milestones are worth it. Doom(i would just go with doom 2), Sims, A civ game, fallout 1, etc.

When you say 'classic', what exactly are we talking here? All good stuff from the 20th century? I made a somewhat relevant list a while back, but I'll put the most important ones here. Observe, the wonders of the (mostly late) 90's:

Some of my personal favourites aside from the super obvious stuff like Fallout, Doom, Half-Life, Baldur's Gate, etc.

• Monkey Island 1-3
• Heroes of Might & Magic 1-3
• C&C: Red Alert 1 & 2
• Day of the Tentacle
• Age Of Empires 2
• Worms Armageddon
• Deus Ex
• Sam & Max: Hit the Road
• Rollercoaster Tycoon
• Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Oddworld: Abe's Exodus

Mech Commander

Starcraft

Total Annihilation

All 90s games that still hold up tremendously well today and are quite easy to get working on Windows 7.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is available through Steam. Really good classic CRPG with some updated graphics and content. Unless of course you are willing to brave the wilds that is the un-enhanced edition. (which is good too, and cheaper!!!).

As others have suggested, go to gog.com and become engulfed the sheer amount of awesome games that site has. You can almost never go wrong over there.

which duke nukem (dont say duke nukem forever to fuck with me)

Police Quest. And the EGA/CGA version. Typing interface games were awesome!!

I suggest you start with System Shock 2. Might be my personal Best Game Ever. After that, try out System Shock 2. At this point it gets difficult, I'd probably go System Shock 2, then System Shock 2, THEN System Shock 2. It's a crazy order, I know, just trust me.

Seriously though, people have given plenty of sterling suggestions thus far. To add a little flavor, I'd say give Theme Hospital a try. It's really my favorite type of "management" game, and I thought for a long time I was the only one who loved it. :)

I'd also suggest the Quest for Glory series, but part of me is afraid it didn't age well, I haven't played it recently to see. QFG1 and 2 had some of my favorite early gaming moments.

I'd also suggest you try to jump from genre to genre. There's great stuff in EVERY genre, and I wouldn't want you to get burned out on strategy games.

1. System Shock 2
2. Heroes of Might and Magic III
3. Fallout 1
4. Baldur's Gate (I or II or even Planescape:Torment - just pick one of the RPGs)
5. One of the Space Faring games (Freespace, etc.)

I just realized that's probably 300 hours of gaming already. ;)

Well, I'll second all of the Baldur's Gate II and Planescape rec's. Try Ultima VII: The Black Gate - the combat is utterly terrible, but the world is phenomenal and really fun to explore. It's pretty much an adventure game with some RPG elements sprinkled on top, and it all comes together really nicely. Also, use this http://exult.sourceforge.net/ to play the game in a decent resolution and just in case the versions from GOG or "elsewhere" don't work for you at all. Just beware that there is an awful bug that comes along with it that deletes random items, though it's relatively rare.

If you like that, try going further back into the Age of Enlightenment trilogy (Ultima IV, Ultima V, and Ultima VI). I'm currently going through IV and it's incredible what these games are capable of considering the time.

@ArbitraryWater said:

@GreggD: I appreciate the sentiment that I am somehow qualified to answer this question.

In any case, if you want to go down the classic PC hole, that means Strategy and that means RPGs. Thus, I'll go with my standard: Fallout series, Might and Magic series (IV, V, VI), Heroes of Might and Magic series (III), Baldur's Gate (II), Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment, Age of Wonders, and Temple of Elemental Evil.

Bolded and noted the ones I think are particularly worth playing.

which duke nukem (dont say duke nukem forever to fuck with me)

X-Wing and TIE Fighter.

Is The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind old enough for this discussion? I don't think anyone would argue against it being a classic regardless of its age.

You can get the Game of the Year edition for $20 on Steam. Add the Morrowind Overhaul 3.0 and BTB Game Improvement mods and you'll be set. I'm thinking of doing this myself, actually.

@MarkWahlberg: which version of Myst should i buy

I went back to Starflight 2 Trade routes of the Cloud Nebulawhich is onGOG (sold in a two pack of Starflight 1 & 2) this year. It came out the year I was born so it was before my time. It was by far the funniest game I played in 2012.

Anything that used the SCUMM engine.

You should check out any of the old Sierra "Quest" games. Personally I would recommend Quest for Glory, but all of them are great.Other than that I would say Larry, Monkey Island, X-Com and the early GTAs. Oh, and Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Think that's pretty much the highlights of my childhood (except CS, SC, Doom and Diablo which are sorta outdated at this point). Damn, almost forgot Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper. I should just stop thinking about all the great games I played as a youth =/

@christopherson329: Do you mean which game in the series, or which version of the original, since that's been ported six ways to Sunday? I can't say conclusively which port is best, I played the realMyst version on PC which was good.

As for where to start with the series, I would normally suggest Uru since it's a little easier to get into IMO, but that's not a 'classic' game so you might as well start with the first. Riven is a little more interesting but also WAAAYY harder.

There are so many, you're request for classic games is vague as classic could mean 5-20 years ago.

I'll say as far as Myst goes, do yourself a favour and grab one of the more recent Zork games instead, way more character. I found Myst to be amazingly bland when it came out as far as adventure games at the time.

Anything by bullfrog.

FPS don't age well but you might as well pick the biggest of the time and go with Quake or something.

People mentioning baldurs gate etc, you can pickup the anniversary version on steam right now that might be worth looking at?

RTS age a little better but still show age. I would say you should give Sacrifice a crack, it's one of the greatest games made as far as i'm concerned, is still fun, has heaps of character and there are really few games at all like it. It's probably like 5 bucks on GOG.com

Really GOG.com is the best place to start for classic pc games that you can easily run on a modern computers, just head over there and click around looking at the best rated.

Day of the Tentacle

@boj4ngles said:

Day of the Tentacle

Fuuuuuuck yes.

Half-Life

The Longest Journey

Doom 1 and 2

Quake 1 - 3

No One Lives Forever 1 and 2

Deus Ex

Balder's Gate 2

I personally feel Dungeon Keeper simply must be played by everyone. That and Theme Hospital are two of the greatest games I played growing up and I still play them every so often now. Also Sim Golf.

@Winternet said:

@Zelyre said:

Total Annihilation My personal favorite RTS. Of all time.

Listen to this. The man speaks the truth.

Don't forget Dark Reign! Also an amazing RTS, though maybe more a perfection of the Command & Conquer style of RTS than something entirely new and unique like Total Annihilation was (and in many ways, remains).

@Poyples said:

Also Sim Golf.

Maybe more specifically Sid Meier's Sim Golf. There was another Sim Golf a few years prior, which is nowhere near as ambitious. For some reason the 1995 game is much easier to find in stores than the 2002 game.

Oregon Trail.

Also, Half-Life and Sim City 2000.

Oh, and it's a "Diablo-clone," and some may suggest playing the source of inspiration rather than the derivative, but I think Divine Divinity is a interesting and challenging RPG. You can pick it up on GOG for like $5.

Descent I-III are not only hard as hell single-player games, they are great on multiplayer/co-op as well. All of the games have a huge list of maps available for multiplayer matches as well as single-player. There are mods that lets you run the I-II games on modern machines without much problems.

Another game that I would recommend is: Sports Car GT (The predecessor of rFactor). At the time it had great simulation physics and not to mention, it also has a large number of mods available for it as well.