I still play the arcade-style Tetris and Asteroids.
I still play the naval warfare simulator Harpoon, which was released in 1989 (and I bought it that same year) though it’s been updated as recently as 2007 according to Wiki.
I still play an updated version of Empire, first release in 1977. It’s a turn based game something like a more complex version of Risk or Axis & Allies.
I still break out Broderbund’s 1984 classic The Ancient Art of War and its sequel, The Ancient Art of War at Sea. Great games, both, and still hold up pretty well (there was also War in the Skies, but I never played it). Thank you, DOSBox!
It’s a bit later than the examples so far, but I still play these:
Master of Magic (1994)
Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999)
Civilisation IV (2005)
The only games I play are seriously freaking ancient. (Well, because it takes me 2 or 3 decades to get the hang of any given computer game, I find them perplexing and offputting for the most part).
I’m currently working my slow way through Deja Vu. I’m using a cheat sheet.
With regularity, I’d have to say the Baldur’s Gate games.
Every few years I’ll get a hankering to blow the dust off my really old games. A couple of years ago I revisited the Ultima series, starting at the beginning. So that goes back to 1980. Around the same time I went through the first four (five) Might and Magic games (1986-1993) as well.
You sound like my oldest brother. Pretty sure the only computer games he’s played have been Tetris and Beast.
I play several of the classics, they are at this point as much nostalgia as the fact they are still pretty darn good games:
Downloaded TIE Fighter from GOG, I think that’s a 1995 game. Play it regularly.
Used to play Wesson’s TRACON all the time up until Windows 8, had even created a DFW area map but it’s an 8-bit game and Windows 8 (64) hates it. Can’t even get it to work in DOSBOX. Not sure what year it came out, though, thinking early 90’s.
Lords of the Realm 2 (1996) is still fun and runs great.
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981) and the aforementioned The Ancient Art of War. But I end up playing these through abandonware or online sites nowadays. I think the original floppys are floating around the house somewhere but it’s easier just to go online.
Now that I think about it some, I have Panzer General (1994) and Doom (1993) somewhere, both on CD. I need to boot those up and play again.
Since we are talking old games, does anyone remember an NFL game from the late 80’s? We played it all the time through college, had a league for a while (You could use a text editor to update players and their stats).
You were essentially just the coach. You could call plays and make substitutions, even edit the teams, but in the game, once you called the play the computer simulated it and you had no control over the outcome. The graphics where just X’s and O’s moving on screen and text at the bottom telling you what happened.
On my Atari 2600 emulator, my son took a shining to Combat (1977) so it’s in our regular rotation.
I’m currently replaying Homeworld Remastered. It’s a remake of Homeworld, from 1999. There are a few modifications from the original, but it’s largely intact, down to the clunky interface.
I typically run through System Shock 2 every couple of years. It was published in 1999 as well. There’s some recent news that may prompt another replay.
I played through System Shock (1994) this year as well. Speaking of clunky interfaces, this one makes the Homeworld interface outright elegant.
Harpoon was mentioned upthread. I loved that game but have never been able to find a copy since the old disks got corrupted. I’ve recently picked up Command, which is supposed to be a modern version of that classic.
Nope, this had absolutely zero images. The only animation were X’s and O’s and you had a football field that showed where you were on the field while you (and another player) were using the keyboard to select plays.
Digging around, I found it. XOR NFL Challenge. It’s up on YouTube. That’s old school gaming.
Hunt the wumpus.
Ok, I actually haven’t played it in years. But only a few years. But the only reason I played it then was to show somebody else what it was and what I grew up on.
I’ll second the Baldur’s Gate 1/2 (1998-2002?). I’m coming back to it every year or so.
I go back to Angband every few years and while the newest versions of it may not be all that old, the original Moria that started it all is from 1983. I can’t stand ancient graphics and old crappy UIs despite playing computer games for the last 30 years but neither is a problem with a proper ASCII roguelike.
On the other hand I tried to go back to EQ1 after playing it ridiculous amounts from 2002 to 2004 but even nostalgia couldn’t overcome the bad interface or the count-the-polygons-with-your-fingers -graphics. I lasted maybe 2 hours before I couldn’t continue. Some of my friends who started at the same time in early 2002 are still playing it though.
Holy shit I used to play that game! Looking at it now it seems comically primitive, and it was, but it was still fun.
I love that it was literally X’s and O’s playing each other.
Wow, look at those divisions! The Rams were still in LA, the Seahawks were in the AFC, the Cards were, inexplicably, in the NFC East.
Zork
Since college in the 1980’s: on your calculator, type “1++” and then look at your watch. Press “=” as many times as you can within 10 seconds and see how high the number will be. I think my record is 51.
I still played Pacman absolute in computer.
Another vote for this one.
ETA : also, I decided this year to play all the elder scrolls games (in fact, I never finished any game of this serie, even though I started many), so I’ve been playing Arena from time to time this year. Also from 1994. But I’m not considering it a great game, contrarily to Master of Magic, so I won’t play it again, while I regularly feel like playing MoM.