Submitted 1 month ago by Zombiepirate@lemmy.world to retrogaming@lemmy.world
I’m pretty sure Doom will be the most popular (and my pick too), but I’ll throw a shout-out to Epic Pinball; that Android table was the best one in the game anyway.
I think this question just fried my brain. I don’t even know where to start.
Most played shareware of all time though was probably Transport Tycoon.
Was It shareware? Didn’t know it!
I’m still enjoying It with OpenTTD www.openttd.org
The original Transport Tycoon was distributed as shareware, would have been 95 or 96 when I was playing it off a shareware disc.
Not sure if TTD got a shareware release too, but i got that one as a retail boxed version.
But for 94 or 95 if you didn’t have a shareware version then your game was pretty much doomed.
Pinball Fantasies, Raptor, Heretic
Doom, Wolf3d, and Castle of the Winds
Oh my god… epic pinball! I had completely forgotten about this!! Thanks for that hit of nostalgia =)
The music is just as great as you remember.
Quake was awesome, especially since you could play the online multiplayer from the free version.
I was always struck by the similarity to the blue robot on that table to Cyborg from Rise of the Robots and I wonder if there was some cross-pollination there.
He’s actually based on the genie from Aladdin
Jesus, that’s a deep cut.
brave dwarves 1
The graphic design looks so much like Spelunky. Cool!
Realmz
I played a lot of 2 games that nobody I’ve spoken to has ever heard of: Mordor the depths of dejenol Exile escape from the pit Both were great, I think exile had been remade by the programmer with a different title too
There was a Mordor 2 shareware as well. The game never got a full release but laid the foundation for Demise: Rise of the Kutan (2000). The rights to the game were sold to Decklin and they released expansions Ascension (2016) and Revenge of the Tavern Keeper (2024). Demos for Demise and the expansions are available at www.decklinsdemise.com
Wow, that’s awesome, thanks!
There was some bootleg Tetris game I played the hell out of, because it ran on my shitty hand-me-down 286 with dual 5 1/4" floppy drives & no hard disk.
Monster Bash! It was one of the better-playing platformers on the PC back in the day and I loved the halloween aesthetic.
Quake
Jazz Jackrabbit, Jetpack, and Combat Tanks.
We had to be memory experts back then. QEMM FTW!
Comanche: Maximum Overkill, the very first game to use VOXELS, the FUTURE of PC GAMING!
Don’t remember the name of it but it was a Geometry Wars style shooter where the playing field would tilt as you moved. Played a ton of that game.
s38b35M5@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So many great titles in the comments. I’ll add a few of mine:
Jill of the Jungle Zaxxon Heretic (Doom clone) Stellar 7 (can’t recall if shareware or if I just shared it)
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Heretic was more than a Doom clone, it was developed using a modified Doom engine with the participation of Doom developers. It was a clever game in its own right, adding a lot of fresh elements to the then-budding FPS genre.
Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I don’t know if it was their SDK or what, but Epic’s sound design in this era was so good. Jill of the Jungle still stands out to me for that.
Awesomo85@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
All great selections!
I was a fan of all of the Apogee platformers:
Commander Keen Cosmos Cosmic Adventure Monster Bash
Also Lucasfilm games: Loom Maniac Mansion
What a great time for PC gaming!
s38b35M5@lemmy.world 1 month ago
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