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.
It’s a simple choice, really, considering how many hours I managed to invest as a kid:
Hail to the King Baby (Duke Nukem 3d)
Scorched Earth
Sky Roads, Test Drive 2, Jill of the Jungle, Halloween Harry, Jetpack, so many great games that I played the hell out of their shareware versions.
We used to play Sky Roads on the school computers all the time. Great game.
Oh boy I loved Jetpack and Skyroads!
I spent a lot of time playing Raptor: Call of the Shadows, a vertically-scrolling shooter with an upgrade system.
There was also Rise of the Triad, a pretty decent Doom-clone
I actually bought the boxed version of the game on 4 separate 3.5" floppies :o
Was in a clearance bin at Toys R Us for like 5 bucks. I remember being so stoked to be able to buy all the different weapons they teased at the end of the shareware episode!
Probably Rise of the Triad.
Pretty sure I even bought the full game and never ended up getting very far. I also remember spending a little chunk of time on Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom, but could never figure it out enough to progress very far.
Edit: Another one I was trying to recall, the name was H.U.R.L.
Loved the Hugo games. The jungle one was probably my favorite up to the point where I needed to find out some trivia question about the name of some person’s dog before the time of Internet.
A couple of people have mentioned Raptor: Call of the shadows, which was an absolute favorite of mine. Skyforce Reloaded is pretty close in terms of gameplay. I wish there were more games out there like Raptor
You try Tyrian? It was like raptor but dialed up to 11 with different planes and an actual storyline :o
There’s a pretty good Android port now! Look up OpenTyrian.
Woah didn’t know about the Android port! Def gonna check it out. Thanks!
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)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.
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.
ITT: everyone had the same “500 games on two CDs!” Shareware compilation CDs that I had growing up.
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours:
I played a lot of TetriNET and Subspace Continuum with my old online community. Great times.
More detail edit: TetriNET walked so Tetris 99 could run. Version 1 does not install on Windows anymore (but has a Linux version). Version 2 works, complete with its archaic user registration that asks for too many details.
Continuum is a large PvP arena Asteroids-like 2D space shooter. It’s on Steam now. Starts tough to control and with a high skill ceiling, so be wary of the veterans. The Death Star Battle map is a blast with a big group. It feels like trying to speed through a narrow maze on bumper boats during a huge battle.
I could not for the life of me get my head into the classic version of subspace. Buuuut Trench Wars was sick AF especially when the server admins set up Zombies! Events on the weekends.
MY DUDE
Save 5 rounds of cash for a death’s head nuke
Shriek “Now tremble before Thor’s Hammer mortals!” to your friends seated around you
Press fire
Accidentally blow yourself up when the wind pushes it back in your direction 🤡
Great game.
Did this exist before or after worms?
Long before
before or after gorilla.bas? i remember there being even old types of this gameplay.
Def after gorilla
I was a huge fan of Solar Winds: The Escape. Cool plot, aliens, dogfights, ship systems management, evil shadow governments, rebels… what’s not to love? It was my introduction to the genre and will always hold a special place
Solar winds blew my mind once I actually figured out all the controls. The universe they built was super cool and I really dug the combat. Can’t count the number of times I got owned by this guy trying to blow him up from the get go.
Who want-a some Wang?!
“I am da Shaddo wahdiyah. Lessuh fight!”
Memory unlocked
Duke Nukem 3D probably. That or Rise of The Triad.
I eventually bought DN in the 90s and played the shit out of it.
RoTT WAS SO FUN! How about heretic, another Doom clone? The chicken weapon was a favorite of mine.
Heretic 1 and 2 were great fun