I'm looking for games but the new games won't run well on my computer. I know some stuff about video games but not a huge amount. What are some old games you still play? They don't have to be super popular.
Thanks!
What games from more than 20 years ago do you still play?
Warcraft 3 is over 20 years old as well, but I forget how it works with the reforged version. That might run poorly.
The current battlenet version also takes up freaking 30GB of space, even without "upgrading" to reforged (it downloads the HD assets regardless but won't use them)
So you gotta get WC3 from a disk or figure out a way to download an older version
Some ppl got together on sc2 custom and completely rebuilt warcraft 3 using the sc2 engine. I think its called 'Azeroth Reborn' or something like that
Only upto end of reign of chaos so far, but it's real fun, especially with some extra QoL stuff like uncapped levels for grommash levels, and unlimited controll groups.
You dont have to play with reforged graphics. You can swap. Anyone playing the multiplayer aspect uses the old graphics.
Anyone?
Uhh, I play MP and keep the new graphics
Love Empire Earth!
Empire Earth 2 is still my favorite rts. The cd just lives in my disc drive.
ATTACK WITH SHARPENED STEEL
The settlers 1, 2 and 3
Tried replaying those games but they're so simple. Just set up the simple building chains and thats it.
Just curious with all the RTS games, why not Starcraft: Brood War? It's probably one of the most well made older RTS games.
Star Trek Armada… damn that brings me back. My ol man never really played video games but he loved ST Armada. I haven’t been able to get it running for him anymore. Any tips?
The GoG.com version works pretty well on Windows 10, it's $10. The only bugs I found thus far are in the Romulian first mission, only build one starbase or the mission won't end, and in borg mission 2 dont use a transwarp gate.
Ooof HOMM3 still ba bomb ost 🔥
A fellow man of culture I see
Deus Ex 1
System Shock 2
Diablo 1 and 2
Quake 1 and 2
This looks like a list from my generation of PC gamers.
I grew up playing these types of games, I think at least Quake is a boomer shooter but I love the old style of fps games and I absolutely adore Diablo 1 and 2 over the new ones even if the new ones don’t bother me lol but the soundtracks for all of these live rent free in my head :)
Just wanted to say I played Deus Ex 1 for the first time in 2023 and it became one of the best games I've ever played. It shot to the #4 position in my personal list of favorite games.
A true person of culture.
tips Necromancers' Bone Helm
Half-Life
Unreal Tournament '99 (or the Unreal series in general, though UT3 isn't quite 20 yet)- with the thousands of custom maps, modes, weapons, skins, and the (large number of) bots you can customize and play against, it's got tons of replayability. https://unrealarchive.org/index.html
Yes! Was totally going to say this. It has run on every computer I threw at it. Personally I recommend Unreal ‘98 (the original) and Unreal Tournament 2004
The original Unreal is so good. I honestly like '99 better than '04, but '04 is pretty good too. We uhh, don't talk about '03.
The OG was ground breaking for me as a kid. Game was amazing. Story was good and spooky enough too.
UT3 was a huge disappointment for me back in the day. Felt like a crappy fps engine with nice textures pasted on top.
Does UT 99 run well? I had success running it about a decade ago but when i checked in on it a few years ago had difficulty running it.
Morrowind
Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
Icewind Dale
Planescape Torment
Fallout 1 & 2
Wasteland
Deus Ex
Arx Fatalis
Doom 1 & 2
Quake 1 & 2
Diablo 2
Half Life 1 & 2
Gothic 1 & 2
I won't even begin to list the SNES, GBA, etc. titles
Love how you skipped a line before continuing after Morrowind. As someone who possibly has 7 years real time in game, I understand completely. The rest are games, Morrowind is a portal.
Morrowind
GTA 3rd gen
GTA what now
3rd Gen: 3, Vice City, San Andreas; games of the generation before GTA4
Crazy to think MULTIPLE gtas dropped during one generation now we’ve gone an entire generation without a new gta
You can thank GTA online, Same thing happened with Bethesda we dont have Elder scrolls or Fallout because of online versions
That and the massive increase in development time and cost.
3rd gen
Morrowind is still the best game Bethesda ever made imo.
Half life 2 is turning 20 this year. Very good game
No it isn't. Delete this comment. Half-Life 2 is still a brand new innovative game.
the source engines sheer modability keeps it alive. how many products in this day and age come with a toolkit just specifically if you want to build your own custom version of it???
So true. How many 90$ games can pride themselves of that. Disgusting behavior from game companies.
hopefully Gaben's grandchildren will make Half Life 3
Also it took 6 years to go from HL1 to 2 and at the time people thought it was a ridiculously long development time, down to calling it vaporware.
Ah how naive we were innit
Maybe the 3 stands for the year 3000
Is RuneScape 20 years old yet? Lol I still play osrs
23 years old 💀
Damn I’m old
I jumped back on last month and am not regretting a single shrimp caught
The original Deus Ex.
Battle for Wesnoth
You can find it on steam, it's completely free to play and if you're into strategy/tactics type games (ala Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, etc) you can get a ton out of this game. It's been developed for 10+ years I believe and has a small fan base and ton of custom content and mods you can find in-game
It also should be able to run on absolutely anything but on the off chance it doesn't, their website let's you download older versions without their newer art and sprite work
It's my go to suggestion for a game you can get a ton out of that I don't think gets talked about as much as it should especially considering it's free and again has a ton of content, official and fan made
Wesnoth
20+ years
Well I didn't need to hear that today lol
Wow, never heard of this and it sounds exactly like my kind of game. Thank you!
I'm shocked I've never heard of this game! I'll be checking it out, thanks man
It’s kind of heart to believe the haven’t even tried to monetise it in any way. They could make lots. Kudos and respect to the devs
While I consider myself a bad player I absolutely love Battle for Wesnoth, it is a shame that I dont have time to play on PC and the mobile port is very bad since you kinda have to control everything like you were on pc
I love this game and need more people to play with, thank you for mentioning it
I play a bunch of old fighting games on fightcade. I also like a lot of CAVE's old shmups.
Even a very bad computer can run most new 2d indie games, so I think your selection might be broader than you think.
My kin right here. I rock Last Blade 2 on FC2. Easily one of the most beautiful 2D fighters and is now 25 years old.
FFIX and X
Tactics for me
FFX is still one of the best stories ever put out there by a video game I wish I could forget it and play it again it. God tier for me.
Aoe2 of course.
And sometimes D2, with my original offline characters from the first day of the expansion
Chrono Trigger.
Heroes of might and magic 3 Diablo 2 Age of empires 1 and 2
Mgs2 sons of liberty
I hear it's amazing when the famous purple stuffed bworm with the tuning fork, does a raw blink on hara-kiri rock! I need Scissors! 61!
Gothic 1 and 2
Replaying them every year.
I would recommend daggerfall unity It's the remastered version of daggerfall and it's free
As is the original version, if your computer can't handle the Unity version.
- Mega Man Classic, X and Zero series.
- Legacy of Kain series
- Silver
- Outlaws
- Full Throttle
- Doom 1 and 2
- Diablo 1 and 2
Full throttle and tie fighter was my life in 96!!! Also playing leisure suit Larry 5 with my dad lol
So sad the new legacy of kain is probably cancelled.
All the old LucasArts adventure games are worth playing. Not sure what the state of loaders/emulators is currently (I assume the Steam/GoG versions run on Windows just fine), or where the best walkthroughs are... (Yes, you'll need a walkthrough.) Don't miss:
The Dig
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Legacy of Kain
i still sometimes wonder if the coin i've just flipped will land on its edge
Starcraft. Every 6 to 7 years I jump back in and play it from the beginning
YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!
I do this for Aiur!
Is it not “my life for Aiur”? That’s what it’s been in my head for awhile now lol.
Lol, it would have absolutely destroyed me if "My life for Aiur" was a Mandela effect
Goliath Online
Terran #1 🤣
First time I trained a Goliath I was like this is all I'm building from now on. Damn they were cool.
Then I got the siege tank mission and my tank transformed.
Then I got brood war and Goliaths could shoot a mile away.
Brb going to play this again
En Taro Adun, Executor
Unreal tournament 2004!
Man, I can not believe it has been almost 20 years. I still remember clearly when my friend and I brought our desktop computer to have a LAN party overnight. Unreal Tournament, Warcraft and DnD were a sweet golden time in my childhood.
Roller coaster tycoon
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 is just as good, and both versions benefit from OpenRCT, which adds some QoL stuff.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1-3.
* Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 (the originals, not EE)
* Deus Ex 1
* Stellar Frontier (niche asteroids/rts cross)
* Need For Speed Most Wanted (the one from 2005)
* Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Would play if I could run/bypass copy protect: SimLife, Prince of Persia, Summer Challenge, Eye of the Beholder, Menzoberranzan
Why not the EE? I just got started on it, having never played before, and choose the EE.
Also wondering this. QoL added and original game unchanged. Runs better on modern systems and can even play on tablets. Seems like a win/win/win?
Havent played myself, but i know a few of the cutscenes that were 'upgraded' are different than their originals, and have a bit of a different atmosphere to them as a result. There probably other changes someones unhappy about as well.
Need for speed mw was my favorite game to play as a kid. I got so good at it, that my older brother would make me help him escape the cops.
I spent hours designing each car, i wish there was a modern graphics remake.
Halo.
Idk why Halo isn't higher 💀
Oh shit that is over 20 years old already!? I’ve never felt older
Age of Empires 2 and Half Life 1
And Half Life 2.
And Half Life..... wait, what comes after 2 again?
A lot. I'm an old-school RPG enjoyer. I was too young to play most of these when they came out, but they hold up very well. Some of them are amongst my favorite games of all time.
Fallout 2
Baldurs Gate 2
Dwarf Fortress
Morrowind
Icewind Dale 2
Neverwinter Nights 2
Planescape Torment (the greatest RPG of all time)
Oblivion
Gothic II (probably held up the worst, controls are jank. But great game all the same.)
KOTOR
Diablo 1&2
Divine Divinity
Morrowind and Oblivion
Oblivion is only 18 years old.
Hey! I can recommend some of my childhood games:
Stronghold
Age of Empires 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 + 4
Caesar 3
Stronghold! I love the first two games. So good and so refreshing and being obsessed with AOE games and Command and Conquer games.
Someone mentionning Heroes 4 ! Yay !
I play Heroes 3 (HOTA) pretty often. It's still a gem to play against other people.
Considering I was only 1 20 years ago none But I do like black and white2 which is quite old not sure how old it is
Well it’s 19, so right there. Great game btw.
counter strike 1.6
Thief 1 and 2
Heroes 3 and Crimsonland
Heroes 3
I mean. Old School RuneScape isn’t quite 20 years old, but almost.
Older Pokemon games, Paper Mario, Phantasy Star Online, Halo, Age of Empires 2 (though I play DE which isn't very old)
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne -- Mostly the custom games and tower defenses. I don't own the "new" reforged one, soo there is that to mention!
GTA 3, Diablo 2 Lod, Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Re-Volt
Planescape Torment
WoW
How do you know “new” games won’t run well on your computer? Is it an OS concern? Graphics requirement concern? CPU? Something else?
I liked mafia 1 de and it should be the same as the original
Runescape
Ff9🤘
I’ve been playing Pokemon Red in my phone a bunch lately!
RollerCoaster Tycoon
World of warcraft
Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2
Bejeweled + 2 is turning 20 late this year
Eta: there's a website called gog (good old games) that has a lot of older games.
World of Warcraft lmao
Diablo 2
None at the moment. The closest would be Okami which had its 18th anniversary less than two months ago.
Gta 3, VC, and San Andreas.
Lineage 2
PS2 classics
Heroes of might and magic 3, and Spiderweb software franchise.
PC specs would help narrow down what you can run and help with recommendations.
Command & Conquer series is a good one. Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert have unofficial patches which allow them to run better on newer (and older) systems. Any classic RTS or economic sim/city builder should run fine. C&C, Warcraft, StarCraft, Caesar III, Pharoh, Zeus, The Settlers 2-4, 5 or 6 even. Though 4 is my favorite.
Source ports for classic games are worth looking into as well. There are source ports for Commander Keen series (Commander Genius) that have optional graphics upgrades for a few games, along with several Keen games being freeware and downloadable from within the app. Blake Stone (BStone) which signifucantly upgrades the game to run in full motion, and has an HD texture pack for Aliens of Gold now on Nexus. GZDoom, eDuke32, openXCOM, Ur-Quan Masters HD, and several others floating around.
Then there's Dosbox. Which is quite versatile once you become proficient in .conf editing. You can also configure Falcosoft MIDI Player or Coolsoft Virtual MIDI Synth to alter the music in Dosbox games with soundfonts which mimic real vintage audio hardware, or other soundfonts which just sound cool. That goes for GZDoom and eDuke32, as they support soundfonts natively.
Other low spec/vintage PC games I enjoy:
Mexican Motor Mafia (free)
Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies (WinXP only)
KISS: Psycho Circus
Nox
Dungeon Keeper 2
Mageslayer
Survival Crisis Z
Dark Reign
Dark Reign 2
Newer games that might run:
Hollow Knight (maybe)
SteamWorld Dig 2
Dandara: Trials of Fear
Rogue Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
Kingdom: New Lands
Kingdom: Two Crowns (maybe)
Swords of Ditto: Mormo's Curse
Wonder Boy and The Dragon's Trap
Yoku's Express
Moonlighter
Wayward v1.9.4 (free)
Heroes of Might and Magic II.
Might and Magic 6 -The Mandate of Heaven.
Might and Magic 7 - For Blood and Honor.
Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9.
Age of Mythology
Disgaea
EverQuest
World of warcraft
halo, halo 2 (technically 20 years this year) diablo, WWF No Mercy
Diablo 1-2
Daggerfall
Doom 1-2
Warcraft 2-3
Baldur's Gate 1-2
Starcraft
Age of Empires 2
Command and Conquer 1-2 / Red Alert 1-2
Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven is my favorite game of all time. I keep my old PC that runs Windows '95 purely so I can play that game
Metal gear solid 1-3
Factorio and terraria are somewhat recent but can run on a potato and they’re amazing
Master of Magic. Granddaddy of the 4x genera and still one of the best.
Wonderful!
Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt, not on PC.
From the GameBoy days, I still play Tetris and Donkey Kong.
Pirates of the Caribbean
Heroes of might and magic 3
Jesus christ I feel old now..
Tales of Symphonia turns 20 in like a month and that was my favourite GameCube game when I was a wee lad. Resident Evil 4 is a few months behind.
I also still play Final Fantasies IV-IX. And Chrono Trigger. And Chrono Cross. Spiderman PS1. Spiderman 2 (2004)..
PC wise: Starcraft (+Brood War) was and is still a great game. Worms: Armageddon is hilarious and fun.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
It's the absolute greatest game of all time for me.
RuneScape!
Pokémon emerald has a really good endgame.
Why has no one mentioned Thief 1/2 yet? They’re still some of the best stealth games with a cool setting.
Also Arx Fatalis (with the Arx Libertadis mod) is pretty good.
It’s not as old but Dark Messiah of Might and Magic should probably also still work on weaker hardware. Dishonored might run as well but it’s the newest game from the list.
Transport Tycoon deluxe, but to be more specific its openTTD now. Playing online on servers with city builder mods is fun.
Ocarina of time
Metal Slug
Everquest.
Not the live servers (tho they are healthy and plenty of people still do) I play emulated servers cause they are free to play and offer a close to classic experience. Too much feature creep and bloat on live for my personal tastes.
Counter-Strike is about to have it's 25th birthday. I still play with my friends often.
Star War Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel. Gotta replay those once every year or so. Always a good time ven if the gameplay is janky AF.
Thief
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2
Railroad Tycoon II
The Sims
Heroes 3
Painkiller
Diablo 2
Resident Evil
Dawn of War 1 and expansions, Age of Empires 1 and 2 and expansions, Metroid fusion, age of mythology, grand theft auto 3,
Simpson hit and run
Gundam Zeonic Front.
I've backed up a lot of older games from around that time but that's the only one I've played in a long while
Just this year... ocorina of time, age of empires 2, starcraft, heroes of might and magic 3, pokemon yellow, pokemon crystal. Goat status games. Still good
Civ 3 and 4
Command & Conquer
Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 (The early 2000s ones). I know 2 still has a year to earn the 20 year old tag but it’s close enough for me to give it a mention. Not to be mistaken with the horrendous remaster that came out this year. This was one of my favorites from my childhood. I still occasionally get the itch to play. Love every aspect of these games. The story mode to instant action to the goated galactic conquest. This game never gets stale to me. In particular galactic conquest. I like the randomized aspect of it. Not knowing what planet you’ll be fighting on next or when the next space battle will take place just scratches my brain in the right way. Even against AIs it’s timeless fun. I remember when I first got a pc and was able to up the ai count for bigger battles. Truly felt like Christmas. Maybe one day I’ll adventure into the modding scene.
Eye of the beholder 1, 2 and 3.
Planescape Torment
Baldurs Gate 1& 2
Icewind Dale 1 & 2
KOTOR 1 & 2
Ultima 7 + SI
Xcom Apocalypse
Moonstone: A hard day's Knight.
Just started playing Dungeon Siege again and I'm blown away at how well it was made for a 2002 game.
Tag is really fun. Just need a couple of buddies and some space
I also have a mediocre computer (an HP Pavilion x360 laptop), but I can successfully run:
Doom 1993 (and the sequel: Doom 2)
Mechwarrior 2 (and the Ghost Bear's Legacy expansion)
The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall (you have to run it through DOSBox)
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
Terraria
Stardew Valley
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale (an RPG where you run the item shop while paying off your debt under a deadline)
Borderlands 2
Max Payne (the first game, you may need to find and install a patch to fix some sound issues)
Learn Japanese to Survive (3 games in this series: Hiragana Battle, Katakana War, and Kanji Combat)
How to Survive (by Eko Software and 505 Games)
Neo Scavanger
Vampire Survivors
UpLink
Dude what you are asking for is like most good games just look up best games ever made
tetris and minesweeper, the classics can be beat, but they cant be replaced
also fallout 1, genuinely extremely impressive level of detail and story for the time (and now tbh)
Can't believe nobody has mentioned Command and Conquer.
princess maker 2, shin megami tensei, persona 2, earthbound, sonic, fire emblem, fallout, final fantasy 7
Just started a new save file in dark cloud 1!
Metal Gear Solid, Duke Nukem 3D, Command and Conquer, Unreal Tournament, Pokemon, GTA Vice City, Streets of Rage 2.. Is Dawn of War and Borderlands over 20 years old? There's chess too, I love a good game of chess.
There is a bunch of other games that I would love to play again like the 50 cent games, True Crime NY, Conflict Desert Storm 2.
There is another game that I remember playing when I was sick and off school, I think it might have been called Ice-man. From what I remember you had to climb your way up with your ice pick faster than the water was rising and there was enemies along the way, I would love to play that again..
Max Payne
Max Payne 2
Kingpin: Life of Crime
Smash Bros Melee
Mario Kart Double Dash
Jak 2
Project Gotham Racing 1
Doom II Hell on Earth
Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn
Liero
Counter Strike 1.6 - that game aged well
Tetris
That describes most of my favourite games tbh XD
I currently have Warlords Battlecry II installed, and played it just the other night. It's a hybrid RTS and RPG; with a D&D adjacent fantasy setting, simple and enjoyable gameplay, and some of the funniest unit dialogue ever.
The first game is kind of meh, but the third game improves in several areas like adding a shop to the world map. Though it does set timers on summoned units which I didn't like.
Some other greats are
- Dungeon Siege (and Legends of Aranna if you can find it)
- The Bard's Tale (inXile, 2004)
- Soul Reaver 1&2
- Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and A Hero's Tail
- Serious Sam: The First and Second Encounters (there's a remaster available, but I've only played Classic)
Heroes of might and magic 2, 3, and 4
Stronghold, Stronghold Crusader
Knights of Honor
Avencast
Arcania
Original Doom, Doom 2, Doom Eternal
Wolfenstien
Half-life Counter-Strike
Half-Life
Quake 1 and 2
Duke 3d
Blood 1 and 2
FEAR
All games I've played within the past couple months. Deus Ex is on my to do list
Starcraft 1 or 2
Diablo 2
Heroes of might and magic 3
Age of Empire 2
Diablo 1 and 2 were a couple of my favorites.
The original Doom
The classic Oregon Trail
Command and Conquer Red Alert Series
Quake 1 and 2
Age of Empires
Half Life 1 and 2
Everquest
Fallout (maybe 2 as well?)
A couple Star Wars games I can't remember off top of my head.
Roller Coaster Tycoon/Sim City/Sims
These are the main games of my child hood.
What are your PC specs?
edit: mobile formatting
DOOM
World of Warcraft.
Lords of the Realm 2
Disciples Sacred Lands (Gold)
Ceasar 3
Dues Ex
Diablo 2
The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
I play nes tetris daily. Usually while waiting for shit to compile on my pc
Lots of older strategy and 4x game titles:
Star Trek Armada 1 and 2
Warcraft II
Empire Earth
Age of Empires
Civilizations II and III
Master of Orion II
Heroes of Might and Magic III