Golden Era 1996-2006

[anaxie]

Some people claim nostalgia but to this day the timeless classics are still my favorite and I play and favor them over virtually any other game if given the chance.

Here is my list and I would like to hear your 90s-mid 2000 list
For me all these games left their magic in the past. And I am content to stay there with them because of many of the aspects these games embraced that is mostly absent in todays oversaturated gaming rehash landscape.

TES Morrowind
Mafia City of Lost Heaven
Vampire: Bloodlines
Baldur's Gate Triology
Planescape Torment
IWD 1/2
Fallout 2
Dungeon Siege 1/2
System Shock 2
Deus Ex
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Halo CE
Crysis
Max Payne 1/2
GTA 3 Trilogy
World of Warcraft TBC
Pokemon R&B
Ocarina of Time/Majoras Mask
Starfox 64
Perfect Dark 64
Metal Gear Solid
Red Aler 2 Yuri
Warcraft 3 TFT
Starcraft Brood War
Chrono Trigger
Parasite Eve 1/2
Final Fantasy 6/7/8/9
Resident Evil 1/2/3
Commandoes 1/2/3
Warhammer 40k DoW
Stronghold
Age of Mythology
Dungeon Keeper 1/2
Doom 1/2
Duke Nukem 3D
Super Mario World
Link to the Past
Castlevania SoN
The Legend of Dragoon
Diablo 1/2

[Eleccybubb]

Mines not very large but here goes.

Lego Racers
Phantasy Star 2, 3 and 4
Sonic 1, 2, 3 and Knuckles
Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 9
Worms
Doom (ps1 no music)
Spiderman 1 and 2
A buttload of ps1 F1 games
Ridge Racer
Duke Nukem Time to Kill and Land of the Babes
Tony Hawks Pro Skater
Warcraft 3
Crash Bandicoot
Time Crisis
Spyro the Dragon
Resident Evil

A lot of them are ofc series.

[dope_danny]

1998 was the best year. Everything after iterated or imitated its releases.

[YellowCake]

1997 - found about pc gaming (played super nintendo until that point) by reading gaming magazines
1998 - one whole year just reading gaming magazines
1999 - visiting my first internet caffe and playing my first pc game -> Midtown Madness (racing)
- in same caffe got introduced to Age of Empires 2, Diablo 2
1999/2000 - my first shooter Unreal 99 (the feeling when i first joined an online multiplayer was better then sex)
2000 - Unreal 99 + Quake 2 with friends 3vs3 in internet caffe then Dungeon Keeper 2,Thief 2,Diablo 2 (i don't have words to describe how i felt during that era)
2001/2004 - Counter Strike + Warcraft 3 with friends in internet caffe/local tournaments/first online play on modem56k and ISDN (still no ADSL in my country)
2004/2010 - more online games, internet caffes dried out, World of Warcraft mainly but trying out new MMO's (first 3 years felt good but after i was a virtual cocaine junky)
2010 to Present - League of Legends, Playing card games Online/Offline, testing new games to find that one that could replicate the feeling the first 5 games did.

[mvaliz]

Chrono Trigger came out in 1995. It's "sequel" wasn't all that great... And Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994.

Also, you forgot to add to the list "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night". That came out in 97

- - - Updated - - -

Doom (ps1 no music)

No music? I actually thought the music in the PS1 version was one of the best aspects of it! ^_^ (aside from "Club Doom". Ugh...)

[Eleccybubb]

Chrono Trigger came out in 1995. It's "sequel" wasn't all that great... And Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994.

Also, you forgot to add to the list "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night". That came out in 97

- - - Updated - - -



No music? I actually thought the music in the PS1 version was one of the best aspects of it! ^_^ (aside from "Club Doom". Ugh...)

It didn't really have music on the ps1 except really crappy ambience style. Not like the pc and a few other consoles. Atari Jaguar version didn't have any music at all. When it comes down to Doom out of all of em I would play the pc version with an MS Synth style sound. That or the SNES music. Nearest console port of doom graphics wise to pc version is the Jaguar one surprisingly.

[anaxie]

Forgot Diablo 2 a and Doom 1/2 / Duke Nukem3d

- - - Updated - - -

Chrono Trigger came out in 1995. It's "sequel" wasn't all that great... And Final Fantasy VI was released in 1994.

Also, you forgot to add to the list "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night". That came out in 97

- - - Updated - - -



No music? I actually thought the music in the PS1 version was one of the best aspects of it! ^_^ (aside from "Club Doom". Ugh...)

some years are off. It's probably better going for back to full on 90s-mid 2000s

The last decade has seen a steep decline in interest personally.

[klogaroth]

All these games are just ripping off Judas Priest.

[anaxie]

1998 was the best year. Everything after iterated or imitated its releases.

You are pretty much as spot on with that year as you could be.

January 21 Resident Evil 2
February 11 Xenogears
March 29 Parasite Eve
March 31 StarCraft
June 30 Banjo-Kazooie
July 31 Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
August 21 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
September 3 Metal Gear Solid
September 10 Spyro the Dragon
September 30 Fallout 2
September 30 Pokémon Red and Blue
October 21 Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
November 19 Half-Life
November 21 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
November 30 StarCraft: Brood War
November 30 Baldur's Gate
December 14 Mario Party

Agreed

[anaxie]

Forgot Dungeon Keeper I am ashamed

[Poppincaps]

I was born in 1995 so I really don't know the dates of some of these and they may be a few years early or late but here goes:

Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Silver/Gold/Crystal/Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Ratchet and Clank 1-Deadlocked
Sly 1-3
Jak1-3
Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2
Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls (Final Fantasy 1 and 2 on the GBA. My first introduction to the series so that's why I include it)
Okami
Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2
Metroid Fusion
Super Smash Bros Melee
Fire Emblem 7, Sacred Stones, and Path of Radiance
Lego Star Wars
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Metal Gear Solid
GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas
Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2
World of Warcraft
God of War
The Simpsons: Hit and Run
Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga

I don't have my old games with me so if I looked through them I'm sure I could list a lot more, but those are the ones of the top of my head.

[Ciddy]

Hm. I was born in 1985, so most of my childhood that I can clearly remember happened in the 90s. So 1990-2000 would probably be my favorite 10 years here. Might edit this later if I think of others, but here's a start to my list:

Final Fantasy 4 (2 US, SNES)
Final Fantasy 6 (3 US, SNES)
Final Fantasy 7-9 (PS1)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
Super Double Dragon (SNES)
Harvest Moon (SNES)
Pilotwings (SNES)
Sim City (SNES)
Desert Strike (SNES)
Final Fight 1-3 (SNES)
Deadlock 1 and Deadlock 2 (PC)
Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct Gold (SNES and N64)
Contra 3: The Alien Wars (SNES)
Civilization 3 (PC)
Star Ocean: The Second Story (PS1)
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Eternal Blue Complete (PS1)
Breath of Fire 3 (PS1)
Legend of Dragoon (PS1)
Star Fox (SNES and N64 versions)
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
Mario Kart (SNES and N64 versions)
F-Zero and F-Zero X (SNES/N64)
Perfect Dark (N64)
Waverace 64 (N64)
Super Mario World and Mario 64 (SNES/N64)
Pretty much every Mega Man X and Street Fighter game from that decade
Original Starcraft + Brood War (PC)
Diablo 1 (PC)
Warcraft 3 (PC)
Banjo Kazooie (N64)
Metal Gear Solid (PS1)
Top Gear (SNES)
Doom and Doom 2 (PC)
Duke Nukem: Time To Kill (PS1)
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Strike Gunner (SNES)
Super Mario RPG (SNES)

I like Mortal Kombat, but I didn't care much for the older ones. Didn't really become an MK fan until the Armageddon/Deception days.

[anaxie]

my only gripe is how god awful survival horror has become. But looking to the future after the last somewhat DEAD decade in the last year and forward we are seeing a rennisaance of the greatest gameplay types coming back

Resident Evil 2 ReMake
Pillars of Eternity
Torment Tides of Nunumera
Witcher 3

We are slowly seeing a hint of the greatness from the old day peak out again.

I think the greatest thing that could happen for say the Survival Horror Genre is if Capcom went back to Resident evils fixed camera roots and limited supplies and puzzles and kept the series there.

For other brands like TES the magic of games like Morrowind is forever lost. What we get now is prettier but it lacks what made it so wonderful

[May90]

Been playing games since 1991. And, you know... I wouldn't say there was "golden era" in gaming. Every period had a lot of great games to offer. Mostly, the way I see it, people just confuse nostalgia with "good ol' times". Many games I remember warmly were released in 1990-1999, but were they better than the games I buy nowadays? Hardly. They were fresh though, since the genre standards weren't established back then and many games offered completely new ideas/mechanics, which was fun to follow. That mystery of buying a new game and not knowing what to expect is gone now: most ideas have already been explored and either accepted by most major titles of the genre, or rejected and never attempted again.

I won't be listing all my games from 1996-2006, since the list would be HUGE. Let's just say that I replay a lot of them to this day. Played through KotoR 2 just a month ago or so, for example - for the 2357895432th time.

[anaxie]

Been playing games since 1991. And, you know... I wouldn't say there was "golden era" in gaming. Every period had a lot of great games to offer. Mostly, the way I see it, people just confuse nostalgia with "good ol' times". Many games I remember warmly were released in 1990-1999, but were they better than the games I buy nowadays? Hardly. They were fresh though, since the genre standards weren't established back then and many games offered completely new ideas/mechanics, which was fun to follow. That mystery of buying a new game and not knowing what to expect is gone now: most ideas have already been explored and either accepted by most major titles of the genre, or rejected and never attempted again.

I won't be listing all my games from 1996-2006, since the list would be HUGE. Let's just say that I replay a lot of them to this day. Played through KotoR 2 just a month ago or so, for example - for the 2357895432th time.

a Large amount of it is absolutely not nostalgia when games veer so far from what it used to be that it's disgusting

Morrowind VS Future TES games
Resident Evil Survival Horror VS Resident Evil 3rd person action shooter
I'm not even going to start on how far final fantasy has went off that path
Sure Final Fantasy 13 is pretty to look at and 15 but that is pretty much it. What the games USED to be is in the past. Gone.

Just god no.

[Daedius]

The Golden era for me was my first time playing an online game, which was Diablo way back in 1997.

Memories... how I sat there at my computer for ages waiting for the update to download over a meagre 24.4kbps connection.

[May90]

a Large amount of it is absolutely not nostalgia when games veer so far from what it used to be that it's disgusting

Morrowind VS Future TES games
Resident Evil Survival Horror VS Resident Evil 3rd person action shooter
I'm not even going to start on how far final fantasy has went off that path
Sure Final Fantasy 13 is pretty to look at and 15 but that is pretty much it. What the games USED to be is in the past. Gone.

Just god no.

I haven't played these games... But, for example, I like Starcraft 2 way more than I did Starcraft 1. Diablo 3 also feels much more polished and fluid than Diablo 2 did. Dragon Age series vs Baldur's Gate... Would pick the former every time.

I do miss old good arcade shooters though, like Doom or Jedi Knight series. All these "realistic" Call of Duties and Battlefields just aren't my cup of tea.

Overall, I enjoy playing games today just as much as I did 10 or 20 years ago. Witcher 3, released just a year ago, for one, is my favorite open world game of all time, and Mass Effect series are my favorite among all game series ever.

[elmoe420]

For me the Golden Era began circa '91-'92 with games like Civilization, Star Control II and Wolfenstein 3D. I played those three games with my friends over and over and over.

Remember when multiplayer meant taking turns or even sharing the same keyboard? Those 1-on-1 Star Control dogfights were so epic!!

[thewallofsleep]

Reading this thread makes me hate Konami so much. They will never again make another real Silent Hill game, and probably won't print free money by remastering/remaking the older ones (they should follow Cspcom's example). There will probably never be another real Castlevania game either...

[derpkitteh]

ps1 and ps2 were it for me. ps1 i had lots of things, legend of dragoon, spyro, crash bandicoot, those old spiderman games that were kinda based on the cartoon that was out at this time.

ps2 had jak and daxter, ratchet and clank, dbz budokai and all of it's sequals and then tenkaichi, the old naruto fighting games that i fucking loved, star wars battlefront, lego star wars(don't nobody talk shit on lego star wars, i will break you.), just so many games.

i loved n64 as well with banjo, the star wars game with dash rendar, all kinds of good shit. but ps1 and ps2 were my big ones.