Best cRPGs: Computer Games Listed in Chronological Order

Computer Games Listed in Chronological Order

This is a list of computer games that I have so far covered on cRPG Blog. The computer games are listed in chronological order, from oldest to newest.

This chronological history is only concerned with computer games that were coded for Western computer-game machines. A Western computer-game machine is a PC or microcomputer sold by Western computer manufacturers and upon which Westerners primarily played computer games.

By Western, I mean primarily the UK, the USA, the British Commonwealth and Western Continental European countries, such as France, Italy and Germany.

cf. History of 1990s Computer Games for higher-resolution coverage of the decade spanning 1990-99.

This list is divided into four main sections, which I refer to as:

The Seminal 1980s [1.0]
The God-tier 1990s [2.0]
The Terrible 2000s [3.0]
The Dark Ages (2008-2024) [4.0]

The Seminal 1980s [1.0] The 1980s was notable for its computer-game genre seminality, but seminal rarely means best. In the early 80s home-computer tech was not able to fully represent complex mechanics, tactile UIs and high-quality audio-visuals, but by the mid-80s that had changed. Still, it took a long time for computer-game coders and designers to harness the power of some microcomputers, such as the Amiga -- too long. The King of the early and mid 80s was the 8 bit Commodore 64, which was an amazing and affordable microcomputer, but by the late 80s the 2D King was the 16 bit Commodore Amiga and the 3D king was the 32 bit Acorn Archimedes. At this point, those who owned an Amiga and an Archimedes were living in the future by half a decade. And that is one reason why they clung onto those micros long past their expiry dates; why the spirit of those micros lives on; why A Legacy War continues to rage deep beneath and invisible to the mainstream. However, the 2D and 3D power of the IBM PC would eventually dominate thanks to hardware engineering advancements made by the likes of IBM and Intel. Of course, the IBM PC was strong throughout the 80s and became the dominant computer-game machine by the early 90s and forever-after. The C64's SID and Amiga's Paula owned 1980s computer-game audio, not just graphics. It was the SID that caused people to realize, en masse, that computer games could feature proper music. And Paula took that to the next level. In comparison the impact of 1980s PC audio has been retroactively romanticized by PC gamers who, before the advent of expensive soundcards, wished to high heaven that their PCs had access to SID-level capacities, but all they heard coming out of their PC speakers were bleeps and blurps. The 80s computer-gamer did more with computers than just play games: they were often coders and hardware-hackers as well. There is no serious early 80s computer-gamer that did not at one point code something or assemble a kit-computer. Practically every early to mid 80s computer-gamer coded something outside of the education system, in their free time, as hobbyists. And some of these hobbyists, some with and some without formal training, would go on to code the best computer games of the 90s and/or build the richest franchises in computer-game history. Out of all computer-gamers 80s computer-gamers have the broadest and deepest knowledge of computer software and hardware because they had access to many wildly different yet affordable microcomputers. They know their history, they lived the history...
1982: Seminal Shoot 'em Ups
Seminal MS-DOS Shoot 'em ups Space Strike & Cosmic Crusader were coded by legendary programmer and computer scientist, Michael Abrash, who would go on to help code the Quake rendering engine, 14 years later.
1983: God-king Arcade-Machines Ported
History of Shoot 'em ups: Defender, Galaxian & Robotron 2084.
1984: The Mists of Time
Precursor to Frontier Elite 2: Braben's Seminal Space Sim, Elite.
Flip-screen Computer Games: Contiguous Exploration in Impossible Mission.
Rebelstar Games: Julian Gollop's Seminal Tactics Game for the ZX Spectrum.
Boulder Dash Computer Games: Wow, decent screen-scrolling!
1985: Port of the Ancient
Shoot 'em Up Spacewar: The 1962 mainframe classic ported to i808x in CGA 640x400.
Shoot 'em Up Paradroid: The best computer game of 1985.
1986: Computer Game Cinematization Seeing is believing. The Amiga steps in. Look at the difference in graphics! This is what you call graphics leap-frogging and epic-level soul.
Defender of the Crown Amiga: Strategy in Medieval Britain, the time of heroes and conquerors.
1987: Combat Flight Sims Soar to New Heights
Falcon Flight Sim: The Standard-setting 16 bit Flight Sim.
Shoot 'em Up Oids: FTL's brilliant shoot 'em up running on 8 MHz Motorola 68k.
The Last Ninja: Contiguous exploration and advanced controls in isometric perspective. In a perfect world Last Ninja would have been developed for the C=Amiga, not the C=64. But in 1987 an Amiga version would not have sold millions of copies like the C=64 version did.
Shoot 'em Up Zarch: David Braben's real-time 3D-rendered shooter.
1988
The First REAL Amiga Game: Hybris: Arcade-quality shoot 'em up that came out before 16 bit consoles were even released.
Carrier Command Review: Hybrid of Vehicle Sim & RTS: Multi-unit command & control.
1989: The God Game is Born
English Football Games on the Amiga: The 16 Bit English Football Game Emerges. To this day these are the greatest EFGs ever made.
Indianapolis 500 by Papyrus Design Group: The First Fully-3D 16 bit Autoracing Sim.
Populous Review: The Seminal God Game. An Amiga-first.
M1 Tank Platoon Review: Best Armor-sim of the Late-80s and Early-90s.
MechWarrior 1 BattleMechs: The first 3D first-person Mech-sim.
Amiga-defining computer game: Shadow of the Beast: 13 layers of parallax scrolling.
Stunt Car Racer Review: Vehicle Physics Pioneer.
History of 1990s Computer Games: 1990 [2.0] In my history of 1990s computer games (linked to above), I declared the 1990s to be the best decade for computer-gamers. I refer to this decade as The God-tier 1990s. Don't get me wrong, the 80s was great as well. In fact, there exist a few years in the 80s that are as strong as most 90s years. For example, 87-89 was mind-blowing in terms of technical advances and quality and quantity of output. However, it was the 90s that spawned most of the greatest computer games and computer-game genre. For most people to nod in agreement all I need to say is "Doom & Quake", but of course the depth of the 90s computer-game catalogue demands elaboration. Of my current top 10 (see right sidebar), eight are 90s masterpieces and the other two are late 80s masterpieces.
BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge Review: 2D Real-time Tactics Pioneer.
PowerMonger Review: Wargame / God Game Hybrid: Epic-level soul.
1991: The Birth of 4X
Sid Meier's Civilization 1 Guide: The Seminal Civ Game. This marks the point at which the greatest genre in computer gaming was created. Civ is the greatest franchise in computer or video gaming history. Console mascot games are absolute laughing stocks in comparison to Civ.
F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0: VGA Stealth-fighting at its finest.
Falcon 3.0 Review MS-DOS: The Most Advanced 16 bit Flight Sim.
Formula 1 Grand Prix Review: The Best 16 bit Autoracer.
Gunship 2000 Review: The Most Advanced 16 bit Gunship Sim.
1992: RTS is Formalized
Darklands Review: Mythic-medieval role-playing in an open-ended gameworld.
Dune 2 Review: The Formalizer of RTS.
Street Fighter Games MS-DOS: The Versus Fighter Gets Good on MS-DOS.
Enforcer Shoot 'em up: Never Say Die: The Commodore 64 is still hosting A1 computer games in 1992.
1993: The Killer App
Doom 1 Review: A Hellish 3D Game by id Software. An Immortal Classic.
Empire Deluxe Wargame: Origin in the 70s.
Frontier: Elite 2 Review: The Greatest Spaceflight Sim Ever Coded.
Master of Orion 1: Deep-space colonization and galactic conquest.
The Settlers Review: Real-time strategy game and medieval city-builder.
Non-standard Square-pixel VGA Games: The Lost Vikings & Blackthorne.
1994: TBS Greatness
Sid Meier's Colonization Guide: The Greatest of All Civ Games.
Master of Magic Review: The Greatest TBS Game of All-time.
Panzer General 1 Review: Slicky-presented Tactics & Operations-Level Wargame: Square Pixel SVGA.
WarCraft 1 Review: RTS Popularizer I.
X-COM UFO Defense: The Seminal X-COM Game.
1995: RTS Boom
Command & Conquer 1 Review: RTS Popularizer II.
Frontier: First Encounters: The Return of the Thargoids.
Steel Panthers Review: Combined-Arms Tactics Wargame for Grognards.
WarCraft 2 Review: RTS Popularizer III.
1996: QUAKE
Diablo 1 Review: Shrewd streamlining of Dungeons & Dragons.
Sid Meier's Civilization 2 Guide: The Ageless Civ Game.
Quake 1 Review: A Nightmarish 3D Game by id Software: The Best FPS Ever Made.
Grand Prix 2 MS-DOS: Formula 1 Autoracing in SVGA 640x480.
Mega Typhoon Shoot 'em up: Can you believe that this game is running on 1985 hardware? BELIEVE IT.
Red Alert Review: RTS Design Mastery & Optimization.
Settlers 2: More Settling, but in SVGA 640x480!
1997: cRPG Formalized
Fallout 1 Guide: The cRPG Formalizer.
X-COM Apocalypse Guide: The Most Ambitious TBS Game.
1998: Genre Popularizers
Baldur's Gate 1: cRPG All-rounder that helped spark the cRPG Renaissance.
Fallout 2 Guide: A Massive cRPG.
Half-Life 1 Review: The Source of Scripted Sequences.
StarCraft 1 Review: RTS Super-Popularizer and Whac-A-Mole.
1999: The Final Year of Greatness
Icewind Dale 1: Refinement of the Generic.
Jagged Alliance 2: The Best Mix of Tactics & Strategy.
Planescape: Torment Review: Reaches Narrative Heights.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Guide: The Most Complex Civ Game.
Tales of the Sword Coast: An expansion for Baldur's Gate.
2000: The Terrible 2000s [3.0] As a rule, the aught-gamer's vision of computer games was limited in comparison to the 90s gamer: the aught gamer was obsessed with the polygon-pusher on Windows whereas the 90s gamer had knowledge of 2D, 3D and 2.5D computer games that ran on wildly different hardware and operating systems. The 1990s was non-standard, experimental and revolutionary; the 2000s standardized, formulaic and baby-steps incremental at best. The 2000s was also the decade that dumbed down computer games to pander to the console crowd. For that reason alone I call the 2000s The Terrible 2000s. As a rule, the aught-gamer blindly accepted or at best acquiesced in the 2000s, but 80s and 90s gamers pointed out the devolution of computer-gaming in the 2000s. The 2000s ushered in the uncritical and barely literate computer-game consumer as well as the lowliest computer-gamers of all: the casuals. Some of the worst games of all-time came out in the 2000s, such as Morrowind. At this point THE DARK AGES that followed was inevitable.
Baldur's Gate 2: A Theme-park cRPG.
Deus Ex 1: An Immersive Sim with Emergent Gameplay.
Diablo 2 Review: A Soulless Sequel.
2001
Arcanum Guide: The King of Reactivity.
Throne of Bhaal Review: An Epic Banality.
2002
Icewind Dale 2: 3.0 in the Infinity Engine.
Morrowind Review: One of the Worst cRPGs ever.
Neverwinter Nights 1: Ruined by 3D and Multi-player.
2003: Glimmers of Hope
Silent Storm Review: Tactics with Verticality & Destructibility.
Temple of Elemental Evil: Greyhawk for Grognards.
2006: Fading...
Neverwinter Nights 2: Ruined by 3D v.2.0.
2007: Last Legs
Mask of the Betrayer Guide: Planescape: Torment's spiritual successor.
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl: The OGSE Mod is badass.
2008: THE DARK AGES OF COMPUTER GAMING [4.0] THE DARK AGES is the current era of computer-gaming. Big money coupled with bad taste and laughably ignorant subreddits and Computer Game Journalism have all but ruined computer-gaming. Consoles and the casual mentality that came along with them infected all genre and spread like a plague, as did emphasis on 3D graphics, cinematics and social simulation. THE DARK AGES has spanned a full 15 years as of 2024, and yet there is no light to be seen on the horizon, only more darkness. As a rule, if not outright vulgarities computer games of THE DARK AGES present themselves as ape-like distortions of the gold standard set by classic computer games of the 80s and 90s. As THE DARK AGES extended into the 2010s and 2020s, deeply erudite and highly literate computer-game criticism ceased to exist outside of a few independent commentators, but their writings are buried under mountains of mainstream lies and deceit. In THE DARK AGES even some of the worst computer games are praised as masterpieces by the mainstream: vices in game design have become virtues and vice versa. And the few computer games that hearken back to the noble past are outright ignored, shunned or mocked. Moreover, the exceedingly low standards of THE DARK AGES introduced what amounts to (in some cases) fake computer-game development, fake computer-game commentary and even fake computer gamers: trifecta. Worse even than that, THE DARK AGES seeks to appropriate the classic computer-game catalogue via cash-grab remakes and extremely belated "sequels", thereby distorting the classic computer-game language and legacy as well: THE DARK AGES seeks even to taint your classic computer-game memories. If you thought the 2000s were terrible for computer-gaming just wait until you play some of the destructive garbage churned out during THE DARK AGES. It is foolish to believe that an epic-level neck-bearded grognard cannot be nerfed to a piddling Level 1 casual by the pernicious mainstream that ushered in THE DARK AGES OF COMPUTER GAMING. cf. Characteristics of Dark Ages cRPGs.
Oblivion With Guns: The Worst RPG Game ever made.
Storm of Zehir Guide: The last serious entry in a long line of classic cRPGs.
2010
Warband Review: Medieval Combat in Real-time 3D. One of the very few great games to come out during the Dark Ages. In an era of computer-gaming that has not produced a single commercial masterpiece, Warband comes closest.
2015
Underrail Review: Ruined by slow walkspeed, smartphone UI and feature-bloat.
2016
Dungeon Rats Guide: Not a Game for Normies. Another exception to the Dark Ages.
Siege of Dragonspear Guide: Good combat encounter design, but bad story and terrible writing.
Tyranny Guide: Long load-times.
2017
Torment: Tides of Numenera Review: Bit off more than it could chew.
2018
Kenshi Game Starts: Should have been 2D iso.
2023: Disgusting
Baldur's Gate 3: A Sequel only in Name. A mutt-level RPG Game. A prime example of Dark Ages computer-gaming.