You can contact Lilura1 at Discord-Lilura1.

Search String

PC Games 1994

History of 1990s Computer Games | Computer Game Reviews | Amiga Game Reviews

1994 PC Games



This is a curated list of PC games that came out in 1994. The PC games are listed in alphabetical order. Both MS-DOS and Windows PC games are included. I will expand on this list in the future.

1994 was an epic year for PC gamers in that three of the best games of all-time came out. Check out this Trinity of the turn-based strategy genre:


I have rated each of the above 9.9 out of 10 in my deep delves; they are grognard games of the highest order and cannot be beaten.

On top of that we have:


Thus, more grognard goodness.


1994 also saw the release of the original WarCraft by Blizzard Entertainment, but WarCraft is a third-rank game of 1994.

Notable as well is that the first big-name 3D SVGA 640x480 games were released in late-94:


However, when displaying the above in SVGA you'd be doing well to get 30 FPS. On the other hand, a dozen notable 2D VGA games were released for PC in 1994, all of which ran at 50-60 FPS.

In 1994-95 five big-budget PC platform games were released featuring articulated character animations that evoked the cartoon-quality animations of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace of 1989-90.

FPS-wise, 1994 saw the release of four notable commercial Doom-likes.

In 1994 the i80486DX4 75 MHz and 100 MHz CPUs were released, Intel Pentium 90 MHz CPUs were emerging and i80486DX2 66 MHz CPUs and 8 megs of RAM were bog-standard, but 16 megs of RAM was recommended. However, RAM above 16 megs could cause memory address space issues on non-DOS/4GW run-times. As for hard disk drives, 1 gig EIDEs were practically mandatory for serious gamers.

1994 video cards were based on ISA, VLB (486) or PCI (Pentium) local buses and commonly employed ATI Mach, S3, Cirrus Logic and Tseng Labs ET4000 (xxx) chipsets, each of which came in various models.

Video card manufacturers included ATI, Diamond, Genoa, Hercules, Paradise, Matrox and Orchid. Such cards featured 1-2 megs of DRAM or 1-4 megs of VRAM. The ATI and Matrox cards featured custom chipsets; that is, ATI and Matrox manufactured both chip and card.

In 1994 47-Tek's Sento displayed Gouraud-shaded 3D graphics in 16-bit high-color SVGA 640x400 via Matrox MGA Power Graphics:


SciTech Software's generic UniVBE VESA 2.0 driver worked with at least 60 video cards in 1994. Many games came bundled with UniVBE in case gamers did not have access to their video card's drivers or the drivers were outdated. UniVBE supported hires VESA 2.0 SVGA screen-modes: it detected the video card's clockspeed, RAMDAC and vRAM and configured and installed VBE 32-bit protected mode extensions and linear framebuffer. Naturally, UniVBE was added to autoexec.bat.

Audio-wise, digital audio was commonly employed for sampled speech and other sound effects whereas music  was  FM synth- or General MIDI-based. Thus, the combo of Sound Blaster 16/Pro and Roland Sound Canvas became common in 1994. Digital audio was almost always 8-bit unless the game was CD-ROM-based (16-bit PCM).

As for non-IBM compatibles, it pains me to say it but in 1994 the Amiga was hammered once again by the PC. Consider for example that no fewer than one dozen big-name PC games of 1994 would ever see the light of day on the Amiga. And to add insult to injury the PC got an SVGA port of what had been an Amiga-exclusive -- The Settlers.

And alas, several Amiga-exclusives of 1994 were disappointments even though they had great potential. Consider:

  • James Pond 3 stinks of the Sega Genesis
  • What could have been one of the best vert-shooters on Amiga or PC turned out to be a massive disappointment (Banshee).
  • The Sonic-like Mr. Nutz tried to do too much.
  • The run and gun Ruff n Tumble suffered from poor audio and screen-scrolling.
  • Raiden, one of the most famous coinop shooters of the early 90s, ended up not being released for the Amiga even though it was looking promising.
  • Captive 2 was released on the Amiga CD32 console before the Amiga micros, but it wasn't even as good as Captive of 1991, anyway.
  • The AGA version of Chaos Engine looked worse than the ECS/OCS original.
  • The Amiga version of TFX was cancelled.

Incredibly, in 1994 the Commodore 64 of 1982 got a great port of Lemmings of 1991:


The King computer game of 1994 was X-COM: UFO Defense by Mythos Games. I crown X-COM because it came out in early 94 whereas the other two throne-contenders came out in late 94.

***

Each entry below links to either technical overviews, reviews or deep delves on the game. You can click an image and mouse-wheel up and down through the images.

List of 1994 PC Games



FIFA International Soccer IBM PC MS-DOS Creative Assembly 1994:




Ishar 3 IBM PC MS-DOS Silmarils 1994:



Lemmings Chronicles IBM PC MS-DOS DMA Design 1994:






Raiden Amiga 1994 (never released: added for comparison purposes with the above):




Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession IBM PC MS-DOS Dreamforge 1994:


Star Wars: TIE Fighter IBM PC MS-DOS Totally Games 1994:








Best 1994 Computer Games: Awards



Best PC Games of the Early 90s


The early 90s has concluded (1990-94). What follows is an enumeration of the best game for each genre of the early 90s.

The genre are listed in alphabetical order:


Best Audiovisuals of the Early 90s


This is an alphabetical listing of the audiovisual crème de la crème of early 90s on Amiga and PC DOS. 2D arcade-action audiovisuals were the Amiga's province whereas DOS dominated 3D graphics and adventure-game audiovisuals. Note the three C64 games, too!


Educational PC Games of 1994



By 1994 Britannica Software and Compton's NewMedia had each released four Berenstain Bears games for PC DOS.

1994 also marks the point at which Disney re-entered the PC games market with new material. To be sure, official Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy games existed one decade before (one dozen Disney games were released for PC DOS by 1991), but Disney's Aladdin and Lion King franchises were created for a new generation, CD-ROM had become a common form of distribution media, and Windows 3.x had built a solid library of educational games and productivity software.

Disney released their first Activity Center and Animated Storybooks in 1994. Disney Interactive released 17 Activity Centers from 1994-2002, and Disney Software released 10 Animated Storybooks from 1994-99. The launch of such educational games coincided with the release of the Aladdin and Lion King platform games, both of which were released for PC in 1994.

In addition, Coktel Vision of France released the first of their five Playtoons games (1994-95) whereas Living Books released four of their 20 Living Books.

  • Amazon Trail Windows 3.x MECC 1994
  • Around the World in 80 Days PC DOS Novotrade International 1994
  • Berenstain Bears Treehouse Classroom PC DOS Compton's NewMedia 1994
  • Counting On Frank Windows 3.x EA Canada / Motion Works 1994
  • Disney's Activity Center: Aladdin Windows PC Disney Interactive 1994
  • Disney's Animated Storybook: Lion King PC DOS/Windows 3.1 Disney Software 1994
  • Freddi Fish Windows PC Humongous Entertainment 1994
  • Junior Field Trips: Let's Explore the Farm Windows PC Humongous Entertainment 1994
  • Living Books: Little Monster at School Windows 3.x Living Books 1994
  • Living Books: Ruff's Bone Windows 3.x Living Books 1994
  • Living Books: Arthur's Birthday Windows 3.x Living Books 1994
  • Living Books: Harry and the Haunted House Windows 3.x Living Books 1994
  • Math Blaster Mystery: Great Brain Robbery Windows PC Davidson & Associates 1994
  • Math Blaster Episode II: Secret of the Lost City Windows PC Davidson & Associates 1994
  • Odell Down Under Windows 3.x MECC 1994
  • Peter Pan & Eagle Eye Mysteries in London PC DOS Stormfront Studios 1994
  • Playtoons: Uncle Archibald Windows 3.x Coktel Vision 1994
  • Reader Rabbit Deluxe Windows 3.x The Learning Company 1994
  • Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey Windows PC The Learning Company 1994
  • Storybook Weaver Deluxe Windows PC MECC 1994
  • Super Seekers: Treasure Galaxy! PC DOS SVGA The Learning Company 1994
  • Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego Deluxe Macintosh Broderbund 1994
  • Yukon Trail Windows PC MECC 1994
  • Yukon Trail Macintosh MECC 1994

cf.

PC Games 1987 PC Games 1992 PC Games 1997
PC Games 1988 PC Games 1993PC Games 1998
PC Games 1989 PC Games 1994 PC Games 1999
PC Games 1990 PC Games 1995 Decade of 1990-99
PC Games 1991 PC Games 1996 PC Games Reviews

Labels: , , , , ,