this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2025
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I noticed that pretty much all games I played in my life have been released after 1990. So now I'm asking those with earlier experience here:
Which games can you recommend from before that time?

But: they should still be fun in their own right and not just interesting to play in an historian sense of trying to understand how genres developed.

Games I played that are older than 1990:

  • Tetris (classic for a reason)
  • Pacman (interesting but simple)
  • Prince of Persia (was too young to understand how to correctly play this game, I should maybe try to play it again)
  • The Legend of Zelda (too old school and clunky for my liking)
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Atari Real Sports Tennis, no lie it’s great

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)
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[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Controversial take, perhaps, but I don't think there are any games from the 1980s (or earlier) that I think hold up. Wasteland form 1988 is impressive but ugly (and a remaster exists that is better) and other than that, uh...

TLoZ is so utterly hideous that it repulses me. The NES colour palette is just so tremendously ugly.

Tetris is fine, I guess, but I've always found it a bit plain. Much like picking up individual grains of rice with chopsticks it requires skill but as with that it's only your own time you're wasting - unless you enjoy it, which I don't. Or to put it another way - I don't find the core gameplay loop rewarding.

There's plenty of cool stuff from the early '90s but the 1980s are pretty much a case of "it was good when we had nothing better" territory, in my opinion.

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