10 Classic Computer Games That Changed Gaming Forever

One of my favorite chapters in my own gaming history began when I discovered PC games. I’m talking about the MS-DOS era, when installing a game could feel like an adventure of its own and Windows had yet to become the center of the PC universe. There were no battle passes, in-game stores, or endless streams of updates waiting before you could play. You loaded up a game, figured out what it wanted from you, and got lost in it for hours. Looking back, there was something wonderfully simple about that era.

Modern gaming has delivered experiences that would have seemed impossible back then, but I sometimes miss the straightforward fun of those early computer games. Today, subscriptions, downloadable content, microtransactions, and constant updates can occasionally make playing feel more complicated than it needs to be. That is why I wanted to take a trip back through computer gaming history and revisit 10 titles that helped define the experience for me. Five come from the earliest days of PC gaming, while the other five earned a permanent place in my personal gaming history. And yes, there is a Star Wars game on the list. I make absolutely no apologies for that.

Written by MIT students in 1977, Zork was one of the first computer games to really showcase a sense of humor. The game’s popularity stems from its portability to multiple computer formats and its creation of Infocom, a highly influential early game studio. 

How can you talk about a love for early computer games without talking about the Oregon Trail? I know I wasn’t the only one who loved naming my travel companions after my family, only to watch them die of dysentery. 

You can’t have any conversation about computer games without talking about Spacewar! Developed in 1962 at MIT, the game originally ran on a PDP-1 computer that was essentially the size of a car. It’s widely considered to be the first computer game in history. 

Better known as a Multi-User Dungeon, MUD 1 was a 1978 game release with many firsts. This text-based game was so important for being one of the first to use an internet connection to play with others nationwide. 

Okay, so Pong isn’t a computer game, but its importance in giving rise to the gaming world cannot be understated. Without Pong, it’s questionable whether or not computer games would have taken off in the way they did.

Before Doom, Wolfenstein 3D may have become the most influential first-person shooter game ever. I was hooked when I first fired this game up on a computer. I’ll forever be grateful to id Software for helping me waste hours of my life on this game. 

My absolute favorite computer game, something about TIE Fighter just resonates with me. As a Mac user, it’s the only game that makes me regret having a Mac, as I can’t play games like I can on Windows. But oh boy, the graphics, the cheats, and the TIE Fighters! 

I’m more partial to RollerCoaster Tycoon these days, but SimCity, released in 1989, was a watershed moment in my life. The sheer amount of time I spent building up as big a city as possible, only to destroy it and then do it all over again. Oh, the memories. 

There is no question, I’m a sucker for real-time strategy games. It’s arguably my favorite genre ever. Between Age of Empires and Command and Conquer, I used to skip hanging out with friends to sit and play these games for 48 hours on weekends. 

If a point-and-click game makes me think of 1980s gaming, it’s Police Quest. While many thought King's Quest was better, Police Quest was so much fun. My brother and I worked for months to beat this game, then played it all over again.