• Redfeather@lemmy.world
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    20 minutes ago

    One of my absolute favorites is a quirky strategy game named Lord Monarch. I found it on the Nihon Falcom website way back in the mid 90s when I was first starting to use the internet: Lord Monarch

    It’s super tiny in modern terms, but I remember waiting a good 20-30 minutes for it to download from a 33.6Kbps modem.

    Another huge one for me was a game I actually got a full version of from a Gravis gamepad promo CD named Seek and Destroy. It’s a top down shooter where you can be either a helicopter or a tank: Seek and Destroy

    The last one that comes to mind is a giant robot fighting game that also came on that same Gravis CD named One Must Fall: One Must Fall 2097

  • ocasta@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 hours ago

    UnReal World is a free, survival-focused roguelike rpg that came out in 1992 and is still actively being developed and improved. It’s got a lot of depth and a very cool fantasy setting heavily inspired by Finnish folklore (the developer is Finnish).

    I highly recommend it if you’ve got the patience for an in-depth roguelike rpg.

  • ClipperDefiance@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Irisu Syndrome! is a favorite of mine. It’s only from 2008, so I personally don’t consider it retro. It’s tricky to learn at first since it doesn’t tell you anything about how to play and I don’t recall there being a manual. It’s also one of those games that you can’t really say too much about without spoiling things.

  • secret300@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 hours ago

    For the longest time I thought Minecraft was free because I only ever pirated it. Lol

    PlanetSide 2 is the free-to-play I keep going back to

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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    8 hours ago

    If we’re sticking strictly to free, I’m not sure Doom mods work if you only have the free version installed. Either way, people basically never stopped making wads since the game came out, and I try various ones out from time to time.

    There are tons of them, so if you’re interested you can see what won the annual Cacowards throughout the years and start there.

    https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Cacowards

  • sanglyon@jlai.lu
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    10 hours ago

    “Einstein puzzle” by Flowix games, copyright 2004-2005

    I play it from time to time, to see if I can still complete it in under 4 minutes and my brain isn’t slowing down too much with age.

    Technically, Dwarf fortress is the oldest game I still play, but I only got fully into it thanks to the non-free Steam version.

  • Emma Liv@lemmy.ca
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    12 hours ago

    Beneath A Steel Sky (though I kinda prefer the grungier aesthetic of the Amiga floppy version)

    • Die4Ever@programming.dev
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      6 hours ago

      I’ve probably played this game for over a hundred hours. Great soundtrack too, by Alexander Brandon. I also loved the minigame hidden behind the DESTRUCT cheat code.

      And it’s open source too!