Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990): Where Origin’s World Simulation Began
Long before “immersive sim” was a genre label anyone used, Origin Systems built a game where nearly every object in […]
Fantasy
Loom (1990): The LucasArts Adventure With No Inventory At All
Loom is the LucasArts game that dared to ship an adventure with no verbs, no inventory screen, and technically no
Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire (1990) — Sierra’s Adventure-RPG Hybrid Matures
From a Germanic Village to an Arabian Nights City The first Quest for Glory game (originally titled Hero’s Quest) planted
King’s Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (1992): Sierra’s Fairy Tale Peak
Ask a handful of Sierra fans which King’s Quest is the best one, and an awful lot of them will
King’s Quest I (1984): Roberta Williams’ PCjr Showcase That Started It All
In 1984, IBM needed something to show off the graphics capability of its new PCjr, and Sierra On-Line’s Roberta Williams
King’s Quest V (1990): The VGA Leap That Redefined Sierra Adventures
What happens when a text parser and EGA graphics both disappear from a Sierra game at once? King’s Quest V
Master of Magic (1994): The 4X Strategy Game That Out-Civilized Civilization
Sid Meier’s Civilization gets credit for inventing the modern 4X genre, but a small MicroProse-published game from 1994 quietly out-did
Eye of the Beholder (1991): Westwood’s D&D Dungeon Crawl Debut
Before Command & Conquer made Westwood a household name, the studio cut its teeth on something very different: a first-person
Betrayal at Krondor (1993): The RPG That Out-Wrote Its Own Novels
In the early 1990s, tie-in games were routinely worse than the books or franchises they borrowed from. Betrayal at Krondor
Shadowcaster (1993): Raven’s Shape-Shifting RPG Before Heretic and Hexen
Long before Raven Software became known for Heretic and Hexen, the studio spent 1993 building something stranger: a first-person RPG
Mystic Towers (1994): A Free Wizard-Sim Apogee Almost Forgot
Baron Baldric would really rather be reading. Unfortunately, an aging wizard with a talent for clearing monster-infested towers doesn’t get
Lure of the Temptress (1992): Revolution Software’s First Game Was Already Ambitious
Most studios spend a few games finding their voice. Revolution Software announced theirs on the first try: Lure of the