I’m pretty sure Doom will be the most popular (and my pick too), but I’ll throw a shout-out to Epic Pinball; that Android table was the best one in the game anyway.

  • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
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    44 minutes ago

    Commander Keen!

    Jumping around with the pogo stick in Keen 6 was so much fun. I recently found the full game. Was surprised how hard that factory level was. But the music was still how I remembered it.

  • BlueSquid0741@lemmy.sdf.org
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    5 hours ago

    I think this question just fried my brain. I don’t even know where to start.

    Most played shareware of all time though was probably Transport Tycoon.

  • weirdo_from_space@sh.itjust.works
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    7 hours ago

    I’ve been playing some Jazz Jackrabbit and Duke Nukem 1, they are both great. I think I prefer the design of DOS games to the design of console games.

    • ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      32 minutes ago

      I loved Whacky Wheels so much but recently put it on my Steamdeck and eh, it did not age well. Very choppy gameplay. But it still has a place in my heart.

    • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
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      5 hours ago

      What is the name of this game, I played it so much as a kid but I always forget the name

      Edit: Wacky Wheels, got it though reverse image search

  • JustARegularNerd@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 hours ago

    Colobot - don’t think it was “shareware” but it absolutely came as a demo on ceebot.com (still hosted there today I believe). Literally THE game that got me into computer programming and whatnot.

    Otherwise for actual shareware, I loved Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Crazy Gravity and some game unfortunately titled “Worm” (snake clone) with MIDI and sound effects still stuck in my head to this day

    I really wanted to play a couple shareware games called Jetpack Joyride, and Hot Chix n Gear Stix as a kid, but neither of them would play on my Windows XP netbook as they had a hard check for if you were on either Windows 95 or 98, even with compatibility mode.

  • ninjakttty@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    A couple of people have mentioned Raptor: Call of the shadows, which was an absolute favorite of mine. Skyforce Reloaded is pretty close in terms of gameplay. I wish there were more games out there like Raptor

    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      You try Tyrian? It was like raptor but dialed up to 11 with different planes and an actual storyline :o

      • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
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        7 hours ago

        Save 5 rounds of cash for a death’s head nuke

        Shriek “Now tremble before Thor’s Hammer mortals!” to your friends seated around you

        Press fire

        Accidentally blow yourself up when the wind pushes it back in your direction 🤡

  • h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 hours ago

    I was a huge fan of Solar Winds: The Escape. Cool plot, aliens, dogfights, ship systems management, evil shadow governments, rebels… what’s not to love? It was my introduction to the genre and will always hold a special place

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      I’m so stoked to see this here. It was my first thought when I saw the thread.

      It was a stand out experience from my childhood.

      • h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        49 minutes ago

        For real though, I’d love to see a modern take on this - something in between NMS, Mechwarrior, and FTL. I’ve not found anything out there with the correct combination of exploration, ship customization and management, and sinister plot. Several games get closer, but they’re all missing something

    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      Solar winds blew my mind once I actually figured out all the controls. The universe they built was super cool and I really dug the combat. Can’t count the number of times I got owned by this guy trying to blow him up from the get go.

  • zabadoh@ani.social
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    11 hours ago

    “Stars!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars!

    A 4X game for Win 3.11 that was set up for multi-player by email and ftp turbo.

    Fantastically ergonomic use of early GUI features.

    You could design your own alien race and ships, the default races were well balanced, but all played very differently.