Elite: First Encounters was a great game, circa 1994.

Also, xyzzy.
And you have been eaten by a Grue.

"I play a lot of Rise of Nations in my free time, although I like the expansion best."

Ah, there was a time when I played this enough to get pretty damn good online.

Rise of Legends is fun, at least for a while, but I wouldn't call it great. It gets major points for style though.

My favourite was Bloodwych, on the Commodore 64. Adventure gaming at its best.

Definitely Kotor 1 or 2 thats Star Wars Knights of the old Republic the first one won game of the year in 2006 and has an awesome story while the second one has better gameplay but the story is weaker although Kreia finally brings out a third group besides the simple light side and dark side that is really makes so called star wars nerds question there philosophies

Rlumley: ""> Heroes of Might and Magic III (!)"

Great game..."

Many, many hours have I spent, and it's still on my computer...

Total War - rome , med II (haven't gotten Empire yet, heard it was still bug heavy) for Med II the AI is pretty weak so i play Stainless Steel Mod or Broken Cresent, the Fan mods really beef up the Battle AI and improve the Campaign, the AI try to win the game! Vanilla Med II seems like a Beta after playing these fan mods.

plus

Civ2,3,4

used to play Starcraft, Kohan etc but those games get boring quickly unless your multiplayeing

Altered Beast, Double Dragon & Mortal Combat :P

Just for reference, I can tell that nobody else in this thread has played Deus Ex or X-com.

SFC-II, UnrealTournament, Apprentice, Chess...

Master of Orion
Red Baron II
Space Quest series
Borrowed Time

...to name a few...

Nethack, lol... ah, eating a yummy % off the _ ... oops, YASD.

I actually won NH once with the no-wishes conduct, which is intensely difficult (but not as bad as some of the more extreme conduct wins). I'm also old enough that I've actually played the original Rogue (NH is better). I agree, 3.1 was the best. It's the only one I keep a copy of, although I probably haven't played since about 2005.

I really enjoyed Sid's Alpha Centauri, but it was buggy as hell and I haven't even seen the CD in many years. In a box somewhere. I'd love to see an updated version.

I can HIGHLY recommend Battlefront.com's Combat Mission series of games. I wish they'd man-up and do an Xbox 360 version, I don't blow money on gaming computers any more.

I've also really enjoyed Stardock Software's Galactic Civilization series. I bought a DVI-to-YPbPr upconverter for the AV closet computer so I could run that one in hi-def on the 150" projection screen. Talk about feeling like you're running an empire. That game has TONS of bang for the buck, even the originals. Another series I wish was on the 360.

99% of what I play on the 360 are driving and racing games. (Road racing is my real world hobby...)

The Civilization series

I've never been able to stay up really late playing video games ... at some point, usually 3-5am, my mind shuts down and I MUST sleep. Now that I'm older, it's probably more like 1-2am.

Except when I played Starcraft. I could play that game (with friends) forever.

Starcraft by far. There are many other excellent ones which have been mentioned here, but Starcraft is definitely the gold standard.

The Civ series (although IV doesn't have me as hooked as the previous ones, but maybe I'm just getting older! I don't have the time or ability to stay up all night like I used to.)

Loved Elite on my Commodore 64 when I was a kid!

Will have to try a few of the other suggestions on here...

The KOTOR series is incredible, although I agree with the statement that the second one has an iffy storyline.

There are enough starcraft players here that we can probably get a decent game going, like 2v2 or something. Anyone down? I haven't played in over a year, and I'll have to dig up my old CD's, but back in the day I was about a C- on wgtour.

I'll have to dig up my CDs, too. I remember liking BGH unlimited.

Taipan for the Apple 2 circa 1983, Loderunner, Midway and Impossible Mission for the C-64 around the same time. And the original Castle Wolfenstein.

And Jupiter Lander for thw Vic 20. If you don't know what Vic 20 is, go look it up for a good laugh.

King's Quest series (VI)

Zelda 2

I also loved Double Dragon (and Contra)

And Civ series (including Colonization)

Oh, and Ice Hockey for the original NES was awesome!

Duke Nuke'm introduced me to strippers. Probably not a good thing.

C- on WGT would be next to nothing these days FYI Chris. ICCUP (the current competitive standard) has just been advancing so rapidly lately it's ridiculous. C+ on ICCUP a few seasons back is probably D+ now - going as far back as when WGT was used, I don't even want to know what kind of a rank decline there would be.

I haven't actually played in a while either since I can't get on ICCUP, but know enough theory and such from following the proscene that I could probably be a pretty decent match for you if you haven't played in a while and used to be decent.

@ ag: If you liked King's Quest you'd like Quest for Glory. Such great games. I played King's Quest with my grandfather when I was a baby...

Yeah, I noticed that. About two or three years ago I used to play with my friends, but not with ICCUP, but I did follow the pro-scene. The general skill level has increased, and also there's been more of a shift toward micro to macro skills, though I think that's because of the official map choices for Korean Competitive Leagues and ICCUP.

I love flight simulators, FPS games, spy/stealth games, military games, strategy games, racing games, and MMORPGs. Picking one game is impossible. So here are the best in each category...

FPS: Halo series (Star Wars Battlefront close second)
MMORPG: World of Warcraft (City of Heroes/Villains close second)
Strategy - Turn Based: Sid Meier's Civ series (Alpha Centauri and Pirates, also both Sid Meier's are close seconds)
Strategy - Real Time: Warcraft (Star Wars Empire at War close second)
Flight Simulator: Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator
Racing Game: Project Gotham series.
First Person Military: Medal of Honor series
Spy Game: Most of the 007 series - Nightfire was probably the best of them.

I think that covers my favorite video games.

I agree with almost none of those Draug... Actually I agree with exactly none of those. Where to start...

I have no opinion on some of those categories, but I hate almost all MMORPGs (It's a joke to call them rpgs anyway)

Turn based strategy goes to the Heroes series (Specifically Heroes III) but the Civ series is nowhere near bad, and this was certainly the least offending of your overwhelming display of poor taste. :-P

Strategy - Real Time: Empire Earth. Enough said. If you've never played the game, I'm sorry. It's like Age of Empires (Same developers) except on steroids. It goes all the way from prehistoric to modern.

FPS: Halo? Really? If you want a decent FPS, I'd go with counterstrike. Halo is just... juvenile. It's not realistic at all, and it's really rather basic. Shotgun, pistol, laser, submachinegun, sniper rifle. If you don't place much value on realism, I'd go with Team Fortress 2, which, while also not realistic, is very diverse, and a lot of fun.