Ultima III

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with ABC; when you role-play, you begin with Ultima III. The first computer RPG I ever played, this was the game that drove the point home to me that computers can do more than simply emulate arcade machines. Deep, rich, with beautiful graphics and a gorgeous soundtrack, Ultima III also scored with a great plot. It taught me to always have a surprise in store for the player.

Ultima III's superior in every way, Ultima IV scored on the deepest of levels, with a plot departure from the then-standard "kill the evil wizard" setup. Better graphics and new music highlight a new plot, which emphasized self-discovery and taught me that games can teach, and can have deep meanings.

The first Ultima RPG to have 256-color graphics, and support MIDI music and a mouse. And what a difference it makes! Britannia unfolds in gorgeous color, portrayed in 4096 tiles lavishly drawn by Denis Loubet, and your party is easier to control than ever. Character portraits allow us to see up close the companions we have loved since Ultima I, and the fact that the game has a fine plot doesn't detract either. Ultima VI taught me that the presentation and interface are extremely important.

Ah. What else can I say? DOOM is a classic, and still holds up very well against all of it's successors. No really, I'm serious, go back and play it again. You'll be surprised at how good it looks, how fast it runs, how intelligent the monsters are, and how scared it can still make you. Also, it RIPS in modem play now. I personally can't tell any difference between LAN play and modem play on 33.6 modems. DOOM taught me that it's fun to scare people and multiplayer mode is important.

Whoa. Now HERE was a game! No mere DOOM ripoff, this game combined elements of role-playing and adventure games. It just happened to do it all in a full 3-D environment. One of the first games to support things like crouching, leaning around corners, and firing in directions other than straight ahead, System Shock combines all the elements of a great action game with a wicked plot and one of the nastiest villains you will ever come across (SHODAN will prove to you that there is a fate worse than death). System Shock taught me that you never have to use your tools the way the player expects - in fact, it's usually better if you don't.

This is the grand dame, the game that proved that yes, the PC is a viable platform for action gaming. A classic in every sense of the word, and still one of the funnest things you can do with a computer, Wing Commander eschewed every boring part of flight simulation in favor of complete balls-to-the-wall space combat action. You have every instrument you need to be able to track down and kill the enemy, and nothing else - because nothing else was needed. Wing Commander taught me to get rid of everything in the game that isn't fun.

The baddest and best space combat sims you can buy, X-Wing and Tie Fighter gives Star Wars fans absolutely everything they could possibly desire. The flight model is as close to perfect as it can humanly be, and even after all this time I am simply amazed at how much like the movies it is - while giving the player full control over what is going on. The only caveat is that they are not the best-looking sims in the world - most of the objects use simple colors and polygons, proving that fun is much more important than pretty.

Absolutely the most game I've ever seen crammed into about 500K, Starflight was a superb space-opera RPG. With 250 solar systems and over 800 planets to explore, it gave a true sense of exploring a galaxy, yet somehow managed to keep the player from getting lost. The interface was very good (despite being completely keyboard-driven) and the game managed to convey a true sense of exploring the galaxy - more so than ANY succeeding game. Unfortunately, this game is no longer commercially available, and very difficult to find.

Whoa, Nelly! Do these games rock! Dune II was a "dark horse" critic's favorite back in 1994, and it's really surprising how well it holds up against all of it's successors. In fact, the later realtime-strategy games only added two improvements - rubber-band unit selection and multiplayer support. Anyone unfamiliar with Command & Conquer needs to get familiar RIGHT NOW! This, to me, is the epitome of a well-put-together game. A good interface, fast graphics, an engaging plot, cool movies, well-designed missions, great hero and villain characters, there is very little that this game lacks. Red Alert is also very good, but it is not the step above C&C that C&C was over Dune II, and requires a very powerful computer to run fast.

The Warcraft series emphasizes the strategy in realtime-strategy, just as Command & Conquer emphasizes realtime. With gorgeous, high-res graphics, and an extensive background, Warcraft comes off almost as an RPG with a LOT of combat. Full of surprises, and with a lot more options in play than C&C, Warcraft II has ensconced itself, not as a clone, but as the second God of Realtime Strategy.

X-COM was a startlingly deep game. The plot involved an alien attempt at world domination, but this was no cliched arcade game. As the aliens terrorize cities around the world, it's up to your team to fight them off, typically at night in urban environments. At first you will face superior firepower with only a handful of rookies. But if you play smart and tough, your soldiers will gain experience and your scientists will develop new weapons based on analyzed alien technology. But the aliens have some nasty surprises in store...

I saved the best for last. Civilization is, in my opinion, the best PC game ever made. Broad and deep in scope, never the same twice, completely customizable, Civilization is the game that most designers would give parts of their body to make. A perfect design (though the interface is riddled with bugs), Civilization is the game I would choose to take with me to a desert island. Civilization II added a much better interface, new units and technologies to research, and lots of nifty FMV.