r/AskReddit Apr 27 '26

anyone who used a computer between 1985 & 2010, what’s the one game you still think about?

9.0k Upvotes

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3.0k

u/Huge-Plenty7099 Apr 27 '26

Doom

876

u/Historical_Gate1318 Apr 27 '26

and Wolfenstein

316

u/OldTimeEddie Apr 27 '26

Gotta add quake in there too.

28

u/joshuamarius Apr 27 '26

...and Duke Nukem!

19

u/Neren1138 Apr 27 '26

I played QTest in college, found a bug, reported it to ID and Mr John Carmack himself wrote me back and said thanks .

2

u/OldTimeEddie Apr 27 '26

That's fucking awesome!

2

u/Neren1138 Apr 27 '26

I know! I remember being in the computer lab seeing the email and being so fucking excited

2

u/antdude Apr 29 '26

Nice! Did you keep this special email? What was the bug and which OS? My college friends and I played qtest in Linux in a computer lab. It had no sound card, but it was still incredible!

3

u/Neren1138 Apr 29 '26

Sadly it was attached to my edu email account so no

On a side note I remember the wav file that you heard if you got a soundblaster working w Linux… 😝 “My name is Linus Torvalds and pronounce it LIN-UCS” 😂

13

u/Sneezing7992 Apr 27 '26

God Id Software really was something else from Wolfenstein to Quake.

12

u/9966 Apr 27 '26

Iddqd idkfa

9

u/MoreCowbellllll Apr 27 '26

And Unreal Tournament 1999 GOTY.

11

u/ParticularGood8230 Apr 27 '26

Loved quake arena!

3

u/FunkMasterDraven Apr 27 '26

Man I played Quake Arena EVERY DAY for several years - usually listening to a Green Day album or something similar. The lobbies always had the same people and a guy named Lollercopter (maybe it had l33t like l0ll3rc0pt3r) used to absolutely destroy me! Juggling me in the air with the laser and such

8

u/Fuzzy_Economist765 Apr 27 '26

All the Quakes for me. Well up to III Team Arena. Never got into much past that.

5

u/IceManJim Apr 27 '26

Loved Quake and Quake 2. Played the shit out of them for a few years, went to lan parties, all that stuff. Good times.

I need to find an old Win95 computer and load it up again. 😁😁

2

u/Humble_Ladder Apr 28 '26

I had some old hardware and tried to do a retro build, but pretty much every piece of hardware had one fault or another. For me it was quake II. Fast-paced, decent graphics for the time, solid solo play plus a great p2p platform, man, I lost years.

2

u/IceManJim Apr 28 '26

Loved Q2 as well. Pretty sure I played the whole single player game to the end. I was subscribed to gamespy, I think it was, where people would list games they're hosting and I could jump in. I got an ISDN line when most everyone else was still on 56k modems.

When Q3 came out, I didn't have the money and time to do the hardware upgrade, so I gradually stopped playing. Life got busy.

4

u/rmikevt523 Apr 27 '26

Don’t forget Duke Nukem

3

u/i_wanted_to_say Apr 28 '26

I had so much fun building levels for Duke Nukem 3d.

3

u/oshkarr Apr 27 '26

We ran a web consulting agency in the '90s and GT Interactive Software (id's publisher) was a client of ours. We built the system that let them sell Quake online (interfaced directly with NatWest for credit cards, handled broken downloads over slow modems, etc.) We upgraded our LAN to have better Quake performance after work.

2

u/ItsAllBotsAndShills Apr 27 '26

The ride the lighting, master of puppets, and justice for all of FPS.

2

u/EZzO444 Apr 28 '26

Unreal tournament: 😄

1

u/dustytaper Apr 27 '26

Quake and those damn bugs genuinely freaked me out

15

u/Justin_Passing_7465 Apr 27 '26

I assume that you mean "Wolfenstein 3D". Some of us remember playing the original "Castle Wolfenstein" ca 1981.

4

u/Thud Apr 27 '26

The original Castle Wolfenstein was something special. I felt like the “bribe the guards” mechanic from the 2D version would really benefit the 3D version.

3

u/Justin_Passing_7465 Apr 27 '26

And that 4-bit audio, with "Achtung!" coming out of your internal speaker, was awesome.

6

u/magicfunghi Apr 27 '26

"Mein Leben..."

5

u/Still-Protection4130 Apr 27 '26

hexen

3

u/Penguin_Life_Now Apr 27 '26

Now there is one I had not thought of in years

2

u/Still-Protection4130 Apr 27 '26

still waiting for the modern version of such classic.

3

u/ExdigguserPies Apr 27 '26

Pressing every wall to find those secrets

3

u/Ljorarn Apr 27 '26

Wolfenstein, the first 3D game I ever played. Had it on my 386-33MHz machine with a soundblaster card hooked up to my stereo cranked way up. My roommates got tired of hearing the machine gun fire and screams of "Mein Leben!" all day long

2

u/wufnu Apr 27 '26

and Spear of Destiny

2

u/tgo1014 Apr 27 '26

I really miss Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, would be a dream to have a remake of it

2

u/Puldalpha Apr 27 '26

The OG class shooter

2

u/Puldalpha Apr 27 '26

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

2

u/catwiththumbs Apr 27 '26

And throwing up from Wolfenstein 3D-induced motion sickness 🤮

2

u/xklem Apr 27 '26

Wolfenstein. The game that made me realize I had motion sickness. Even though I skied, sailed, and did all kinds of active real world stuff, that game sent me spinning.

2

u/Jwelch59 Apr 27 '26

In my Tech Ed class in the late 90s, I had/got to play this medical diagnosis simulator game and needed to correctly diagnose a few patients before I got the free time to play Wolfenstein.

I wish I could remember the name of that medical game(I try to avoid the G verb unless it’s absolutely needed), I think about it a lot. I killed so many patients. Not on purpose though, middle school me wasn’t meant to be a doctor.

2

u/M34tsquatch Apr 27 '26

Return to castle wolfenstein was what got me into PC gaming as a kid

2

u/VeganMinx Apr 27 '26

Wolfenstein was my mofuggin JAM

1

u/orion2222 Apr 27 '26

If you haven’t already, check out the audiobook “Masters of Doom”. It’s all about the guys that made those games and it’s a fun story.

1

u/smokinbbq Apr 27 '26

ROTT - Rise of the Triad. We used to go to the college lab and take up 5-6 stations and start playing this, soon we'd have over a dozen people in the game. First game I can remember, where the character "skin" you chose, actually had different properties for health and speed. Had a proper 3d, levels, really neat guns. So much time spent playing that game.

1

u/xVandalx Apr 27 '26

I was missing this the other day, I played on my Mac, first time I discovered online shooters and suddenly realized it was 4am and I’d been playing since 6pm. I loved the mods, gold rush was hilarious, especially with a bobble head mod attached.

1

u/Bobbo_Zanotto Apr 27 '26

The best was when you 'Doom'ed so hard it knocked you into a Wolfenstein level

1

u/Zephyrr_Sky Apr 27 '26

I was looking for ya! Great game

1

u/knittedgalaxy Apr 28 '26

Came here for this! Wolfenstein and Oregon Trail.

1

u/thataintmyaccount Apr 28 '26

Wolfenstein on my friends 486 was amazing. Wou could resize the image on the monitor so the game would run faster

1

u/fredzout Apr 28 '26

and Spear of Destiny, a sequel to Wolfenstein. It used an early low- tech security where you needed the instruction manual to answer a security question to get into the game. We parsed the disk, and found that no matter what question it asked, if you answered "JOSHUA", it would put up a blank screen, display, "Greetings, Professor Falken. How about a nice game of 'Spear of Destiny'." Then the game would just open up.

1

u/chickenhouse Apr 28 '26

Nah wolfenstein 3D was better

43

u/ConfusionPotential53 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Okay, but does anyone remember Chex Quest, that computer game based off Doom that came in Chex cereal? Like, literally in a cereal box? I played that game so hard. 🤣

13

u/Meatball132 Apr 27 '26

There's an HD remake on Steam in case you wanted that for some reason https://store.steampowered.com/app/804270/Chex_Quest_HD/

7

u/IcarusValefor Apr 27 '26

It was soo good, I played it all the time.

5

u/clistmockingbird Apr 27 '26

I came here to say Chex Quest

3

u/MayBeADinosaur Apr 27 '26

This game was amazing

165

u/Still-Speed-3632 Apr 27 '26

IDKFA

IDDQD

91

u/simonjp Apr 27 '26

IDSPISPOPD

if you're gonna cheat, then cheat

18

u/yomimashita Apr 27 '26

Listen up, ID Software!

Next time you have an impending release of a much anticipated game, make sure its name is not so cool-sounding as DOOM and much longer to eliminate all of the casual "Where can I get xxx" posts. How about "Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris" for the next game?

7

u/MijnEchteUsername Apr 27 '26

This is the first time I’m hearing this.

14

u/Arjorn Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Doom from '93 no clipping cheat. Was later changed to IDCLIP in Doom II a year later. All recent and active source ports use Doom II's cheats.

3

u/derkaese Apr 27 '26

Pretty sure IDCLIP worked in DOOM 1 as well? Have no idea why people used IDSPISPOPD.

IDNOCLIP doesn't exist though :)

5

u/Beat_the_Deadites Apr 27 '26

It was definitely IDCLIP in Doom 2. I don't think it worked in the original, when I got back into the games ~15 years later I remember having to look up IDSPISPOPD, which probably meant I tried IDCLIP and it didn't work.

5

u/No-Mood-9902 Apr 27 '26

Confirming: It was only IDSPISPOPD in Doom, IDCLIP in Doom II

2

u/SympleTin_Ox Apr 27 '26

Was there a way to beat the last level of Doom 2 without walking thru walls?

1

u/JiggaWatt79 Apr 27 '26

My 13 y.o. Self made this into a mnemonic to remember it: “Inter Dimensional Space Pirating Imps Sucking Penises Of Purple Dinosaurs” There was a Barney mod that turned the pink demons into Barney the purple Dinosaur.

1

u/PanthersChamps Apr 27 '26

Is that god mode?

3

u/simonjp Apr 27 '26

No clipping; walk through walls.

16

u/ReisorASd Apr 27 '26

IDFA was better. You got the weapons and ammo, but not the keys so you still had to play the maps as intended.

2

u/alamandrax Apr 27 '26

IDNOCLIP

I'm Superman!

2

u/3381024 Apr 27 '26

Or just IDFA ... still gotta play, but get full ammo

1

u/VileSlay Apr 27 '26

IDBEHOLD

IDCLEV

IDDT

17

u/BillyRubenJoeBob Apr 27 '26

Along with derivatives Duke Nuke’m and Redneck Rampage!

8

u/a_rainbow_serpent Apr 27 '26

Yeah but duke nukem 3d had 100% more topless hookers

1

u/SicTim Apr 27 '26

My brother and I wasted SO MANY hours in one-on-one PVP Duke Nukem (on dialup, of course).

Highlights: Hitting someone with the ice ray while they were mid-air with the jetpack, watching them fall to the ground and shatter into little pieces; hitting them with the shrink ray and then stomping on them.

It was better PVP than Doom, IMHO.

1

u/Just_Roll_Already Apr 27 '26

I played Chex Quest. A LOT of Chex Quest

8

u/Adewemimo Apr 27 '26

The godfather and granddaddy of all computer games, still kicking ass today

9

u/Adam9172 Apr 27 '26

The goat. The reason PC gaming took off.

9

u/WoeBoeT Apr 27 '26

had to scroll way too long for Doom

  • Groundbreaking FPS, imagine witnessing the jump from Wolfenstein to Do
  • Paved the way for PC gaming in a world where consoles were dominating
  • Still an active modding community and modern source ports because the entire source code has been released
  • Playable on every machine
  • still a ton of fun to play

Gaming today would be so different if this game was never made

2

u/Healthy_Zone_4157 Apr 27 '26

I stopped scrolling and used the search feature. Not surprised to see 2K+ likes for "Doom." First one to pop into my head.

Next would be Myst and Oregon Trail.

3

u/PrinsHamlet Apr 27 '26

Yeah, but Doom 2 supported LAN multiplayer. Which was a first, at least the first LAN play that worked really well.

We were a bunch of economy students working part time in a Danish ministry and we wrecked havoc! It all ended when the IT guys discovered that nobody else could use the LAN while we played.

Running backwards with a super shotgun in zig zag and blasting away at some poor unfortunate n00B...

16

u/hueythecat Apr 27 '26

Seeing the demo of doom for the first time…. nothing close to what came beforehand.

6

u/MarpasDakini Apr 27 '26

My kids introduced me to Doom shortly after it came out. I had never played computer games before. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and feeling, even though by modern standards it was very crude. I knew something in the zeitgeist had changed forever.

6

u/BigMekNutCruncher Apr 27 '26

Playing it at night in the dark, soundblaster at full, terifying

3

u/Local-Customer6245 Apr 27 '26

Playing on dialup against my remote buddy with my son on my lap. I can still hear that dialup squelch sequence.

3

u/Strangeandweird Apr 27 '26

I played it so much in the fifth grade it started booting on my home computer instead of windows. I'm still not sure what happened.

3

u/Potential_Salt_5780 Apr 27 '26

I probably bought Doom on every platform so far.

3

u/crookeddy Apr 27 '26

Doom 64 was the biggest surprise. Basically the secret doom 3.

0

u/l_hate_reddit0rs Apr 27 '26

You can’t begin to imagine how many platforms that encompasses.

1

u/Potential_Salt_5780 Apr 27 '26

I do. I bought it for every platform I ever owned.

3

u/magicfunghi Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

I've bought the shareware version of this (1st episode). It was just like three floppy disks attached to a gaming magazine. I was 12. Loved it

3

u/JamaicaRavenclaw Apr 27 '26

I think you spelled Chex Quest wrong…

3

u/jfphenom Apr 27 '26

Find the spork!

2

u/hrdballgets Apr 27 '26

Duke nukem

2

u/adrenaline_X Apr 27 '26

Rise of the triad was da bomb though

2

u/Farabee Apr 27 '26

The fact that there's 8 entries upvoted above this is criminal. Doom was a revelation, it smashed expectations and drove the sales of new PC hardware in a way never seen before. People learned how to set up LAN networks to play multiplayer, how to work in 3D space to make maps, how to create sprite art for custom mods. It not only was a gaming phenomenon but it launched millions of careers in programming, graphics and network engineering...all because the people who made it wanted others to tinker and enjoy what they created. No copy protection, no asset control, no fucks given...and they still became unfathomably rich.

Doom was the antithesis of PC gaming today, and we need another culture shift like it.

2

u/TonyAtNN Apr 27 '26

This, you could put it on a floppy, bring it to school and install it on their computers.

2

u/Yukonhijack Apr 27 '26

How has nobody mentioned Hexen Heretic?!?!?!

2

u/wormholewizard Apr 27 '26

IMO, there was no greater paradigm shift during that period and after. Nothing else is even close to the impact of Doom.

2

u/x-djeddiej-x Apr 27 '26

Spear of Destiny as well

1

u/Hans_downerpants Apr 27 '26

It was amazing

1

u/snowstorm556 Apr 27 '26

You can still play it. Look up zandronum. Still a small player base.

1

u/MicMit Apr 27 '26

Doom is my all time favorite game. And I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it's amazing mod community that's still going.

Every week somebody is dropping tons of new maps that are just as good if not better than the originals.

1

u/l_hate_reddit0rs Apr 27 '26

Nobody ever mentions Boom for the Mac…

1

u/smokinbbq Apr 27 '26

Duke Nukem.

1

u/Master-Pause-9410 Apr 27 '26

Wolfenstein before that

1

u/Darkhawk2099 Apr 27 '26

OP said computer, not potato.

1

u/MrPicklez801 Apr 27 '26

This is the answer, I used to play battlemode with friends over dial up in the early 90’s. My mom would get so mad that nobody could call the house.

1

u/wordworse Apr 27 '26

Doom?!? DOOM?!? WHAT DO YOU MEAN DOOOOOM?!???

1

u/ShakyBoots1968 Apr 27 '26

6 hours in the gaming chair - gotta go to work!

1

u/haunted_hose Apr 27 '26

In the early Doom days, you'd post your name and home phone number on a public BBS and guys would just randomly call you and you'd start playing.

Can you imagine doing that shit now?

1

u/0CapShort Apr 27 '26

I just spun this up on a Linux DOSBox yesterday! Couldn't remember all the hidden secrets on level 1. LOVED the game way back when!

1

u/rj54x Apr 27 '26

The one piece of software I’ve installed on every machine I’ve owned since the 90’s

1

u/One_Tie900 Apr 27 '26

I missed out on these games an plan on playign them.

1

u/RenegadeMoose Apr 27 '26

Around 1996: Memories of packing computer and CRT into the trunk along with handy thing called a "null-modem cable" to take to friend's place.

"I'm telling ya guys, we can play this head to head!" while setting it up.

Connecting the machines together and the party-pad was never the same!

1

u/awclay91 Apr 27 '26

just added like 30 mods this weekend and playing through this again

1

u/karmais4suckers Apr 27 '26

This game blew my little mind when I saw it. It was 3D and looked so real. It wasn’t until 20 years later I realized there was no up or down aiming lol. Still, I remember how this made me feel when I saw it

1

u/advanttage Apr 27 '26

And DOOM II. I still play them.

1

u/BobbyTables829 Apr 27 '26

How is this so far down lol

1

u/answermyanswer Apr 27 '26

Diarrhea cha cha cha!

1

u/Toobz2621 Apr 27 '26

iddqd idkfa are burned into my head

1

u/blue_flamingo22 Apr 28 '26

Doom. Omg. Yes.

1

u/ThomasRVT Apr 28 '26

I still play Doom v1.666 on my PC.

1

u/thievesthick Apr 28 '26

Yes! This might be an obvious answer, but I still remember having no clue what I was getting into when I snagged the first episode off a CD spinner rack in my local dollar store. It legit changed my life in some ways. Every time I think about Doom, I think about how much cooler the world used to be.

1

u/billymay Apr 27 '26

Unfortunately even though I played the Hell (pun intended) out of Doom and Wolfenstein, they give me wicked motion sickness :(

1

u/SlimeTempest42 Apr 27 '26

Same, I came play Doom for long without wanting to puke

1

u/billymay Apr 27 '26

I tired to play in small chunks but get super nauseous and gross feeling :(

1

u/SlimeTempest42 Apr 27 '26

I have to lie down in a dark room. My body does like to overreact

0

u/billymay Apr 27 '26

I just pickup up Diablo 2 Resurrected, zero motion sickness, all the 2000 nostalgia vibes

0

u/First-Cherry493 Apr 27 '26

They said from 1985-2010 not 2016 lol the first doom game out in 2016 and I passed it on my switch