10 cult games you played in the nineties.

The 1990s can rightly be considered a landmark decade in the world of computer games. After all, it was in the nineties that legendary games such as Doom, Warcraft, Fallout and even Worms Armageddon came into being. The world's first 3D shooter appeared in the 1990s, and game design moved forward as well. There are many games that would deserve a paragraph of their own in this article. Many of the games from the nineties are still being played today, and some of them laid the foundations for today's games.

Game genres

To help you find your way around the list of games more easily, it's worth starting with a quick refresher on game genres. Each game falls into one of the categories listed below, depending on its goal. Once you've got to grips with this classification, you'll find it easier to understand what each of the games below is about.

RPG, or role-playing game, is a type of game in which the player takes on the role of a character, gradually building and improving them from the very beginning until they become an unstoppable hero. Well-known nineties RPGs include Diablo and Fallout.

Strategy – a very popular genre, which can be divided into further subcategories:

RTS – Real-time strategy (a strategy game in which the action and the response happen in real time),

TBS – Turn-based strategy,

City-building strategy, whose aim is to build a city, a theme park and so on, and finally

Combat strategy, in which the main goal is fighting.

Shooters – one of the most popular game genres of all time. There's hardly a player who has never played one. Here too we can find two subcategories: FPS and TPS. FPS – First-person shooter, i.e. a shooter played from the first-person perspective. One of the first FPS shooters was Wolfenstein 3D. A year later, DOOM became very famous, adding the option of multiplayer. TPS – Third-person shooter, i.e. a shooter played from the third-person perspective. Notable examples include the Czech legend Mafia, or the world-famous GTA.

Adventure – a game in which the player takes on the role of a hero and has to solve tasks set by the game. Well-known adventure games from the Czech environment include Polda.

Simulator – the aim of simulators is to simulate a more or less realistic situation. Have you ever played The Sims? Then you've played a simulator.

Racing and sports games are just as widespread and popular as shooters. In the vast majority of cases, they don't require complicated strategies. Each of you can briefly become a ski jumper, an F1 driver or even an NHL player.

Arcade games are a genre in which the player initially completes simple, often logic-based tasks whose difficulty, however, increases with every round. Playing arcade games requires logical thinking, quick reactions and patience.

Platformers – games in which the aim is jumping, hopping, doing somersaults and so on. Using these movements, you need to get your main character from point A to point B. Various obstacles stand in your way, and you have to overcome them with these movements. The most famous nineties platformers are Prince of Persia and Prehistorik, and the very popular platformer Super Mario dates back to the eighties.

How did people play back then?

Gaming worked rather differently back then. The quality of audio and visuals was at rock bottom compared with today. Playing games was often a group affair – a bunch of friends gathered around one computer, one played and the rest watched. And if you didn't have a computer at home, even passively watching a friend play was entertainment. Yet all of this had a wonderful atmosphere and made it something special.

TIP: How do you play in 2024? Read the article Cloud gaming, or a service as a game.

Hall of fame of nineties gaming entertainment

1. Prince of Persia (1989) Who hasn't played Prince! One of the most popular platformers of all time. The main character, a Persian prince, had to rescue the sultan's daughter, a princess, whom the vizier Jaffar had imprisoned in the dungeon. Along the way, the prince had to overcome obstacles set in his path using various moves (e.g. jumps). Once he had made it through the whole route without dying, he freed the princess and the game ended. During his journey, the prince could drink potions which, for example, gave him an extra life, so that even when he failed a trap he could carry on. For its time, Prince was one of the most sophisticated games on the market. Its popularity is also shown by the fact that remakes of this legendary game are still being released today.
2. Prehistorik (1991) Two years later, the platformer Prehistorik was released. In it, you played a Stone Age caveman who sets off to hunt with a club. As in Prince, your task was to get through the route without dying. As well as jumping, you could also use your club to bash enemies.
3. NHL Hockey (1991) For hockey fans, the sports game NHL Hockey first came out in 1991. Since then, a new version has been released every year. The game is produced under licence from the NHL, so you play as real players from real hockey teams.
4. Wolfenstein 3D (1992) One of the most legendary nineties shooters of all time! The game was known as 'Wolf' in slang. The story takes place during the Second World War and is set in the Nazi fortress Castle Hollehammer. The main hero of this FPS shooter was B. J. Blazkowicz, whose goal was to thwart the Nazi army's Operation Iron Fist (Eisenfaust), i.e. their attempt to create a perfect army. During the game you could switch between four different weapons: a bayonet, a pistol, a submachine gun and a machine gun. Who could forget the moment the screen turned red after the player was hit by an enemy!
5. DOOM (1993) The team of developers who created Wolfenstein released, a year later, a game that marked a real turning point in the games industry. It was the first 3D shooter ever. For its time, the game was technically very advanced, and it quickly became popular for that reason. Following the example of DOOM, many games were created which came to be called ‘Doom clones’ and later FPS games. In the story, when you play DOOM you are transported to a fortress on Mars, where your goal is to fight various monsters. Once you have completed all the episodes, you return to Earth. This cult FPS shooter added the revolutionary option of multiplayer. DOOM is still popular today, and several remakes have been released over the years.
6. Worms Armageddon (1994) Pink little worms who eliminate each other during worm battles using a wide range of weapons from their arsenal. You could choose from a really varied selection – from the classic pistol, submachine guns and grenades to the exploding sheep. Worms could move not only by crawling, but also by jumping, teleporting or even swinging on a rope. Worms games belong to the strategy genre, specifically the turn-based (TBS) subgenre. The game was very popular both as an online game and as a multiplayer game.
7. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) A phenomenon from the Blizzard Entertainment studio that conquered the world. Warcraft is a fantasy RTS strategy game in which you find yourself in the kingdom of Azeroth, which is under attack from raiding Orc hordes. In the game you can choose whether to play as the human race or as the Orcs. Warcraft became the foundation for the most popular multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft, which was released in 2004. Several books, comics and even a feature film have been based on this cult game.
8. Diablo (1996) Another legendary action fantasy RPG from Blizzard: Diablo. The game came out two years after the successful Warcraft, and this work from the American games company was also a huge success and remains popular to this day. The player's task is to explore the labyrinth beneath the cathedral in the village of Tristram and defeat the hellish evil that inhabits the place. During the game, the player moves through the map and fights various monsters. By defeating them, they earn experience points, which let them level up. You can play as one of three different characters – a warrior, a rogue or a sorcerer – each with their own strengths and weaknesses. The popular game gained great popularity, and two sequels followed – Diablo II and Diablo III.
9. Fallout (from 1997) Fallout is a legendary nineties post-apocalyptic RPG that absolutely mustn't be missing from our list. The story takes place in the Fallout world after a nuclear war. People have been moved underground, and only mutants remain on the surface. The problem arises when drinking water starts to run out. The hero of this game is then tasked with climbing to the surface and finding the chip for the water purification controller. The player fights not only the existing inhabitants of the surface, but also the increased radiation found in the area.
10. Polda (1998) Finally, let's remember a Czech classic, the adventure game Polda. It is a six-part series in which the hero, police officer Pankrác, has to investigate a set case. You progress through individual tasks until you reach the full conclusion of the whole story. In the first part, your task is to investigate a mysterious kidnapping in the village of Lupany. The script is written in a comedic style, so don't take the game too seriously. You'll still get plenty of fun out of it.

Anyone who didn't play Snake might as well not have existed in the nineties

Almost every child of the nineties remembers the days when they spent whole afternoons playing Snake. It's a game that's easy to understand: a snake moves across the screen collecting little squares, and it grows longer with each square it picks up. The aim was not to crash into the snake itself or into the walls around the edge. This originally computer game from the 1970s was put into mobile phones in the 1990s by the company Nokia, and with that move it became a legend. You can still download the game to your phone today. You'll find it under the name ‘Snake '97: retro phone classic’ on the App Store or Google Play.

Interested in history? Also read the article When did the internet start in the Czech Republic

Updated 13 March 2024