Skip to content

published 2026-08-12, updated 2026-08-12

Video Games of my Childhood

TLDR: I went down memory lane and wrote a bit about almost every video game that I've played in my childhood/ schooldays (ca. 1994 - 2008). Lots of screenshots and download-links included. Enjoy! :-)

PS: Click on images to get the color version.

Introduction

Personal computers came up in our family around 1994 and DOS games were among the first things we explored on them. My father and his brothers played Might and Magic (New World Computing) and even tracked item stats in Excel spreadsheets.

I never became an ambitious player and sure missed plenty of great games - but these are the ones I did play..

I played these titles between 1994 - 2008 and they're listed roughly in the order I originally got to know them. (Except for successors; I grouped titles in that case.) I played most of them on a PC as I've never owned a video game console.

I didn't bother trying new games after my schooldays.. although nowadays I sometimes try DOS titles I missed back then or check out PICO8 cartridges. As my older kids are in primary school age now, we're occasionally playing Minecraft/ Minetest together.

To my delight, my son and I even played-through Diablo II and several campaigns of Dungeon Keeper 1 and Age of Empires 2. My older daughter loves Sonic the Hedgehog! <3

It is generally very rare that I play a game just by myself these days, but when I do, it's most likely SimCity 2000; there's really something magical about it.

If I've provided a link to buy a game - because it's not abandonware (anymore) - be sure it's not an affiliate link! I'm fine with recommending e.g. gog.com on my site, but I'm not earning any money with that. I don't give a fuck. Most of these games are available for 2-5 EUR.

Paintbrush

Screenshot: Paintbrush

(Paintbrush on Windows 3.1, Image: bc-programming.com)

Not really a game, but us kids back then really played with it for hours anyways! The spray can tool was the most amazing feature!

Paintbrush on Windows 3.1 was that go-to thing for a while when my parents and I visited various households for whatever the grownups were doing.

My older daughter nowadays loves doing the same with KidPix, which was first released for the Macintosh in 1989. Here's a free (public domain) version of KidPix that can just be used in a web browser supporting JavaScript: https://kidpix.app/ [1]

[1] I don't know the story behind it, but I know the sounds in KidPix from SimCity!

Grand Prix Circuit

Screenshot: Grand Prix Circuit

(Grand Prix Circuit, Image: myabandonware.com)

The Grand Prix titles were really the first video games that I've ever played. My cousins and I used to play them on their father's/ my uncle's 486. Good times!

Grand Prix 500 2

Screenshot: Grand Prix 500 2

(Grand Prix 500 2, Image: myabandonware.com)

This was even more fun than Grand Prix Circuit!

The Game of ROBOT (Series)

Screenshot: ROBOT I: Die Verließe des Schulzasar

(Die Verließe des Schulzasar, Image: game-of-robot.de)

It took me years to track this one down! I had only vague recollections of the game (series), and I tried more than once to describe it to my uncle Christian (on whose 486 we played it back then), but he could never tell me the actual title. So every once in a while I tried googling it.. and eventually.. I found it! :-)

It's a German production. Some kind of sophisticated top-down puzzle game with arcade elements.

I remember that I liked to collect stuff and lock myself up in a room, although that of course wasn't the point of the game. This is something I often did when I was young and liked the atmosphere of a game very much: ignoring the intended challenge and making myself comfortable in a microcosm that just felt good. Because why not? :-)

This playful way of "abusing" the actual engines of games later manifested in a strong preference for games that came with a map editor or something like that. I really loved creating my own levels, maps, campaigns and the like — often much more than beating the game itself.

SinkSub

Screenshot: SinkSub

(SinkSub, Image: mobygames.com)

We're still sitting in front of my uncle's 486! Another all-time classic of those days. You had to time dropping bombs from the ship on the water right to hit the submarines. I really love this one to this day.

Bow and Arrow

Screenshot: Bow and Arrow

(Bow and Arrow, Screenshot: myabandonware.com)

One of the first games I remember being played on our very own PC (a P1 with 90 MHz and 8MB RAM)! My father played that a lot and struggled to hit the "Bullseye". Parents and mouse-computer-coordination, ya know? :-) This one, too, has a special place in my heart.

Might and Magic (Series)

Screenshot: Might and Magic IV

(Might and Magic IV)

This was “THE GAME” in our family during the 90s and beyond. As I wrote in the introduction, my father and his brothers even tracked item stats in Excel spreadsheets. I remember them sharing printed versions of these tables on Sundays at my grandparents’ house. How sweet is that? :-)

My cousins and I also enjoyed this series very much and played up to MM6, which we played on Windows 98. It was the first version of the game published by 3DO (although still developed by New World Computing) and represented a whole other level technically: it was a native Windows game and items were represented in a much more graphical way. (Similar to what you might know from Diablo etc.) Before MM6, e.g. every sword-type weapon was represented by the same sword icon.

However, “better” graphics do not necessarily make a better game. Later titles in the series didn’t have comparable depth and quality. My father made it up to MM9 (IIRC), but he became more and more disappointed as well.

PS: We got MM III - V from the German magazine Bestseller Games. See the Wikipedia article for a list of some more, cool games from that time!

The Blues Brothers

Screenshot: The Blues Brothers

(The Blues Brothers, Image: self)

OK, you'll probably read a lot about my uncles here. I have four of them. :-)

This is the first game my uncle Wolfram introduced me to on our Pentium 1. I remember my great-grandma complaining about me getting “square eyes” when I played this game with him. I told her something about our screen having “60 Hz,” without having the slightest idea what that meant. I just imagined something like literally 60 hearts (like the ones representing lives in-game) on the display and that this was a good thing. :-D

The Secret of Monkey Island

Screenshot: The Secret of Monkey Island

(The Secret of Monkey Island)

This was the second game my uncle Wolfram introduced me to on our family PC. This memory is even more heart-warming, because he translated every dialogue etc. for me on the fly. He really took the time to do that, and I’ll always be grateful for it beyond words.

Of course I replayed that one several times on my own. The last time was with my best friend Sushi in my very first own flat in Leipzig. Hell, did we smoke a lot of joints doing that! :-D

The game itself has been praised so much for very good reasons. Do play it all the way through if you haven't done so yet — you won’t regret it!

PS: We got this from the German magazine Bestseller Games. Check the Wikipedia article for a list of some more, cool games from that time!

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge

Screenshot: Monkey Island 2

(Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge)

Same energy as The Secret of Monkey Island. Just do it!

PS: We got this from the German magazine Bestseller Games. Check the Wikipedia article for a list of some more, cool games from that time!

Lemmings

Screenshot: Lemmings

(Lemmings, myabandonware.com)

Of course another all-time classic that circulated in our family during the 90s. Suicidal Lemmings, dissolving into colorful pixels as they vanished.. just wonderful!

Did you know that Andy Davidson, the creator of the original Worms video game, ripped the graphics from Lemmings for his first prototype of Worms, which was called Artillery at the time? Well now you know; go spread that wise-ass shit! :-)

Pushover

Screenshot: Pushover

(Pushover, myabandonware.com)

Probably a not-so-well-known domino puzzle game, and another one the whole family enjoyed back in the 90s - from kids to grandparents.

Prince of Persia

Screenshot: Prince of Persia

(Prince of Persia, myabandonware.com)

Like Monkey Island, this one already has been praised many times for very good reasons. A true must-play.

The history behind "Prince of Persia", its origins (Karateka) and technological backgrounds (Rotoscoping) are quite interesting and are covered by its creator, Jordan Mechner, himself. These things are really worth a little deep dive!

Cargo Bay

Screenshot: Cargo Bay

(Cargo Bay, myabandonware.com)

This is a game my father mainly played back then, and my journey of tracking down all the games from my childhood memories kind of started with this one. I remember hearing the alarm sound when the time limit for a level was approaching from my bed in the evenings. Of course, I’ve tried this one too, so here it goes on the list. I’ve never been that much into puzzle games, but I’ve always really liked the game’s UI and graphics.

Nile: Passage to Egypt

Screenshot: Nile - Passage to Egypt

(Nile: Passage to Egypt, mobygames.com)

Maybe this was more educational software (MULTIMEDIA!) than a game, but it included several quite entertaining mini games ("Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel", "Senet"). "Players undertake an interactive journey down the Nile River through modern and ancient Egypt on an Egyptian sailing boat called a felucca." (Wikipedia). I really enjoyed the temple game in which you had to rescue statues from the rising Nile waters.

F-19 Stealth Fighter

Screenshot: F-19 Stealth Fighter

(F-19 Stealth Fighter, thecompany.pl)

I played this one with my neighbor Domenik on his brother’s Amiga. We were probably terrible at it, but I still clearly remember the blue floppies and that amazing Amiga.

Definitely a game I should revisit.

Duke Nukem

Screenshot: Duke Nukem

(Duke Nukem, myabandonware.com)

Another game I played with the neighbor boys. Duke Nukem was so accessible! Really nice just to play, so much fun! Those skylines, stars, keys and doors. Damn, I hadn’t thought about that, but especially my daughters will probably love it!

Skunny: Save our Pizzas!

Screenshot: Skunny: Save our Pizzas!

(Skunny: Save our Pizzas!, myabandonware.com)

God knows where we got this low-quality shareware game from, but my sandbox friend Katja and I loved to play this one! :-) It took me quite some time to track down this title from vague memories, but here it is.

Star Mines II

Screenshot: Star Mines II

(Star Mines II, Image: self)

Another game that I've played mainly with my sandbox friend Katja. Unlike the Skunny titles, this one was a pretty good, challenging game IMHO. I really like the physics and graphics. My son recreated that gem-tile for me and I still use it as an avatar here and there. Who'd have thought that back then? :-)

Golden Axe

Screenshot: Golden Axe

(Golden Axe, myabandonware.com)

I played this one on the SEGA Genesis system with my best friend in primary school, Torsten! This was really a great experience and the game has stuck with me to this day, as it's one of the first ones I'd spun up on a RetroPie system. My son immediately loved it and we still enjoy beating this one from time to time! :-) A very fun game!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Screenshot: Sonic the Hedgehog

(Sonic the Hedgehog, myabandonware.com)

The other game my friend Torsten and I played on his SEGA Genesis. My older daughter loves it! She's playing it on our Miyoo Mini Plus retro game console. A very fun game!

Jurassic Park

Screenshot: Jurassic Park

(Jurassic Park, myabandonware.com)

I remember this one for being the only game I played with Etienne, one of my best friends in primary school. I liked the atmosphere of this game, but I don't think we ever made it out of the first, fenced area. That's why I was pretty surprised that this game contains sections that aren't isometric, but first-person: Once you enter a building, the perspective switches.

SimCity

Screenshot: SimCity

(SimCity, myabandonware.com)

SimCity! Is it really a game? It's such a great automaton. Way beyond its time. Full of depth, charm, intelligence!

There's this great book Building SimCity - How to Put the World in a Machine. I'd recommend this to everyone into computer science. Really worth a read! And of course.. play SimCity if you haven't done so yet!

SimCity 2000

Screenshot: SimCity 2000

(SimCity 2000)

There's no need to play any of its direct successors, really! This is one of the best games ever created. The isometric graphics and multi-document interface (from Windows 3.1 upwards), combined with the depth and quality of the original SimCity.. just WOW! Like I said earlier: "sometimes I completely lack the motivation to do anything.. but then there's SimCity2000!"

There's a patched version for running SC2K smoothly on Windows 7 - 11. My own readme.txt just says "copy the game folder to 'C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 2000' so that the newspaper is working". ;-) Enjoy!

Jump!

Screenshot: Jump!

(Jump!, mobygames.com)

Another one that took me a while to track it down. I always somehow thought this was a Maxis game, but it's not. A vertically scrolling arcade game that was really fun to play!

Caesar II

Screenshot: Caesar II

(Caesar II, myabandonware.com)

I played the Caesar and Pharaoh games on my uncle Wolfram's computer. There's something special about these strategy games where you start with a green field and build upon that. I really liked the atmosphere and UI of these games, although Caesar and Pharaoh weren't as thought-out as e.g. the Age of Empires series.

I played that on an early Compaq notebook, and the look and feel of its TFT screen had something magical.

Caesar III

Screenshot: Caesar III

(Caesar III, myabandonware.com)

See Caesar II.

Pharaoh

Screenshot: Pharaoh

(Pharaoh, myabandonware.com)

See Caesar II.

Lode Runner: The Legend Returns

Screenshot: Lode Runner: The Legend Returns

(Lode Runner: The Legend Returns, myabandonware.com)

This one originated as LADDERS. Sierra's implementation LODE RUNNER was a quality game, and it featured a level editor! I remember sitting in school during 3rd or 4th grade with a blank sheet of paper in front of me, planning LODE RUNNER levels. I first played that one on Windows 98. My father played through all 100 levels. A really nice game!

Dungeon Keeper

Screenshot: Dungeon Keeper

(Dungeon Keeper, myabandonware.com)

Besides SimCity 2000, that one really was "MY GAME"! We had the big box! I studied the manual thoroughly! I loved to play this on Sundays when my parents were still asleep! I tried to find worthy opponents in my neighborhood and couldn't find any. What a fine game for young lads like me back then.

A Bullfrog classic; its successor Dungeon Keeper 2 didn't manage to get the feeling of the original game and so couldn't connect to the success of Dungeon Keeper 1. This was a very accessible game. Nice and compact with its twenty levels.

There was an addon "The Deeper Dungeons" that added 15 pretty hard levels. I loved them, too.

This is one of my all-time favourites, and I'm happy that my son played a few levels with me.

Klomanager

Screenshot: Klomanager

(Klomanager, u/TheSolazene)

Toilet Tycoon - a different kind of business simulation! You own a few public restrooms, pimp toilets, deal with soiling and own a good running condom machine in the red-light district. I've always played that with my cousin Philipp.

Diablo

Screenshot: Diablo

(Diablo, u/Unknown_Outlander)

Another game that pretty much all of my relatives and friends played! A real gem! You're a lone hero(ine) who fights hell's evils - collecting items, gold and experience. Its successor, Diablo II, sure adds many quality-of-life features - but Diablo I is worth the playthrough without any doubts anyways. Do it!

Diablo II

Screenshot: Diablo II

(Diablo II, classicdosgames.com)

See Diablo I. One of the few games we're still playing nowadays. I played this with my son all the way through Act V and even set up an OpenVPN-server for our friends to join the party. All of us owned an original version of the game at some point in our lives - and it's so nice that this game is from a time when you could just have the game files in a directory and play it with your friends over TCP/IP. Up to this day.

Age of Empires

Screenshot: Age of Empires

(Age of Empires, classicdosgames.com)

Another all-time classic and also one of those games I loved for the map and campaign editor when I was young. Played it with my son, too, before introducing him to AoE2.

Age of Empires 2

Screenshot: Age of Empires 2

(Age of Empires 2, old-games.com)

A very well-done successor that added lots of quality-of-life features.

Last time I played this (multiplayer with son & wife!) was on vacation in summer '26. I had no Windows laptop with me and was pleased to see that AoE2 runs just fine under Wine (a compatibility layer to run Windows programs under Linux) - even with networking over TCP/IP.

Grand Theft Auto

Screenshot: Grand Theft Auto

(Grand Theft Auto, myabandonware.com)

I played this first on a PS1 with my friend Robert. Kids these days don't even know GTA started with top-down graphics! :-)

Grand Theft Auto 2

Screenshot: Grand Theft Auto 2

(Grand Theft Auto 2, mobygames.com)

A really good successor and one of the few games I'm still playing sometimes! Get a car, drive around.. so relaxing. :-) GTA2 was a big step forward - a really elegant game.

Citi Mining

Screenshot: Citi Mining

(Citi Mining)

A promotional Boulder Dash-like game by Citibank, but a nice little one! I've always liked the look & feel, and even the sounds! Works on Windows 11 just as it did on Windows 98.

S.C.A.R.S.

Screenshot: S.C.A.R.S.

(S.C.A.R.S., myabandonware.com)

Super Computer Animal Racing Simulator!

A probably lesser-known game.. You drove cars that were heavily inspired by various animals like rhinos, insects or sharks. Weapons, multiplayer, everything. A really fun game that I loved to play with my cousins. :-)

Deep Fighter

Screenshot: Deep Fighter

(Deep Fighter, myabandonware.com)

I've only played this once - at a birthday party, for hours, with a joystick! Loved it. ;-)

DemonStar

Screenshot: DemonStar

(DemonStar, mobygames.com)

A really nice SHMUP! (Works well with Wine.)

Conflict: FreeSpace

Screenshot: FreeSpace

(FreeSpace, mobygames.com)

Space shooters have never really attracted me, but I liked FreeSpace a lot! Just the right depth and balance of story, cockpit mechanics, combat etc. for me. My cousin Stephan later played FreeSpace II, which was probably pretty good, too. I had no 3D-graphics card at the time.. and somehow missed to play it later.

Battlezone

Screenshot: Battlezone

(Battlezone, mobygames.com)

Another game that almost no one (I know) knows! Like most games in the 90s, I got this one as shareware.. Somehow intriguing. First-person view and lots of strategical fleet management. I liked Battlezone, its atmosphere and tech from the very first moment. Definitely a tough one!

Army Men

Screenshot: Army Men

(Army Men, myabandonware.com)

One of those games you couldn't not love as a ten-year-old! Crisp commands, plastic soldiers, air support! Played this first as a DEMO on Windows 98 and just loved the 2D-graphics and simple gameplay. Totally fun for local LAN games, too!

Army Men: Toys in Space

Screenshot: Army Men - Toys in Space

(Army Men: Toys in Space, myabandonware.com)

See Army Men. Plus plastic aliens!

Need for Speed II SE

Screenshot: Need for Speed II SE

(Need for Speed II SE, myabandonware.com)

I was never into racing simulations, but Need for Speed II SE just felt right for a dilettante player like me. I could only play that on my uncle Thomas' PC for a long time because only he had a graphics card that supported Glide.

Nuclear Strike

Screenshot: Nuclear Strike

(Nuclear Strike, myabandonware.com)

Another game that I know from my uncle Thomas' PC.

Police Quest: SWAT 2

Screenshot: SWAT 2

(Police Quest: SWAT 2, myabandonware.com)

Didn't play this a lot, but liked the vibe of it.

The Fifth Element

Screenshot: The Fifth Element

(The Fifth Element, myabandonware.com)

This is not a good game, but we were so in love with Leeloo that we had to cling to everything we could get. Multipass.

Half-Life

Screenshot: Half-Life

(Half-Life, myabandonware.com)

What a phenomenon of its time. What a cosmos around the Half-Life engine up to this day. Even the worst ones - like me - have good memories playing HL/AG/CS/NS! Good shit.

Soldat

Screenshot: Soldat

(Soldat, soldat.pl)

Somewhere between Worms (but much faster and not round-based) and Counter-Strike. Suitable for lower-end computers even back then.

You don't know Jack

Screenshot: You don't know Jack

(You don't know Jack, myabandonware.com)

This is something different. :-D We used to play this with the WHOLE family. Even with my mother! Four people in front of the family PC experiencing this trivia game show. Play this with your friends! :-)

I don't know which versions we played, but we played them on Windows XP. Background checking the game for this article, I learned that the first version came out in 1995 for Windows 3.11.

Blobby Volley

Screenshot: Blobby Volley

(Blobby Volley, Wikipedia)

Another classic! Played this with my friends a lot! And twenty years later our kids still enjoy it. :-)

Tetris & Dr. Mario

Screenshot: Dr. Mario

(Dr. Mario, mobygames.com)

Dr. Mario always reminds me of my then-girlfriend Mia! We played this a lot on a tiny CRT TV in her basement. Good times! ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Max Payne 2

Screenshot: Max Payne 2

(Max Payne 2, myabandonware.com)

My best friend Sushi introduced this one to me. Great graphic novel, physics engine - a really cool game. I still like to play this from time to time.

FlatOut

Screenshot: FlatOut

(FlatOut, myabandonware.com)

Another game I played in Mölbis with Sushi and his brother Stroganoff. Nice physics engine with a twist: Whenever you crashed into things like fences, lamp posts, barriers etc. it filled up your nitrous push to significantly increase horsepower. There also was a playful arena-like mode where you had to jump against a bullseye or over a high ladder with the car - fun to play together round-based on the same keyboard.

♻ Consider the environment before printing this page!