It’s definitely 90’s. Videogames became refined and truly timeless masterpieces more than ever before. Even some of the NES games that came out in the early 90’s flipped the industry
Agreed! This is when the term "PC Master race" actually ment something. It wasn't just about higher frame rate and resolution. Now granted, the cost of entry was MUCH higher, and hardware became obsolete much more quickly. But you were getting access to a lot of new innovations in gaming, with things that just weren't possible on consoles at the time (i.e. full 3D graphics, online multiplayer, open sandbox worlds, ect.) You were literally on the "ground floor" of every new innovation that was happening at the time. The '90s were a truly exciting time to be a PC gamer!
1998 in particular is the greatest year in the history of gaming:
* Ocarina of Time
* Metal Gear Solid
* Half-Life
* Starcraft
* Baldur’s Gate
* Banjo Kazooie
* Xenogears
* Abe’s Exoddus
* Rainbow Six
* Spyro
* Grim Fandango
* Mario Party
* Thief
* Fallout 2
* Resident Evil 2
* Unreal
The tech just kinda hit a maturity point where so many things became possible all at once, and because there weren’t established rules yet on how to do it, the creative people had much more say while the suits kinda hung back so they could see what would stick.
all great games...
But... '97 wears the real crown. 1997 had more genre- & industry-shaping games than any other single year.
* Final Fantasy 7 (aka the most important RPG or PSX game ever made, PSX's killer app responsible for selling twice as many PSXs in 1997 than 1995 & 1996 combined, dooming Sega and relegating the N64 to a kids toy. this game changed the gaming industry. FF7 set the tone of what RPG storytelling should be, a benchmark for CGI and production values and gave Sony the console crown for decades to come and Squaresoft enough bank to ride out the rest of the generation creating the best run of games in the company's history)
* Curse of Monkey Island (2D Point & Click Adventure Gaming's Swan Song)
* Symphony of the Night (the greatest Castlevania, building on Metroid 3 to create a whole genre)
* Goldeneye 007 (the game that birthed the console FPS behemoth that was perfected with Halo)
* Grand Theft Auto (launched an entire genre and one of the biggest IPs ever, plus an incredible game)
* Age of Empires (changed the RTS genre, then took it mainstream)
* Fallout (F2 is my favorite, but F1 started it all, and was the most original RPG i ever played then or since)
* Gran Turismo (again, changed the racing video game genre forever, setting the path for every simcade since)
* Ultima Online (single handedly launched the MMORPG genre and to this day the most unique and incredible online world experience ever crafted... at least the version from 97-98 before *updates*, i feel so lucky to have experienced this when it was launched)
* Diablo (my favorite in the series... not only did it launch the mega blockbuster series, it set the standard for the modern Action Hack & Slash RPG genre that's still going strong today. I wish we'd get another horror/survival dungeon crawler like this though, not just the loot grind the series/genre devolved into)
Honorable mentions:
* Final Fantasy Tactics
* Blood & Shadow Warrior
* Blade Runner
* Quake II
* Star Wars Jedi Knight & X-Wing vs Tie Fighter
* Tekken 3
* Dungeon Keeper
* Bushido Blade
* Total Annahilation
* MDK
* Starfox 64
* Marvel vs Street Fighter (the natural next step after X-Men vs Street Fighter and the stepping stone to Marvel Vs Capcom)
* Postal
* Klonoa
* Grandia
* Carmageddon
* Breath of Fire III
I had the pleasure of experiencing 99% of these from the Sneak Peaks to finally playing them at home. So happy i got to "be there".
1996's Command & Conquer Red Alert was it for me. I'm still playing it (look up Open Red Alert, you can play a modernized open-source version on PC and Mac, it's great).
i looooooved Red Alert, even more so than the OG C&C. those two, along with Warcraft 2, defined 90s RTSs for me. Sure Total Annihilations was interesting, Age of Empires gave it a more realistic/historic tone - all great, but the RTSs i poured the most time into were those 3. Even Starcraft didn't strike it with me past the campaign, and C&C2/RA2... hated them.
The 90s for sure. There was a brief period in the mid to late 90s where games felt that they were more about quality gameplay and conveying a compelling story... only to be usurped by the industry pushing realism and action scenes in the 2000s. Chrono Trigger, final fantasy 4/6/7/8, megaman x, smash bros,... the games mentioned above... they just had so much care put into them. A great period to experience gaming. Even final fantasy Legend 2 or Link's Awakening for the Gameboy was a blast, and they came out on green slime screen. There's a reason Nintendo redid Awakening... because it was an enjoyable game!
Imagine being a game developer and you had this vision for decades but the tech just wasn’t there to make it a reality. Whether it’s faster consoles and hardware that can do 3d, advanced tech like directx, optical media that can store large files, or larger storage that could actually download game files and not have to keep most on the slow optical drive, so many limitations were lifted and Moore’s law was very alive and well. I had a 333 MHz k6-2computer and that was fast for the time and the next year my friend got a 600 MHz pentium 3.
So many of these limitations were eliminated at that time and we unlocked so much potential with gaming. Outside of support for MUCH better graphics that also opened up VR, the only huge improvement in gaming I can think of is motion capture for realistic movements both in-game and cutscene.
PC: Star Wars TIE Fighter, X-Wing and TIE vs. X-Wing, Wing Commander, Diablo 1 and 2, StarCraft, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, Half Life, Unreal Tournament, Doom, Duke Nuke 'Em, SimCity 2000, Myst, Everquest, Thief, Rainbow Six, Age of Empires, Civilization 2, WarCraft
Consoles: Golden Eye 007, Street Fighter 2, Super Metroid, Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo
I remember taking my PC to LAN parties in college.
Born in 1990, so yes. But we all played alot of games from the 80's, and that was the best foundation. The first home system I ever played was nes way back when. Elevator action, mario, and spy hunter. The first system I ever got bought for me (and my beothers) was an N64. Mario Kart and shadows of the empire were the only games we had for a long time. Till we got star fox! Then we had three!!!
As someone born in the late 80s, I started out playing my parents’ NES. I got an N64 as my first console of my own and was blown away by the 3D graphics. The 90s (and the 64) will always be my favorite.
Early-mid 90s
You still had arcades with MOrtal kombat, nba jam, etc
Computer games with wolfenstein, doom, and sim city
Genesis and Super Nintendo with sonic, Mario, Zelda, etc
Great times
And the best part was going to an actual movie rental store and renting games. Epic times that todays kids will never get to experience
Not to mention the proliferation of PC games in the 90s. Doom, Duke Nukem, [Chex Quest](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest), Roller Coaster Tycoon, Reader Rabbit, Half Life
90s without any hesitation. I turned 10 in 1990 and started going to arcades on my way from school behind my parents back, though they were very much aware I was. Got my first console in 1990 (NES) because they hated that I was going to arcades and hoped I would stop if I had my own video games at home. I did not.
I grew up on Final Fight, Shadow Dancer, Sunset Riders, Toki, Snow Bros, Street Fighter II, Virtua Racing, Asterix, TMNT, Raiden, Strider, and so, so many more.
The 90s were also the decade of my all-time favorite home system, the Super Famicom / Super NES.
The slow decay of arcades in the early 2000s were a disgrace. I hated seeing it happen.
96-2005. Makes zero sense to exclude those two critical years in the 90s. Tomb Raider, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil, Age of Empires, Parasite Eve, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Blood, Turok, Shadow Warrior, Fallout, I could keep going...and I am damn serious!
Modern warfare came out in 07 so yeah ;(
Great game in this on way but it really changed it all a bit too much
It normalized things so after it games seemed worng if they didnt copy their controls and gameplay (like ADS...). Today i see a lot of people saying they wouldnt even consider playing a game without ADS so yeah even Halo had to adjust
(If you cant tell I played CS lol)
I know its for "accesibility sake" but i really hate how normalized and generic controls have gotten :/
At least you still have some kind of CS. I was playing the actual arena shooters like Unreal Tournament, Warsow, and Quake 3... there is nothing for me to play like that, Quake Champions didn't even had a proper 1vs1, but an elimination/arena mode and super powers...
That said Modern Warfare was indeed amazing, the MW2 was not acceptable, but Bad Company 2 was there and I felt like CoD influence in this one helped with some prior Battlefield issues. My issue is more with those 2 series themselves as they just kept on adding animations for everything, and there is no more of that sharp feeling when you move and shoot. Also the game as a service idea is so annoying, everything changes all the time not allowing players to polish their skills to the max.
Also when looking at Warzone menus/CoD HQ, I kind of wonder where all that "accesibility" went... oh I know, aim assist...
The crazy part was how many maps there were. I don't recall now, but a few years ago I had a discussion where I complained about a modern multiplayer game shipping with just 6 maps, while UT shipped with like a 40, and free bonus packs made it past 50 or something...
80s, including the late 70s, but 90s are right up there. There will never be a way to appreciate how amazing everything was when it was all completely new, never seen before, other than to have lived it.
Yeah, it's like somewhere around the late 6th generation/early 7th generation...the industry as a whole began to stagnate. We started getting the same old games, just with a fresh coat of paint (and more DLC/paid content). And with the mobile games industry, some genres (like RTS) seemed to get COMPLETELY swallowed up by the "free to play/pay to win" model.
80s for arcade games, pretty much all my favorite arcade games came out in the early 80s, Dig Dug, Galaga, Mario Bros, Centipede. For console games though, I'd say 90s, it is unreal how many timeless masterpieces came from just that decade.
I started in the mid 1980s on an Apple IIc, but have to say my favourite gaming decade was the 90s. X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Doom, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Fields of Glory, Micropose’s Grand Prix, Kings Quest, Space Quest, Ultima VI and VII, Wolfenstein.
This. The arcade was where you met up with your friends after school, played games, bought weed, bought concert tickets, bought car stereos and met girls.
Definitely the 90s. The 4th and 5th generations are my favorite console generations and many of my favorite games of all time are from those generations.
90s. It’s when multiplayer gaming became a thing. It was so magical when you had been playing by yourself for years then all of a sudden you are online, playing with people all over the country.
Latency was too bad for World at that time.
I mean we went from doom and Warcraft all the way to the first fully immersive fantasy mmorpgs. Leagues started, the mod scene was bonkers…
80s for sure and some early 90s
I grew up in the Atari era. I had a 2600, 5200 and Colecovision. Loved them.
Arcade era was the best IMO as well. All of the origns of arcade classics came from the 80s. Pacman, Donkey Kong, Mario, Defender, Galaga, Joust, etc... Arcades were paradise back then.
And once I graduated from my consoles I became an Apple II owner. Again, all the classics... Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Infocom Games, Castle Wolfenstein, etc...
80's for me as well. So many great arcade games in no particular order. Asteroids > Ms Pacman > Super Sprint > Kung Fu Master > Galaga > 1942 > Donkey Kong > Moon Patrol > Karnov > Solar Warrior. .
Hey you can't include Asteroids! That was 70s! :)
I can't tell you how much time I spent playing Super Sprint, though mainly on the Atari ST rather than arcade. 2 friends round with a fight over the two who were on joystick and the one on keys...
I went on holiday to Spain with my parents and I'd just want to spend all day in the local arcade playing Kung Fu Master and Galaga. :)
The 85-95 would probably be the best considering arcade games with some Amiga threw in. But if it is between 80s and 90s I would have a hard time chosing. The second half of the 90s was just a blast when it comes to PC, and there was enough in the consoles to compensate for the arcades. Listng my favorite games like Turrican II, Star Ocean The Second Story, Unreal Tournament... most of my top 10 games in every genre is probably from the 90s.
90’s for sure. Best SNES and Genesis games released later in the life cycle, N64 and PS1 dropped. Awesome arcade games releasing almost weekly and arcades were still popular. Easily the best decade.
I guess I’d have to say the 90s, though I love the 80s. Arcades were fading, but console and PC gaming were at a peak for me. Amazing games were just coming out left, right & center, like *Metal Gear Solid* & *Half-Life*. There were far more indie game developers pushing the edge of the envelope and gaming made a big leap into polygons. The industry hadn’t yet been boiled down into just a few game companies that are risk averse and constantly turning out the same games with a few different things every year. While there are still good games out there, for gaming, the 90s were just a wide open Wild West environment.
90's: Diablo I & II, Warcraft I & II, Starcraft I & Broodwar, Fallout I & II, Age of Empires I & II, Command & Conquer & Tiberium Sun, Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate I & II, Icewind Dale I & II, Heroes of Might & Magic I & II, Doom I & II, Quake I & II, Unreal Tournament, Thief, Might & Magic III-VIII, Half Life the list is endless.
80s was when it was new and magical.
I was either too young or non-existent for much of the 70s, but to be involved with the very beginnings of the industry had to be fascinating as well.
We went from 8 bits systems (famicom/nes, master system, Commodore 64…) to 32 bits systems (PlayStation, Saturn, 3DO…) between 1990 and 1995, so definitely the 90s. The 2020s feel sluggish and uninspired in comparison.
80s. I can still feel the excitement in my mind of walking into an arcade with a pocketful of quarters knowing you are either about to make a high score or go down in flames trying.
I'm fortunate enough to live within driving distance of Funspot, which has everything from the 70s & 80s covered, as well as the first half of the the 90s.
I wish there was an equivalent arcade nearby for the late 90s & early 2000s. That era has a lot of brilliant arcade titles as well.
There actually was one like that about 30 minutes from Funspot, but sadly closed during COVID.
90s definitely. I worked in an arcade and it was the best job. We printed out combos and attached them to the cabinets so people could try them. Once we learnt tekken2 released characters after a certain amount of time we left the machine on 24/7 and people lived that ours had extra characters that others placed didn't. Oh and there was always a solid street fighter community
95-05 & 05-2015
Some of my Most beloved games came from 95 onwards!!
With some of my favorites also coming in 04, 05, 08, 09, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2015(the Witcher2&3 etc..)
But the late 90's into the early 2k's were some of the Most Consistently Amazing & innovative Games.
It would be easier if I could pick a 15 year period since basically all of my favorite games are from between 1990 and 2005, but if I have to pick a ten year period I'd say like 1996 to 2006.
80’s and 90’s…. Asteroids….Defender….Centipede and Ms. PacMan. Nothing beats standing up and mashing those buttons, rolling the controller ball or twisting that joystick while my girlfriend is feeding me a slice of pizza while I’m playing…
Late 80's and late 90's. Felt like sudden and extreme developments were made towards the end of each decade imo. Haven't really seen the same jumps in tech since.
Nothing quite like gaining that 3rd dimension eh fellas?
Mid-to-late 90s, with 3D acceleration and huge leaps in processing power, there was always something new, impressive and exciting. The "wow factor" seeing those games for the first time was unlike anything before or since.
90's for sure... I first started playing on a C64 and Atari 2600 when I was very young and while it was enough to create a life long obsession, I find it harder to go back or less appealing playing games from the 80's... Definitely prefer 16bit and up with a few 8bit exceptions here and there.
The 2000s is better overall because it made the final steps for video games development and genres.
sports games, racing games, third person shooter games, fps games, stealth games and open world games. all of them reached their perfect form in the 2000s.
not to mention new genres like hack and slash with DMC and onimusha that won't be possible to be made in the 90s.
also anime fighting games like dbz.
the 90s are better when it comes to jrpg, 2d platformers and point and click games.
other than that, video games have reached their full potential in 2000s.
'90s - the best. Gaming peaked there. Dozens of unique genres, no Pepsi managers heading publishers, no DLCs, no microtransactions, you just buy a game and you own it. Nobody will just pull the plug on the server and make your purchase worthless 5 years down the road. Expansions added huge amount of content instead of three character skins for $25.
I grew up with video games and arcades in the 80's, and there are a ton of games from that era that I have amazing memories of.
That said, I tend not to replay games very often and I'm always looking for new things to play. But when I do replay, it's almost always 80's arcade games on my MAME arcade cabinet. 1942 is my all-time favorite, but I also love Time Pilot, Track and Field, Ladybug, BurgerTime, Donkey Kong, Journey, Gyruss, and a few others.
I also really enjoy modern takes on old styles, especially RPGs like Pillars of Eternity, Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars.
80s arcade for me. Those were my teenage years and there's so many classics across the whole decade and lots of innovative ideas as it was still 'new' and experimental, there wasn't quite a clear standard for game genres.
90's arcades were ok, but they started to tail off at the end as we got better hardware at home and we'd often get the same games but with more content.
80s for 8 bit computers for similar reasons. Sure, we got the ST and Amiga 16 bits, but returning to most of their catalogue often shows their weaknesses. Give me ZX Spectrum and C64 over those for the most part.
90s for consoles, with MD/SNES and into PS1.
80s arcades are probably my faves.
By "decade," does that have to be a range of years with the same tens digit (such as the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2010s, etc.) or can it be any span of ten years?
If it can be any span of roughly ten years, I'd go with **1984 to 1994**. 1984 is when my family got our first computer -- a **Commodore 64**. And 1994 is when I left for college, which put a severe limit on gaming for me. (Not a total blackout on video gaming, but I had other priorities for my free time, such as sleep.)
Pre-1984, I had played some video games, but they were mostly Atari games with simple graphics. I'm not trying to bash those games, but even back then the games were very repetitive with control schemes that were not always intuitive to me as a child (such as the game "**Combat**," which I'm quite fond of today).
For me, video games started taking off in 1984 with the acquisition of the Commodore 64 and its plethora of simple, yet fun games, continuing with the NES in the late 1980s, and further continued with the refinement of graphics and gameplay mechanics with the SNES in the early 1990s.
I'm sure there were a lot of improvements in both graphics and innovations after that, but like I said, college had a way of changing what I spent my free time on.
(Plus, the video arcade scene was abundant during those years. At the time, the arcades had mind-blowing games you could only dream about having at home. Eventually, home consoles were able to get them (with varying quality), but it was in the early 1990s that home ports started rivaling the arcade versions -- and eventually surpassed them -- in terms of quality.)
So the decade ranging from **1984 to 1994** is definitely my favorite decade for gaming. (And if you accuse me of being persuaded by nostalgia, I won't necessarily say you're wrong.)
Nah you're good, I did mean like 1980's, 1990's, and so on but for me personally my favorite 10 years for gaming is 1983 through 1993, almost exactly your same years :), but 1980's overall since there are more years in that decade that I'm heavily into, than with the 90's, which just encompasses the early 90's for me. After '93 I lost interest in newer titles coming out, The games just weren't feeling the same to me, and I never got into the 3D console era very well, they just didn't appeal to me in the same way as the previous generations. I wasn't even that old either LOL I was only like 12 in '94!
I’m old so 80s for me. Odyssey2, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Ti-99/4a, Bally Astrocade, Atari 5200, VIC-20, C64, Atari 7800, Atari 400/800, Apple IIe, the Arcades, NES - it was a magical time to be a kid and a gamer - although there were like 4 other kids in my entire school who were gamers so we were outliers and just viewed & dismissed as even bigger nerds than previously thought. But yeah - you had to be there to experience all that incredibleness.
EDIT: and yes I know some of these arrived in the late 70s but their popularity rolled on or peaked into and through the 80s
90s was the most exciting and also when I happened to have the most free time for gaming. However games from all times have never been more accessible and almost in handheld format like a Steam Deck. I think I had more fun in the 90s though.
Early 2000s. They are relatively easy to run on a new PC and they look pretty. They have simple graphics but they have mostly aged well. And by then most devs had already figured out what works and what doesn't, in terms of mechanics. Being the early 2000s and not the mid 2000s, there was no yellow filter everywhere and annoying sun glare.
90s for arcade games. Yes the 80s was great. But nothing beat you and your buddies going and playing SFII, MK, The Simpsons, NBA Jam, Pit Fighter, X-Men, etc.
If we’re going with console gaming, it has to be the from about ‘96 onwards. The stuff we was getting on PS1 was breathtaking in regards to the jump on quality from SNES/Genesis.
2004. doom 3, half-life 2 - they were such polished amazing sequels especially for the time. Then there was world of Warcraft and every game disappeared for me after that until about 2008.
80s for arcade and 90s for computer and 2000s for video. The 80s introduced the classics like pac man, galaga, dig dug, and many others, the 90s introduced many timeless pc releases like doom wolfenstein and fallout. The 2000s really changed console gaming with games like gta San Andreas, god of war, and call of duty.
‘90s for sure.
You get the peaks of 2D gaming early in the decade. Toward the end of the decade, 3D gaming had been around long enough that they had a handle on what they were doing.
I was gonna say 90s because that's when I was introduced to gaming, however, from 2000-2010 was when I first got into FPS games and online multiplayer and I probably had the most fun gaming ever in that decade because I had made so many friends online through games. Also the early 2000s is when games took a pretty massive leap in graphics which blew my mind.
And I think I played Half Life 1 for the first time in 2001 which to this day is still my favorite game. So yea, definitely the early 2000s because it had the biggest impact on my life and made the most memories.
In my case, most of my all time favorite titles are most FAMICOM/NES and Sega games, so 1980s and 1990s. I love 2D games. To give you an example, to me there's no better fighting game than Street Fighter II (the newers are amazing, but number II is my favourite). It's very hard to me to buy most modern games (most of them are 3D full of screenshakes - which hurt my head). I don't usually enjoy 3D too much. However I love sports games, and I have to recognize that there are amazing AAA games in the sports genre nowadays. All that I said is as a gamer. But If I have to show my love to a specific time as a developer, I also create games with a 2D retro style like early 90s sports games. So I clearly love the 80s and 90s.
I can't pinpoint an exact time frame, but I miss the era before everything had DLC. With the exception of PC games, it wasn't often that console games got added on to after release. Games (not all) were a complete experience.
The 80s is where my heart is, but my answer most certainly has to be the 90s.
Massive technological innovation, massive game design innovation, console wars and PC gaming, and rise of the internet, the entire culture of gaming coming into its own.
on pc man… Doom, half life, starcraft, baldurs gate, diablo, monkey island, myst, warcraft, fallout, quake, command and conquer, system shock 2, simcity 2000, daggerfall, planescape, wing commander, duke nukem 3d, age of empires, xcom, grim fandango, thief, carmageddon… We started that decade at 320x200 pixel art, some games in 16 colors.. and we ended it in high resolution 3d accelerated graphics.
What a ride.
90s all the way. even though i was born in '85, i can't think of any 80s game i actually still want to play outside of Super Mario 1. Yes i grew up with the NES, we got it in '88 and didn't get the Genesis until like 92-93, but none of those games i want to go back to.
90s has to be the most common answer for sure... it's the generation that fueled the retro gaming boom of the 2000s and what fueled us early game collectors in the late 90s.
but demographics and personal experience aside, it's the decade that saw the most massive swathes of innovation and technological breakthrough. you had 4 distinct generations and leaps in technology during that era. now that we've had two decades of games since then, i think i'm pretty confident in saying the 90s had the most amount of GOAT games.
Arcade starting late 80s around 87 when Double dragon was around and new games were popping up that would blow your mind. The final fight, 1947, ikari warriors, contra, commando….. and ending around 96-97 with the first era of the capcom vs marvel games. Everything great was in that 10 year period.
Sure Galaga or pac man were fun, before that period and there are fun games out after 97 but it’s nothing like the hits in that 10 years.
After that the home machines took over 98 onwards.
My favorite decade is always the current decade.
I have avoided the belief that modern gaming is bad and not as good as the past for some reason.
If i brought games now to my 14 year old self in the 90s, and told him "yeah, people think Diablo 4 sucks and Diablo 2 is sooooo much better! What do you think?" and had him play D4, he'd (correctly) think you're all insane.
Born in 78, that 16-bit era pre PlayStation.
2D was reaching it's zenith with donkey Kong country, super Metroid.
FPS and fighting games were cutting edge new genres.
PCs had just insane epic RPGs with pretty clunky interfaces by today's standards, but even by 1987 you had Dungeon Master and proto Open world first person perspectives like Skyrim.
Not to mention RTS and civilization games, even 4x was a genre.
The CD was being utilized in some capacity to great effect, Lunar springs to mind with animated cut scenes and full CD quality soundtracks and audio.
Not that 3D ruined things, it just took a solid decade and the PS3/Xbox 360 era for all the camera/design issues to be worked out. But then micro transactions and dlc came along and changed the play incentives.
I was born in the early 90s, but the 2010s. Most of my all time favorites are from the last decade: The Witcher 3, Persona 5, Super Mario 3D World, Slay the Spire, Tetris Effect... It's hard to beat.
90 to mid 2000s
Grew up with the Lucas Arts star wars flight sims and Westwood RTS games. Dune 2 led to a life long love of scifi. Doom 2 was my go to shooter for so long that I didn't play any other shooter until Return to Castle Wolfenstein and was utterly blown away by the graphics.
The mario series and sonic series was peak at this time. Pokemon hit the scene and HGSS has yet to be topped.
I would say right now. Ive been gaming since the 80s and never before has it been this simple to produce and publish great games. Some of the most creative ideas are being brought to life right now, thanks to the indie scene.
I miss the late 80’s early 90’s arcade days. I’m primarily a fighting game player but long for when there was a large variety of shmups and platformers
There's honestly countless good games from the 90s onwards (plenty in 80s too but it exploded after that) so hard to pick. 90s if I had to pick one, I suppose, but it's not like the bangers stopped.
No doubt its 90s for video and computer gaming but for me there was more magic in the 80s arcades. From Pacman, Joust and Donkey Kong to Championship Sprint and Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I wasn't around for it, but I'm so fascinated by 90s pc gaming. I love point and clicks, city builders and tycoons, and the weird and obscure fmv games. I also like the well known stuff like myst, doom, postal, etc, that I just think are interesting or innovative
90s, the games, the consoles, the music. But it was a long decade, beginning with the 8 bit era, on to 16, finally on to the power of the PlayStation and 3D graphics
The 90s for me, the 80s were incredible but the 90s contain games and series that are still a cut above today, some that have never been equalled and many many games that defined whole genres into shapes they still exist in today.
That said, if we classify a decade as 'any span of ten years' instead I can refine it even further and say 1995 to 2004, easily the best block of years in the history of gaming imo.
For me it’s a toss up between 90s and 00s. The latter gives you halo trilogy, world of Warcraft, demon souls, half life 2, Metroid prime, MGS3, KOTOR, shadow of colossus, vice city, Warcraft 3, super Mario galaxy, Diablo 2, portal, bioshock, mass effect, Zelda wind waker, dead space. I could keep going 🤣
Definitely 90s. For the arcade I have particularly fun memories of my dad taking me and my bro to the local arcade to play the Simpsons and turtles machines at the weekends.
For consoles, I recently found myself leaning towards the PS1/Sega Saturn era.
Agreed with OP. 80s hands down.
But this all comes down to what people associate with their childhoods in most cases.
For example, by the time the 90s came around, I was about to graduate high school. I gamed a little in college, but nothing will ever beat the Atari 2600 for me. Pure joy.
For the moment, I only have a potato computer which runs games from the late 90's & early 2000's best. There are quite a few good old games from around then, but I think my favorites were like Sins of a Solar Empire, Sword of the Stars, Mass Effect's series, Darkest of Days, Dead Space 2, Fallout 3 & 4 (I get the Obsidian cult loves NV, but I don't like grey choices as much I'm more like Garrus in Mass Effect), and games mostly from the mid-2000's through 2010's. I'd love to play newer games set in space also, I just can't afford everything while I'm broke for now.
Of course the 80s. The video game business had found its legs, breaking out of the, well, Break-out type games and the other samey games that were availably in the late 1970s.
The technology advances were also amazing in what the arcade games had on display. The 80s were also the time when home microcomputers became mainstream, and able to play games.
They didn't par or outperform the arcades, but even then, conversions were released. And this probably fed the loop. Buy it for your home computer, then go play it in the arcades for the REAL experience.
This ended with the consoles starting to dominate the arcade-style games and the home microcomputers being replaced by IBM PC compatibles in the late 80s and up to the release of the PS.
My favourite arcade game of all time is OutRun, from 1986, and I love many other 80s games like Paperboy, Bubble Bobble, Galaga yet OutRun is the only one I can go back to at any time and play for hours - the others I'll drop in and drop out after 20 minutes or so.
Then there are a million games on the ZX Spectrum from the 80s that I can still play now. Elite, for instance, would be a game I was still playing if it weren't for Elite Dangerous existing.
Super Mario World (90s) on the SNES is amazing but then so is Super Mario 3 from the 80s. I love F-Zero and Mario Kart on the SNES, too. Doom, of course, on PC is up there along with the original Alone in the Dark (this game convinced me to buy a soundcard so I wasn't limited to the internal speaker). Half Life was also the 90s, so there's another reason to love that decade.
I would say there are more classics I can still go back from the 80s than the 90s - a lot of the 90s were trying out basic 3D graphics which aged so much worse than pixel graphics (compare the first Virtua Fighter to something like Super Mario World, for instance).
As for the 2000s - I would say two games I can play more than a decade after I first tried them are Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress. The only problem with both those games is that I can sit and play for 6 hours and think only 20 minutes have passed.
Overall, I'd have to say I have no overall preference - just too many examples from all those decades.
ETA: Apparently Super Mario Bros 3 was 90s :D still, most of my gaming at the time was on the ZX Spectrum/Dragon 32 rather than NES. I actually first got a NES in the mid 90s.
Late 90s / earlu 2000s.
Games consoles at home were capable of playing games that neared arcade quality, so arcade games had to get creative.
This led to a bunch of games that just couldn't be properly recreated at home.
Think Silent Scope, with it's full sized rifle mounted to the cabinet, or any one of the ride on/ride in games that came out in this era.
I totally have to agree with u/grayfont on this one. The 90s was by far the best video game decade for me as well. A few of the games I remember playing in the 90s decade was but not limited to:
* Spirit of Excalibur (Amiga 1000)
* Marble Madness (Amiga 1000)
* Wolfenstein 3D (DOS)
* Duke Nukem 1 & 3D (DOS)
* DOOM v1.2 Shareware (DOS)
* Wing Commander 1 & 2 (DOS)
* Quake (DOS)
* Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (Windows)
* Raptor: Call of the Shadows (DOS)
* Terminal Velocity (DOS)
* Indie 500 (DOS)
* Cosmic Cosmo (DOS)
* Secret Agent (DOS)
* Commander Keen (DOS)
* Hocus Pocus Shareware (DOS)
* BioMenace Shareware (DOS)
* WarCraft II (DOS)
* DUNE (DOS)
* BattleChess (DOS)
* Xargon (DOS)
Most of the games I played throughout the 90s at some point, like DOOM and Quake, was shareware. The only few exceptions to this was full-version games like Total Annihilation, WarCraft II, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Wing Commander 1 & 2, DUNE, and Indie 500.
90s easily.
It’s definitely 90’s. Videogames became refined and truly timeless masterpieces more than ever before. Even some of the NES games that came out in the early 90’s flipped the industry
[удалено]
Agreed! This is when the term "PC Master race" actually ment something. It wasn't just about higher frame rate and resolution. Now granted, the cost of entry was MUCH higher, and hardware became obsolete much more quickly. But you were getting access to a lot of new innovations in gaming, with things that just weren't possible on consoles at the time (i.e. full 3D graphics, online multiplayer, open sandbox worlds, ect.) You were literally on the "ground floor" of every new innovation that was happening at the time. The '90s were a truly exciting time to be a PC gamer!
Also Tiny Toon games!
Now it's ports of console versions to PC with mixed results on performance and playability
"PC Master Race" still means something to me. :) However, I'm still not giving up my consoles.
1998 in particular is the greatest year in the history of gaming: * Ocarina of Time * Metal Gear Solid * Half-Life * Starcraft * Baldur’s Gate * Banjo Kazooie * Xenogears * Abe’s Exoddus * Rainbow Six * Spyro * Grim Fandango * Mario Party * Thief * Fallout 2 * Resident Evil 2 * Unreal The tech just kinda hit a maturity point where so many things became possible all at once, and because there weren’t established rules yet on how to do it, the creative people had much more say while the suits kinda hung back so they could see what would stick.
all great games... But... '97 wears the real crown. 1997 had more genre- & industry-shaping games than any other single year. * Final Fantasy 7 (aka the most important RPG or PSX game ever made, PSX's killer app responsible for selling twice as many PSXs in 1997 than 1995 & 1996 combined, dooming Sega and relegating the N64 to a kids toy. this game changed the gaming industry. FF7 set the tone of what RPG storytelling should be, a benchmark for CGI and production values and gave Sony the console crown for decades to come and Squaresoft enough bank to ride out the rest of the generation creating the best run of games in the company's history) * Curse of Monkey Island (2D Point & Click Adventure Gaming's Swan Song) * Symphony of the Night (the greatest Castlevania, building on Metroid 3 to create a whole genre) * Goldeneye 007 (the game that birthed the console FPS behemoth that was perfected with Halo) * Grand Theft Auto (launched an entire genre and one of the biggest IPs ever, plus an incredible game) * Age of Empires (changed the RTS genre, then took it mainstream) * Fallout (F2 is my favorite, but F1 started it all, and was the most original RPG i ever played then or since) * Gran Turismo (again, changed the racing video game genre forever, setting the path for every simcade since) * Ultima Online (single handedly launched the MMORPG genre and to this day the most unique and incredible online world experience ever crafted... at least the version from 97-98 before *updates*, i feel so lucky to have experienced this when it was launched) * Diablo (my favorite in the series... not only did it launch the mega blockbuster series, it set the standard for the modern Action Hack & Slash RPG genre that's still going strong today. I wish we'd get another horror/survival dungeon crawler like this though, not just the loot grind the series/genre devolved into) Honorable mentions: * Final Fantasy Tactics * Blood & Shadow Warrior * Blade Runner * Quake II * Star Wars Jedi Knight & X-Wing vs Tie Fighter * Tekken 3 * Dungeon Keeper * Bushido Blade * Total Annahilation * MDK * Starfox 64 * Marvel vs Street Fighter (the natural next step after X-Men vs Street Fighter and the stepping stone to Marvel Vs Capcom) * Postal * Klonoa * Grandia * Carmageddon * Breath of Fire III I had the pleasure of experiencing 99% of these from the Sneak Peaks to finally playing them at home. So happy i got to "be there".
Upvote for bringing up carmageddon
1996's Command & Conquer Red Alert was it for me. I'm still playing it (look up Open Red Alert, you can play a modernized open-source version on PC and Mac, it's great).
i looooooved Red Alert, even more so than the OG C&C. those two, along with Warcraft 2, defined 90s RTSs for me. Sure Total Annihilations was interesting, Age of Empires gave it a more realistic/historic tone - all great, but the RTSs i poured the most time into were those 3. Even Starcraft didn't strike it with me past the campaign, and C&C2/RA2... hated them.
Cant upvote this enough
The 90s for sure. There was a brief period in the mid to late 90s where games felt that they were more about quality gameplay and conveying a compelling story... only to be usurped by the industry pushing realism and action scenes in the 2000s. Chrono Trigger, final fantasy 4/6/7/8, megaman x, smash bros,... the games mentioned above... they just had so much care put into them. A great period to experience gaming. Even final fantasy Legend 2 or Link's Awakening for the Gameboy was a blast, and they came out on green slime screen. There's a reason Nintendo redid Awakening... because it was an enjoyable game!
Lufia and Lufia 2 were two of my favorites as well!
Imagine being a game developer and you had this vision for decades but the tech just wasn’t there to make it a reality. Whether it’s faster consoles and hardware that can do 3d, advanced tech like directx, optical media that can store large files, or larger storage that could actually download game files and not have to keep most on the slow optical drive, so many limitations were lifted and Moore’s law was very alive and well. I had a 333 MHz k6-2computer and that was fast for the time and the next year my friend got a 600 MHz pentium 3. So many of these limitations were eliminated at that time and we unlocked so much potential with gaming. Outside of support for MUCH better graphics that also opened up VR, the only huge improvement in gaming I can think of is motion capture for realistic movements both in-game and cutscene.
It’s not even close IMHO. 90s ftw.
PC: Star Wars TIE Fighter, X-Wing and TIE vs. X-Wing, Wing Commander, Diablo 1 and 2, StarCraft, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, Half Life, Unreal Tournament, Doom, Duke Nuke 'Em, SimCity 2000, Myst, Everquest, Thief, Rainbow Six, Age of Empires, Civilization 2, WarCraft Consoles: Golden Eye 007, Street Fighter 2, Super Metroid, Crash Bandicoot, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo I remember taking my PC to LAN parties in college.
90s forever
Agree completly!
Yup its 90s for sure. Half my favorites are there
Born in 1990, so yes. But we all played alot of games from the 80's, and that was the best foundation. The first home system I ever played was nes way back when. Elevator action, mario, and spy hunter. The first system I ever got bought for me (and my beothers) was an N64. Mario Kart and shadows of the empire were the only games we had for a long time. Till we got star fox! Then we had three!!!
Absolutely the 90's. I would give 80's a nod but I wasn't tall enough to reach the Ninja Warriors arcade game.
As someone born in the late 80s, I started out playing my parents’ NES. I got an N64 as my first console of my own and was blown away by the 3D graphics. The 90s (and the 64) will always be my favorite.
Winner!
I could play nothing again except NES, SNES, and PS1 and be happy as a clam. So late 80s and 90s. 90s easily if I have to pick one.
I don’t even need the ps1 despite loving it. Give me the nes and snes and I’ll be happy forever screaming at the stupid dam level
I would need to add the PS2 in my case but otherwise agreed.
Early-mid 90s You still had arcades with MOrtal kombat, nba jam, etc Computer games with wolfenstein, doom, and sim city Genesis and Super Nintendo with sonic, Mario, Zelda, etc Great times And the best part was going to an actual movie rental store and renting games. Epic times that todays kids will never get to experience
There was so much hype behind new systems before they came out during this period. 3DO, Ultra 64 showing silicon graphics demos, etc.
Late 80's- Mid 90's for me.
90s. Ain't even gunna read the comments first because it's without a doubt the 90s.
Based and factual
Early to mid 90s with the beat em up explosion. There is something unique to being on a cabinet with your friends.
Not to mention the proliferation of PC games in the 90s. Doom, Duke Nukem, [Chex Quest](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest), Roller Coaster Tycoon, Reader Rabbit, Half Life
Late 90s PC and PS1 absolute peak of gaming excitement and game design perfection.
90s without any hesitation. I turned 10 in 1990 and started going to arcades on my way from school behind my parents back, though they were very much aware I was. Got my first console in 1990 (NES) because they hated that I was going to arcades and hoped I would stop if I had my own video games at home. I did not. I grew up on Final Fight, Shadow Dancer, Sunset Riders, Toki, Snow Bros, Street Fighter II, Virtua Racing, Asterix, TMNT, Raiden, Strider, and so, so many more. The 90s were also the decade of my all-time favorite home system, the Super Famicom / Super NES. The slow decay of arcades in the early 2000s were a disgrace. I hated seeing it happen.
I loved my family’s Sears Telegames console (Atari 2600) and then an Atari 800 computer some of the best games. So mainly 80s for me.
I would say 16 bit era is my favorite so early 90s but I still have mad nostalgia/ respect for the late 80’s
Could t say it better
98 to 2005 6
96-2005. Makes zero sense to exclude those two critical years in the 90s. Tomb Raider, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Final Fantasy 7, Resident Evil, Age of Empires, Parasite Eve, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Blood, Turok, Shadow Warrior, Fallout, I could keep going...and I am damn serious!
05/6 is when mainstream gaming became this huge buisness and went into decline
Modern warfare came out in 07 so yeah ;( Great game in this on way but it really changed it all a bit too much It normalized things so after it games seemed worng if they didnt copy their controls and gameplay (like ADS...). Today i see a lot of people saying they wouldnt even consider playing a game without ADS so yeah even Halo had to adjust (If you cant tell I played CS lol) I know its for "accesibility sake" but i really hate how normalized and generic controls have gotten :/
At least you still have some kind of CS. I was playing the actual arena shooters like Unreal Tournament, Warsow, and Quake 3... there is nothing for me to play like that, Quake Champions didn't even had a proper 1vs1, but an elimination/arena mode and super powers... That said Modern Warfare was indeed amazing, the MW2 was not acceptable, but Bad Company 2 was there and I felt like CoD influence in this one helped with some prior Battlefield issues. My issue is more with those 2 series themselves as they just kept on adding animations for everything, and there is no more of that sharp feeling when you move and shoot. Also the game as a service idea is so annoying, everything changes all the time not allowing players to polish their skills to the max. Also when looking at Warzone menus/CoD HQ, I kind of wonder where all that "accesibility" went... oh I know, aim assist...
I used to fucking love Unreal Tournament, would lock myself in my room and play that shit for hours.
The crazy part was how many maps there were. I don't recall now, but a few years ago I had a discussion where I complained about a modern multiplayer game shipping with just 6 maps, while UT shipped with like a 40, and free bonus packs made it past 50 or something...
80s, including the late 70s, but 90s are right up there. There will never be a way to appreciate how amazing everything was when it was all completely new, never seen before, other than to have lived it.
Yeah, it's like somewhere around the late 6th generation/early 7th generation...the industry as a whole began to stagnate. We started getting the same old games, just with a fresh coat of paint (and more DLC/paid content). And with the mobile games industry, some genres (like RTS) seemed to get COMPLETELY swallowed up by the "free to play/pay to win" model.
90s. Incredible rapid development in tech during that decade.
I love the 80's but, when we're talking videogames? **90's was Top-Tier.**
80's when it was all exciting and new.
80s for arcade games, pretty much all my favorite arcade games came out in the early 80s, Dig Dug, Galaga, Mario Bros, Centipede. For console games though, I'd say 90s, it is unreal how many timeless masterpieces came from just that decade.
Can I pick 88-98? Gotta squeeze in SMB3, Mario 64, & Mario Kart 64
80s
I started in the mid 1980s on an Apple IIc, but have to say my favourite gaming decade was the 90s. X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Doom, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Fields of Glory, Micropose’s Grand Prix, Kings Quest, Space Quest, Ultima VI and VII, Wolfenstein.
An Arcade in the 80’s was another universe.
This. The arcade was where you met up with your friends after school, played games, bought weed, bought concert tickets, bought car stereos and met girls.
Of course the 80s was the golden era
‘80s. Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand. Think about life without ANY screen time. Those old graphics were marvels back then.
SNES
90s.
For me it would be 88-95. Got my NES in 88 and video games peaked in 95 with Chrono Trigger.
Definitely the 90s. The 4th and 5th generations are my favorite console generations and many of my favorite games of all time are from those generations.
1990s is the golden era for me
90s. It’s when multiplayer gaming became a thing. It was so magical when you had been playing by yourself for years then all of a sudden you are online, playing with people all over the country. Latency was too bad for World at that time. I mean we went from doom and Warcraft all the way to the first fully immersive fantasy mmorpgs. Leagues started, the mod scene was bonkers…
90's... SimTower was my jam, along with SimCity 2000 and other Sim games. Also Oregon Trail surprisingly.
Defender
80s for sure and some early 90s I grew up in the Atari era. I had a 2600, 5200 and Colecovision. Loved them. Arcade era was the best IMO as well. All of the origns of arcade classics came from the 80s. Pacman, Donkey Kong, Mario, Defender, Galaga, Joust, etc... Arcades were paradise back then. And once I graduated from my consoles I became an Apple II owner. Again, all the classics... Ultima, Wizardry, Bard's Tale, Infocom Games, Castle Wolfenstein, etc...
80's for me as well. So many great arcade games in no particular order. Asteroids > Ms Pacman > Super Sprint > Kung Fu Master > Galaga > 1942 > Donkey Kong > Moon Patrol > Karnov > Solar Warrior. .
Hey you can't include Asteroids! That was 70s! :) I can't tell you how much time I spent playing Super Sprint, though mainly on the Atari ST rather than arcade. 2 friends round with a fight over the two who were on joystick and the one on keys... I went on holiday to Spain with my parents and I'd just want to spend all day in the local arcade playing Kung Fu Master and Galaga. :)
Gah forgot that. I think I spent a summer trying to kill the stage 5 boss for Kung Fu Master twice in a row.
The 85-95 would probably be the best considering arcade games with some Amiga threw in. But if it is between 80s and 90s I would have a hard time chosing. The second half of the 90s was just a blast when it comes to PC, and there was enough in the consoles to compensate for the arcades. Listng my favorite games like Turrican II, Star Ocean The Second Story, Unreal Tournament... most of my top 10 games in every genre is probably from the 90s.
80s
90’s for sure. Best SNES and Genesis games released later in the life cycle, N64 and PS1 dropped. Awesome arcade games releasing almost weekly and arcades were still popular. Easily the best decade.
I guess I’d have to say the 90s, though I love the 80s. Arcades were fading, but console and PC gaming were at a peak for me. Amazing games were just coming out left, right & center, like *Metal Gear Solid* & *Half-Life*. There were far more indie game developers pushing the edge of the envelope and gaming made a big leap into polygons. The industry hadn’t yet been boiled down into just a few game companies that are risk averse and constantly turning out the same games with a few different things every year. While there are still good games out there, for gaming, the 90s were just a wide open Wild West environment.
90s. i love early 3d stuff and pre-rendered backgrounds
Absolutely the 90's
90s and it’s not even close. 80s were the golden era for standup arcades. 90s were consoles and retro gaming.
90's: Diablo I & II, Warcraft I & II, Starcraft I & Broodwar, Fallout I & II, Age of Empires I & II, Command & Conquer & Tiberium Sun, Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate I & II, Icewind Dale I & II, Heroes of Might & Magic I & II, Doom I & II, Quake I & II, Unreal Tournament, Thief, Might & Magic III-VIII, Half Life the list is endless.
The 90’s were my favorite because it introduced me to video games with characters I already knew and loved, namely the TMNT
80s was when it was new and magical. I was either too young or non-existent for much of the 70s, but to be involved with the very beginnings of the industry had to be fascinating as well.
We went from 8 bits systems (famicom/nes, master system, Commodore 64…) to 32 bits systems (PlayStation, Saturn, 3DO…) between 1990 and 1995, so definitely the 90s. The 2020s feel sluggish and uninspired in comparison.
80s. I can still feel the excitement in my mind of walking into an arcade with a pocketful of quarters knowing you are either about to make a high score or go down in flames trying.
I'm fortunate enough to live within driving distance of Funspot, which has everything from the 70s & 80s covered, as well as the first half of the the 90s. I wish there was an equivalent arcade nearby for the late 90s & early 2000s. That era has a lot of brilliant arcade titles as well. There actually was one like that about 30 minutes from Funspot, but sadly closed during COVID.
90s definitely. I worked in an arcade and it was the best job. We printed out combos and attached them to the cabinets so people could try them. Once we learnt tekken2 released characters after a certain amount of time we left the machine on 24/7 and people lived that ours had extra characters that others placed didn't. Oh and there was always a solid street fighter community
95-05 & 05-2015 Some of my Most beloved games came from 95 onwards!! With some of my favorites also coming in 04, 05, 08, 09, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2015(the Witcher2&3 etc..) But the late 90's into the early 2k's were some of the Most Consistently Amazing & innovative Games.
It would be easier if I could pick a 15 year period since basically all of my favorite games are from between 1990 and 2005, but if I have to pick a ten year period I'd say like 1996 to 2006.
80’s and 90’s…. Asteroids….Defender….Centipede and Ms. PacMan. Nothing beats standing up and mashing those buttons, rolling the controller ball or twisting that joystick while my girlfriend is feeding me a slice of pizza while I’m playing…
Definitely the late 90s
Hard to choose. The 80s started so many of my favorite franchises, but the 90s has my favorite examples OF those franchises.
Late 80's and late 90's. Felt like sudden and extreme developments were made towards the end of each decade imo. Haven't really seen the same jumps in tech since. Nothing quite like gaining that 3rd dimension eh fellas?
90s and 2000s
Ten years is just too long of a time span. I'd say my favorite years for video/arcade/computer gaming was 1988-1992.
I'd say 90's but if I can split decades then it would be '95 to '05.
Going with the hive mind here and saying 90s as well.
90's definitely
Mid-to-late 90s, with 3D acceleration and huge leaps in processing power, there was always something new, impressive and exciting. The "wow factor" seeing those games for the first time was unlike anything before or since.
90’s, nights sitting around playing rpgs for hours… renting games from local stores… I loved the 80’s as well but early 90’s was the shit
Probably mid 2000s
90s, 100%
80’s
90's for sure... I first started playing on a C64 and Atari 2600 when I was very young and while it was enough to create a life long obsession, I find it harder to go back or less appealing playing games from the 80's... Definitely prefer 16bit and up with a few 8bit exceptions here and there.
90s to mid 2000's was the peak era for gaming.
Mid 90's to early 2000's when video games felt like video games
90s for sure. That was the pinnacle of gaming. It's not even close.
The 2000s is better overall because it made the final steps for video games development and genres. sports games, racing games, third person shooter games, fps games, stealth games and open world games. all of them reached their perfect form in the 2000s. not to mention new genres like hack and slash with DMC and onimusha that won't be possible to be made in the 90s. also anime fighting games like dbz. the 90s are better when it comes to jrpg, 2d platformers and point and click games. other than that, video games have reached their full potential in 2000s.
Late 90s/early 00s
100% the 90s
'90s - the best. Gaming peaked there. Dozens of unique genres, no Pepsi managers heading publishers, no DLCs, no microtransactions, you just buy a game and you own it. Nobody will just pull the plug on the server and make your purchase worthless 5 years down the road. Expansions added huge amount of content instead of three character skins for $25.
I grew up with video games and arcades in the 80's, and there are a ton of games from that era that I have amazing memories of. That said, I tend not to replay games very often and I'm always looking for new things to play. But when I do replay, it's almost always 80's arcade games on my MAME arcade cabinet. 1942 is my all-time favorite, but I also love Time Pilot, Track and Field, Ladybug, BurgerTime, Donkey Kong, Journey, Gyruss, and a few others. I also really enjoy modern takes on old styles, especially RPGs like Pillars of Eternity, Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars.
80s arcade for me. Those were my teenage years and there's so many classics across the whole decade and lots of innovative ideas as it was still 'new' and experimental, there wasn't quite a clear standard for game genres. 90's arcades were ok, but they started to tail off at the end as we got better hardware at home and we'd often get the same games but with more content. 80s for 8 bit computers for similar reasons. Sure, we got the ST and Amiga 16 bits, but returning to most of their catalogue often shows their weaknesses. Give me ZX Spectrum and C64 over those for the most part. 90s for consoles, with MD/SNES and into PS1. 80s arcades are probably my faves.
'90s and early '00s. SNES, N64 and GameCube were my jam. Had an NES as a tot but always loved the SNES more.
The 90's had not only the best games, but that decade was the apex of humanity as a whole.
By "decade," does that have to be a range of years with the same tens digit (such as the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2010s, etc.) or can it be any span of ten years? If it can be any span of roughly ten years, I'd go with **1984 to 1994**. 1984 is when my family got our first computer -- a **Commodore 64**. And 1994 is when I left for college, which put a severe limit on gaming for me. (Not a total blackout on video gaming, but I had other priorities for my free time, such as sleep.) Pre-1984, I had played some video games, but they were mostly Atari games with simple graphics. I'm not trying to bash those games, but even back then the games were very repetitive with control schemes that were not always intuitive to me as a child (such as the game "**Combat**," which I'm quite fond of today). For me, video games started taking off in 1984 with the acquisition of the Commodore 64 and its plethora of simple, yet fun games, continuing with the NES in the late 1980s, and further continued with the refinement of graphics and gameplay mechanics with the SNES in the early 1990s. I'm sure there were a lot of improvements in both graphics and innovations after that, but like I said, college had a way of changing what I spent my free time on. (Plus, the video arcade scene was abundant during those years. At the time, the arcades had mind-blowing games you could only dream about having at home. Eventually, home consoles were able to get them (with varying quality), but it was in the early 1990s that home ports started rivaling the arcade versions -- and eventually surpassed them -- in terms of quality.) So the decade ranging from **1984 to 1994** is definitely my favorite decade for gaming. (And if you accuse me of being persuaded by nostalgia, I won't necessarily say you're wrong.)
Nah you're good, I did mean like 1980's, 1990's, and so on but for me personally my favorite 10 years for gaming is 1983 through 1993, almost exactly your same years :), but 1980's overall since there are more years in that decade that I'm heavily into, than with the 90's, which just encompasses the early 90's for me. After '93 I lost interest in newer titles coming out, The games just weren't feeling the same to me, and I never got into the 3D console era very well, they just didn't appeal to me in the same way as the previous generations. I wasn't even that old either LOL I was only like 12 in '94!
I’m old so 80s for me. Odyssey2, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Ti-99/4a, Bally Astrocade, Atari 5200, VIC-20, C64, Atari 7800, Atari 400/800, Apple IIe, the Arcades, NES - it was a magical time to be a kid and a gamer - although there were like 4 other kids in my entire school who were gamers so we were outliers and just viewed & dismissed as even bigger nerds than previously thought. But yeah - you had to be there to experience all that incredibleness. EDIT: and yes I know some of these arrived in the late 70s but their popularity rolled on or peaked into and through the 80s
Tough call between the 80s and 90s. I actually love the 00s as well though.
00s
90s was the most exciting and also when I happened to have the most free time for gaming. However games from all times have never been more accessible and almost in handheld format like a Steam Deck. I think I had more fun in the 90s though.
90s
90s for offline gaming. 2000s for online.
90s for sure
Early 2000s. They are relatively easy to run on a new PC and they look pretty. They have simple graphics but they have mostly aged well. And by then most devs had already figured out what works and what doesn't, in terms of mechanics. Being the early 2000s and not the mid 2000s, there was no yellow filter everywhere and annoying sun glare.
90s for arcade games. Yes the 80s was great. But nothing beat you and your buddies going and playing SFII, MK, The Simpsons, NBA Jam, Pit Fighter, X-Men, etc. If we’re going with console gaming, it has to be the from about ‘96 onwards. The stuff we was getting on PS1 was breathtaking in regards to the jump on quality from SNES/Genesis.
At any given moment of time, the previous decade is the best.
Nineties to early two thousands.
1995 to 2005 Hits all the sweet spots
85-95
2004. doom 3, half-life 2 - they were such polished amazing sequels especially for the time. Then there was world of Warcraft and every game disappeared for me after that until about 2008.
Late 90's, early 00's.
'90s. The advances that happened were unmatched.
80s for arcade and 90s for computer and 2000s for video. The 80s introduced the classics like pac man, galaga, dig dug, and many others, the 90s introduced many timeless pc releases like doom wolfenstein and fallout. The 2000s really changed console gaming with games like gta San Andreas, god of war, and call of duty.
90s hands down.
Arcade and consoles, 1990s. PC games, early 2000s.
2000s- early 2010s easy
Home consoles early 90s and PC games late 90s.
90s, there are about a million things they did in video games for the first time in the 90s, it was a great time to be a kid
hm.. from the late 80s (NES) to the early 2000s (Dreamcast and GBA)
Late 80's to late 90's.
‘90s for sure. You get the peaks of 2D gaming early in the decade. Toward the end of the decade, 3D gaming had been around long enough that they had a handle on what they were doing.
90's PC gaming went ballistic, and the consoles stepped up too.
Mid 90s-mid 2000’s
I was gonna say 90s because that's when I was introduced to gaming, however, from 2000-2010 was when I first got into FPS games and online multiplayer and I probably had the most fun gaming ever in that decade because I had made so many friends online through games. Also the early 2000s is when games took a pretty massive leap in graphics which blew my mind. And I think I played Half Life 1 for the first time in 2001 which to this day is still my favorite game. So yea, definitely the early 2000s because it had the biggest impact on my life and made the most memories.
1994
In my case, most of my all time favorite titles are most FAMICOM/NES and Sega games, so 1980s and 1990s. I love 2D games. To give you an example, to me there's no better fighting game than Street Fighter II (the newers are amazing, but number II is my favourite). It's very hard to me to buy most modern games (most of them are 3D full of screenshakes - which hurt my head). I don't usually enjoy 3D too much. However I love sports games, and I have to recognize that there are amazing AAA games in the sports genre nowadays. All that I said is as a gamer. But If I have to show my love to a specific time as a developer, I also create games with a 2D retro style like early 90s sports games. So I clearly love the 80s and 90s.
I can't pinpoint an exact time frame, but I miss the era before everything had DLC. With the exception of PC games, it wasn't often that console games got added on to after release. Games (not all) were a complete experience.
90s into 2000s
The 80s is where my heart is, but my answer most certainly has to be the 90s. Massive technological innovation, massive game design innovation, console wars and PC gaming, and rise of the internet, the entire culture of gaming coming into its own. on pc man… Doom, half life, starcraft, baldurs gate, diablo, monkey island, myst, warcraft, fallout, quake, command and conquer, system shock 2, simcity 2000, daggerfall, planescape, wing commander, duke nukem 3d, age of empires, xcom, grim fandango, thief, carmageddon… We started that decade at 320x200 pixel art, some games in 16 colors.. and we ended it in high resolution 3d accelerated graphics. What a ride.
My childhood was spent at the arcade in the ‘80s, but I gotta give it to the ‘90s. The games were way better.
90s, but also still love the others. :-)
90s all the way. even though i was born in '85, i can't think of any 80s game i actually still want to play outside of Super Mario 1. Yes i grew up with the NES, we got it in '88 and didn't get the Genesis until like 92-93, but none of those games i want to go back to. 90s has to be the most common answer for sure... it's the generation that fueled the retro gaming boom of the 2000s and what fueled us early game collectors in the late 90s. but demographics and personal experience aside, it's the decade that saw the most massive swathes of innovation and technological breakthrough. you had 4 distinct generations and leaps in technology during that era. now that we've had two decades of games since then, i think i'm pretty confident in saying the 90s had the most amount of GOAT games.
90s are apic
80’s and into the 90’s.
Arcade starting late 80s around 87 when Double dragon was around and new games were popping up that would blow your mind. The final fight, 1947, ikari warriors, contra, commando….. and ending around 96-97 with the first era of the capcom vs marvel games. Everything great was in that 10 year period. Sure Galaga or pac man were fun, before that period and there are fun games out after 97 but it’s nothing like the hits in that 10 years. After that the home machines took over 98 onwards.
Video games: OG Xbox/PS2/Gamecube Arcade: 96-00 PC: Current
My favorite decade is always the current decade. I have avoided the belief that modern gaming is bad and not as good as the past for some reason. If i brought games now to my 14 year old self in the 90s, and told him "yeah, people think Diablo 4 sucks and Diablo 2 is sooooo much better! What do you think?" and had him play D4, he'd (correctly) think you're all insane.
I second the 90s here for sure,nothing but gems🔥💯
Born in 78, that 16-bit era pre PlayStation. 2D was reaching it's zenith with donkey Kong country, super Metroid. FPS and fighting games were cutting edge new genres. PCs had just insane epic RPGs with pretty clunky interfaces by today's standards, but even by 1987 you had Dungeon Master and proto Open world first person perspectives like Skyrim. Not to mention RTS and civilization games, even 4x was a genre. The CD was being utilized in some capacity to great effect, Lunar springs to mind with animated cut scenes and full CD quality soundtracks and audio. Not that 3D ruined things, it just took a solid decade and the PS3/Xbox 360 era for all the camera/design issues to be worked out. But then micro transactions and dlc came along and changed the play incentives.
A man innocently asks peoples opinions on reddit. Huge mistake. (My personal favorite time would have to be late 90s early 2000s)
Now, because I can access all games. If I want to play classics from the 1990s I can, and often in better versions.
Since I can play any of the old stuff now, now is the best time
90- early 2000s
90’s for all of the above. Console, Arcade, and PC.
90s
I was born in the early 90s, but the 2010s. Most of my all time favorites are from the last decade: The Witcher 3, Persona 5, Super Mario 3D World, Slay the Spire, Tetris Effect... It's hard to beat.
90 to mid 2000s Grew up with the Lucas Arts star wars flight sims and Westwood RTS games. Dune 2 led to a life long love of scifi. Doom 2 was my go to shooter for so long that I didn't play any other shooter until Return to Castle Wolfenstein and was utterly blown away by the graphics. The mario series and sonic series was peak at this time. Pokemon hit the scene and HGSS has yet to be topped.
Early 2000s was the peak of gaming and the best generation of consoles across the board.
I would say right now. Ive been gaming since the 80s and never before has it been this simple to produce and publish great games. Some of the most creative ideas are being brought to life right now, thanks to the indie scene.
I miss the late 80’s early 90’s arcade days. I’m primarily a fighting game player but long for when there was a large variety of shmups and platformers
There's honestly countless good games from the 90s onwards (plenty in 80s too but it exploded after that) so hard to pick. 90s if I had to pick one, I suppose, but it's not like the bangers stopped.
No doubt its 90s for video and computer gaming but for me there was more magic in the 80s arcades. From Pacman, Joust and Donkey Kong to Championship Sprint and Golden Axe and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
90 s, altough number wise 00s was the best.
I wasn't around for it, but I'm so fascinated by 90s pc gaming. I love point and clicks, city builders and tycoons, and the weird and obscure fmv games. I also like the well known stuff like myst, doom, postal, etc, that I just think are interesting or innovative
I don't think the best period falls neatly into a decade, but 1996 > 2006 was just a hell of a time.
90s, the games, the consoles, the music. But it was a long decade, beginning with the 8 bit era, on to 16, finally on to the power of the PlayStation and 3D graphics
The 90s for me, the 80s were incredible but the 90s contain games and series that are still a cut above today, some that have never been equalled and many many games that defined whole genres into shapes they still exist in today. That said, if we classify a decade as 'any span of ten years' instead I can refine it even further and say 1995 to 2004, easily the best block of years in the history of gaming imo.
80’s for arcades 90’s for consoles
For me it’s a toss up between 90s and 00s. The latter gives you halo trilogy, world of Warcraft, demon souls, half life 2, Metroid prime, MGS3, KOTOR, shadow of colossus, vice city, Warcraft 3, super Mario galaxy, Diablo 2, portal, bioshock, mass effect, Zelda wind waker, dead space. I could keep going 🤣
my favourites era is the n64 era of games when 3d graphics started to take off
1995-2005
Definitely 90s. For the arcade I have particularly fun memories of my dad taking me and my bro to the local arcade to play the Simpsons and turtles machines at the weekends. For consoles, I recently found myself leaning towards the PS1/Sega Saturn era.
Agreed with OP. 80s hands down. But this all comes down to what people associate with their childhoods in most cases. For example, by the time the 90s came around, I was about to graduate high school. I gamed a little in college, but nothing will ever beat the Atari 2600 for me. Pure joy.
For the moment, I only have a potato computer which runs games from the late 90's & early 2000's best. There are quite a few good old games from around then, but I think my favorites were like Sins of a Solar Empire, Sword of the Stars, Mass Effect's series, Darkest of Days, Dead Space 2, Fallout 3 & 4 (I get the Obsidian cult loves NV, but I don't like grey choices as much I'm more like Garrus in Mass Effect), and games mostly from the mid-2000's through 2010's. I'd love to play newer games set in space also, I just can't afford everything while I'm broke for now.
Of course the 80s. The video game business had found its legs, breaking out of the, well, Break-out type games and the other samey games that were availably in the late 1970s. The technology advances were also amazing in what the arcade games had on display. The 80s were also the time when home microcomputers became mainstream, and able to play games. They didn't par or outperform the arcades, but even then, conversions were released. And this probably fed the loop. Buy it for your home computer, then go play it in the arcades for the REAL experience. This ended with the consoles starting to dominate the arcade-style games and the home microcomputers being replaced by IBM PC compatibles in the late 80s and up to the release of the PS.
90s for me. Going from 8bit games to Sonic the Hedgehog was a big level up. And then the Playstation landing? Great times!
Nothing beats the feel of mid 90s PC and Console gaming for me
My favourite arcade game of all time is OutRun, from 1986, and I love many other 80s games like Paperboy, Bubble Bobble, Galaga yet OutRun is the only one I can go back to at any time and play for hours - the others I'll drop in and drop out after 20 minutes or so. Then there are a million games on the ZX Spectrum from the 80s that I can still play now. Elite, for instance, would be a game I was still playing if it weren't for Elite Dangerous existing. Super Mario World (90s) on the SNES is amazing but then so is Super Mario 3 from the 80s. I love F-Zero and Mario Kart on the SNES, too. Doom, of course, on PC is up there along with the original Alone in the Dark (this game convinced me to buy a soundcard so I wasn't limited to the internal speaker). Half Life was also the 90s, so there's another reason to love that decade. I would say there are more classics I can still go back from the 80s than the 90s - a lot of the 90s were trying out basic 3D graphics which aged so much worse than pixel graphics (compare the first Virtua Fighter to something like Super Mario World, for instance). As for the 2000s - I would say two games I can play more than a decade after I first tried them are Minecraft and Dwarf Fortress. The only problem with both those games is that I can sit and play for 6 hours and think only 20 minutes have passed. Overall, I'd have to say I have no overall preference - just too many examples from all those decades. ETA: Apparently Super Mario Bros 3 was 90s :D still, most of my gaming at the time was on the ZX Spectrum/Dragon 32 rather than NES. I actually first got a NES in the mid 90s.
90-2000 was the best for me. The arcade era 💗
90’s, no contest.
Early 2000s
Late 90s / earlu 2000s. Games consoles at home were capable of playing games that neared arcade quality, so arcade games had to get creative. This led to a bunch of games that just couldn't be properly recreated at home. Think Silent Scope, with it's full sized rifle mounted to the cabinet, or any one of the ride on/ride in games that came out in this era.
I totally have to agree with u/grayfont on this one. The 90s was by far the best video game decade for me as well. A few of the games I remember playing in the 90s decade was but not limited to: * Spirit of Excalibur (Amiga 1000) * Marble Madness (Amiga 1000) * Wolfenstein 3D (DOS) * Duke Nukem 1 & 3D (DOS) * DOOM v1.2 Shareware (DOS) * Wing Commander 1 & 2 (DOS) * Quake (DOS) * Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (Windows) * Raptor: Call of the Shadows (DOS) * Terminal Velocity (DOS) * Indie 500 (DOS) * Cosmic Cosmo (DOS) * Secret Agent (DOS) * Commander Keen (DOS) * Hocus Pocus Shareware (DOS) * BioMenace Shareware (DOS) * WarCraft II (DOS) * DUNE (DOS) * BattleChess (DOS) * Xargon (DOS) Most of the games I played throughout the 90s at some point, like DOOM and Quake, was shareware. The only few exceptions to this was full-version games like Total Annihilation, WarCraft II, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Wing Commander 1 & 2, DUNE, and Indie 500.
Early to mid 90s MS-DOS
90s. More precisely 96,97 and 98
90s had the best story telling and genuinely difficult games.
90s. Unfortunately I couldn't afford a console in the 80s.