Giants: Citizen Kabuto

Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix Series, because had a lot of details and were very complex simulator games, with an impressive physics engine, offering a realistic driving experience for its age.

Has anyone mentioned Tomb Raider?

If I'm wrong here let me know, because I want to learn, but I don't remember a game prior that gave you that 3rd person full movement/control, open world like that game did.

Hunter(1991), a 3rd person full movement/control, open world polygon 3D game.
I did not mention it in this thread because it is for Amiga, not for IBM PC.

Perhaps I could mention Ultima 4. You do have to kill enemies to win, but there are some enemies that attack that you should not kill, as some enemies are not evil and killing them is not virtuous.

Perhaps the whole virtue aspect of the game could be considered ahead of its time.

Actually it would be interesting to play the first two in real-time, if properly balanced for it.

Amiga, ST etc. is fine.

A WIP 90s western PCs list (still need to add amiga, mac and c64 exclusives): minirevver.weebly.com/pc-games-ahead-of-their-time-90s.html

Preliminary top pick for each year:
Alpha Waves/Continuum (PC/Atari ST, 1990) - First polygonal 3D Platformer?, TP view; bouncing physics,

Catacomb 3D (PC, 1991) - FPS, Maze Shooter; smooth framerate, item inventory, compass, enemies leave corpses, basic radar system

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (PC, 1992) - FP Dungeon Crawler RPG; great map feature (lets you add your own notes), Wolfenstein 3D-style engine with slopes and stairs, very large dungeons, non-linear structure, compass, voice acted cutscenes, dialogue trees, swimming and flight, play instruments, in-depth world interaction (fishing, different ways of opening doors, make popcorn with magic), hunger and fatigue, deteriorating weapons, angled ceilings and ceilings with varying height, look up and down, dynamic music system (changes the music on the fly based on your actions),

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (PC, 1993) - Open World RPG, Top down view, RT exploration/TB battles; non-random encounters, post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, alternate solutions to problems, party creation (or premade option; some interesting new races like half giants and insects/thri-kreen), dialogue trees, fast movement during exploration, start out as a slave (KQ3), mouse-driven interface with tooltips, auto-mapper (can also look around using it), sleep safely at campfires, no banks or trainers, dialogue portraits,

System Shock (PC, 1994/PC, 201?) - FP ARPG/FPS/Survival Horror, P&C hybrid controls; cyberpunk theme, audio logs, cyberspace (zero g environment wich affects the real world), different ammo types for each weapon, slopes, leaning, detailed difficulty options, memorable villain that communicates with the player throughout the game, basic stealth (security systems),

Descent (PC, 1995) - Flight-based FPS, Maze Shooter, Vehicle avatar; Fully 3D environment and enemies, mouse look and strafing, hostage rescue (choplifter?), 3D map screen with manual camera (shows locked doors with color coding), proximity bombs,

Tomb Raider (PC/PS1/SAT, 1996) - 3D Platformer/TPS/Exploration-Based; lock-on feature in combat, jump in each cardinal direction, context sensitive action button, 180 degree turn move, dynamic music changes, some large models, save anywhere (save points on PS1/SAT), no map, skippable cutscenes, nice tutorial except it doesn't show how to fight or pick up items (voiced tour around Lara's house), fairly varied death animations, basic ranking after each level, new gear sometimes shows on Lara's model, strafe and sideway climbing/shimmy (too slow though),

Dungeon Keeper (PC, 1997) & The Deeper Dungeons (PC, 1997) & Gold Edition (PC, 1998) - Dungeon building and management combined with creature caretaking (each creature has its own personality (needs, weaknesses, skills, rival creature)), MP Vs. Battle; top down or isometric view, units gain levels through combat and training, control units one by one in FP view, play as the bad guys, pick up and drop units (8 at once, within conquered areas), good voice acting (the narrator), players can cast spells anywhere they can see without a unit, sacrifice creatures at a temple to gain stronger ones, slap creatures to make them work harder, imprison and/or torture enemies (can convert enemies, torturing can also make parts of the enemy dungeon become revealed), research spells and traps, battle overview message window (lets you use spells and pick up wounded creatures more efficiently), hidden bonus levels and power ups, you sometimes gain the power to keep one creature for the next level (but you won't know beforehand in which levels this happens), sellable room tiles and traps (C&C), you can make unwanted creatures leave by dropping them at an entrance

Starsiege: Tribes (PC, 1998) - FPS/TPS, RTT, Plane vehicles; limited flight via jetpack, three character classes (heavy, medium, light), bases (turrets, ammo stations, command station (control turrets, see station statuses), shops, power generators, radar; can deploy turrets and manually repair stations), team combat and capture the flag, save favorite sets to buy in the shop, open landscape levels, decent char model editor (voice, gender, skin), voice comment hotkeys, zoom feature (several levels), interactive map (waypoints, orders/notes to other players), shoot mines in mid-air for more damage, remote inventory unit (more basic shop, makes you slower), drop items and weapons, mortar aim beacon, skiing (build up speed in slopes),

Homeworld (PC, 1999) - First fully 3D RTS, Space Battles; pretty impressive gfx and sound, persistent units and resources/perma-death, alternate paths?, take over enemy ships, voice acting changes depending on how a fight is going, useful formations,

Dungeon Master
Ultima Underworld

What do you think your are? Smart?

There are of course also the obvious games like Dune 2 which singlehandedly redefined the RTS genre.
Ultima underworld and system shock w are other obvious games for much the same reasons, except for a difference in genres.

However one game that always spring to mind as being well ahead of its time when I think about the topic is Ground Control. It's such a shame too, because it was really innovative and unique, but it would be many years before we saw a game like it again.

Ultima Online and SubSpace were games which were groundbreaking in different ways for online multiplayer gaming in the 1990's for me.

Someone did already mention Diablo and it was a genre-defining multiplayer game, at least for me. Battle.net was something unimaginable at the time.

System Shock and Deus Ex.

The Terminator (1991).
Proto-FPS with a sandbox, drivable cars, possibility of GTA-like unlawful activity, etc.

Any number of games produced by ID Software fall into the "ahead of its time" category.

Commander Keen was ahead of its time in that it did things with the PC graphics hardware that were previously only possible on consoles.
Wolfenstein 3D again pushed the boundaries of what you could do with PC graphics hardware.
Then came Doom which again pushed the hardware to its limits.

These days its all OpenGL and Direct3D and Vulcan and stuff and you don't get to fiddle with the GPU anymore but back then, developers like John Carmack were doing things that probably surprised even the IBM designers who created the hardware...

Captain Goodnight (1985)
Ssshhh, I'm trying to stay incognito. ;^P

Pretty sure some Amiga and C64 games had smooth scrolling if that's what you're referring to, but it was cool for IBM PCs.

They're all in the lists since before.


Good call, I forgot about this one!