Top-down perspective

Top down games were very popular in the 80s and the 90s, when graphic cards were not capable of supporting 3D, and even when 3D started to become popular, 2D games continued to be easier to develop, at least in the infancy of 3D gaming. 2D game offered the player a viewpoint that helped keeping things easily under control (think about top down party-based RPGs or hex-based strategy games).

Most popular top down games

Dune 2000

strategyWindows XP/98/95

Civilization 2

strategyWindows XP/98/95

CD-Man v2.0

actionDOS

Top down games

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007: License to Kill

DOS19894/5 Quixel
101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy

Windows XP/98/9519984.2/5 Empire Interactive
18th Airborne

DOS19933.6/5
240 Racing

DOS19984/5
2400 A.D.

DOS19884/5 Origin Systems
3D Ultra Lionel Traintown

Windows XP/98/9520004/5 Dynamix
4Play

Windows 3.x1995NSFW4.1/5
5th Fleet

DOS19944.3/5
7 colors

DOS19913.4/5 Gamos
8088 Othello

DOS19853.6/5
A Line in the Sand

DOS1992protected3.9/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
A Nightmare on Elm street

DOS19893.9/5 Westwood Studios
A-Maze

DOS19894.1/5 New Era Software
Accordion

DOS19902.7/5 Softdisk Publishing
Acquire

DOS19893.9/5 IBM
Action Fighter

DOS19893.9/5 Sega
Action in the North Atlantic

DOS19893.8/5 General Quarters Software
Action Soccer

DOS19954.2/5 UBI Soft
Advanced Civilization

DOS19953.9/5 Avalon Hill
Adventure Construction Set

DOS19873.9/5 Electronic Arts

Adventure Construction Set is an abandoned application developed by Stuart Smith and published for DOS, Amiga, Apple II and Commodore 64 by Electronic Arts in 1987. As the name suggests, ACS is a game-building system (we're talking about adventure RPGs) that lets you edit maps, items, creatures, etc. Included with ACS is a complete game called...
Air Traffic Controller

DOS19854.1/5 Cascoly Software
Airborne Ranger

DOS19884.2/5 MicroProse Software
Ajax

DOS19893.4/5 Konami
Akalabeth: World of Doom

DOS1981freeware3.7/5 California Pacific Computer

Akalabeth is a RPG game allegedly developed in just one summer by the Ultima franchise creator Richard Garriott. It's a dungeon crawler with wire-frame black and white graphics. Akalabeth is played in both first person 3d and top down view points.
Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse

DOS1994protected3.8/5 Cyberlore studios
Albion

DOS19964.2/5 Blue Byte Software
Aleshar World of Ice

DOS19973.7/5
Alex Higgins World Snooker

DOS19863.9/5 Lindensoft
ALF: The First Adventure

DOS19873/5 Box Office
Alien Breed

DOS1993protected3.7/5 Team 17