Top-down perspective sorted by release date
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).
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Fast Food Dizzy
DOS19894/5 Codemasters
Fidelity Chessmaster 2100
DOS19893.8/5 The Software Toolworks
Final Frontier
DOS19892.8/5 Bubble Bus Software
Gauntlet 2
DOS19894.1/5 Atari
Gengis Khan
DOS19893.5/5 KOEI
Gold of the Americas: The Conquest of the New World
DOS19893.8/5 SSG Strategic Studies Group
Gone Fishing
DOS19893.7/5 Interstel Corporation
Grand Monster Slam
DOS19894/5 Golden Goblins
Grand Monster Slam is an action sports game developed by Golden Goblins and published by Rainbow Arts in 1989. The game was released for a variety of platforms, including the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS. The game is set in a fantasy world where players compete in a sport called Monster Slam. The sport involves two opposing player...
Heavy Barrel
DOS19893.4/5 Data East
Hillsfar
DOS1989protected3.8/5 Westwood Studios
House of Cards
DOS19893.3/5
If It Moves, Shoot It!
DOS19893.3/5 Emerald Software
Jackal
DOS19894.3/5 Konami
Joan of Arc
DOS19894.1/5 Chip
John Madden Football
DOS19894/5 Electronic Arts
John Madden Football was the first of a series of american football sports games sponsored by the coach of the same name. The first John Madden Football is an abandoned game developed and released by Electronic Arts in 1988 for Apple II and Commodore 64 and later released for DOS (in 1989). The Madden series became extremely popular and the sequels...
Knights of Legend
DOS19894.2/5 Origin Systems
Last Duel: Inter Planet War 2012
DOS19893.5/5 Capcom
Legacy of the Ancients
DOS19893.7/5 Quest Software
Legends of Murder: Volume 1 - Stonedale Castle
DOS1989protected3.5/5 Softdisk Publishing
Meteors
DOS19893.6/5 Apogee Software
Mines of Titan
DOS19893.7/5 Westwood Studios
Mines of Titan (also known as Mars Saga for other platforms) is an abandoned single-player RPG with a sci-fi setting (you're going to Mars!). Mines of Titan was developed by Westwood Studios and released by Infocom in 1989 for DOS, Apple II and Commodore 64.
Monday Night Football
DOS19894.1/5 Park Place Productions
Navy Seal
DOS19894/5 Cosmi Corporation
NFL Pro League Football
DOS19894.3/5 Micro Sports
Nobunaga's Ambition 2
DOS19893.8/5 KOEI
Nuclear War
DOS19894/5 New World Computing
Nuclear War is an abandoned turn-based strategy game designed by Eric Hyman and Jon Van Caneghem. Nuclear War was developed and released by New World Computing in 1989 for Amiga and, later, for DOS, and it's loosely based on a card game of the same name. Nuclear War took a satirical approach to the grim possibility of a global nuclear war and succe...
Omega
DOS19894/5 Origin Systems
Omega is an abandoned science fiction themed strategy game developed and released by Origin Systems in 1989 for DOS, Amiga, Apple II, Atari ST, C64. Omega is a rare example of a programming game about robots.
Pictionary: The Game of Quick Draw
DOS19893/5 Oxford Mobius
Pipe Dream
DOSWindows 3.x19894.3/5 The Assembly Line
Pipe Mania (also known as Pipe Dream is a tile-matching (sort of) puzzle game about flowing liquids developed by The Assembly Line in 1989. You must build a path made of pipe pieces to let a green liquid (sewer goo?) flow. It's simple, original and addicting, that's why Pipe Mania was cloned a number of times.
Prophecy: the Fall of Trinadon
DOS19893.4/5 Activision