The most popular top down games

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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Minesweeper

Windows 3.x1992 Microsoft

Microsoft Minesweeper is an iconic puzzle game that has been included with Microsoft Windows operating systems since Windows 3.1. The game's objective is to clear a rectangular board containing hidden mines without detonating any of them. The player clicks on a square to reveal what's underneath, and numbers are displayed to indicate how many mines...

Puzznic

DOS1990 Taito

Puzznic is a tile-matching puzzle video game originally developed and published by Taito in 1989 for arcade systems. The goal of Puzznic is to clear a series of levels by aligning matching tiles (blocks) to make them disappear. When two or more identical tiles touch, they vanish. Puzznic was ported to various platforms, including:NES, Gam...

Beneath Apple Manor

DOS1983freeware

Beneath Apple Manor is a pioneering game in the roguelike genre, originally developed and released in 1978 by Don Worth for the Apple II and later re-released for DOS as a "Special Edition". It's one of the earliest known role-playing video games (RPGs) with procedurally generated dungeons.In Beneath Apple Manor, players take on the role of an adve...

Exile: Escape from the Pit

Windows XP/98/95Mac OSWindows 3.x1995freeware Spiderweb Software

Exile: Escape from the Pit is a turn-based role-playing game (RPG) developed by Spiderweb Software. It is part of the Exile series, originally released in the mid-1990s. This game was later remade and re-released as Avernum: Escape from the Pit. The game is set in a massive underground world called Exile, where the Empire banishes criminals, p...

AlphaMan

DOS1995

Time Bandit

DOS1989 MichTron

Time Bandit is a classic top-down arcade-style video game that was released in 1982 for various home computer systems, such as the Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, and others. It was developed by MichTron. In Time Bandit, players control a character who must navigate through a series of maze-like levels, battling various enemies and collecting treasure a...

Fantasy Empires

DOS1993protected Silicon Knights

Spirit of Excalibur

DOS1990 Synergistic Software

Berlin 1948

DOS1989 Time Warp Software

Pacific General

Windows XP/98/951997protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

Blitzkrieg: Battle at the Ardennes

DOS1990 Command Simulations

Commander Keen 4: Secret of the Oracle

DOS1991protected id software

Space Federation

DOS1994 Interplay Productions

Temple of Apshai Trilogy

DOS1985 Epyx

The Temple of Apshai Trilogy is a series of classic role-playing games developed by Automated Simulations (later known as Epyx) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These games were among the earliest examples of computer-based RPGs and were influential in shaping the genre.The "Temple of Apshai Trilogy" was notable for its depth of gameplay and intr...

Jurassic Park

DOS1993 Ocean Software

Dogs of War

Windows XP/98/951996demo Software Engineering

Beyond Castle Wolfenstein

DOS1985 Muse Software

Master of Magic

DOSWindows XP/98/951994protected SimTex

Master of Magic is a turn based 4x strategy game developed by SimTex and published by the well know Microprose, very similar to Civilization, with a fantasy twist. You play as a wizard and your objective is to evolve your race from a small settlement to a bursting empire. To do so, you can produce military units to fight other computer controlled p...

Total Annihilation Kingdoms

Windows XP/98/951999protected Cavedog Entertainment

Entomorph: Plague Of The Darkfall

Windows XP/98/95Windows 3.xMac OS1995protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

Pinball Dreams

DOS1993protected Digital Illusions

Nuclear War

DOS1989 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...