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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Robotron 2084

DOS19833.9/5 Williams Entertainment

Rollo and the Brush Brothers

DOS19833.6/5 Windmill Software

Sleuth: A Murder Mystery

DOS1983freeware4.1/5 Norland Software

Ultima 2: Revenge of the Enchantress

DOS19834/5 Origin Systems

The second chapter of the Ultima saga is much similar to the first one (same top down visual, same dungeon 3d visual, same gameplay), although there are many small improvements. The series begins to take the shape of the detailed, deep, rpg saga that gamers will always remember.

Archon: the Light and the Dark

DOS19844.2/5 Free Fall Associates

Archon: The Light and the Dark is an abandoned DOS fantasy blend of strategy and action game, developed by Free Fall Associates and published for DOS by Electronic Arts in 1984. Archon and its sequels are a unique mix of chess-like turn-based strategy and arcade action games. Take chess and add the fact that every time two pieces land on the same s...

Backgammon

DOS19843.1/5 IBM

Beast

DOS19843.8/5

Castle Adventure

DOS1984freeware4.2/5

Castle Wolfenstein

DOS19844/5 Muse Software

Chess88

DOS19844/5

Computer Diplomacy

DOS19843.6/5 Avalon Hill

DND

DOS19844.1/5

Felony!

DOS19844/5 BrainBank

Flightmare

DOS1984freeware3.6/5

Frogger Jr.

DOS19843.6/5

Gremlins

DOS19842.8/5 Atari

Hack

DOS1984freeware3.8/5

ICON: Quest for the Ring

DOS19843.6/5 Macrocom

Ms. Pac-Man

DOS19843.9/5 Atarisoft

Ms. Pac-Man is a classic arcade game released by Midway in 1982 (1984 for DOS) as a follow-up to the original Pac-Man (1980), developed by Namco. While its core gameplay is similar - navigating a maze, eating dots, and avoiding ghosts - there are key differences. Ms. Pac-Man features four distinct maze designs, moving bonus fruits, and mo...

Murder on the Zinderneuf

DOS19843.3/5 Free Fall Associates

Mychess

DOS19843.8/5 The Software Toolworks

Rogue

Windows XP/98/95DOSLinuxMac OS19844.1/5 Artificial Intelligence Design

Rogue is one of the first RPGs in the history of video gaming. It's a text-based dungeon crawler in which you have to fight your way in the dungeon to recover the Amulet of Yendor. Rogue became popular around 1980 on mainframes and later ported to various platforms, including DOS in 1984. Rogue is simply the father of all the roguelike games that c...

Shamus

DOS19843.7/5 Synapse Software

Shamus is a maze action game developed by William Mataga and published by Synapse Software in 1982. The game became popular on various home computer platforms of the early 1980s. In Shamus, players control a detective navigating through a labyrinth filled with enemies and traps, aiming to defeat the villain, The Shadow. The gameplay involves explor...

Soko-Ban

DOS19844.1/5 ASCII Corporation

Spy Hunter

DOS19843.7/5 Midway Manufacturing Company

Styx

DOS19843.9/5 Windmill Software

The Ancient Art of War

DOS19843.9/5 Evryware

The Ancient Art of War is a classic video game that was released in the late 1980s. Developed by Evryware and published by Broderbund, it was available on various platforms, including Apple II, Atari ST, Amiga, and MS-DOS. The Ancient Art of War is a strategy game that takes place in various historical settings, such as ancient China, Greece, and t...