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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Bandit Kings of Ancient China
DOS1989 KOEI
Based on a classic Chinese novel, Bandit Kings of Ancient China combines strategy, RPG elements, and about 800 names you’ll never remember. You play one of 108 outlaws trying to overthrow a corrupt regime — think Roman...
Sito Pons 500cc Grand Prix
DOS1990 Zigurat Software
Scrabble
DOS1992 U.S. Gold
Battle Master
DOS1991 Personal Software Services
In Battle Master (1991), you play as a heavily armored murder-hobo leading an army across a fantasy world that really doesn’t want you there. It’s part action-RPG, part tactical slog, with clunky pathfinding and surpri...
Major Stryker
DOSWindows XP/98/951993freeware Apogee Software
King's Table: The Legend of Ragnarok
DOS1993protected Imagitec Design
The Basket Manager
DOS1991 Simulmondo
Indenture
DOS1995remake
War of the Lance
DOS1990protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Bass Tour
DOS1992
Think of Bass Tour (1992) as the road trip version of virtual fishing. More simulation than arcade, it lets you travel, pick locations, study conditions, and obsess over bait types like you're preparing for a National Geographic s...
Gone Fishing
DOS1989 Interstel Corporation
Disciples of Steel
DOS1994
Football Glory
DOS1995freeware Croteam
Socrates
DOS1993
Gold of the Americas: The Conquest of the New World
DOS1989 SSG Strategic Studies Group
ALF: The First Adventure
DOS1987 Box Office
Remember ALF? The sarcastic alien who really had it in for cats? Well, in ALF: The First Adventure, you get to live the dream—or nightmare—of controlling the furry menace himself. Released in 1987 for DOS, this Pac-Man...
Demon Stalkers
DOS1989 Micro Forté
Sensible World of Soccer 96/97
DOS1996protected Sensible Software
Pictionary: The Game of Quick Draw
DOS1989 Oxford Mobius
The Ancient Art of War in the Skies
DOS1992 Evryware
Exile II: Crystal Souls
Windows XP/98/95Mac OSWindows 3.x1996freeware Spiderweb Software
Global Conquest
DOS1992 Ozark Softscape
Global Domination
DOS1993 Impressions Games
The Punisher
DOS1990 Paragon Software
Tracon 2
DOS1990 Wesson International
Arnhem: The Market Garden Operation
DOS1988 Cases Computer Simulations
Arnhem is the kind of wargame where you spend more time reading hex maps than shooting anything. It’s all about recreating Operation Market Garden — you know, that WWII battle where everything went spectacularly sidewa...
Battleship
DOS1983 Mirror Images Software
Released in 1983, this is your grandpa’s Battleship—minus the plastic pegs, but with all the tension of blind naval warfare. There are no fancy graphics, no Hollywood explosions, just good old-fashioned "Is it a hit?" ...
Aspetra
DOS1996
Welcome to Aspetra, a 1996 DOS game that tried to cram an epic sci-fi RPG into your beige box PC — and mostly succeeded! Think “Star Trek meets budget constraints.” You explore strange new worlds, meet weirdly sp...
IBM 9-Hole Miniature Golf
DOS1983 SoftSide Magazine
Subbuteo
DOS1990 Goliath Games