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).
Most popular top down games
action-adventureDOS, Windows XP/98/95
strategyDOS
Sort by:
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.
Chess
DOS19814/5 International PC Owners
Donkey BAS
DOS19813.7/5 Microsoft
Galaxy
DOS19814.1/5 Microcomputer Games Inc.
Astro Dodge
DOS19823.6/5 Digital Marketing Corporation
Boxer Rebellion
DOS19823.1/5
Cosmic Crusader
DOS19823.7/5 Funatics Software
Crossfire
DOS19823.7/5 Sierra On-Line
Night Mission Pinball
DOS19823.6/5 subLOGIC
Pac Gal
DOS19823.1/5
Pac-girl
DOS19823.7/5 Magicom Multimedia
PC-Man
DOS1982remake4.1/5 Orion Software
PC-Man is an abandoned top-down Pac-Man clone in every regard: from the shape of the protagonist, to the cute ghosts. PC-Man was designed by Greg Kuperberg, developed by Orion Software and released in 1982 for DOS. As PC-Man, you have to move through a one screen maze to collect dots (pills? wafers?) and avoid being touched by one of the usual Pac-...
Snack Attack 2
DOS19823.2/5 Funtastic
Super Pac-Man
DOS19823.5/5 Namco
The Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow
DOS1982protected3.8/5 Tactical Design Group
Amazing Maze
DOS19833.2/5
Battle for Normandy
DOS1983protected3.8/5 Tactical Design Group
Battleship
DOS19833.8/5 Mirror Images Software
Beneath Apple Manor
DOS1983freeware4.2/5
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...
Epidemic!
DOS1983protected4.1/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Fleet Sweep
DOS19833.2/5 Mirror Images Software
Frogger
DOS19834.1/5 Konami
IBM 9-Hole Miniature Golf
DOS19833/5 SoftSide Magazine
Knights of the Desert
DOS1983protected3.8/5 Tactical Design Group
Mine Shaft
DOS19834.1/5 Sierra On-Line
Oubliette
DOS19833.3/5
Pac-Man
DOS19834.7/5 Namco
Pac-Man is a classic arcade game created by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It was later released in North America by Midway Games. The game was designed by Toru Iwatani and has become one of the most famous and influential video games of all time. The main goal of Pac-Man is to navigate a maze, eating all the pac-dots (smal...
Pack-Man
DOS1983remake3.5/5 Magicom Multimedia
Pango
DOS1983remake4/5
Rescue at Rigel
DOS19833.3/5 Epyx