Back in the 80s and in the 90s, game design wasn't something for the common gamer. There were a few programs with a decent user interface, aimed at the non-developers, but to be honest there weren't that many. In addition to those programs, there were also a few utilities to support gaming activities like role-playing.
Some of the most popular abandoned "game development" games:
Windows XP/98/95Linux1997freeware
DOS1991
DOS1992