I noticed that pretty much all games I played in my life have been released after 1990. So now I’m asking those with earlier experience here:
Which games can you recommend from before that time?
But: they should still be fun in their own right and not just interesting to play in an historian sense of trying to understand how genres developed.
Games I played that are older than 1990:
- Tetris (classic for a reason)
- Pacman (interesting but simple)
- Prince of Persia (was too young to understand how to correctly play this game, I should maybe try to play it again)
- The Legend of Zelda (too old school and clunky for my liking)
Really hot take here: Super Mario Bros (you didn’t mention it in your list).
For a game from the '80s on the limited hardware available at the time, they really put a lot of work into the mechanics of the platforming. It’s an incredibly responsive game compared to its contemporaries.
Legend of Zelda along the same lines. I remember how cool it was that it could save progress without constant power. Caveat is… It’s so hard without a guide or a lot of trial and error.
You are right, I never did play the first proper Mario game. Will check it out!