There’s a thread going on the QuatertoThree games forum about “PC games that are a decade old this year.”
1999 was a strong year for PC games, as evidenced by this short list compiled in the thread:
- Counterstrike
- Everquest
- Freespace 2
- Jane’s F/A-18
- Jane’s USAF
- Planescape: Torment
- Quake III
- SWAT 3
- Starfleet Command (I & II)
- System Shock 2
- Team Fortress Classic
- Tony Hawk
- Unreal Tournament
- X-Wing Alliance
There are plenty of memories for PC gamers in that list. Unreal Tournament was a personal favorite of mine, as it was something of an underdog before release. Most of the gaming community thought id Software’s Quake III Arena was going to completely dominate the online multiplayer FPS market that year, but Epic Games really surprised a lot of people by having so many unique (read: non-deathmatch) game types available for online play.
It was also a time where 3D graphics cards blossomed as Nvidia and ATI finally took the market from 3dfx. The Voodoo line of cards were eyeopeners when they first appeared, but the company just didn’t keep up with the changing demands of the industry. At the least, I was happy to see their proprietary Glide API lose ground to Direct3D and OpenGL.
Yes, it was a very good year for PC gamers.
