Retro gamer puts together a collection of almost 130 classic games that are must-plays

Gamer SAPianoman490 showed off the result of a year of work: two retro PCs built from scratch, each tuned for its own era. Shortcuts for almost 130 games released between 1996 and 2008 fit across the desktops of both machines.

The enthusiast asked retro gaming fans to point out anything he might have missed.

SAPianoman490 described the project like this:

For the past year or so I've been building two retro PCs, one running Windows 98 and the other Windows XP. I think I've installed most of the classic games from each era, but I'd love suggestions for what else to add. Maybe I missed some big hits?

The first machine runs a 600 MHz Pentium III with a 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 graphics card. That setup is ideal for games from 1996 to 2000, many of which supported the proprietary 3dfx Glide API and look worse on other cards or don't run at all. The second PC, with a Core 2 Duo and an Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT, is built for titles from 2001 to 2008.

Sports sims didn't make the cut, and racing games, according to SAPianoman490, have to be "incredible" before he wants to play them. Older titles live on a separate DOS PC, so Doom, Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, and early Sierra adventures are stored there.

The Windows 98 machine holds around 75 games. Among them:

• shooters Half-Life, Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Soldier of Fortune, Kingpin, and Blood 2

• strategy games StarCraft, Homeworld, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Pharaoh, and Theme Hospital

• RPGs Fallout, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and Final Fantasy VIII

• adventures King's Quest V–VIII, Grim Fandango, and The Dagger of Amon Ra

• action games Max Payne, Hitman: Codename 47, Outcast, MDK2, Messiah, Shadow Man, and Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

The Windows XP desktop holds about 55 more. Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R., Doom 3, Crysis Warhead, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Fallout 3, Oblivion, The Witcher Enhanced Edition, both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, Jade Empire, GTA San Andreas, Beyond Good & Evil, Hitman: Blood Money, and Age of Empires II sit side by side. Both machines are connected to Panasonic PanaSync CRT monitors.

Veteran gamers pointed out some obvious gaps. Lemmings, RollerCoaster Tycoon, SimCity 2000, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Dungeon Keeper, Thief, Baldur's Gate, Commander Keen, Myst, Syndicate, and Interstate '76 all got mentions.

The Command & Conquer series sparked its own debate. Only Renegade, the first-person shooter spin-off, made it onto the desktop, and commenters were surprised the classic strategy games were missing.

The builder explained:

Yeah, they're all installed on my modern PC through Steam, I just haven't gotten around to installing them here yet. Renegade is here because I have childhood nostalgia for it.

Renegade is still alive, too. The official servers shut down long ago, but with the Tiberian Technologies fan patch the game finds active private servers, which one player said fill up almost every day.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is in a similar spot, with the community keeping online play going without the GameSpy master server and even launching a browser version.

Need for Speed: Underground 2 is another obvious gap in the XP collection.