10 Video Games You Didn't Realise Are Over 20 Years Old
The games that are older than most cars on the highway.
It's always an amazing thing when fiction can impact us in a way that it becomes a bullet point in the timeline of our lives. Media does this the best, allowing us to share the experience of commiserating with another person when you both realise it's been 20 years since you played Worms.
Oh yeah, Worms is over 20 years old. That alone is pretty hard to fathom.
Video games are still the most modern of media, though in the last two decades we've seen the advent of the Xbox, four Nintendo consoles, three different PlayStations, a wheelbarrow full of handheld devices and a huge leap in both graphics and ambition within PC gaming.
We're reminded of our evolving tastes - in the last five years alone you could probably name about two dozen shooters, but few - if any - construction simulators. Does anyone even remember Zoo Tycoon? Theme Hospital? 24-Hour Petrol Station Builder 3?
Many of the following entries are iconic for one reason or another, whether for commercial reasons or technical, but the key reason for inclusion is that the hold the highest possible chance of truly making you aware of your age.
So, who's ready to feel old?
10. Quake
Online first person shooters are immensely popular. It may be a commentary on man's competitive nature and our desire to release our inherent aggressive tendencies in a way that will not cause harm to our fellow man. Or it may be because FPS are just fun, we'll go with that, it sounds less crazy. But if you like a shooter because it's fun or because it fulfils your base desires Quake can be traced as the first big online shooter.
Quake's slick hyperactive moment and gameplay are a blast to play, the visuals and settings are something of a better looking DOOM but Quake's greatest contribution to video games would be its popularisation of the online death-match, a common feature found in FPS to this day.
For extra feeling old points, the original Quake features a soundtrack made by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame. That should give you a good idea of the time period this game was made in.