The life cycle of a game is difficult to predict. Some start strong and burn out quickly, others last for years before losing their audience. But there are also things that have endured for decades thanks to loyal fans and developers who love what they do. PC Gamer Portal speak about old but still alive games from the 1980s-1990s.
Klondike (1984)
Klondike was one of the first games to launch on the original Macintosh, and the developer has supported it for 40 years. The classic tapeworm variant has evolved and changed many times throughout its life. Developer Michael Casteel added color graphics in 1988, card movement animations in 1989, and a new random number generator in 1994. And in 2015, it even made it possible to port the progress of existing games from the iPhone and iPad.
NetHack (1987)
© Screenshot
NetHack is nothing more than an evolution of Hack, a 1984 project. And that in turn was inspired by the original Rogue. In 1987, developer Mike Stevenson wrote his own expanded version of Hack and released it under a new name – NetHack. A major update for the emerging roguelike project added new classes to the game, such as samurai and Valkyrie, IBM primitive graphics support, etc.
The last update for NetHack comes in 2023 and so far there is no indication that this will be the last. Sometimes a game won't receive a patch for years (the developers volunteered to stay quiet from 2003 to 2015), but that doesn't stop that game from maintaining an active player base. Since NetHack is largely built on a random number generator, it doesn't need constant updates to keep users interested. No dialogue will tire you out and no need for new quests.
Gems IV (1988)
© Screenshot
Gemstone IV may sound like a sequel to a long-running series, but it's actually the latest version of the MUD (multi-user dungeon) that debuted in 1988. By this count, it's the oldest MMORPG currently in operation. And it continues to thrive, getting new content, expanding stories and locations. Most games of this era are supported by a loyal fan base, but Gemstone IV is an exception; The project has a total development team of about 40 people.
Kingdom of Drakkar (1989)
© Screenshot
Like many older games, Kingdom of Drakkar began in text form, but gradually evolved into a graphical RPG – in this form it still exists today. Drakkar grew out of a 1984 MUD called Realm and was, in fact, a distant predecessor to Ultima Online. It was playable in the late 1980s during a time when Ultima was still a single-player RPG series.
Genesis (1989)
Genesis is a fantasy RPG and MUD text adventure. In 1989, when the Internet was not yet popular, this project was created by a small group of students in Sweden. The world of Genesis has evolved over the years from a single continent to a giant ocean filled with small continents and islands, some of which offer glimpses into other popular fantasy universes. Players can join more than 60 guilds that periodically fight each other.
By the time World of Warcraft released and introduced the MMORPG genre to a large audience, Genesis had been in operation for 15 years. And even though the game doesn't have that big of a community, it still attracts new users and receives content updates.
The Unreal World (1992)
© Screenshot
Unreal World is a procedurally generated roguelike RPG based in Late Iron Age Finland. Players will have to survive in the wild, craft, fish, trap, hunt, cook, trade and even build their own hut in the forest. But these mechanics familiar to today's survival games appeared in UnReal World 30 years ago. Initially, the game takes place in the classic fantasy world, but gradually delves into real history, albeit with mystical elements.
The project has been regularly updated since its release in 1992. Version 1.0 was originally written in Turbo Pascal, then rewritten in C. It moved from DOS to Windows, gradually evolved into a fully graphical game, and was even released on Steam in 2016.
Meridian 59 (1996)
© Screenshot
Meridian 59 co-developer Andrew Kirmsey calls the project “likely the first online game to use a 3D engine.” It came out more than a year before Ultima Online and felt like a prototype for the games that followed it. But this only highlights the Meridian 59's breakthrough.
The project has changed hands many times. In 1996, it was bought by the 3DO studio, after which the game closed and was reborn thanks to Near Death Studio in 2002. Then the game returned to the original developers, who published the source code in the public domain and made Meridian 59 available for free in 2012. And in 2018, the Kirmsey brothers published the game on Steam.
Ultima Online (1997)
© Screenshot
Ultima Online has a long history, starting with the greatest moment in PC gaming – the murder of the game maker's representative, Richard Garriott, the almost invulnerable Lord British, during beta testing in 1997. The fantasy MMO with its dynamic economy and emphasis on PvP attracted nearly 100,000 players in just one year, earning the project entry into the Guinness Book of Records. More than 20 years have passed, but Ultima Online still receives major updates and expansions. It even has a small but quite active community.
