There was this officially licensed Star Trek tabletop starship battle game that I got to play a couple times in the eighties and no one seems to remember it but me. Wish I could find a copy. I remember it being a blast.

I could rattle off a whole list of TRS-80 Model I/III or Apple ][ games that no one has ever heard of, but I'll spare you.

No One Lives Forever

To this day I have no idea why I bought it. And I bought it close to its release date. I would only do that if I had been absolutely obsessed for months with previews and stuff. But I remember none of that.

And still it ended up becoming one of my all time favourites.

This is a hard one because I generally try to play good games these days, and good games either get popularized through word of mouth or Youtubers make video essays about how they were misunderstood at the time. For me, this question is really asking "Hey what weird trash did you find back when you were 10 years old digging through the bargain bin for whatever you could trade two games you finished for."

I think my big picks from the weird trash are The Urbz, which comes from back when they made Sims spinoff games instead of endless DLC, and Ty the Tasmanian Devil, which was a 3D platformer metroidvania that revolved around collecting increasingly elaborate boom-a-rangs. I definitely sunk the most hours into the Urbz, because nothing was more fun to a 10 year old than going around a virtual town flipping people off.

Super dodgeball for the NES.

Deceptively simple, but much deeper than it seems on first glance. Each character has 2 different special abilities that change the way you throw. Especially if you can get a few buddies to huddle around the tv with you, will keep you all entertained for hours.

Banana Nababa - like an old 8 bit action platformer, but it's just the bosses

Escape Velocity Nova

Sid Meiers' Pirets of the Carribean

Lode Runner

Hero’s Quest by Sierra (Later renamed to Quest for Glory)

Two very niche board games from the 70s: "Snit's Revenge" "Lie, Cheat, and Steal"

And an old Avalon Hill wargame: "Wooden Ships and Iron Men"

Shallow Thought Of The Day: Any game mentioned in this thread twice is automatically someone who didn't read all the comments before posting.

I always find it strange that nobody ever mentions World of Goo

I hate games like that but I couldn't put it down!

Pioneer
It's open source, and if you're on Linux, it's probably in your repos.
Kinda like a cross between Elite and Kerbal Space Program.

Idk, I remember hide-and-go-seek being pretty sick as a kid. I don't often see it mentioned.

Descent

My current phone game is ∞ Loop. Just a simple puzzle-type game.

I also like a variety of solitaire card games, but the app I used to like has become quite enshittified, and I haven't found a good replacement.

Dungeon Keeper

Action Quake 2 - AQ2

An online 90s FPS

--//--

Innovation

Card game - Simplicity and depth, exceptional gameplay. Best at 2P.

Two gamecube games that I never see discussed anywhere, and no equal sequel has ever released for:

Cubivore & Frolf

I am still so sad to not be an owner of either in a physical capacity :’(

Probably havent player it in ten years but Kirby super star ultra. There is just SO MUCH content. I swear there are like a dozen minigamss and multiple "main games". All on the DS, it's crazy.

Other than that, megaman zero. Great music, tight controls and great story. Its fucking hard of course but super fun.

Labyrinth!

Each turn you first move one column or row of the gameboard over by one, then move as far as you like along any unobstructed path as you race against other players to collect magiffins in the ever-changing maze.

It's a game that rewards both creative thinking and sabotage. It helps develop strategy and spatial reasoning. It's simple enough for a kindergartner to learn but engaging enough for adults to enjoy even after dozens of games.

I really like backgammon but no one ever wants to play with me

If its out of non-mentions it has to be Space Station 13. I hope 14 on Steam catches up soon, been thinking of lending a hand.

Herzog Zwei on the Sega Genesis was one of my favorites back in the day!

Bounty Bob on the C64 was goood.

Commander Keen might be one of the few old enough not to have been mentioned to me since the internet became well-known.

Also, Squarez.

The boardgame Heat is one of my all time favorites. Thunder Road Vendetta is right up there too, and I am waiting to put them together for an all road race/rage saturday with my boardgame peeps.

Favorites come and go with the seasons, but objectively, the one game that we have played more than anything in my house is Silver.

We've bought all the expansions and created our own variation of playing with ALL the cards.

Urban Rivals. No one is talking about that game anymore. It used to be an amazing browser game. By now it's even on steam, but apparently they cut a lot of the animations so the crowd isn't happy about it. The card artworks are cool and the gameplay (was) fun. I don't know if it's still the same, as love games tend to change game mechanics.

Every other game I play('d) is mentioned at least sometimes (once a week).

Even stuff like Gothic, Golden Sun, Ragnarok Online.

Sorry if you know this game, but I've met plenty of people who haven't and I've never seen it mentioned online until I searched for it today: Contact!

Airborne Kingdom

Loco roco 1,2,3 on psp. Played the shit out of them when I was a kid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asian_mancala

Cogmind! I found that game after I bought Caves Of Qud. Technically it wasn't recommended to me by anyone directly (just found it one day scrolling through Steam). Its an excellent RPG where you play as a self-assembling robot trying to escape from a massive robot colony thing. Haven't gotten super far into the game yet but I absolutely love the gameplay and sound design. Check it out!

Also, NES Open; the greatest golf game ever made in my opinion. I've had it since I was a kid and have never heard anyone talk about it online. Simple gameplay, high skill ceiling. Exactly what a golf game needs to be!

Edit: I accidentally hit the post comment button, so I might as well add something:

I think I might've mentioned this once before, but The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] stood out to me for its stylized graphics and animation. Or if you're in the mood for a puzzle game, Temple of Snek might be good to try.

I really enjoyed Doom 3. Has more of a horror vibe compared to the hack and slash nature of the rest of the series, but I feel its very enjoyable and doesn't feel as old as it is.