Destination: 1996 | the year of Duke and Quake (and Diablo)
Travel time: June 2021
Travel guide: link
Other travels: 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000

Games released:
• A.D. 2044
• Afterlife
• Alien Rampage
• Archimedean Dynasty
• Blood Omen (PS1)
• Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
• Bud Tucker in Double Trouble
• Chaos Overlords
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert
• Conquest of the New World
• Crash Bandicoot (PS)
• Crusader: No Regret
• D: The Game
• Deadlock: Planetary Conquest
• Death Rally
• Descent 2
• Diablo + Hellfire
• Down in the Dumps
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Earthworm Jim 1+2: The Whole Can 'O Worms
• Fantasy General
• Gex
• Harvester
• Heroes of Might and Magic 2: Gold
• Hind
• Ironclad
• Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail!
• Leo the Lion
• Master of Orion 1+2
• Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
• M.A.X.
• Metal Slug (Neo-Geo)
• MissionForce: CyberStorm
• NEO Turf Masters
• Normality
• Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh
• Pinball Gold Pack
• Powerslave
• Privateer 2: The Darkening
• Quake
• Realms of Arkania 3
• Resident Evil (PS)
• Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
• Screamer 2
• Sea Legends
• Sensible World of Soccer 96/97
• Shattered Steel
• Spycraft: The Great Game
• Star Control III
• Stargunner
• Summer & Winter: Olympic Challenge
• Syndicate Wars
• Tekken 2
• Twinkle Star Sprites
• Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
• Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive
• The Dame Was Loaded
• The Original Strife: Veteran Edition
• The Settlers 2: Gold Edition
• Time Commando
• Timelapse
• The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
• Tomb Raider 1
• Toonstruck
• VR Soccer '96
• War Wind
• World Rally Fever: Born on the Road
• Worms United
• Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands

Time travellers:
• argamasa (★3 Skulls of the Toltecs, ★Ace Ventura, ☆Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars, ★Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh, ☆Down in the Dumps, ☆Bud Tucker in Double Trouble)
• bluethief (★Quake)
• Cavalary (★Fantasy General)
• CervelloYM (☆Eradicator)
• ciemnogrodzianin (☆Toonstruck, ☆Diablo)
• Dark_art_ (☆Metal Slug)
• foxgog (☆Fade to Black, ☆Wipeout 2097)
• GamezRanker (☆Strife, ☆Crusader: No Regret, ☆Harvester, ☆The Neverhood)
• InkPanther (★Death Rally, ☆Conquest of the New World)
• Lone_Scout (☆NEO Turf Masters)
• mrkgnao (☆Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars)
• muddysneakers (★Toonstruck, ★AD 2044)
• PaterAlf (☆Summer & Winter: Olympic Challenge)
• ResidentLeever (★Quake, ☆Blood Omen 1)
• Seb3.7 (☆Timelapse)
• thraxman (☆The Original Strife: Veteran Edition)

☆ – games played / declared to be played
★ – games completed

I've built the list of games on the basis of GOG's data. I've already fixed some mistakes, but I guess it's still messy. I hope you'll help me a bit with adding the missing titles and removing those belonging to other years.

I wonder if someone is brave enough to volunteer for A.D. 2044 and tell us how bad it really is.

It was really bad even long years ago :)

I'll join, and again I'll probably jump from game to game without focusing on anything in particular, if that kind of time-traveling is not a problem. ;)

Edit:
The first game from https://www.gog.com/game/m_a_x_m_a_x_2 is also from 1996 according to Wikipedia.

E2: Death Rally, Afterlife too.

TES II: Daggerfall is also from 1996. Tempting, but requires too much spare time for me. I think I'll choose NEO Turf Masters this time. A delisted game gifted to me by the nice deja65
Time to play some golf!

Some other 1996 games worth checking out:
Front Mission: Gun Hazard
Saturn Bomberman
Kirby Super Star
WC2: Beyond the Dark Portal
Street Fighter Alpha 2
Panzer Dragoon
Mole Mania
Mario Kart 64
Nights
Mega Man 8

Dragon Force
Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka
Wipeout 2/XL
Super Mario RPG
Parappa the Rapper
DKC 3
DoReMi Fantasy
Guardian Heroes
Super Mario 64
Arc the Lad II

Bahamut Lagoon
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Chaos Seed
Civilization II
Discworld II
D&D: Shadows Over Mystara
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War/FE4
Lords of the Realm II
M.A.X.
Rage Racer
Samurai Shodown IV
Shining the Holy Ark
Star Ocean
Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Legend of Oasis/Story of Thor 2
The Neverhood
Wild Arms
X-Men vs. Street Fighter

Not at all! Thanks for the declarations! Added. You're right. And Battlespire is not (it's from 1997). Fixed.
Thanks for declaration and good luck with golf :)

Wait, no, no, those aren't my declarations, just some titles I thought were missing from the list. :P Although I'll probably play some of them.

Ooops, sorry. Fixed. According to Wikipedia – BS1 is 1996, added (not included because of future date of Director's Cut edition on GOG). BS2 will arrive in 1997. Thank you, added to the list.

Two more 1996 games, according to GOG:
- TWINKLE STAR SPRITES
- Zork Nemesis: The Forbidden Lands

I'd like to sign up for Quake!

Nice to see we are actually close have doors locked to the 1995 trip cruiser, because I still have to finish Full Throttle. In my defence, I just finished Shadow Tactics for the 2nd time.

But boy oh boy, I'm in for 1996 with the best game on the list, by far: Metal Slug!!!!

Anyone who disagree with me is wrong.

Crap. I've just checked and my choice (☆Realms of the Haunting) is from 1997. Need to find another one.

What is interesting here:
a) perhaps I've made some mistake in filtering, but it is also possible that I'm using a different "release date" field than the one displayed – I saw more than one field in my data,
b) Twinkle was already there :) Zork added, thanks!

You can still finish the game and I'll update your status – once it's declared, no time limit here :)

I played all the series last year, for the first time ever – and these games are really great. I liked them a lot.

Good choice, I guess ;) Thanks!

I'll go back to have an excuse to finally play all the way through The Original Strife: Veteran Edition.