Just about average, actually.

Awesome game I used to play when I was at school -
Supremacy ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy:_Your_Will_Be_Done]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supremacy:_Your_Will_Be_Done[/url])

1992: Star Control II
Definitely on my top 10 of greatest games ever made. Star Control II managed to take an odd hodgepodge of gameplay elements and turn it into a coherent whole which was greater than the sum of its parts. It is very hard to put a genre label on the game. It is a space exploration adventure game, with resource gathering, arcade combat, upgradeable technologies, a customizable flagship and fleet and a large dollop of quirky humor.

An HD version of the free remake has just been released. It might be worth a try if the original pixellated graphics are too dated for you.

Hmm - Moon Lander typed in by hand each time on one of these: Sinclair Enterprise The "game" consisted of typing in thrust values to nudge the height down to zero - not just above zero, not just below zero - but zero.

OK, so maybe not the greatest game ever written but it does give a hint as to how old this codger is.

The manual actually gave you the mathematical formulae on which the program was based. Might still have that in the attic somewhere.

First thing that comes to mind is Dune II (1992).

Ok I have to point out Drelbs from way back in 1984. Loved that game!

No young gamer will be able to play the original version of Dune II without ragequitting because of the extremely awkward control scheme. Hell, the same goes for me pretty much, and I spent ages on that game back then. I've since been spoiled by RTS's where the controls help you accomplish your objective rather than try to prevent you from it.

One Must Fall 2077? I played that in 1996 I think though, it came it 1993

I loved defender of the crown on the C64 - all that tape loading though :-(

Also loved Silent Service 2, Paradroid, and Platoon...

HAH! I am the youngest one here at twenty years old... which makes me have to learn a lesson. :P Anyways, while this is nowhere near as old as the games mentioned here, it is still pre 1993. That game is good old Silpheed by Game Arts released in 1988 (At least my copy says that anyways...):

http://www.mobygames.com/game/silpheed

I love this game, probably one of my favorite PC overhead shooters aside from Tyrian. It looked great for its time and the music is great, especially when played on a Roland MT-32 module.

Some other games I like pre 1993 that fall in the range of computer gaming would be Prince of Persia, Leisure Suit Larry, Wolfenstein 3D, Ultima VII, and of course my favorite of the bunch, Turrican.

Turbotape was definitely worth all the typing.

1987: Maniac Mansion
The game that arguably kickstarted the point'n'click adventure genre (as opposed to the text parser graphic adventures Sierra were making at the time). The game was a parody of old sci-fi horror B-movies, and had a wacky sense of humor. The story concerns a mad scientist who has kidnapped a young girl named Sandy, in order to suck out her brains and feed them to an intelligent, mind-controlling, carnivorous meteor, which crashed into his back yard 20 years previously. Now Dave (Sandy's boyfriend) and two of his friends must enter the scientist's mansion, avoid or subvert the inhabitants, and find a way to rescue her.

This game is important in so many ways. It pioneered a lot of techniques which subsequently became standard in adventure games. It was also (to the best of my knowledge) the first adventure game to feature not only multiple protagonists, but also giving the player the option to choose between several characters with different skills. There were many different ways to complete the game, partly depending on which two characters out of the 6 possible choices you selected to accompany Dave. It was also the first game to use the SCUMM engine, SCUMM standing for "Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion".

Every gamer with an interest in adventure games needs to have played Maniac Mansion.

I'd like to point out (1989) and [url=http://www.gog.com/gamecard/wing_commander_1_2]Wing Commander (1990) as two examples of games that got things right that newer games continue to get wrong.

Now, with Mechwarrior, I have to point out that I haven't been able to get it working properly in DOSBox yet, so I'm going on ancient memories here. But what really made this game cool was that in addition to the mech combat, you got to play around a lot more in the game universe between missions. You would travel around to different worlds, meet with potential employers, negotiate contracts with them (and potentially get blacklisted if your demands were too outrageous), buy broken-down second-hand mechs, refurbish and re-outfit them, hire mercs at the bar to pilot them, and so on. During missions, I actually cared if my mech got shot in the leg, not only because I was "taking damage", but because I knew that after the mission I was going to end up at the garage wincing at the bullet hole, as the mechanic told me how much of my mission profits I was going to have to fork over to have that fixed. The later games might have had shinier mechs and a more advanced interface, but none of them ever made me feel like I was part of a living, breathing world the way the original Mechwarrior did.

Wing Commander is another excellent example if a game that actually paid attention to what happened during your missions, in a way that made the game universe come alive. Instead of a "score card" at tne end of each mission, you got a short cutscene in which you and your Commanding Officer talk about what happened out there - referring not just to scripted events, but also to things like how many enemies you shot down, how badly your fighter craft got shot up, and so on. Your performance during missions also has an impact on how well the war seems to be going overall in the various cutscenes. These are small details, but they make a huge difference as far as feeling like you are part of a game universe where your actions have an impact, and not just "playing a game" to reach the next clip from a movie.

1983 : Manic Miner
This game for the Speccy was platforming genius. 20 rooms only, you had to work out your own route, and 3 Lives. Once they're gone, you're all the way back to the start, brother. 20 rooms sounds short, but boy could this game be a bitch (room 17, the Warehouse - it'll getcha every time....)

1984 : [url=http://Skool Daze]Skool Daze[/url]
This game also for the speccy has never since been really recreated. A genre all of its own, you might say. You are Eric, and you have to steal your report card from the headmasters safe. You have several tasks to perform to achieve this final act, but the great thing about Skool Daze is that you actually have a normal school day to get through as well. You had to be in the right place for lessons, or you would get lines. Get caught running in the corridors - lines. Fighting - lines. Get caught out of class - lines. Once you got over 10000 lines, game over.
All other characters controlled by the computer, Skool Daze was a true work of genius. I remember having to try and get the last shields by knocking over a teacher and then bouncing a pellet off their head to hit the shield....

1981 Empire of the Overmind. A text based adventure game. I remember spending more time fighting with the syntax than anything else. 1981 and I still haven't finished it. At this point, don't think I will.