1992, Game of the Year (Runoff)

[SvennoJ]

1992 was a great year for PC, so many new amazing games.

Dune and Dune 2 both came out in 1992, unheard of nowadays. Dune's intro alone was already mesmerizing.

The start menu screen was also great as a screen saver lol. The game was a pretty good adaptation of the book and dabbled into RTS in one of its later sections. At the end of the year Dune 2 came out, a spin off made around the RTS part, basically inventing the RTS genre.

Dune 2 was so good, from the voice samples to the diverse campaigns. You could complete the game as Artreides, Harkonnon or House Ordos, introduced for the game (not in the books). All 3 houses were distinct with their own 'cut scenes', units and special abilities. We played it a lot together in all kinds of different ways. We completed the campaign many times, used 'trainers' to shake things up where basically one of us played as game director adjusting things on the fly to keep the game edge of your seat.

Dune 2 also prompted me to learn how to make a mouse based GUI. The level data was all stored in text files (or xml) and I wrote a program to parse those and show it as a map on screen which you could modify with the mouse. That way we could quickly create new levels and skirmish maps, save and play them. From the wickedly evil, Harkonnen opponent starting out with lots of palaces for frequent aerial bombardments, to accelerated levels with abundant Spice starting with lots of harvesters and units from the start.
Dune 2 was truly ahead of its time.

1992 also saw Alone in the Dark which got me into the horror genre. Such a spooky atmospheric game

A precursor to Resident Evil, and I still like Alone in the Dark more than I ever did the Resident Evil games.

Links 386 Pro was mesmerizing with it's amazing visuals for the time

It was not real time rendered yet it rendered the location accurately from ever play your ball landed. Kinda like How Elite Dangerous now generates a new sky map every time you jump to a new solar system. The golf simulation was pretty good as well, addictive game.

Then there was Comanche Maximum Overkill wich blew my mind with its voxel based engine

It was incredible to fly over the terrain in a helicopter, this game felt so far ahead of its time. We played it in LAN configuration at work, hunting each other down in helicopters. The campaign was pretty good as well. Aces of the Pacific and Harrier Jump Jet also came out in 1992 yet Comanche stole the show with its voxel based engine, night vision flying and picture in picture views.

But in the end I have to give the year to Wolfenstein 3D, the game that started the modern FPS genre. The levels were full of secrets just like Mario. Always press on every wall cause you might find something. Some had to be opened in the right sequence, some hid power ups, some had level warps.
I played Wolfenstein 3D a lot while playing Trance music on the CD-Rom drive mixed in with the game SFX. Now those tracks on that CD are forever link with "Achtung" "Mein Leben" all the sound effects and vice versa. Wolfenstein 3D had iconic sound effects that are still instantly recognizable today.

It didn't take long until we had downloaded a texture editor for Wolf3D. Since we were 18 at the time it didn't take long to replace all the wall texture with porn we had downloaded from BBS. Wolf3D home made tits and ass edition. I also created a psychedelic edition and tricks to make levels seem bigger or smaller.
I've returned to Wolfenstein 3D with different remakes. The version on PS3 was the best, so fluent and fast with analog aiming, that sped up the game immensely and still as fun as it was in 1992. The later Wolfenstein games also added the original as easter egg.