What years do you consider the golden age of gaming?

I been gaming for well over 25 years and I experienced alot of different generations of games and Era's from the rise of Nintendo in the 80's to present day. Looking back what decade or years do you think was the best of gaming and probably will never be topped?

For me it's 2000's you think I would of chose the 90's just for nostalgic reasons. But as great as that decade was for games nothing has comes close from 2001-2008 not only single player games but Multiplayer especially. What is your golden age of gaming? and favorite games of those years? here is my list of favorites from that time.

• Max Payne 1&2 PC
• GTA games 3, Vice, San Andreas and IV.
• Half Life 2
• Counter Strike Source
• Battlefield 2 PC
• F.E.A.R. PC
• Condemned Criminal Origins
• SWAT 4
• Medal of Honor Allied Assault
• Crysis
• Resident Evil 4
• Mirrors Edge
• Dead Space

I'm sure I'm forgetting alot but anyways whats your golden age of gaming?

Golden eye and mario kart were amazing on n64. For me, that was the era i put in the most hours. Also spent a lot of time playing games such as mario bros, tetris, and a little later - sonic. Also went through an early FPS phase, wanting to play violent games like doom and duke nukem.

It’s really hard to pick one era.

@warmblur: Find myself enjoying a lot of games from many generations, so I suppose every age is the Golden Age to me. Always find something retro or new that I adore and like playing. Last year was finding myself playing a lot of retro 16-bit generation games.

With that can't deny that 2001-2008 was a good time to enjoy games. Well. . . the main ones I enjoyed at that time came from 2002-2007. 2001 didn't do much for me, had the original Devil May Cry and Monster Hunter 2 yet they never aged well in my view and had far superior sequels down the road that seemed to fit the games intentions more fluidly. And 2008 think it was just Gears of war 2, CastleVania: Order of Ecclesia and Little Big Planet. Not my favorite games ever, but I did enjoy them a lot

With that, random shoutouts from 2002-2007-

Resident Evil Remake (2002)

Makai Senki Disgaea (2003)

Ninja Gaiden: Black (2004)

Devil May Cry 3 (2005)

Demento (2005)

Tekken 5 (2005)

Super Mario Galaxy (2007)

*That list would include Resident Evil 4 but you already noted that one :)

The late 90s for me.

This was an exciting time since gaming was transitioning from 2D to 3D and therefore developers were doing lots of experimentation and us gamers were getting to enjoy many fresh and revolutionary experiences.

Another great thing about that time period was that at that time you had three console makers that all had great consoles which were unique from each other. Sega was bringing the arcade into your house with their consoles, Sony was delivering a more mature and cinematic experience than anything we had seen before, and Nintendo created the ultimate party machine with the N64. And then you also had the PC which also offered a completely different experience than any of the three console makers at that time. I miss the days when all systems had their own unique identity and value like this.

For PC Gamers there is no question about it........1997 - 2000 inclusive.

From the original Diablo at the tail end of 1996 (I consider it a 1997 game) and GL Quake in January 1997 on to No One lives Forever, Sacrifice, and The Longest Journey in November 2000 it was 1 hell of a ride in the 3dfx era.

At least 20 fantastic games for the PC in each of the 4 years.

Dungeon Keeper also came out in 1997 :)

@RSM-HQ:

Yes, ALOT of great stuff in 1997, I remember those big Dungeon Keeper boxes at CompUSA "Evil is good" I think they said.

@AFBrat77: Honestly I just don't know lol.

Dungeon Keeper was way before my time as a Gamer, yet I love them regardless. Never saw a physical copy.

The 2000's decade was just a less-exciting extension of the 90's to me.

Nice parts of the 90's I remember:

1. LAN gaming and MP online gaming broke out from 2-player, modem-modem play. Most online gamers were still using modems. But, the decade also saw cable broadband appear. Their owners usually played host on private servers.

2. There's still nothing comparable to the impact MP Doom had on daily life. Doom became the scourge of company networks and the boogeyman of enterprise IT departments. Of course, kids then would know nothing about it. Hell. I even found Doom installed on the computers of the Red Flag building at Nellis AFB. The taxpayers would have loved that.

No wonder a lot of employees worked late.;)

3. 16-bit to 32-bit. Transition from sidescrollers and top-down to a more real (and practical) 3D-perspective view.

4. 3D-acceleration. Nuff said.

5. The first Internet gaming forums came online after the Internet itself went public in 1996.

Being on the PC, new fads were introduced. Few took hold. But, I love the effort made. Even then, some people were already envisioning PC and console gaming eventually merging. Some tried to make it sooner.

Like the 3DO Blaster, for example:

yeah, it's probably that 2001-2008 window. There was a great combination of enthusiastic spending from gamers and interest from investors. Led to tons of games, studios popping up overnight and dropping modern gameplay gems, East and West development schools in full swing. I don't think it gets mentioned enough how hard the financial crisis hit gaming. As good as 2008-2013 was, behind the scenes studios were dropping like flies, Japanese development went into the toilet, Ubisoft went from being a risk-taker and innovator to becoming Activision-Lite. Still haven't recovered. There are still a number of good games, just the gaps between have gotten larger. Indies have made a good go of it, but it's like going to a restaurant and ordering nothing but appetizers...at some point you just want that steak, and unfortunately EA, Ubisoft and Activision are only in the business of leftovers.

None, it's constantly evolving, improving, getting worse. There is no static block of years where gaming was at it's best.

I will say that gaming keeps getting better and better and better, however. The only thing I would like to see more of is AAA developers being a bit more diverse in their projects; stop making like 10 sequels, stop making big boring open world games, stop making every game with an online component we don't always need online, etc.

I don't know if I'd consider any specific era the "golden age" but I do feel there are definitely golden years where a significant amount of phenomenal games do come out.

To name a few off the top of my head I'd have to say 1994,1998, 2001, 2007, 2011, and 2017 all qualify.

Most of my favourite games (except for a few) come from last gen (360/PS3)... so I'd probably go with that.

Mine is 2000 - 2005, When PS was the king console and has a lot of single player games to choose from and Xbox was still not popular. Also along with Gameboy and DS as handhelds.

I'd say from the late 90s to around 2005-ish for the golden age of gaming. Think about it, Tekken, FF, GT, MGS, Burnout, Halo, Mario, Resi, Zelda and so many other series were all at, or near their best. Consoles were genuinely different from PCs and there wasnt a micro transaction in sight.

The PS3/360/Wii gen was very good too and some of the best games of all time are from that era but it didnt have the same quantity as what had come before. Plus, we started seeing the seeds for modern loot boxes, half finished games, micro transactions and online always being planted. For me that is a huge problem.

The current gen is the worst/weakest/most rip off generation of gaming ever.

From 1987-2005.

After that you can clearly see that most of the new games are just sequels and no publisher risks that much with making new franchises.(In this generation I have barely seen any new franchise)

I'd say late 90's to early 2000's. The move from 2d to 3d as well as discs allowing them to use much more memory which led to advancements like voice overs, larger worlds, more content, etc. For me it was the Golden Age of JRPG's on PS1 that kept it going on PS2 with games like FFX, Dark Cloud, Xenosaga, and Kingdom Hearts. The improvements between those 2 gens were astounding tbh

Golden Era is now.

Here is a sample of games that explains why I say that:

Space Engineers,Medieval Engineers,7 Days to Die,Imperium Galactic Survival,The Forest,Subnautica,Life is Feudal,Stranded Deep,From the Depths,Kerbal Space Program,StarMade,Another Brick in the Mall,Elite Dangerous,Kenshi,RimWorld,Hospitalize,Kingdoms,Wurm Unlimited,My Summer Car

For me it was 99 onwards in the days of Everquest. Have hung up my wizarding cloak for now though and looking for a new (not sub'd) game to play

I couldn't agree more it's so damn depressing my passion for gaming has died down so much compared to what it use to be. Lets just hope things turn around if they don't I think these companies will eventually crash and rightfully so.

I see it as the opposite.

This current generation of gaming is by far the best ever, and I started in 1980. its all happening on the AA(indie) market and mostly on PC but its HUGE. games like Space Engineers? are you friggin kidding me? or Kerbal Space program? or Subnuatica? fantastic games more revolutionary then anything before

16 bit era, hands down.

2004-2006, CS 1.6

I think the time for the big developers/publishers to crash is long gone. I hope I'm wrong and they take a huge hit and have to change their sleazy policies but I won't hold my breath.

the early 90s era will always have a special place in my heart - the time when i really got into gaming. that covers the late master system / nes, the early megadrive / snes and the amiga eras. as a kid, i was so much more tolerant and forgiving with games, and my imagination used to run riot so i have soooooo many magical memories of systems and games.

but i'm someone who's enjoyed gaming through the generations so i mainly just remember the great games over the years, not so much the era

you really think the game of the 90s where better then lets say Subnautica? or Kerbal Space Program? or Space Engineers?

I just find that fascinating.

you find it fascinating that the games i played as a child have a special place in my heart?

no that you consider games of the 90s to be way better then games like Elite Dangerous or The Forest or Empyrion - Galactic Survival.

what you can do in these games is like a 10 compared to what you could do in games of the 90s which was (by comparison) more like a 0.5 out of 10

point me to the bit of my post which says that

The OP question was 'what do you consider the best' your answer was 'the 90s' then you described why.

I am addressing your conclusion that you see 90s era better than todays era. Yes I understand your personal reasoning but I still dont see how that can make said era better.

when I am asked 'which do you think is better' I perfer to answer the question without injecting 100% of my childhood nostalgia into the answer.

If somoene asks me 'what do you consider the best car' I am not going to say the B210 Datusn on Led Gasoline just because my critical years of growth that was the car we drove.

1991-2004 (roughly gens 4, 5 & 6)

Long time yeah, but that's when the bulk of my favorite games came out.

1996-2004.

for me probably 2000-2007, that is when I started getting into gaming more seriously and there were so many great games it seemed.

@tryit: yawn. nowhere in my post did i say what you're concluding. and you know that. you don't find what i posted fascinating at all. you're just looking for an excuse to jump on your soapbox and blabber on about all the indie pc games you're playing, like you do in every post you make

I also miss the shareware era where many emerging developers got their start. The good thing about shareware is the players got to try out the game extensively for free. They only paid if they wanted more of it.

Hell. Shareware Doom with one episode had a much bigger hoopla than the actual finished game which has three episodes.

A question was asked by the OP, you answer the question of 'what is the best era of gaming' as 'the 90s'.

that is what you said, why you said it is a different conversation at this time. you did answer a direct question with a direct answer of 'the 90s'. do you wish to correct your answer at this time?

you guys really really should check out Subnautica and even Kerbal Space Program if you believe that

I have. Zero interest in those genres, and I dislike the art style too.

Space Engineers has an Art Style? The Forest?

ok well anyway fair enough

I would say the 16-bit era. Soooooo many found memories with the SNES and many of its games along with many arcade games at around the same time. Some games I loved from that time were:

- Chrono Trigger

- Super Mario World

- Super Castlevania IV

- Street Fighter II

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game

- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time

- Final Fight

- Final Fantasy III(VI)

- Super Metroid

- Contra III

- Sparkster

- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

- Lethal Enforcers

- Mega Man X

- Breath of Fire 1 & 2

and many, many more.

@warmblur:

1990 through 2005

I am surprised at these answers

Although I agree around 2005 is when things went to poop, the past 4 years have been flat out mindblowingly amazing.

Which ironically started around the same time Early Access did and most of the amazing games I am refering to are in or from early access

i said the early 90s has a special place in my heart but i remember the good games over the years not so much the era. if you could read i'm sure you'd have grasped that. i guess we should add reading, writing and not being an obsessive, weird little oddball to the list of things you struggle with

when I am asked 'what is the best car' I tend not to answer with B210 Dautsun even though from a nostalgia standpoint that would be the correct answer.

I see most people are answering the question from a nostalgia standpoint so I am outvoted by shear Hive force. Having said that, I still think this era is WAAAAAY better even when factoring in Nostalgia which for me would be 2002-2004

Add to the 90's more competition:

Computers: Amiga, Mac, IBM-compatibles. I included Mac because many of the first higher-res games were on Macs.

Laptops finally got a foothold with consumers.

Consoles: Sega, Nintendo, Sony, and a host of smaller platforms such as Neo Geo, 3DO, Turbografx 16, CD-32, CD-I

Color handhelds were taking root such as Lynx, Game Gear, Gameboy Color, etc.

The above is just the hardware. They all had the games too. Taken together, they make the 90's dwarf succeeding decades.

The only part of the 90's I didn't like was the enormous popularity of fighting games at the time much like 3rd-person games are now. Bleh. ;) A recipe for burnout.

you're not outvoted, it's not a competition, it's an opinion. i'll add opinions to the list of things you struggle with too

I think everyone other than me is answering the question purely from a nostalgia perspective.

I do not consider the question to be relevant to nostalgia. Even so I still consider this era better even with nostalgia put into the equaition

Golden Age doesn’t mean when it was “the best” it means when a very high level of achievement was met, at least that is how I interpret it to be. This doesn’t mean that I don’t feel gaming has gotten better.

and the answer to that question given your definition would still be now and nostalgia would not trump 'best' or 'high level of achievement'

are we going to just make up random definitions now? regardless, etiher way my perspective on the answer is the same

@tryit: I guess when a high level of achievement is first met would be more appropriate then.