To poorly paraphrase a maxim, the history of games was written by its great successes. The roots of the first-person action genre can't be mentioned without evoking memories of Doom. Likewise, a discussion of real-time strategy games invariably conjures up visions of Dune 2, Command & Conquer, and Warcraft. Flight sim fans reminisce about Falcon, and adventure gamers wistfully recall the days of Zork.
One can't deny the importance of those games, but too frequently games that were equally or more interesting, innovative, and fun escaped recognition if they weren't obvious successes. Some games were even ahead of their time, but the majority of gamers weren't prepared to handle the freedom and options they offered. Others had terrific gameplay but were saddled with horrible interfaces that few players were willing to deal with. A few were released at the same time as highly anticipated and much-hyped games and thus were simply overshadowed. Whatever the case, it's time that at least some of these games are remembered for their contributions to their respective genres and to gaming as a whole.
While there are hundreds of games that deserve more recognition than they received, we've narrowed the number to ten games that we feel are true unsung heroes of gaming. Given a freshening-up, better circumstances, or the slight interface tweaking necessary to correct one glaring problem, any of these games could have gone down in history alongside universally respected classics such as Civilization and Quake. Fortunately, a few of these games are still available today, so you can play them for yourself and see if you agree.
