Ask HN: What is the most memorable game you played?

Heroes of Might and Magic 3. The game itself being great for multi-player aside, I used to play online tournaments with US players, during US evening hours while in Russia. That made me skip a bunch of classes in college, and realize instead of going to classes and getting As I could skip most and get Bs anyway; that translated into getting a dev job early in college, and set me up very nicely in my career.

Stars! was another really nice multiplayer game (PBeM), I met some people irl from playing that and hanging out on IRC channel.

ADoM back in the early days, playing it and finding out game lore from some mix or forum rumors and looking at strings in the exe felt special, the community around the game was great.

Not community-related,

Fallout 2 I think might be the best CRPG game ever as far as RP goes, you could really get away with playing a peaceful character that barely ever fights, and you could also become a maniac hated by the whole world and still have meaningful gameplay.

Settlers 2, for some reason that's the only game I can basically just keep playing forever even though I ~never played multiplayer or never did anything online with it.

Your summary of Deus Ex was spot on.

It is impossible to separate it from the time context and age, a lot of these old games will not spark now. But in now particular order:

- Elite: it had almost no graphics, but boy, what did it do to my imagination...

- Starcraft: there were good RTS before (Dune, C&C), but this one nalied the design and an epic story.

- Wing commander 4: A bit late to the party, so laid my hands on this one. Space opera meets movie, overall great.

- Planescape Tourment: One of the weirdest, if not the weirdest RPG with a sad world and once in a while really interesting NPC and story. Also bonus points for not using a high fantasy setting. Tops BG in my opinion.

- Fallout 1&2: Loved it for atmosphere, humor and tactical gameplay.

- Jagged Alliance 2: Trashy tactics, very fun.

- X-Com: (the remake and sequel): They've nailed the gameplay and imo the remakes are better than originals which were all over the place.

- Bloodborne: My first soul, came for suffering, but stayed for the lovecraftian horror.

- Street Fighter: The foundation for my love to the genre after all the years, and also the best thing to play with friends.

- Elden ring: A very recent one, but I was impressed with a sad, quiet world and a long forgotten feeling of exploration - you want to know what is behind the next corner. Open world done right.

- Last of Us: The most atmospheric game I've ever played. A work of art. Stay away from the sequel.

- GTA 3: I was completely stunned at the moment it came out. A sandbox world where you could do whatever you wanted? How did they came up with it? The magic wore off long time age, I actively avoid most open world games these days, but I remember the feelings.

I guess I could remember much more, since I do gaming for 30 years already, there is Privateer, Monkey Island, Half Life, Deus Ex, Prey, Dirt/2.0, but these were the most memorable, I guess.

Yo Joe! on Amiga.

Settlers 2 on Amiga.

Golden Axe... Amiga.

Doom.

A friend gave me a 3.25 floppy and told me it was this cool new game, with a new way of playing called 'first person' which confused the hell out of me until I played it.