I'm wanting to discover old games, games that I might have missed. But I don't want this thread to he about me. Listing games you have nostalgia for is kind of pointless, so I thought what are some old games that you first played at least 15 or so years after release that you enjoyed. By old let's so pre 2003 or 5th generation (PS1 or earlier). But mainly thinking of slightly older games, 4th gen or DOS\early 95.

Just to be clear, these are games that you DID NOT play within the first 15 years of release, but did at a later stage and enjoyed.

Limiting myself to what the title says, games that I actually played 15+ years after release, let's see...
The original Age of Wonders trilogy (though I started with 2, which meant playing it less than 15 years after release, then 1, which was 15 years old by then, and a couple of years later SM, so also 15 years).
King of Dragon Pass
maybe also Fantasy General
and I believe that I gave another little go to Supaplex around 2007, albeit briefly, so that might also count

If I'd stretch to what's written in the OP, 20+ y/o games that would still be worth recommending, it's harder to determine, if they weren't quite that old when I played them and time passed and nostalgia set in. There are some titles that I'm very tempted to list (actually started to write them, then deleted), but probably better not.

Heroes of Might and Magic III

Let's see here, which of the thousands of old games should I suggest today?

There's Commander Keen IV, DOOM, Exile/Avernum, the entire Civ series before V, OpenTTD, FreeCiv, Knytt, Kyntt Stories, Within a Deep Forest, The Simon Tatham Portable Puzzle Collection, and one randomly chosen Steve Moraff game from a hat. I liked the pinball one for Windows.

- Earthworm Jim 1 and 2
- Quake 1 and 2 (played those much earlier, but never finished them until recently, especially 2)
- Clive Barker's Undying
- Sacred 1
- Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death
- Might & Magic VII
- Eradicator
- Tron 2.0 (could be 14 years, not sure)
- Star Wars: Dark Forces, Dark Forces 2, Outcast
- KKND 1
- AvP 1 and Primal Hunt for AvP 2
- Rage of Mages
- Soulbringer
- Tomb Raider 1, 2, 3
- DethKarz
- Prince of Persia (the Sands of Time trilogy)

and much, much more. Just quickly skimmed over a couple pages of my library.

Wasteland, Beneath a Steel Sky, I have no mouth and I must scream, Metroid, Tyrian, Warcraft, Diablo.

I don't think I worded it well, I meant 15+ years after release.

As for me there are so many games I played during that era, or shortly after. But the only one that I never played back then, and completed 15 or more years after release, would be Quake. Back then I had the games I had, it was easy to miss iconic titles.

Huh. Going through my games list I stumbled upon more games than I would have assumed. Now if you cut that requirement to 10 years after release this list would be significantly longer; three to four times as big at the very least. It also made me realize just how many old games I have in my GOG backlog that I still haven't touched. Heh.

World Racing 2
FEAR
Heretic
Hexen
Powerslave
Metal Gear Solid
Dungeon Siege 2
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War
Ys 1+2
Blade Runner
Ankh
The Suffering
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30/Earned in Blood
Eric the Unready
Noctropolis
Eye of the Beholder
Dungeon Hack
Albion
Toonstruck
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds
Magic Carpet 2
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness
Sid Meier's Colonization
Hitman: Codename 47
Another World
Sanitarium
Wing Commander 3
Beneath a Steel Sky
Heroes of Might & Magic 1 and 2

No Nethack/Hack/Rogue?

I think people are misunderstanding the thread, these are games that you did not play within the first 15 years of release, but did later on and enjoyed, so any recommendation is not clouded by nostalgia.

Yes, for both Rogue (the "Unix" version, never played the original) and Hack.

Nethack is still in (slow) development, but I also liked v. 3.4.3.

Quake Enhanced
I was surprised how good that one still looks & feels and how much fun it is. The gunplay & feedback are impeccable. Especially the newer episodes of this are dope(fish).

I've just recently played Soul Reaver 1-2 (for the first time), and overall I've enjoyed them quite a bit. Just make sure you get the gamepad fixes for them, to make them playable; I played SR1 without one and used mouse + keyboard, and it was quite irritating to play that way, but with the controller fix SR2 is a bliss.

SR1 is not sold on GOG anymore, not sure if there was a remake in the making and whether it is coming to GOG. I actually like SR2 better than SR1 as it is not quite as easy to get lost (= not knowing where you are supposed to go next) in SR2, and the story also feels a bit deeper and multifaceted. SR1 had maybe a darker and more sinister atmosphere.

I am pretty sure I didn't play Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale until they were 15 years old after release, and I enjoyed both, for a bit different reasons.

Well, yes, wasn't that just what I said at first?

That's a very particular request, and probably one that many here can't really answer, because most people will have played these games at release (or shortly after).

So, in effect, only "younger" players who only discovered these old games 15 years after their release, can really answer your question at all.

Now the true question is: who here is young enough to fall into that category?