Top-down perspective sorted by release date
Top down games were very popular in the 80s and the 90s, when graphic cards were not capable of supporting 3D, and even when 3D started to become popular, 2D games continued to be easier to develop, at least in the infancy of 3D gaming. 2D game offered the player a viewpoint that helped keeping things easily under control (think about top down party-based RPGs or hex-based strategy games).
Most popular top down games
strategyDOS, Windows XP/98/95
strategyDOS, Windows 3.x, Mac OS
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Akalabeth: World of Doom
DOS1981freeware California Pacific Computer
Akalabeth is a RPG game allegedly developed in just one summer by the Ultima franchise creator Richard Garriott. It's a dungeon crawler with wire-frame black and white graphics. Akalabeth is played in both first person 3d and top down view points.
Chess
DOS1981 International PC Owners
Donkey BAS
DOS1981 Microsoft
Galaxy
DOS1981 Microcomputer Games Inc.
Astro Dodge
DOS1982 Digital Marketing Corporation
Boxer Rebellion
DOS1982
Cosmic Crusader
DOS1982 Funatics Software
Crossfire
DOS1982 Sierra On-Line
Night Mission Pinball
DOS1982 subLOGIC
Pac Gal
DOS1982
Pac-girl
DOS1982 Magicom Multimedia
PC-Man
DOS1982remake Orion Software
PC-Man is an abandoned top-down Pac-Man clone in every regard: from the shape of the protagonist, to the cute ghosts. PC-Man was designed by Greg Kuperberg, developed by Orion Software and released in 1982 for DOS. As PC-Man, you have to move through a one screen maze to collect dots (pills? wafers?) and avoid being touched by one of the usual Pac-...
Snack Attack 2
DOS1982 Funtastic
Super Pac-Man
DOS1982 Namco
The Battle of the Bulge: Tigers in the Snow
DOS1982protected Tactical Design Group
Amazing Maze
DOS1983
Battle for Normandy
DOS1983protected Tactical Design Group
Battleship
DOS1983 Mirror Images Software
Beneath Apple Manor
DOS1983freeware
Beneath Apple Manor is a pioneering game in the roguelike genre, originally developed and released in 1978 by Don Worth for the Apple II and later re-released for DOS as a "Special Edition". It's one of the earliest known role-playing video games (RPGs) with procedurally generated dungeons.In Beneath Apple Manor, players take on the role of an adve...
Epidemic!
DOS1983protected SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.
Fleet Sweep
DOS1983 Mirror Images Software
Frogger
DOS1983 Konami
IBM 9-Hole Miniature Golf
DOS1983 SoftSide Magazine
Knights of the Desert
DOS1983protected Tactical Design Group
Mine Shaft
DOS1983 Sierra On-Line
Oubliette
DOS1983
Pac-Man
DOS1983 Namco
Pac-Man is a classic arcade game created by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It was later released in North America by Midway Games. The game was designed by Toru Iwatani and has become one of the most famous and influential video games of all time. The main goal of Pac-Man is to navigate a maze, eating all the pac-dots (smal...
Pack-Man
DOS1983remake Magicom Multimedia
Pango
DOS1983remake
Rescue at Rigel
DOS1983 Epyx