Top-down perspective

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

Grand Theft Auto

action-adventureDOS, Windows XP/98/95

Civilization

strategyDOS, Windows 3.x, Mac OS

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007: License to Kill

DOS19894/5 Quixel

101: The Airborne Invasion of Normandy

Windows XP/98/9519984.2/5 Empire Interactive

18th Airborne

DOS19933.9/5

240 Racing

DOS19984/5

2400 A.D.

DOS19884/5 Origin Systems

4Play

Windows 3.x1995NSFW3.9/5

4Play is a multi-player board-like strategy party-game for adults released for Windows 3.1 in 1995. 4Play is a board-game very similar to Monopoly in which players have to perform certain (adult) actions in response to events happening on the board.

5th Fleet

DOS19943.9/5

7 colors

DOS19913.5/5 Gamos

8088 Othello

DOS19853.6/5

A Line in the Sand

DOS1992protected3.9/5 SSI Strategic Simulations Inc.

A Nightmare on Elm street

DOS19893.9/5 Westwood Studios

A-Maze

DOS19894.2/5 New Era Software

Acquire

DOS19893.9/5 IBM

Action Fighter

DOS19893.9/5 Sega

Action in the North Atlantic

DOS19894.1/5 General Quarters Software

Advanced Civilization

DOS19954/5 Avalon Hill

Adventure Construction Set

DOS19873.9/5 Electronic Arts

Adventure Construction Set is an abandoned application developed by Stuart Smith and published for DOS, Amiga, Apple II and Commodore 64 by Electronic Arts in 1987. As the name suggests, ACS is a game-building system (we're talking about adventure RPGs) that lets you edit maps, items, creatures, etc. Included with ACS is a complete game called...

Air Traffic Controller

DOS19854.2/5 Cascoly Software

Airborne Ranger

DOS19884.2/5 MicroProse Software

Ajax

DOS19893.4/5 Konami

Akalabeth: World of Doom

DOS1981freeware3.7/5 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.

Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse

DOS1994protected3.8/5 Cyberlore studios

Albion

DOSWindows XP/98/9519954.2/5 Blue Byte Software

Albion is a science fiction role-playing game (RPG) developed and published by German studio Blue Byte Software. It was released in 1995 for MS-DOS and later for Amiga. Albion is notable for its blend of traditional RPG elements with a unique setting and storyline.The game takes place on the planet Albion, a world with a rich history and diver...