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Best simulation games on GamesNostalgia

Whether you've always dreamed of building your own virtual city, managing a bustling farm, or even piloting an aircraft, simulation games offer an exciting escape from reality. These immersive experiences not only provide entertainment but also serve as a fertile ground for unleashing your creativity and problem-solving skills. Dive into the world of simulation games and discover a universe where your imagination knows no bounds. From constructing intricate structures to making strategic decisions, these games allow you to shape and mold your own virtual reality.

To be part of this group, it's not enough to have some simulation elements. All games try to simulate reality, at least in part. Here we tried to list titles where the simulation is the game's core.

The first simulation computer game was probably Bruce Artwick's Flight Simulator, the first realistic flight sim, released in 1980 for the Apple II. In 1985, David Crane programmed the first virtual life simulator with Little Computer People, the progenitor of The Sims, a success that Maxis would release 15 years later. But the first hit of Will Wright's company was the city-building simulation game SimCity in 1989, followed by SimAnt and SimLife in 1992, SimHealth in 1994, in many others.

Going back to flight simulators, we must mention F-15 Strike Eagle, one of the first games created by Sid Meier, initially for the Atari 8-bit. But other famous titles of the '80s include F/A-18 Interceptor, Falcon, F-16 Combat Pilot, and F-19 Stealth Fighter. In the '90s, we had F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter 2.0, released in 1993, and the Great War Planes series series created by Damon Slye for Sierra/Dynamix, with Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, Aces Over Europe and others. Planes are not the only vehicles simulated. In Silent Service, released in 1986, you control a submarine; in Gunship, the AH-64 Apache helicopter.

Moving towards economic simulations, in Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon, you need to manage a transport company, while in Railroad Tycoon Deluxe, you build railroads and manage trains.

After the successes of his god-game titles, such as Populous, Bullfrog entered the simulation scene with Theme Park in 1994. Theme Hospital was another big hit, but the most successful title was Sim Theme Park in 1999.

It's not always easy to identify simulation games; sometimes, there is a significant overlap with strategy games, especially in business simulations. City-building games like Caesar might or might not be considered simulations. That's why we suggest checking also business simulation, city building, and construction simulation.

Frontier: Elite II dosamiga

The 350th game on GamesNostalgia is our favourite game ever: Frontier: Elite II. You can download here the PC version, which had a more advanced graphics engine, featuring texture mapping, compared to the Amiga version.

Year: 1993 Genre: Simulation

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Sim City 2000 dosamiga

SimCity 2000 is the city building game subsequent to SimCity, developed and published by Maxis Software and released in 1993. It made its way onto many platforms following its initial release.

Year: 1993 Genre: Simulation

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Wing Commander dosamiga

Wing Commander is a space combat simulator designed by Chris Roberts and first released for the PC DOS in 1990. It was later ported to the Amiga, CD32, Sega CD and the SNES. It is...

Year: 1990 Genre: Simulation

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Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon amigados

Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon (or, simply, Railroad Tycoon) is a trains management and business sim created by MPS Labs. It was released by Microprose in 1990 for MS-DOS and Amiga. In 1991 it was ported to Atari ST and Macintosh.

Year: 1990 Genre: Simulation

business simulation freeware management real-time simulation train transport turn-based strategy

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat dos

MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat is a 3D vehicle combat sim game created by Activision and released in 1995 for MS-DOS. It was ported later to Windows and Mac, in addition to the console versions released in 1997.

Year: 1995 Genre: Simulation

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EF 2000 dos

EF2000 is a combat flight simulator developed by Digital Image Design and published by Ocean Software for PC in 1995. The game, which is the sequel to TFX, puts the player in the...

Year: 1995 Genre: Simulation

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Magic Carpet dos

Magic Carpet is a first-person 3D game, considered revolutionary at the time, in which you fly a magic carpet. The game was developed by Bullfrog Productions and released in 1994 f...

Year: 1994 Genre: Simulation

3d fantasy first-person flight sim simulation

Strike Commander dos

Strike Commander is one of the best combat flight simulators ever created. It was designed by Chris Roberts and released by Origin Systems for the PC MS-DOS in 1993, after four years of development.

Year: 1993 Genre: Simulation

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Wings amiga

Wings is a World War I flight simulation game developed by Cinemaware for the Amiga and published in 1990. It features a mix of gameplay, including top-down view bombing missions, ...

Year: 1990 Genre: Simulation

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Star Wars: TIE Fighter dos

Star Wars: Tie Fighter is a space flight and space combat simulator game released in 1994 by LucasArts (or Lucasfilm Games if you prefer). The game is the sequel to Star Wars X-Wing.

Year: 1994 Genre: Simulation

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Starglider II amiga

Starglider 2 a 3D space combat simulator developed by Argonaut Software initially for the Amiga and published in 1988 by Rainbird. It was also released on the Atari ST. Later, the ...

Year: 1988 Genre: Simulation

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Homeworld windows

Homeworld is a sci-fi real-time strategy/simulation game created by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra in 1999 for Windows PC. The game concept is very straightforward: ta...

Year: 1999 Genre: Strategy

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Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain amiga

Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain is the second title in the series of Lucasfilm flight sims set during World War II. The game is the sequel to Battlehawks 1942, and it's ...

Year: 1990 Genre: Simulation

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Koronis Rift atari-8-bit

Koronis Rift is one of the earliest games created by LucasArts (aka Lucasfilm Games). It was designed and produced by Noah Falstein, and it was released initially, in 1985, for the Atari 8-bit computers.

Year: 1985 Genre: Simulation

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