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In some ways games of this period are similar to the movies of the 1920s and 30s, before genres had ossified into their more rigid modern forms. In the same way

In some ways games of this period are similar to the movies of the 1920s and 30s, before genres had ossified into their more rigid modern forms. In the same way that you'll find the plot of a 30s movie moving strangely between murder mystery, horror, and gangster drama, there are 80s and 90s games that combine two or more oddly disparate genres in fascinating ways. A good example is the game MEAN STREETS (1989), which is both a point-and-click detective adventure game and a full flight simulator as you move between locations.

npunt 6y ago
This is exactly how I talk about those days with friends. Genre expectations were not so restrictive and it was more about exploration than exploitation, though the latter was increasingly common as the 90s came to a close. I worked as a lowly artist & level designer on one of the later genre hybrids (Battlezone II) amidst the realtime strategy boom of the late 90s and as a young creator it was so much more fun to work in the spaces between genres where things hadn't been tried. I would have loved to have worked in the early/mid 90s when genres were even less well defined.