Wrote about some shareware game developers from the 90s that still have websites
https://virtualmoose.org/2023/09/18/shareware-game-developer-websites/
everett kaser is best known for the logic puzzle game sherlock (which my father paid for decades ago and still plays to this day) but his website is loaded with other games that he is a) still updating and b) still making!
he's about 70 or 71, and has dedicated sections on his website for his own programming environment KINT, the HP-85 microcomputer on which he cut his teeth, a modern emulator that he wrote for that very computer, and an incredibly detailed, privately researched, shocking true crime blog about the murder of his father's eldest brother. he sounds like a great guy — he reminds me a lot of my dad. i always like visiting his website every couple of years to check in on how he's doing.
the easy (and unfortunately boring) answer to this question is commander keen. i'm sorry, it's just the way it has to be. i have a commander keen tattoo on my forearm. playing commander keen: secret of the oracle is one of my earliest memories. i still have a sheet of scrap paper where i translated the standard galactic alphabet and every sign in the game (including that one level in episode one where they spell out FUCK or SHIT or something like that - a thrilling discovery when you're ten years old.) i know them inside and out, and i love each episode deeply. sometimes, when something gets its hooks into you at an early age it's never going to let you go.
but there are others. i was a big fan of a lot of the apogee games: cosmo's cosmic adventure, wacky wheels, halloween harry (scared the shit out of me), duke nukem i and ii, etc. i also loved skyroads (that soundtrack), epic pinball (creepy android made an impression), jazz jackrabbit. i also loved all of the wizard games - weird text-only simulator games like one-nil, grand prix, greyhound and rockstar. i must have sunk hours into those games - they were a big influence in the type of games i tried (and failed) to make in qbasic as a kid.
god what else. i know this was the intended effect, but dare to dream actually does feel like a fever dream even when i play it today. my brother and i still play capture the flag by richard carr sometimes. i have committed every answer of rosemary west's iq challenge to memory. liero was always a big hit with friends. i dunno, that's probably enough? you asked for one and i gave you many times that so apologies, haha.