1997 marked the end of the MS-DOS era, but it went out with a remarkable final flourish. Fallout from Interplay reinvented the post-apocalyptic RPG with freedom, dark humour and genuine moral complexity — it remains one of the greatest games ever made. Dungeon Keeper from Bullfrog subverted the dungeon game by putting the player in charge of the monsters. Blood from Monolith Productions pushed the Build engine to its gory, atmospheric limits. Age of Empires established the history-themed RTS as a genre staple. By the end of 1997 Windows had taken over, and a remarkable era of PC gaming came to a close.
