@nixCraft tetris, pong, chess, brick breaker...

@nixCraft minecraft/minetest 

@nixCraft Scribblenauts or any of the older LEGO games

@nixCraft Doom?

@nixCraft besides Minecraft?

@nixCraft
Rollercoaster Tycoon/OpenRCT

@nixCraft minecraft

@nixCraft Stardew Valley

@nixCraft chess is based

@nixCraft Depends on too many factors. Suggest heading to https://www.gog.com/, selecting a category, filtering by release date (for the hardware) and having a scroll.

@nixCraft Slay the spire

@nixCraft Terraria?
Classic World of Warcraft?
Guild Wars 1?

@nixCraft Celeste

@nixCraft SuperTuxKart!

@nixCraft RTSs (Old school starcraft and the like), Civ, Unreal/Quake/Xonotic/Tremulous, Diablo/Dungeon Siege/etc.

@nixCraft civilization II, Zoo Tycoon, Bombermaaan

@nixCraft Minecraft!

@nixCraft Monkey Island!

@nixCraft Most of the old Sierra, and Lucasarts adventures.

@nixCraft
What about OpenTTD?

@nixCraft meanwhile ur 10-14 yr old already found out the perfect game to play on his/her PC 🤣

@nixCraft I'm currently absolutely addicted to https://turingcomplete.game/ Very modest system requirements. The beginning is also very basic in terms of skills, but later on the learning curve might be too steep, not sure.

@nixCraft how old? Spyro was the game of my childhood. There is a new version, it looks lightweight but I dont know. Emulators are also a great resource to play old games. Also, stardew valley. Humans fall flat is super super good for kids learning, it is about physic puzzles.

@nixCraft
Autonauts.

@nixCraft Micropolis. IIRC, it's a fork of the original SimCity.

@nixCraft The older Settlers 👀
I grew up with Settlers 3 ✌🏼

@nixCraft Worms, AoEII, SimCity 4

@nixCraft https://store.steampowered.com/app/1361510/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_Shredders_Revenge/ ?

@nixCraft Waaaaay too broad a request. 🙃

@nixCraft Minecraft is right there.

@nixCraft My siblings love Rocket League. And I've been having a lot of fun with Transformers: War for Cybertron

@nixCraft define "older"? But Machinarium and Botanicula should run on most systems, and easily obtainable on GOG

@nixCraft You might like to check out dungeon keeper. It's old now, but it's an awesome game. The first one was better than the second one. There's also a spiritual successor to the franchise called War for the Overworld which is pretty good

@nixCraft Celeste, Hollow Knight, Age of Empires 2, Civ 5, Into the Breach, Crypt of the Necrodancer

@nixCraft Minecraft java edition. There's also educational versions of Linux like qimo and sugar

@nixCraft Dorfromantik
Townscaper
the Bloons TD games
Doom Eternal probably.

@nixCraft I don't know if updates have changed that, but Half-Life is pretty well optimized. If violence is not something the children want, then probably Portal.
Pcsx2, dolphin and ppsspp, can let you run games from other platforms quite easily. I'd probably suggest any Zelda, Medievil and Finaly Fantasy game, but if again, graphic content is not desired, then look for games like ICO.
I can't really suggest anything else, since I mostly play horror and/or games with vioent elements. Sorry.

@nixCraft if those specs are ok then outer wilds:
Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 | AMD FX-4350
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660, 2 GB | AMD Radeon HD 7870, 2 GB
Storage: 8 GB available space

@nixCraft nethack.

@nixCraft Lemmings?

@nixCraft it depends how old but portal 2 is probably a decade old and a great family friendly puzzle game.

Portal 1 is a bit more indie but will run on even older machines.

@nixCraft Many of the games that run on SCUMM VM (Monkey Island, The Dig, Sam and Max, etc)

@nixCraft Portal!

@nixCraft Mindustry, Unciv, Supertuxcart

@nixCraft Simon the Sorcerer

@nixCraft 0ad? 

@nixCraft Baba is you.
And, of course, every Lucasarts adventure out there.

@nixCraft minetest