8MB of RAM on a 286? Are you sure it wasn't a 486? Hell most 386 desktops only had 4MB at the most.Early 1990's for me. The first big games that I played were A10 Tank Killer, Sim City, XCom, and Civilization.
I believe that I played all of those on an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z, with a 286 processor, a whopping 8 MB of RAM, and a 30 MB hard drive!