I played a lot of the miniature games, 40K especially (Go Chaos Marines!!). But the big one for us, that I haven't seen here, is the Warhammer Fantasy RPG. Right around 1990, many of us 'graduated' from the broken systems of 2nd ed. AD&D to WFRP. Had a GM who ran excellent campaigns (although he also ran great AD&D games beforehand). It was great, it was dark, and yeah, we got a bit snobbish.
Proud to report though, that I've recently brought most of those long-term players back into the d20 fold, and they enjoy it.