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64 important games from video game history I'm currently eight weeks into teaching a Writing course at Boston University on the topic of "Playing Games: How Video Games Work and What They Mean." It's been a real pleasure: it's fun for me to be teaching a new course topic, and the students have been approaching the course material with enthusiasm. Recently, I discussed the concept of historical analysis: analyzing video games based how they "fit" into the context of a developing timeline of games. This gave me the opportunity to cobble together a list of about 40 games that I considered "historically important." I posted this list to Facebook and immediately my Facebook friends began to kick it around, finding blind spots and omissions, and then I released it to my students and invited them to provide me with a second round of confrontations and challenges. Yesterday, I took the different suggestions that I got and revisited the list, expanding it into a list of 64 games that look pretty close to "canonical." Here's the list, along with my justifications: 64 Important Games From Video Game History version 2.0 1961     Spacewar, first digital game / first shooter / first two-player game 1971     Oregon Trail, landmark educational game (designed in 1971, produced in 1974, re-released in 1985, 1992, 2001, 2008, and 2009) 1972     Pong, first commercially-successful arcade game / first sports simulation, also first digital game released for the home market (1975) 1974     Gran Trak 10, first racing game 1976     [Colossal Cave] Adventure, first adventure game 1976     Breakout, landmark arcade game 1977     Night Racer, first first-person racing game 1978     Space Invaders, first commercially-successful shoot-em-up (160,000 copies sold) 1978     Atari Football, landmark sports simulation game 1979     Asteroids, landmark shoot-em-up 1979     Adventure, first action-adventure game 1980     Zork, landmark text adventure game 1980     Space Panic, first platformer 1980     Pac-Man, landmark arcade game (350,000 units sold) 1980     Rogue, early graphical adventure game 1981     Donkey Kong, landmark platformer (60,000 units sold), also the first game to tell a complete (embedded) narrative 1982     Pole Position, landmark racing game 1983     Intellivision World Series Baseball, first 3-D sports simulation, also the first sports simulation to use multiple camera angles to emphasize action 1983     Ultima III, landmark PC role-playing game 1983     Lode Runner, landmark platformer, plus an early game permitting the creation of user-generated levels 1983     Pinball Construction Set, an early game permitting the creation of user-generated content 1984     Tetris, landmark abstract puzzle game 1985     Gauntlet, landmark multi-player game 1985     Super Mario Bros., landmark 2-D side-scrolling platformer (forty million copies sold) 1986     Air Warrior, first multi-player online game with graphics 1987     Earl Weaver Baseball, landmark sports simulation 1987-8    Street Fighter / Street Fighter II, landmark one-on-one competitive fighting games 1987     The Legend of Zelda, landmark adventure game, also the first home cartridge to permit saving, also a good early example of a game which permitted non-linear play 1989     SimCity, landmark developer simulation 1990     Microsoft Solitaire, landmark casual game 1990     Minesweeper, landmark casual / puzzle game 1990     John Madden Football, landmark sports simulation 1991     Civilization, landmark turn-based strategy game 1991     Neverwinter Nights, first multi-player online role-playing game to display graphics 1991     Final Fantasy IV, landmark console role-playing game 1991     Myst, landmark adventure game (six million copies sold) 1992     Wolfenstein 3-D, first commercially-successful first-person shooter 1992     Mortal Kombat, landmark fighting game 1992     The Incredible Machine, early physics game 1992     Dune II, first real-time strategy game 1993     Doom, landmark first-person shooter, also a good early example of an open-source game 1995     Command and Conquer, landmark real-time strategy game 1996     Quake, landmark first-person shooter, also a good early example of a game utilizing an online multiplayer mode 1996     Super Mario 64, landmark 3-D platformer (eleven million copies sold) 1996     Resident Evil, first survival horror game 1996-8     Pokemon Red / Pokemon Blue, landmark RPG (eight million copies sold), also a good early example of a game with innovative multiplayer mechanics 1997     Lego Island, first open-world game 1997     Ultima Online, landmark multi-player online role-playing game (250,000 subscribers) 1998     Dance Dance Revolution, landmark rhythm game / exercise game 1998     Half-Life, landmark first-person shooter (eight million copies sold), also a landmark example of an open-source game 1998     Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, first commercially-successful tactical shooter 1998     Metal Gear Solid, first commercially-successful stealth game 1998     Starcraft, landmark real-time strategy game 1999     Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, landmark extreme sports simulation 1999-2000    Counter-Strike, landmark mod, also a game making central use of online multiplayer technology 2001     Bejeweled, landmark puzzle / casual game 2001     Gran Turismo 3, landmark racing game 2001     Grand Theft Auto III, landmark open-world game 2002     The Sims, landmark life-simulation game (sixteen million copies sold), plus a game making central use of user-generated content 2003     Diner Dash, landmark time-management game 2004     Halo 2, landmark in online console gaming (four million subscribers) 2004     World of Warcraft, landmark multi-player online role-playing game (over eleven million subscribers) 2005     Guitar Hero, landmark rhythm game 2006     Wii Sports, landmark sports simulation (forty-five million copies sold) Comments and argumentation welcome! Labels: game_commentary, teaching

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 8:42 AM   Comments: To expand on #15, Rogue: two of the features which made it so innovative were its influences from RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons -- permadeath and randomly generated levels. Hence experience gains you general knowledge of the game but doesn't ensure predictability. It's a good example of how better computing power really changed gaming, because all of a sudden you could have finite skills x infinite "boards". # posted by  Lala : 10:14 AM   Proceudral generation <3 <3 <3 # posted by  jpb : 10:51 AM   curious if you forgot about Wizardry, or just decided you already had enough RPG milestones. # posted by  Seth Tisue : 10:46 AM   Post a Comment

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