10 most important video games of all time

[popopot]

Story below. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/ar...prod=permalink


When Henry Lowood, curator of the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University, started preserving video games and video-game artifacts in 1998 he thought it was closer to professional oblivion than a bold new move into the future.

In just a few years, however, Mr. Lowood’s notion that video games were something with a history worth preserving and a culture worth studying has gone from absurd to worthy of consideration by the Library of Congress.

On Thursday at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Mr. Lowood announced a game canon, an idea that grew out of a proposal submitted to the Library of Congress in September 2006 by a consortium made up of Stanford, the University of Maryland and the University of Illinois.

“Creating this list is an assertion that digital games have a cultural significance and a historical significance,” Mr. Lowood said in an interview. And if that is acknowledged, he said, “maybe we should do something about preserving them.”

Mr. Lowood and the four members of his committee — the game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky; Matteo Bittanti, an academic researcher; and Christopher Grant, a game journalist — announced their list of the 10 most important video games of all time: Spacewar! (1962), Star Raiders (1979), Zork (1980), Tetris (1985), SimCity (1989), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), Civilization I/II (1991), Doom (1993), Warcraft series (beginning 1994) and Sensible World of Soccer (1994).

Mr. Lowood’s canon was closely modeled on the work of the National Film Preservation Board, which every year compiles a list of films to be added to the National Film Registry, managed by the Library of Congress since 1989 (a consequence of the National Film Preservation Act, passed in 1988). The first list of films included “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Searchers” and “Nanook of the North.”

Almost all of the games on the Lowood list represent the beginning of a genre still vital in the video game industry. Spacewar!, for example, created by a group of early computer programmers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the first multiplayer, competitive game, and the first action game too. The first three Warcraft games represent the introduction of real-time strategy overlaid on a narrative; and Zork introduced the world to the adventure game.

SimCity helped establish the genre known as god games, in which players take on an omnipotent role, controlling the game world rather than simply participating in it. It also broke convention by refusing to establish criteria for winning, leaving the decision of what constituted success up to the player.

SimCity was selected by Mr. Bittanti, a researcher at the Humanities Lab at Stanford who works with Mr. Lowood. The game is “one of the most important art works of the 20th century,” Mr. Bittanti said, adding: “It completely reinvented the whole notion of games. And then it transcended the game world to become a cultural phenomenon.”

SimCity and its four follow-ups have sold 17 million copies, and the franchise it spawned, the Sims, has sold 85 million copies.

Mr. Grant, the editor of the popular Web site joystiq.com, who selected Super Mario Bros. 3, said the game was important for its nonlinear play, a mainstay of contemporary games, and new features like the ability to move both backward and forward.

Mr. Lowood said that preserving video games presented certain challenges. For example the hardware that games are played on changes so frequently that there are already thousands that can only be played through computer programs called emulators, which, while readily available on the Internet, technically violate copyright laws.

“We have to be really careful here because the technology is just going to make this harder for us,” Mr. Spector said. “The game canon is a way of saying, this is the stuff we have to protect first.”

[Bucktoof]

I think wolfenstein 3d should've been there, that was before Doom! :) I don't agree with sensible world of soccer...I've never even heard of it, and from around 93 to 96 when I finally got fifa 96, I was looking for a soccer game and couldn't find a good one.

I love final fantasy, I don't know if it belonged in the top 10, but definitely top 20 --> probably the most successful RPG franchise.

[mountain_rage]

Sensible soccer was the first sports game to integrate team management and diversity into its game, which is why it is on that list.

In fact I keep hearing allot of people mention that they haven't heard of it so it shouldn't of made the list. But this isn't a popularity list, rather then just flat out denying it the light of day, why not look it up? As it turns out it was a huge success at its time with rave reviews. The fact that its still around since 1990 is also impressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensible_Soccer

[Indranil]

I agree with you

[thepuzzler]

Someone neg rep this guy so he can't post in the trading forum. I've run out of rep for 24 hours.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

Sorry puzz...don't see the justification. S/he earned their posts over the past several months. Got any good reason other than the well thought-out response they gave?

[popopot]

Sensible soccer was the first sports game to integrate team management and diversity into its game, which is why it is on that list.

In fact I keep hearing allot of people mention that they haven't heard of it so it shouldn't of made the list. But this isn't a popularity list, rather then just flat out denying it the light of day, why not look it up? As it turns out it was a huge success at its time with rave reviews. The fact that its still around since 1990 is also impressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensible_Soccer

Man I used to love Sensible Soccer. But I have found out why, out of all of the great teams in it, Benfica had 4 starred players? What was all that about?

[frankie97]

Contra is by far the most important..ok.. COOLEST game..
if you don't know the cheat code...then God must hate you

up, up, down, down... (finish it baby!!!!)

[sunnykill]

god of war rules

[mountain_rage]

I love how in every discussion board on the internet that has covered this story some lone teenager who was not around in the early days of video games feels the need to tout their favorite game. I am mainly talking about the Playstation generation, or the newly formed Xbox generation. They are not categorizing what people feel is the best game in history, nor what was the most popular, these are games that revolutionized the industry. God of War in no way revolutionized any genre of games.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

I agree. It's a nice improvement, but nothing cataclysmic.

[Excrement_Cranium]

If you were going to try to bring in contemporary games that did something "new," the ones worth mentioning would be:

Ape Escape - some of the first full utilization of dual analogs (PS2)

Metal Gear Solid - set the standard for non-arbitrary use of the rumble feature, as well as some other tricky innovations (PS1)

Gran Turismo - once again, set a standard for licensed vehicles as well as the beginning of customization in racing games (PS1)

I could ramble off a few more, but it isn't needed.

None of the games I listed changed ALL of gaming, but each had their impact in one way or another, sometimes genre specific.

[Mels_Smileys45]

Super Mario Bros. 3

That was a good game but without the first one there would have never been a three. I remember when that came out on consle (first one) and it blew my mind. There had been like a three year gap where there were no consloes or games on the market then Nintendo released nes with a handful of games along with Super Mario Brothers. Until then there was nothing like this. Pit Fall 3 tried something similar but it just didnt have what SMB had. The variety of levels and gameplay make it one of the most important games ever.

[Feather]

puzzler you really shouldnt miss use your rep points like that.

now to the question at hand no 1 vid game should be the quake series minus quake4

[Darkkiller0]

Wow, that brought back memories :) I remember when I once stayed up all night playing Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3. It was a fantastic game, and totally addicting. There was also a cool game called Dragon Warrior that later spawned a few sequals. I think for the best Story-Unfolds-As-You-Play would go to Half-Life. I know this came out of the blue and all, but it really was a good game.