Top 10 Most Important Video Games
As gaming matures as an art form, more resources are giving it the respect it deserves. The Stanford University History of Science and Technology Collections has recently released a list of the 10 Most Important Video Games of All Time. Curated by Henry Lowood, the collection serves as a means to preserve the cultural and historical significance of these monumental titles. Helping Lowood with the effort were four of his collegues, game designers Warren Spector and Steve Meretzky; Matteo Bitttani, an academic researcher; and Christopher Grant, editor for Joystiq.
- Spacewar! (1962)
- Star Raiders (1979)
- Zork (1980)
- Tetris (1985)
- SimCity (1989)
- Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)
- Civilization I / II (1991)
- Doom (1993)
- Warcraft (Series) (1994)
- Sensible World of Soccer (1994)
Each game serves as a groundbreaking, genre-defining representation of the types of games we still play. Check out the article written for The New York Times, for the rundown on every game that was included. Do you think they might have missed anything?
The 10 Most Important Video Games [Kotaku]
Toots
Posted to Video Games on 12 March 2007
· Comments (8)
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What, no Bible Adventures?
I definitely think Final Fantasy should appear on that list - its a benchmark for narrative-driven rpgs!
I'm glad the recognized Zork, but where is the love for Sierra and Kings Quest?
Street Fighter II certainly deserves a place on that list. It created one of the most prevelant genres of the last 15 years.
whoa
do I have to bring the Fallout Love all on my own?
Super Mario Bros 3? What the hell happened to #1? This list is bogus.
Judging by the inclusion of several games which didn't originate their genres but were the most popular entry (Zork, SimCity, Doom, Warcraft, Sensible Soccer) I don't think it was a list of influential or original games per se. "Important" could mean "important to stockholders" for all we know.
I can sort of agree with the rationale that SMB3 introduced non-linear play, but when people think of Mario (or platformers, or in some cases, videogames in general), they think of the music that plays when World 1-1 starts.
Funny that the most popular arcade game in history (Pac-Man) didn't make it, but I guess "maze games" were just a stepping stone on the way to dungeon crawlers and object collection games.
I also agree that Street Fighter II definitely belongs on the list. It feels like blasphemy not to include that game considering how many players across the world packed the arcades for that one machine alone...