1up: The 50 most influential games of all time

W

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
The list is complete. The last entry is Halo

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3116290&did=1

"The Essential 50 is not intended to be a comprehensive history of gaming. Nor is it a list of the best games of all time -- in fact, some of these games are the very worst ever created (which is why they're important). Rather, The Essential 50 is a look at the games which we feel have made gaming what it is today."

The Games: (LISTED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, THE ORDER DOES NOT REPRESENT RANKINGS)

1. Spacewar (1962: PDP-1)

2. Pong (1972: Arcade/Console)

3. Space Invaders (1978: Arcade)

4. Adventure (1979: Atari 2600)

5. Battlezone (1980: Arcade)

6. Pitfall! (1982: Atari 2600)

7. Zork (1977-79: DEC PDP-10)

8. Game & Watch (1980-88)

9. Star Wars (1983: Arcade)

10. Pac-Man (1980: Arcade)

11. Donkey Kong (1981: Arcade)

12. Rogue (1980: VAX/BSD UNIX)

13. E.T. (1982: Atari 2600)

14. Dragon's Lair (1983: Arcade)

15. King's Quest (1983: PC)

16. One-on-One (1983: C64)

17. Super Mario Bros. (1985: Arcade/NES)

18. Gauntlet (1985: Arcade)

19. M.U.L.E. (1983: C64)

20. Dragon Warrior (1986: NES)

21. Ultima IV (1985: Apple II/PC)

22. The Macintosh (1984)

23. Tetris (1986: PC/NES/GameBoy)

24. Prince of Persia (1989: PC)

25. FaceBall 2000 (1990: GameBoy)

26. Doom (1993: PC)

27. John Madden NFL Football (1990: Genesis)

28. Sonic the Hedgehog (1991: Genesis)

29. Super Mario Kart (1992: Super NES)

30. Populous (1989: Amiga/PC)

31. Herzog Zwei (1991: Genesis)

32. Street Fighter II (1991: Arcade)

33. Myst (1993: Mac/PC)

34. Mortal Kombat (1992: Arcade/SNES/Genesis)

35. Virtua Fighter (1993: Arcade/32X)

36. Super Mario 64 (1996: Nintendo 64)

37. Tomb Raider (1996: PS/Saturn/PC/Mac)

38. Final Fantasy VII (1997: PS/PC)

39. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999: PS)

40. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998: N64)

41. Metal Gear Solid (1998: PS)

42. Half-Life (1998: PC)

43. Gran Turismo (1998: PS)

44. Parappa the Rapper (1997: PS)

45. Ultima Online (1997: PC)

46. Pokémon (1998: GameBoy)

47. The Sims (2000: PC)

48. Jet Grind Radio (2000: Dreamcast)

49. Grand Theft Auto III (2001: PS2/Xbox/PC)

50. Halo (2001: Xbox/PC/Mac)
 
I think a lot of games are underestimated there.

Pokemon, GT, Ocarina of Time, Mortal Kombat Tetris...

and then many are overestimated...

Donkey Kong, Dragon Warrior, Tony Hawk, Parappa the Rapper
 
Fairly or not, the list is clearly weighted by a games age. The older an influential game is the higher it is on the list, roughly speaking. I'm sure you can make arguments both ways about whether or not this is fair.
 
The list is chonological.

Where's Resident Evil? It defined a new gamestyle, as well as locking the "fixed camera" 3rd person adventure (as seen in MGS and elsewhere).

And... Jet Grind Rado?!
 
This list is one giant WTF.


Dragon's Lair above Mario?
Star Wars above Pac Man?
Faceball above Doom?
Faceball on the list?
Tony Hawk Above Zelda and Pokemon?
Tetris under 22 other games?


What a piece of shit, and that considers that most lists are shit anyways.
 
The numbers on the list don't mean anything. There is no ranking

"We're working in a roughly chronological order rather than according to any sort of ranking."


Click on the link above and click on the games for detailed info on why they selected those games



So yeah, stop comparing games because of their position on the list
 
Wario64 said:
The numbers on the list don't mean anything. There is no ranking

"We're working in a roughly chronological order rather than according to any sort of ranking."


Click on the link above and click on the games for detailed info on why they selected those games
Click to expand...

reading before reacting is too much to ask for!
 
It's basically a first of a kind list. A rather simplistic way of deciding what is the most influential.
 
If you actually read the feature instead of looking at the rankings, you'll see its really well done. In fact it might be the best "top 50 _______" I've ever read. Very informative. Very good.
 
Well... I think they've confused old for influential. It's hard to argue with the top few, but if Dragon's Lair was more influential than Super Mario Bros I would not spend this much time with videogames that's for sure.
 
B E N K E said:
Well... I think they've confused old for influential. It's hard to argue with the top few, but if Dragon's Lair was more influential than Super Mario Bros I would not spend this much time with videogames that's for sure.
Click to expand...

THE LIST IS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, THERE IS NO RANKING!
 
Wario64 said:
THE LIST IS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, THERE IS NO RANKING!
Click to expand...

You should have just posted the link by itself. Then at least there would be a slight chance of people actually reading it.
 
Well, to be fair, it's not "my" list -- I started up the project, but the entries were chosen democratically by the site's editorial staff. Mostly democratically, anyway.

To reiterate what the less trigger-happy posters have stated, these are not ranked; they're listed in something resembling a loose chronological order. The numbers were simply included so I didn't lose count and accidentally create 51 entries or something. And it's not actually a "first of a kind" list, or we would have included Akalabeth instead of Ultima IV, MIDI Maze instead of FaceBall, etc., etc., etc. The titles that made the cut were often firsts, but other factors were equally important: popularity, availability, respect among game developers/media/fans, and so forth. (And no, Macintosh isn't a game. Technically, neither is Game & Watch. But we wanted to give detractors something easy to latch on to.)

Of course, no one will agree with every single choice. I don't agree with them all. So once we reach #50 we're going to let our readers tell us which ones we missed and write up the five most popular choices. You're all welcome to sound off as well <3
 
Good to see MK get it's due. Lately it's been fashionable to downplay it's influence in gaming in favor of hyping up GTA.


In 1992 Mortal Kombat didn't offer any single element that couldn't be found elsewhere in the arcades at the time.


One thing nobody EVER gives MK credit for is juggle combos. They are now used in like every fighting game franchise, 2D and 3D.


Today the series has faded into near irrelevance


.......how can anyone say that after MKDA?
 
Wasteland, Ultima 7, Ultima 5 > Ultima 4.

Odd choice, but I'm glad to see the Ultima love regardless.
 
The thing I hate most about this list is the cronological order bit. It's basically saying we made a list but we don't really believe it at all so were going to organize it so it says nothing. At least put in the effort to rank them.
 
darscot said:
The thing I hate most about this list is the cronological order bit. It's basically saying we made a list but we don't really believe it at all so were going to organize it so it says nothing. At least put in the effort to rank them.
Click to expand...

You're missing the point. This feature is just a series of articles discussing 50 influential games.
 
Jet Grind Radio? I love the game, but...? Also, wasn't the first cel-shaded game actually Wacky Races? Not sure which one was shown in public first (probably Jet Grind Radio).

And Faceball? Is that on the list because of its network play? Because I remember a game on the Atari ST that predated Faceball, but it was basically the same game (it networked through the MIDI ports on the ST).
 
PC Gaijin said:
Jet Grind Radio? I love the game, but...? Also, wasn't the first cel-shaded game actually Wacky Races? Not sure which one was shown in public first (probably Jet Grind Radio).

And Faceball? Is that on the list because of its network play? Because I remember a game on the Atari ST that predated Faceball, but it was basically the same game (it networked through the MIDI ports on the ST).
Click to expand...

Maybe you should try reading the articles.
 
If you guys are questioning the games on the list, I urge you to click on the link above. They have a detailed article for each game, showing why they thought it was an influential game. They did a pretty good job with the feature
 
darscot said:
The thing I hate most about this list is the cronological order bit. It's basically saying we made a list but we don't really believe it at all so were going to organize it so it says nothing. At least put in the effort to rank them.
Click to expand...

I'm baffled by this, why does every damn thing have to be ranked?!

But, as far as I can tell, I concur with this list. They all did make a great (or bad) impact on gaming overall... Nicely done, I'll read the feature tomorrow ;).
 
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