April 23, 2005

• I'll start. Wot no Elite?
• The MUD deserves a spot somewhere.
• Hitchhiker's Guide is not on the list. Come on. Sewiously.
• Whoa! I've had a few addictions in the top 10. Mind you, playing twister gave me more opportunity for close order contact with my sister's friends.
• I've read about the sad saga of Atari's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial before, but the context given by this article was wonderful.
• Someday I'll find that landfill, build myself a slap-dash shack, call on the misbegotten E.T. spirits and make mad, mad prophecies about the next generation of gaming failures for a mere two bits a pop.
• Civilization?
• Well, this cleared up the list for me quite a bit (from the site):

  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.

  So, it isn't the -best- games, it is the most important games. I can live with that. I do think that rogue needs to be 'more important', both in its use of techonology (at the time) and game-play. And MUDs deserve recognition, they really are the origin of the very paradigm changing concept of multi-player enviroments. Doom is an obvious choice. Michael Abrash is a genius. From an uber-geek perspective, reading 'Zen of Graphics Programming' (which, incidentally, is available for *FREE* these days) was one of the best programming books I've ever read. So I guessed I think these three are tops on my important list mainly due to time consumption. While Doom was the start, it was Quake that really sucked me into the world of FPS games. College suffered much over this game. I played rogue on my first computer (a 8086 tandy 1000). High School suffered greatly. Great link! Thanks Nickdanger.
• And where is Impossible Mission? ("STAY FOREVER!!" Voice synthesis, lifelike graphics for that age?) River Raid? (the hottest action scroller on the 2600, and the work of one of the first female game programmers?) Still, the E.T. sad tale alone is worth the piece. Yes, it's gonna be quite a find, in the future, when they unearth all those cartidges off the desert.
• Jeez, you woulda thought chess might have made a list with a title like that... (scratches head)
• Where's Zero Wing??? In A.D. 2101 War was beginning. Captain: What happen ? Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb. Operator: We get signal. Captain: What ! Operator: Main screen turn on. Captain: It's You !! Cats: How are you gentlemen !! (Chorus) Cats: All your base are belong to us.
• Yeah, I'd second the Elite mention. I'd probably put Quake on there too, for it's promotion of 3D graphics and the idea of accelerators, and helping cement network play as a driving feature.
• I'll third Elite. Loved that M.U.L.E. was on there and I learned a lot from the fine article. I suppose I like those turn-based econ-sims: Hell, I still play Civilzation II nine years later.
• The Sims but no Sim City?
• I fail to see why Halo is on the list. What about Simcity? The game that brought the simulation genre to the spotlight.
• Jinx!
• Agreed, js. I was wasting my time with Sim City long, long before The Sims. And look at all the simulation games that followed from Sim City: all the Tycoon games, SimCopter etc. The Sims is cool, but I don't think it's groundbreaking. Mind you, Sim City came after other cheesy simulations like Railway Tycoon and Transport Tycoon, I think. Maybe it's those games that deserve a nod. It looks more like the guy just chose the best-selling game from each generation.
• Except for Rogue, trac. That game and it's spiritual succesor, Nethack, are pure orgasm-ecstatic freeware joy.
• Come on, no Jumpman?
• i think it's actually a list of oldest game to newest.
• Ah, going with the Sim theme, Roller Coaster Tycoon has been a large time sink for me... the management of the park is secondary to me; I like to design roller coasters! Fun, physics... geeky. Yeah, I love it. It might mention that Roller Coaster Tycoon was a labor of love by Chris Sawyer.
• I'd say Halo because it is the game that made video games cool to play. It was starting to happen already, but Halo really sealed the deal, especially on college campus. It's like a gateway drug, leading those who normally only play Madden 'xx to other genres of games.
• I was going to debate that, loto, by saying that Doom did the same thing in the mid-'90s, but I can't actually say because I lived with electrical engineers, who aren't exactly on the cutting edge of popular activities.
• I thought video games became cool at the release of Tony Hawk 2. It's nice to see Jet Grind Radio. Makes me nostalgic for the days when Sega made good games.
• *Jet Grind Radio on that list
• That's a good point loto. And I think that's the reason I started to despise Halo & the Xbox. They turned videogames into a celebrity fest and what "cool kids do". Therefore incompatible with my self-delusional "elitist geek" status.
• Video games were cool looooong before Halo. And thirded on Sim City. Really stupid to leave that out but include the Sims. On the other hand, so very glad to see Star Wars in the top 10. There was no joy in my youth like getting to play that, especially if you were lucky enough to find a place that had the sit-down, cockpit-style version. I remember when Ep I came out, and the local movie theater put both an original SW game and a brand-new trilogy game in the lobby. Fucking stupid kids kept passing up the good one. It was always open to play.
• May I direct you to the second tier list, the crucial classics . These are games that were apparently fine examples of their type, but were either not ground breaking in and of themselves, or weren't the marketing juggernauts that their later progeny were. For instance, Sim City is considered crucial instead of essential because "SimCity's slow rise to success made it somewhat less impressive in scale than its progeny The Sims. And while it was a groundbreaking concept in gaming, SimCity was in many ways simply a testing ground for Wright's more impressive projects such as SimEarth and the upcoming Spore. "
• Genesis sports games made playing games cool a decade before halo. /kids these days.
• Okay, let me say big ups for including Zelda and Metroid on that list. But Sim City still should be on the essential. It completely defined sim gaming. It is the granddaddy of simulation games. SimEarth and the Sims may be bigger/grander, but like Sim City is the Little Richard of the whole franchise: The Originator.
• no system shock 2?
• Egads, Nickdanger. Hunt The Wumpus a crucial game??? I still have nightmares...
• Hey, while we're on the subject -- Bablyon 5 -- hate the show -- but in brief viewings determined that the sound that "doorbells" make in the future is the refueling bell from River Raid. Anyone else notice this?
• I gotta ask, where's Yar's Revenge? That was the atari game, as far as I was concerned. AND it has the dubious distinction of being indirectly responsible for that landfill in NM. Of course, the "crucial" list isn't done yet. I agree that Sim City should be on the essential list . They could certainly have knocked off Dragon's Lair for that one.
• Well I'm not exactly sure what 'cool' means but... Playing video games has not become 'cool'. Yes I play video games.
• May I direct you to the second tier list, the crucial classics . Oh, man, I love me some Elevator Action. I've got it on MAME and can still play it for hours. Damn, what a fun game.
• Elite not being on there is mildly insane. It is however an American list. A UK specific one would be quite different. As for important games how about Lemmings? Because no Lemmings, no DMA Design, No GTA. It's also awesome. A list like that without Robotron is quite strange, I'd even accept Jeff Minter's beautiful and insane Llamatron as an acceptable shoutout. Jet Set Radio should clearly be in there, just for the cell shading, although Jet Set Radio Future (the Xbox sequel) is actually a significantly better game. But my 'most important game' that's not on there? Either Sonic Adventure or Skies Of Arcadia On Dreamcast, for their VMU games. The interaction between a handheld experience and the 'main' game blew my mind and still continues to do so. Pervasive gameplay is where it's at.
• Marathon's not on there and Halo is, therefore the list is just useless. For without Marathon, there IS no Halo.