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The Ten Most Important Games
Posted by
Zonk
on Mon Mar 12, 2007 03:56 PM
from the a-good-place-to-start dept.
from the a-good-place-to-start dept.
Taking a page from the National Film Preservation Board, the History of Science and Technology Collections at Stanford University and a group of five prestigious games industry figures have inducted ten games into a sort of 'canon'. The New York Times reports that some of these titles represent the start of weighty gaming genres, while all are laudable for their place in gaming history. "[Henry] 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)." Most likely, future years will see additional titles inducted into this game canon.
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The History of Civilization 106 comments
You may recall back in March, when a group of smart folks got together to form a game canon. They essentially nominated the ten most important games, ever. Gamasutra has begun a series of articles which will explore the storied history of each of these titles, and they've started with Sim Meier's Civilization series. Benj Edwards' history of Civilization begins with a rundown on the series itself, and wraps with a lengthy Sid Meier interview. Required reading, essentially. "Meier [is] comfortable with a legacy inextricably tied to Civilization: 'I think that if that's what's on my epitaph, "Did Civilization," that would be fine.' In musing about the fate of his beloved series, Meier finds himself satisfied with what the future might hold for the franchise: 'There's probably somebody getting ready for their first day of college that's probably going to be a part of Civilization in ten to fifteen years from now. I think it'll be around for quite a while.'"
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Independent Games Festival Finalists Announced 20 comments
GameSetWatch notes that the 2007 finalists for the Independent Games Festival have been announced. The IGF is an annual event meant to highlight and praise the work of independent game designers of all stripes; it's run by Slashdot Games editor alumni Simon Carless. Simon puts the spotlight on the Seamus McNally Grand Prize finalists, the 'best of the best' at this year's IGF. My vote goes to World of Goo: "Building off the concepts from Tower Of Goo, one of Kyle Gabler's projects from the Experimental Gameplay Project at CMU, the first game from Bay Area duo 2D Boy uses the hitherto unexplored structural ability of blobs to make an addictive construction-based puzzle action title. There's no release date or demo for the game yet (aside from Tower Of Goo, a kind of 'prequel'), but there's screenshots and a trailer on the official site."
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pong (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:pong (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Three revolutionary things about Zork (Score:4, Interesting)
2. Zork used an interpreter (Z-code), so the game content was separate from the code. This allowed them to port to far more platforms than their competitors (and back then, there were a lot more platforms!)
3. Zork was marketed more like a book. When new games came out, the old games remained on the shelves because they still had value. This was a revolution in marketing game software.
Also, read this. It's a fascinating story about the company behind zork. [mit.edu]
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Funny)
There's information about it in the internet. Use a "search engine" such as Google (www.google.com) and find out.
> TYPE ZORK INTO WWW.GOOGLE.COM
Google suggests that the original poster try the Zork Wikipedia Entry [wikipedia.org].
It is almost 5:00 pm in your office. You are feeling a mite peckish.
> TRY THE NEXT LINK
Google's second link points to the Infocom-IF [infocom-if.org] page on the history of Interactive Fiction.
It is almost 5:30 pm in your office. You are hungry. Because Congress fucked up Daylight Saving Time, it is not yet dark.
> TRY THE THIRD LINK.
Google's third link points to a live PHP-based implementation Zork [thcnet.net], cleverly disguised as a 404 page.
By the time you're done with that, you will have either starved to death, or despite Congress' fucking up Daylight Saving Time, it will be sufficiently dark that you will have been eaten by a grue.
*** You have died ***
Your score is 2 out of a possible (+5, Funny)
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Insightful)
Depends on how much you know about the history of computer games, I guess. Zork is a classic - probably the most important game on the list.
Parent
Re:pong (Score:4, Insightful)
And if you've been gaming for more than 20 years, you don't need Google to know about Zork.
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Insightful)
Heh, no, that's not quite it. It's just really old. There was no game industry at the time to have an "underground" or "indie" from.
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, a it's bit like Citizen Kane that way
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Insightful)
And everyone is rightfully pointing out to you how you are very very wrong on that point. It's funny that you're sitting there saying that Zork was unimportant, yet you want to put Prince of Fucking Persia on the list? Warning: Bad Car Analogy Ahead - That's like saying that Henry Ford is insignificant in the world of cars, but that John DeLorean should be on the list because he made a car out of stainless steel (not that you'd know who John DeLorean is)...
It's very clear that you were born in the early nineties and that anything that happened before that is "unimportant" in your world...
Parent
Re:pong (Score:5, Interesting)
You are so wrong.
Zork was not the first text adventure, but the technical breakthough there was that it was able to pack lots verbose descriptions of places and events in a very small space (less than 48KB mem, 130KB floppy disks)). You forget the (lack of) power that home computers had in 1980.
AI: Zork's parser an incredible leap at the time. Previous adventures used commands like "USE SCREWDRIVER" unscrew a screw.
Zork did stuff like:
>> UNSCREW THE SCREW
Which screw, the Phillips screw or the standard screw?
>> STANDARD
>> You unscrew the standard screw. The control panel falls on your foot. Your scream of pain wakes up a grue, who decides to eat you.
ANd remember, artwork is more than graphics. Since the graphics on the computers of the time was either poor or non-existent, Zork made up for it with the verbosity of the descriptions.
In summary, here's a (likely incomplete) list of the technical breakthroughs of Zork:
1) A parser that could understand more that just two-word "Verb Direct-Object" commands (e.g. "GO HOUSE". Look at the old Scott Adams Adventures for more examples).
2) Paragraph-length (or more) descriptions of places and events, that allowed the player to become more immersed into the game. This all packed into the tiny computers of the late 70's.
3) Multi-platform. Zork ran on virtually every home computer from the Osborne to the Apple II.
4) Z-Interpreter. Zork was done as Z-code, ran though an interpreter. The same interpreter was used for several games.
5) Fun packaging. The manuals and other sundries that came with the game were interesting, and prized by collectors today.
I think you need a little more appreciation for the state of home computing in 1980.
Parent
Simcity (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Simcity (Score:5, Funny)
Does anyone know the editor over there?
Parent
Re:Simcity (Score:4, Funny)
I "wiki-know" him.
He says he's a tenured professor of religion at a private university somewhere.
Parent
WarCraft vs StarCraft (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WarCraft vs StarCraft (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:WarCraft vs StarCraft (Score:5, Informative)
Dune II was the first PC game (that I'm aware of) that had all the elements of today's strategy genre.
Warcraft was Dune II with orcs.
Command&Conquer was... the next version of Dune II.
Everything since has simply been a refinement of the same formula.
Parent
Re:WarCraft vs StarCraft (Score:5, Informative)
The only thing Warcraft had different was the humor and a fantasy instead of sci-fi storyline.
Parent
Re:WarCraft vs StarCraft (Score:5, Insightful)
This has got the be the single most stupid thing I've ever read on slashdot.
Parent
Not a bad list but. (Score:4, Interesting)
What about
Summer Games?
Combat?
Pong?
But two big thumbs up for Star Raiders!
Re:Not a bad list but. (Score:5, Interesting)
Aw, hell, this is as good a post to reply to as any.
Myst. It was artistically gorgeous, and it was rather unique in that it just tossed you in with no fancy instruction manual or tutorial. Hell, you didn't even know what the objective of the game. It was just kind of like, "Here, play this. Don't know what to do? Well, you're smart, figure it out."
Very cool game.
Parent
Re:Not a bad list but. (Score:4, Interesting)
Agreed!
The puzzles in the game were fun, all if the "levels" were intricately designed and the atmosphere was other-wordly without being alien.
Shoot-'em-ups are OK for the kiddies, this was a game for adults. Perhaps that's why it wasn't on the list.
Parent
Re:Not a bad list but. (Score:5, Insightful)
dang, kinda makes you wish more artists made games.
Parent
Missing option (Score:5, Insightful)
What are they smoking? (Score:5, Insightful)
How can Mario Bros 3 be considered one of the 10 most important games of all time when the original Super Mario Bros is the foundation is was built on in the first place? It wasn't even all that innovative if we're talking "grand scales" such as this (it was innovative, but not nearly the leap that the original was).
Then there's Donkey Kong Country, which to my knowledge popularized actually using 3d models for characters in a game.
The Legend of Zelda, anyone? Action/adventure one of those genres that never really took off or spawned a descendant that is considered widely to be the greatest game of all time? Ocarina is yet to be dethroned according to most critics (and gamers I know).
How about Doom? Or is FPS a fad?
I just find it hard to justify putting in WarCraft when it didn't even spawn the genre it "represents" in the first place, and on top of that not putting in the games that spawned much more prominent genres.
Re:What are they smoking? (Score:5, Informative)
While this is technically true, it is also true to say that very few people either played or remember the prototypes of the modern real-time strategy genre during the 1980s. Indeed, even the first game which mostly resembled the genre in its modern form (i.e. using the mouse to move units, gathering resources, etc...), Dune II from Westwood Studios in 1992, was not widely played and would not be immediately recognized by the average gamer. It was really the WarCraft series, beginning in 1994, from Blizzard that exploded the genre into the mainstream and cemented its long-term popularity. The Wikipedia article on real-time strategy [wikipedia.org] games really sums up the history quite nicely (including some obscure early games that I was previously unfamiliar with).
Parent
Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
And most egregiously, where is Crowther and Woods' Colossal Cave Adventure, to which Zork owes everything?
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
My girlfriend and I play that all the time, and just after I hide the wumpus, she finds it. After she finds it, I always acknowledge with a "Nice Hunt" kind of thing.
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Thanks to the nested comment structure, I thought you were talking about "Crowther and Woods' Colossal Cave Adventure"...
Which works just as well.
Parent
One of these is not like the others (Score:5, Funny)
Zork? (Score:4, Informative)
Strange criteria (Score:5, Insightful)
It's called the tipping point. (Score:5, Informative)
A game that 80% of people played, that was the second game in a genre of which >50% of people ultimately played -- is going to be considered more important than a game that only 2% of people played, that was the first game in a genre that 100% of people play today. Popularity means a lot in importance.
The most important horror movie isn't the first horror movie.
Oh, and it's all based on DONKEY KONG, actually! :)
Parent
Wolfenstein was what attracted many people to id (Score:5, Insightful)
At least that's my opinion, I could be wrong... I'm not though.
Multiplayer (Score:5, Insightful)
I was a huge fan of both Wolfenstein and Doom (having wasted many hours of my college life on both), but I have to agree with their choice. Doom brought one huge factor into the FPS that Wolfenstein lacked: multiplayer capability. Before Doom, we used to hike up to Macintosh lab so we could play Bolo, a simple player-vs-player real network game where you fought each other in little tanks. It was actually a very fun and addictive game. But it was Doom that brought this concept to the mainstream. In Wolfenstein, once you solved the maps, there was no replay unless you downloaded your own level builder, but with Doom and multiplayer, you could play the same levels again and again. It made Doom highly addictive at the time.
I remember a couple friends of mine created a network of four computers in our dorm(at a time when they still gave out college credit to CS students who fought through the headaches of networking a couple computers), and for the next semester, there was a death match running until about 2 am every night. It was huge. Of course, later came Descent (a revolutionary game in its own right), Hexen, Quake, etc., but it was Doom that truly kicked off the revolution. Without multiplayer, it would have been a pretty substantial upgrade to the graphics, but the player-vs-player death match would change the gaming world forever.
Parent
Re:Wolfenstein was what attracted many people to i (Score:5, Insightful)
Bryan
Parent
Series... but no series (Score:5, Insightful)
Odd, why only pick Super Mario Bros. 3 and not the entire Super Mario Bros. series like they did with Warcraft? From the article...
Super Mario Bros. 3 added some interesting new elements to the side scroller, but I would argue that it didn't define the side scrolling genre. I think Super Mario Bros. 3 improved upon the genre defining Super Mario Bros. game, even if I enjoy Super Mario Bros 3 more. Could 'nonlinear' games be found before Super Mario Bros. 3? What about any RPG game like Dragon Warrior? It would have been better to just include the entire Mario series for their significance on the video game world. I think Mario 64 is far more revolutionary than Mario 3, but the entire franchises importance shouldn't be underestimated.
Cheers,
Fozzy
Space invaders? (Score:4, Insightful)
Best game (Score:5, Insightful)
I have yet to have more fun gaming than playing Deus Ex (although a few games have come close).
To me that makes it an important game :)
Duke Nukem Forever? (Score:5, Funny)
DNF is a very important game.. If it ever gets released, hell will instantly freeze over.
The criteria for greatness shifts (Score:4, Interesting)
My top 15 most important games... (Score:4, Insightful)
1) Pac Man
2) Sim City
3) Wolfenstein 3D
4) The Legend of Zelda
5) Super Mario Bros
6) Mortal Kombat
7) Grand Theft Auto
8) NBA Jam
9) Tetris
10) Warcraft
11) Myst
12) Pong
13) Space Invaders
14) Tecmo Super Bowl
15) Final Fantasy
List hacked together... (Score:4, Insightful)
[God I'm old.]
What is the world coming to? (Score:4, Insightful)
Mercenary or Damocles?
*sigh*
What we need is a rubric (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, how do you compare Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers 3? Obviously Super Mario Brothers 3 was much more polished, but it only owes its success to the originality of the first. How do you compare a game with great graphics, sound and story lines, but whose gameplay is selecting from a menu over and over (like Final Fantasy VII) to a game that is almost pure concept (like Tetris)? How would you compare The Legend of Zelda, a great adventure/RPG game that everyone has played, with a game like Terranigma, a fascinating adventure/RPG game that was never released in the United States? Tomb Raider could be translated into a movie, which Civilization couldn't, do does that make it a better game?
For all of these questions and more, you have to have a rubric, a means of grading, that you can explain your choices. A rubric would include graphics, sound, gameplay concept, originality, cultural impact, popularity, immersiveness, technical achievement, amongst other things, so that we could fairly rate games against each other. Without that, its just tossing out suggestions and haggling.
Where's Myst? (Score:5, Insightful)
The ingenuity of Myst was that it ushered in an era of adventure-puzzle games but in my opinion there wasn't even a close second until the sequel, Riven, came along. Some other notes of distinction attributable to Myst:
1. Prior to Myst's release on the Macintosh, CD-ROM drives were optional on computers. The timing of Myst's release with the emergence of Macintoshes that came standard with CD-ROM drives and the explosion in sales of Myst drove consumers to demand CD-ROM drives in their computers which quickly led to CD-ROM drives becoming standard equipment.
2. Myst was not originally ported to Windows and until it was, many consumers bought Macintoshes just so they could play Myst.
3. The use of Cinepak compression and other resource-conserving techniques resulted in a game that had outstanding still graphics and video for the time.
4. With the success of the independently developed Myst (by Rand and Robyn Miller) and, incidentally, the low-budget sleeper hit "The Usual Suspects", one could argue that the plot twist became a staple in entertainment culture... Games and movies developed suspenseful storylines often predicated upon a last-minute twist.
5. Myst was one of the few games where the objective wasn't merely to survive (you technically cannot die in the game).
6. The actual objective of the game, the concept, and anything beyond basic navigation is not even hinted at in the documentation. In fact, figuring out the objective of the game IS part of the objective of the game.
7. Myst was one of the first successful wholly-immersive experiences whereby visual and auditory cues were not merely window dressing but an integral part of understanding how your actions affect your immediate surroundings (e.g. listening to water flow in the Channelwood age to verify whether valves are set properly to power the machinery of that age).