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five most influential games of all time (1 Viewer)

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I wanted to know what people thought were the most influential games of all time and it doesn't matter what console or how old it is.
 

Alanna

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Let's see:

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Cloudy Mountain (Intellivision) - Adventure on the Atari was probably the first role playing game with graphics and enjoyed more popularity, but D&D game had random dungeons ten + years before Diablo came out.

Mario 64 (N64) - Redefined platformers as we know it and spawned a million knockoffs.

Wolfenstein 3D (PC/SNES) - With the coming of ID Software, FPS were thus born.

Street Fighter 2 (arcade) - The birth of the fighting game in the public's eyes. Without this there would be no Soul Caliber 2 or the Virtua Fighter series.

Tetris (almost every game system known to mankind) - The puzzle game that people are still clamoring over today. I know many that will play this when they won't touch anything else video game related (except maybe Bejeweled now but that's another story).

I'd also love to toss Diablo, Command and Conquer, Super Mario Bros., Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Final Fantasy (NES) and quite a few more in here... but I think these are the top five... of course not to start arguments, I think most "sane" people would remove the D&D game and throw Pac-Man or Space Invaders in there instead... but if you ever played Cloudy Mountain, you would know the true greatness and how far ahead of its time - that game truly was/is.
 

Dave F

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I'd choose Doom over Wolf3D. Wolf may have come first, but Doom is what really made an obscenely huge impact.

SF2 started a whole new genre as well.

Space Invaders & Asteroids might be on the list too.

Maybe Super Mario Brothers too. That really kicked off the rebirth of home consoles.

-Dave
 

Aaron Silverman

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One game that probably shouldn't be on the list, but deserves mention, is Herzog Zwei on the Genesis. It was the first honest-to-goodness real-time strategy game. (Although Warcraft or Command & Conquer was the game that really kicked off the genre.)

HZ was waaaaaaay ahead of its time. I think it may have been the first video game that I ever finished, and I've been playing them since the mid '70s!
 

Alanna

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Damn! I had been trying to think of the name of Herzog Zwei but couldn't recall it so I didn't mention it... that would definitely be on the list because it was THE first RTS and geez look at how many of the suckers are out there now. :)

I also totally ignored the text adventure genre, but all I can think of right now is Zork. Never did get into them much and I don't really feel like tracing back the history of the genre right now.

Also forgot Zelda (the first one). That created a craze all of its own and spawned a million cheap knock offs.
 

Tony-B

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I am going to list more than 5...

Space Invaders
Pac-Man
Tetris
Super Mario Bros.
Dragon's Lair
Doom or Wolfenstein 3d
Zelda

More recently...
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Grand Theft Auto III
Super Mario 64 (Crash Bandicoot did come before it, but I see more elements from SM64 in current platform games.)

However, I think we all can agree that the most influential game of all-time is...

PONG
 

MattBu

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Quake-

One of the first (If not the first) to practically require a 3D card, in fact how many of us had 3DFX addon cards specifically because of this game?
 

Sean Moon

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Actually, if I remember correctly, Mario 64 came before crash did. Mario was released in Japan before Crash ever hit the states, by a month or more I believe. And Crash was an on rails 3d game, while Mario was free roaming and much more revolutionary.
 

Tony-B

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Oh yeah. Thanks for correcting me Sean. I do believe you are in fact correct. I totally forgot to put Japan into the equation. However, Crash Bandicoot did come out before SM64 in the United States. :)

However, I still think that Crash and Mario have had a big influence on platform games in recent times.
 

Neil Joseph

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- Doom
- Super Mario Bros.
- Space Invaders ;) I encountered this first on the Commodore Pet in 1983
- Sonic
 

Walter Kittel

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Strictly dealing with Personal Computer games ( and mostly from the perspective of an Apple II afficionado ) -

Mystery House - the very first graphical adventure game, helped put Sierra On-Line on the map and ushered in the era of graphical adventure gaming which I so miss.

Wizardry - The grand daddy of D&D games. Graph paper and a pencil, no reflexes required. It was great in the day. If you know the phrases "lakanito" or "tiltowait" then you remember this game. :)

Adventure - The "Colossal Cave Adventure". First text adventure game, and forerunner to the text adventures popularized by Scott Adams / Infocom. ( I miss these also. )

Doom - Wolfenstein 3D paved the way, but Doom was just everywhere.

Flight Simulator ( FS1 ) by Bruce Artwick - later morphed into MS Flight Simulator.

And an honorable mention for Myst which spawned a number of crappy imitators that had little gameplay value.


- Walter.
 

DaveGTP

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Wizardry

Dragon Warrior I

Final Fantasy VII

Super Mario Bros

Doom

Hm...you can tell I'm an RPG gamer.

If I had to cut it down to one RPG I would say Dragon Warrior I.

Then add Warcraft (RTS phenomenon, I like real strategy myself) and Tetris.


Perhaps someday GTA: Vice City will be on the list. Not yet.
 

Ryan FB

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In a different take on it, I would nominate SpaceWar/Space Travel. If it weren't for this game, Ken Thompson would probably have never made his little MULTICS-inspired project (or helped create the C language so it could be run anywhere). Maybe you've heard of it, it was called UNIX. ;)
 

Tyler DJW

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Pac Man & Tetris - For becoming ubiquitous.

Pole Position - Wasn't this one of the earliest successful racing games.

Super Mario Brothers - my first platform game.

Wolfenstein 3d - This one really stands out to me, it got me back into gaming in a big way and paved the way for a hugely popular genre.

I'm not sure about RPGs, my earliest was Leisure Suit Larry 2.

I tend to think of these things by genre and recognize significant milestones in their evolution... it's hard to say which is most influential.
 

David Rogers

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No order.

Pong - Got it all started
Starcraft - Created Real Time Tactical gameplay
Wolfenstein 3D - Launched First Person Shooters with a blast
Mule - The first widely played economic game on a computer
Tomb Raider - Launched gaming for a mainstream audience and introduced Third Person Adventure gameplay
 
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People what about one of the most revolutionary games ever RESIDENT EVIL. it started all the survival hooror games we know and love today.
 

BrianB

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People what about one of the most revolutionary games ever RESIDENT EVIL. it started all the survival hooror games we know and love today.
Except it didn't, it was heavily inspired by a European game called "Alone In The Dark" which featured many of the hallmarks of modern survival horror games. RE may be influential, but "most revolutionary"?
 

Andy_S

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That Sega game that started the whole "All your base are belong to us!" fad. That thing was everywhere.
 

Morgan Jolley

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No order-

Pong
Donkey Kong
Mario 64
FFVII
Street Fighter 2

Pretty much all the major genres nowadays are spawned from, influenced by, or in existence because of these games.
 

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