five most influential games of all time (1 Viewer)

[Raasean Asaad]

Morgan,


You have to add DOOM, because from it the FPS craze grew, your list does not address perhaps the number one genre of software sold across all platforms today.

 

[Tim Hess]

Mule

Mario 64 (N64)

DOOM

Warcraft

Street Fighter 2 (arcade)

 

[Joe Szott]

* Space Invaders
* Asteroids
* Pac Man
* Zelda (NES obviously)
* Super Mario Bros.
* DOOM
* Myst
* GTA 3
* Temple of Asphai (sp?)
* Dragon's Lair (arcade)

** Wasteland

OK, so that's ten but five is just too hard to do! And the last one isn't influential, just my personal favorite game of all time thrown in for fun Cheers!

 

[DaveGTP]

You all underestimate the importance of Dragon Warrior I - it practically established the Japanese-style RPG -

Here's a good link about it:

http://www.gamespy.com/halloffame/fe...dw/index2.shtm

Bits and pieces of Dragon Warrior had been seen in videogames before, but never all sewn up together so neatly. DW's incredible combination of gameplay elements established it as THE template for console RPGs to follow.

 

[Dave F]

Mule - The first widely played economic game on a computer
Tomb Raider - Launched gaming for a mainstream audience and introduced Third Person Adventure gameplay

Two titles that are often overlooked (unfortunately). Tomb Raider was also influential in the rise of 3D cards, along with Quake.

Good picks.

-Dave

 

[Sean Moon]

Didnt Tomb Raider come after Mario? So how can Tomb Raider introduce 3d gameplay?

 

[Alanna]

Dragon Warrior has literally spawned a holiday in Japan, so it deserves to be on the list. Possibly more than Final Fantasy, although its the "big one" over here, and responsible for the US's RPG boom during playstation times. The first 3d platformer was actually Jumping Flash on Playstation, done a year before Mario... the sequel even came out before Mario 64! Although it was 1st person...

 

[Sean Moon]

"Lets go Robbit! Jump and GO!"

I took Jumping Flash more in the vein of doom and Quake than Mario honestly. It was an amazing game and loads of fun, but the sheer open ended gameplay of Mario 64 just changed everything. Hell, I have more fun just running around the courtyard bouncing off trees in Mario than I do playing all through Crash and the other imitators.

 

[Nicholas A. N.]

Brian you may be right about it coming out first and RE being influenced by it but three things:

1. That game sucked.
2. It wasn't scary.
3. It was slow.

RE on the other hand was full of suspense, it was very tense, it had good music and revolutionary graphics at the time, and above all you that game made you afraid.

 

[Alanna]

Haunted House on the ATARI 2600 was THE first Survival Horror game damnit! It had the creepiness, a variety of monsters that behave differently, limited inventory management and the whole nine. It was scarier than Resident Evil I (which was just gross in my opinion) because you were just eyes and had to go by feel since you can't see the walls that surround you. Really though, Alone in the Dark was there... in 1992. Resident Evil came YEARS afterward. Was RE more influential to the market? A resounding "yes" but AintD is what fueled RE in the first place.

And alot of people would say the same things about Resident Evil:
The game sucked, it wasn't scary, it was slow.

Although I will say that RE2 made me jump just once, when the bats came through the window, its probably the *only* game that gave me a reaction like that.

 

[MattBu]

Starcraft - Created Real Time Tactical gameplay

Wow, what about Command and Conquer, Dune, or the game which Starcraft practically clones Warcraft 2? (Not to mention Warcraft). Even Red Alert came before Starcraft.

 

[Francis Collins]

My choices (console games only):

a) Super Mario Bros.
b) Legend of Zelda
c) Pac-Man
d) Mario 64
e) Grand Theft Auto

 

[BrianB]

Well the crux of the argument then would be which one of those two games was more influential.

And I think to decide that, you need to decide what "influential" means. To me, I thought this discussion was on "most influential to other developers". If the discussion, as you seem to be putting it, is "best selling", then that's a whole different kettle of fish.

And another factor to consider is the role of geography. A lot of the games mentioned in this thread are backed up by very American-centric comments. For instance, there was no "post-Atari crash" in Japan or Europe, and the European market was influenced by a whole bunch of different games compared to the US.

 

[Dave F]

And I think to decide that, you need to decide what "influential" means.

I was going to argue agaist one game that was mentioned, but then I figured that it had a huge negative impact, so I decided that it actually was influential. =)

-Dave

 

[Dave F]

Didnt Tomb Raider come after Mario? So how can Tomb Raider introduce 3d gameplay?

Tomb Raider and Mario 64 came out very close together. It could be argued that Mario64 introduced/popularized 3rd person platforming on the N64, and Tomb Raider handled it on the PSX, Saturn, and PC.

Personally, I think their influences branched off - Mario64 influenced 3rd person platforming and Tomb Raider influenced 3rd person action titles.

-Dave

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned half-life. it certainly wasnt the first fps, but i think it was quite influential. it spawned countless mods including counterstrike, which has now made its way to a console or two, if i'm not mistaken. it was also the inspiration for the best game never to be released, team fortress 2. another game people have missed is simcity. tons of spinoffs there. for the consoles, i'd have to say super mario bros was pretty influential, along with the first zelda, and sonic the hedgehog. of course this is limited to the games i have played, the NES was the first video gaming system i had access too, i was a little too young for the atari. i asked for an atari 2600 for xmas in 1988 and i got a nintendo, you could only imagine how excited that made a 10 year old kid

CJ

 

[paul_v]

Dungeons of Daggorath for the Tandy Color Computer was the first first-person perspective game I believe. I'm not sure if it was influential but damn was it an amazing example of what a programmer can do with 16k of rom!

 

[BrianB]

Dungeons of Daggorath for the Tandy Color Computer was the first first-person perspective game I believe.

When was it released? 3D Monster Maze on the ZX-81 was also a fps, and released in 1981.

 

[Matt Stone]

i'm surprised nobody mentioned half-life.

It definitely took the multi-player craze that Quake 2 started (as well as Q2's engine) to another level. Considering it's still the only FPS that I play on a regular basis, I'd rate it very high.

 

[Alanna]

Alot of PC stuff is sneaking in here so I'm going to throw another one out... EVERQUEST! Think about how many MMORPGs came after that sucker. There were probably many before but that one was the most successful... personally I liked Ultima Online but hey.