I’ve spent some time over the last week helping my good friend and fellow game designer Jeremy P Bushnell compile a list of historically important video games.

Jeremy has been teaching a Writing course at Boston University on the topic of “Playing Games: How Video Games Work and What They Mean.”

In his discussions with the students about the concept of historical analysis: analyzing video games based on how they “fit” into the context of a developing timeline of games, he had a chance to create an initial list of about 40 games.

This list was then passed around between our friends and associates as well as being shared with his two classes of about forty students total.  Jeremy encouraged his students to confront and challenge the games on this list as well as suggest ones they felt should be included.  They even got to write persuasive papers as an assignment to get a game included on the list.  If the argument was convincing enough they even received some extra credit for making the list.

Jeremy and I discussed some of the more convincing papers and kicked our thoughts back and forth on what made these games historically significant. It was a lot of fun and very interesting to get to consider where videos games have come from (with Spacewar in 1961) up through to the present day.  It was a challenge to pick games not for being good or popular necessarily but for their historical significance.

The finished list (reposted with permission) now stands at 64 chronological games (a nice power of 2) and includes justifications for why each game was included:

64 Important Games From Video Game History version 2.0

1. 1961     Spacewar, first digital game / first shooter / first two-player game
2. 1971     Oregon Trail, landmark educational game (designed in 1971, produced in 1974, re-released in 1985, 1992, 2001, 2008, and 2009)
3. 1972     Pong, first commercially-successful arcade game / first sports simulation, also first digital game released for the home market (1975)
4. 1974     Gran Trak 10, first racing game
5. 1976     [Colossal Cave] Adventure, first adventure game
6. 1976     Breakout, landmark arcade game
7. 1977     Night Racer, first first-person racing game
8. 1978     Space Invaders, first commercially-successful shoot-em-up (160,000 copies sold)
9. 1978     Atari Football, landmark sports simulation game
10. 1979     Asteroids, landmark shoot-em-up
11. 1979     Adventure, first action-adventure game
12. 1980     Zork, landmark text adventure game
13. 1980     Space Panic, first platformer
14. 1980     Pac-Man, landmark arcade game (350,000 units sold)
15. 1980     Rogue, early graphical adventure game
16. 1981     Donkey Kong, landmark platformer (60,000 units sold), also the first game to tell a complete (embedded) narrative
17. 1982     Pole Position, landmark racing game
18. 1983     Intellivision World Series Baseball, first 3-D sports simulation, also the first sports simulation to use multiple camera angles to emphasize action
19. 1983     Ultima III, landmark PC role-playing game
20. 1983     Lode Runner, landmark platformer, plus an early game permitting the creation of user-generated levels
21. 1983     Pinball Construction Set, an early game permitting the creation of user-generated content
22. 1984     Tetris, landmark abstract puzzle game
23. 1985     Gauntlet, landmark multi-player game
24. 1985     Super Mario Bros., landmark 2-D side-scrolling platformer (forty million copies sold)
25. 1986     Air Warrior, first multi-player online game with graphics
26. 1987     Earl Weaver Baseball, landmark sports simulation
27. 1987-8    Street Fighter / Street Fighter II, landmark one-on-one competitive fighting games
28. 1987     The Legend of Zelda, landmark adventure game, also the first home cartridge to permit saving, also a good early example of a game which permitted non-linear play
29. 1989     SimCity, landmark developer simulation
30. 1990     Microsoft Solitaire, landmark casual game
31. 1990     Minesweeper, landmark casual / puzzle game
32. 1990     John Madden Football, landmark sports simulation
33. 1991     Civilization, landmark turn-based strategy game
34. 1991     Neverwinter Nights, first multi-player online role-playing game to display graphics
35. 1991     Final Fantasy IV, landmark console role-playing game
36. 1991     Myst, landmark adventure game (six million copies sold)
37. 1992     Wolfenstein 3-D, first commercially-successful first-person shooter
38. 1992     Mortal Kombat, landmark fighting game
39. 1992     The Incredible Machine, early physics game
40. 1992     Dune II, first real-time strategy game
41. 1993     Doom, landmark first-person shooter, also a good early example of an open-source game
42. 1995     Command and Conquer, landmark real-time strategy game
43. 1996     Quake, landmark first-person shooter, also a good early example of a game utilizing an online multiplayer mode
44. 1996     Super Mario 64, landmark 3-D platformer (eleven million copies sold)
45. 1996     Resident Evil, first survival horror game
46. 1996-8     Pokemon Red / Pokemon Blue, landmark RPG (eight million copies sold), also a good early example of a game with innovative multiplayer mechanics
47. 1997     Lego Island, first open-world game
48. 1997     Ultima Online, landmark multi-player online role-playing game (250,000 subscribers)
49. 1998     Dance Dance Revolution, landmark rhythm game / exercise game
50. 1998     Half-Life, landmark first-person shooter (eight million copies sold), also a landmark example of an open-source game
51. 1998     Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, first commercially-successful tactical shooter
52. 1998     Metal Gear Solid, first commercially-successful stealth game
53. 1998     Starcraft, landmark real-time strategy game
54. 1999     Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, landmark extreme sports simulation
55. 1999-2000    Counter-Strike, landmark mod, also a game making central use of online multiplayer technology
56. 2001     Bejeweled, landmark puzzle / casual game
57. 2001     Gran Turismo 3, landmark racing game
58. 2001     Grand Theft Auto III, landmark open-world game
59. 2002     The Sims, landmark life-simulation game (sixteen million copies sold), plus a game making central use of user-generated content
60. 2003     Diner Dash, landmark time-management game
61. 2004     Halo 2, landmark in online console gaming (four million subscribers)
62. 2004     World of Warcraft, landmark multi-player online role-playing game (over eleven million subscribers)
63. 2005     Guitar Hero, landmark rhythm game
64. 2006     Wii Sports, landmark sports simulation (forty-five million copies sold)

Your comments and arguments are welcome!