1up has been slowly adding to this list and now it's done.
Honestly, I think it's a quite a good list overall. It's very mainstream but that's kind of the point. Important/influential games are usually big hits and not often obscure/underrated games. I think Double Dragon should have made the list and the Mac shouldn't be on there since it's hardware and not a game. Jet Grind Radio probably shouldn't be there either as much as I would like it to be.
The nice thing about this feature is that even if you think a game should have been listed there's a good chance they did mention it in the actual articles/explanations. 50 games really isn't a lot of space for this kind of task even if it seems like a lot.
They made a few common historical errors like saying Adventure had the first Easter Egg, that Pac-Land was the only scrolling platformer pre-SMB, that Dragon Warrior single-handedly created the J-RPG style, and saying Parappa/rhythm genre has no video game ancestor.
1UP's Essential 50: The Most Influential Games of All Time -
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3116290&did=1
1. Spacewar
2. Pong
3. Space Invaders
4. Adventure
5. Battlezone
6. Pitfall!
7. Zork
8. Game & Watch
9. Star Wars
10. Pac-Man
11. Donkey Kong
12. Rogue
13. E.T.
14. Dragon's Lair
15. King's Quest
16. One-on-One
17. Super Mario Bros.
18. Gauntlet
19. M.U.L.E.
20. Dragon Warrior
21. Ultima IV
22. The Macintosh
23. Tetris
24. Prince of Persia
25. Faceball 2000
26. Doom
27. John Madden NFL Football
28. Sonic The Hedgehog
29. Super Mario Kart
30. Populous
31. Herzog Zwei
32. Street Fighter II
33. Myst
34. Mortal Kombat
35. Virtua Fighter
36. Super Mario 64
37. Tomb Raider
38. Final Fantasy VII
39. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
40. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
41. Metal Gear Solid
42. Half-Life
43. Gran Turismo
44. Parappa the Rapper
45. Ultima Online
46. Pokemon
47. The Sims
48. Jet Grind Radio
49. Grand Theft Auto III
50. Halo
They didn't list them in any order of importance. They are semi-chronological.
Please look forward to it!
i've been following this list for the past few weeks, and i must say that i'm impressed.
aside from constant references to the videogame "crash," (which has been blown entirely out of proportion,) there are some great articles there. i just wish there were some more C64 games.
level six laser lotus
Hm, I'd say Resident Evil and Devil May Cry are notable omissions. RE really kicked off the survival horror genre (yes I know Alone in the Dark was it's forebear, but RE was what popularized it), and DMC's been pretty much been the template for the action genre since it hit.
lol miyamoto
I have to ask, if it's not, what's the first? It was the first console easter egg, so I'm guess a computer format game went before it?Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
dave
The first, as far as I know, was a hidden programmer name in a demo game cartridge for the Channel F console. It's a bit older than the Adventure Easter Egg.
Halo re-invented the FPS.
Its a great list, but there are some misses.
Faceball 2000. It was ok.
Halo. Its almost like they use Halo to acknowledge MS bid into gaming. In some genre's they grant acknowledgement to the game who did it "first" (like Parappa) ignoring the better games that came later. Yet, with console FPS, they don't do that for Goldeneye. Oh well.
John Madden's Football. This was more of a "lifetime" achievement than it was for this one single game. The original JM Football was a broken game, with bad graphics and poor gameplay. It wasn't until EA copied many of SEGA's 'Joe Montana's Football' playstyle did they strike out with a superior title with Madden '92.
E.T. Sure it has a great story behind it, but why waste a spot on the list? Its just one of the first (of many) blockbuster titles to fall on its face.
Dragon's Lair. Another one of those games that has a great history behind it, but didn't revolutionize games at all. Instead, it kind of takes gameplay a few steps back, by making the gamer more passive and helped create alot of BAD FMV games.
Also, epmode made mention that the C-64/Atari 8 is pretty unrepresented. Games like Dungeon Master, ELITE, Pirates! come to mind. A few newer ones being War/Starcraft or SimCity.
Last edited by toxic; 14 Jan 2005 at 02:22 PM.
lol miyamoto
You sure it wasn't a name hidden in the code, or was it something unlockable like Adventure was? I just bring this up because Digital Press, where I do most of messageboard posting, as well as AtariAge have flagged Adventure as having the first easter egg. Being as DP covers the 2600 and the Channel F, I figured they'd know about the Channel F one.
*shrug* Yeah, I'm nitpicking, but I can't check DP, AA, or even 1up.com here at work.Damn websense...
dave
Someone at the atariage forums posted how to unlock it a while back. I think it was some button combination.You sure it wasn't a name hidden in the code, or was it something unlockable like Adventure was? I just bring this up because Digital Press, where I do most of messageboard posting, as well as AtariAge have flagged Adventure as having the first easter egg. Being as DP covers the 2600 and the Channel F, I figured they'd know about the Channel F one.
*shrug* Yeah, I'm nitpicking, but I can't check DP, AA, or even 1up.com here at work.
dave
*edit - found the answer.
http://members.cox.net/seanriddle/chanf.html
When you get to the end of the demo, hit buttons 1,3 and 4 at the same time. When you release them, the programmer's name is printed.
Last edited by NeoZeedeater; 14 Jan 2005 at 02:30 PM.
Roll it up !
This is quite an impressive list indeed... I am still really surprised to see E.T. in that list, this is a bit strange.
lol miyamoto
Yeah I just found that. Wish I could read the AA thread... it'd probably be a toss-up, as the demo cart is just that, and was never officially released, while it did take the prize if that 1977 copyright date holds to be the year it was made.
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