workingThe Games:
Essential 50 Club
1. Spacewar (1962: PDP-1)
2. Pong (1972: Arcade/Console) - Never really played it, except for a couple times.
3. Space Invaders (1978: Arcade) - I'd rather see something like Asteroids up this high, especially since it's not on the list. Asteroids was my favorite game all time on my Atari 2600
4. Adventure (1979: Atari 2600) - I loved playing this game as a kid. I think of all games on my 2600 this is the one I played the most with Asteroids being a close second.
5. Battlezone (1980: Arcade)
6. Pitfall! (1982: Atari 2600) - Another game I played a lot on my 2600. I remember running around and collecting silver, gold, and diamonds, jumping over alligators and scorpions, and how frustrating it would be when you died.
7. Zork (1977-79: DEC PDP-10)
8. Game & Watch (1980-88)
9. Star Wars (1983: Arcade) - This game was my favorite arcade game when I would go down to Golfland ( miniature golf and arcade). I could play this thing forever and I was pretty good. Always loved the graphics, the color vector graphics were cutting edge at it's time.
10. Pac-Man (1980: Arcade) - Waka Waka Waka Waka.
11. Donkey Kong (1981: Arcade) - Always was fun to play, but I always sucked at it.
12. Rogue (1980: VAX/BSD UNIX)
13. E.T. (1982: Atari 2600) - Hah they put this on here just because of the fact that is SUCKED SO BAD. Funny how they put this on here and not Bezerk, which was such a great game and I think done by the same game designer.
14. Dragon's Lair (1983: Arcade) - This was done in 1983?! Wow the graphics were way ahead of their time. It was like playing a carton. First game ever produced on a laserdisc (which wasn't a good thing overall, but was cutting edge and a step in the right direction in it's time to push the medium).
15. King's Quest (1983: PC) - I never really played KQ much, but it's one of the games that put Sierra on the map in the 80's. Was fun the few times I was able to play it, but I never had a copy.
16. One-on-One (1983: C64) - The rise of the EA Sports empire. Was always fun to play.
17. Super Mario Bros. (1985: Arcade/NES) - Who didn't play this and enjoy it? I remember playing this till like 5 or 6 in the morning at least a couple times.
18. Gauntlet (1985: Arcade) - A 4 player arcade game where everyone cooperates together for the same goal. Was a blast to play.
19. M.U.L.E. (1983: C64)
20. Dragon Warrior (1986: NES)
21. Ultima IV (1985: Apple II/PC) - I liked Ultima Online, loved it for years, but I never once played any of the previous Ultima games.
22. The Macintosh (1984)
23. Tetris (1986: PC/NES/GameBoy)
24. Prince of Persia (1989: PC) Karateka was made by the same guy in 1984 and that was fun, but PoP was a blast to play too. Great animation for it's time and a fun side scroller.
25. FaceBall 2000 (1990: GameBoy)
26. Doom (1993: PC) - The game that set off the FPS genre. I played it a lot, even my mom liked playing it when I showed it to her.
27. John Madden NFL Football (1990: Genesis) - I don't think I really need to say much about this. It's fricken John Madden FOOTBALL!
28. Sonic the Hedgehog (1991: Genesis) - A very addictive console game.
29. Super Mario Kart (1992: Super NES)
30. Populous (1989: Amiga/PC)
31. Herzog Zwei (1991: Genesis)
32. Street Fighter II (1991: Arcade)
33. Myst (1993: Mac/PC)
34. Mortal Kombat (1992: Arcade/SNES/Genesis) - Fatality. Many quarters were sacrificed to play this game that I was never really good at.
35. Virtua Fighter (1993: Arcade/32X) - I was much better at this fighting game instead.
36. Super Mario 64 (1996: Nintendo 64)
37. Tomb Raider (1996: PS/Saturn/PC/Mac) - Never liked it.
38. Final Fantasy VII (1997: PS/PC)
39. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (1999: PS) - An addictively fun game that you could just pick up the controller and play with your friends.
40. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998: N64)
41. Metal Gear Solid (1998: PS) - To much stealth!
42. Half-Life (1998: PC) - IMO the best PC game of all time. Not just for the single player, it's had such a long shelf life because of the ability of modding it into so many different games.
43. Gran Turismo (1998: PS) - The quintessential racing game of the console systems (in any version).
44. Parappa the Rapper (1997: PS)
45. Ultima Online (1997: PC) - Haha here it is. Trust me I spent MANY MANY hours in this game. I mean I still run a community site and I don't even play the game http://www.theprc.com
46. Pokémon (1998: GameBoy)
47. The Sims (2000: PC)
48. Jet Grind Radio (2000: Dreamcast)
49. Grand Theft Auto III (2001: PS2/Xbox/PC) - Fun game. Just wish you didn't have to do missions to go around the whole game.
50. Halo (2001: Xbox/PC/Mac) - I never played the first Halo. I played Halo 2 a bit and then let Sean borrow it.
Games I can't understand how they could have not been on the list.
Original Duke Nuke'm - Before Duke 3d there was the GREAT side scrolling series of games that were a blast to play.
Asteroids - My favorite game of all time on the Atari 2600.
Cyberball - What could possibly be better then robots playing football? How about if the football blows up and takes the robot with it?
Pole Position - I don't think any racing game should be allowed to be discussed without the mentioning of Pole Position.
