# What Video game changed the face of Video games?



## JadecloudAlchemist (Apr 29, 2009)

Video games have been around for quite a while and there are many of them.

However only a couple really stand out and some have crossed over and became legends,house hold names and have stretched their influences beyond just a mere video game.

Is it Pacman the first legend of the 70-80's era? It has quite alot of influence outside of video games.

Is it Mario Bros the first legend of the 80's? It certainly became a house hold name.

Is Street fighter 2 the ground breaking game of its time?

What games would you think broke the mold of video games and really stand out?


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## bluekey88 (Apr 29, 2009)

There are so many...

Zork...king of the text based games...it's dark, you might get eaten by a grue. 

Doom...it introduced a new genre (first person shooters)

World of Warcraft...the pinnacle of MMORPG achuievement that brought new players into the gaming fold.  

the Sims...capitalizing on the social element that internet access added to gaming.

Bioshock...for showing that a good, compelling story with great pacing and action coudl exist in a first person shooter.

Pretty much anything from bioware...especially the Baldur's gate series...bringing the D&D liscense to life.

Grand theft Auto series...lveo it or hate it...it set the standard for sandbox style driving/action games.

This is jsut a quick list off the top of my head.  I could go on.

Peace,
Erik


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## jim777 (Apr 29, 2009)

I used to like Asteroids when I was out of the house and playing on change fed machines, but the first two that really got me hooked at home were the Commander Keen series and IQ's awesome Castle Wolfenstein  Wolf eventually turned into Doom then turned into Quake, but Wolf had a recent release too which wasn't bad.


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## Nomad (Apr 29, 2009)

bluekey88 said:


> Bioshock...for showing that a good, compelling story with great pacing and action coudl exist in a first person shooter.


 
Though Bioshock's definitely more popular, I have to give this one to System Shock.  Great, nonlinear story, completely creeped me out.

Add Ultima Underworld to the list... one of the first and best first-person perspective games where you could fight, run, jump, swim, fly, and so on.  Totally immersive.

Command and Conquer for the strategic warfare genre.


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## crushing (Apr 29, 2009)

Zaxxon!   For pioneering isometric axonometric projection (third person 3-D) in video games.  (Yeah, I looked that one up)


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## GBlues (Apr 29, 2009)

Metal Gear Solid! OH Yeah! Man before that, stealth action hadn't even been thought of. And of course who can forget the first time they ever snuck up behind a guy and broke his neck??? Priceless game play!! So awesome when it first came out.


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## Sukerkin (Apr 29, 2009)

Well, on that subject, I think it was "Delta Force" that first capitalised on the stealth strategy.  DF1 was an excellent game, with a half way decent co-op multi-play option {which they then broke for all subsequent releases }.


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## JadecloudAlchemist (Apr 29, 2009)

Games we use to play in school:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/rockstar

You get to do drugs and name your records.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_Munchers
This was fun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Trail_(computer_game)
Writing on graves and killing animals perfect for kids!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_Earth_(video_game)
Fun game.
downloads.mosw.com/abandonware/pc/adventure/games_sp_sw/swiss_family_robinson.html
This game was a pain.


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## JadecloudAlchemist (Apr 29, 2009)

What RPG do you think paved the way?

Do you think it was the Final Fantasy series?
Zelda?
Dragon quest was one of my all time favorite.
Shadow gate was a text game I liked.
Chrono trigger was a real good game.
I am sure I am missing some. I did not have a DOS Apple in the 80's so I missed out on a lot of good games.:vu:

I did play Leisure suit Larry in school that was fun.


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## grydth (Apr 29, 2009)

Doom and Wolfenstein........ It's just me, an incredible arsenal and a ton of evil things in a free fire zone......

Utopia!


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## JadecloudAlchemist (Apr 29, 2009)

I remember playing Chiller in the Arcade I thought it was a boring game I did not know what it was until much later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiller_(video_game)

The Star wars Arcade was awesome and one of my favorite:




Return of the Jedi was fun too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eku5H6aZgCU&feature=related

Indiana Jones:




 
Kangaroo:




 
Ghost busters arcade:


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## searcher (Apr 29, 2009)

Pong.

Mario Bros.

Mortal Kombat.


This should be, which game system set the new standard.


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## JadecloudAlchemist (Apr 29, 2009)

Speaking of Pong I use to play this one:


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## bluekey88 (Apr 30, 2009)

For RPG's. Wizardry set teh standard that was perfected with the bard's quest and Ultima games...although Bioware really holds the current standard for this.  I cannot wait for Dragon Age to hit stores.

Another landmark game has to be Guitar Hero.  A terribly addicting game...it has spawned a whole new way to enjoy music, and again, has paved the way to bring new people into the gaming fold.

There's also the Madden series for sports games.  It's a juggernaut.

Peace,
Erik


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## JadecloudAlchemist (Apr 30, 2009)

I liked Madden 93 really fun.

Guitar hero is difficult to play for me and I can play actual instruments!!

Wii finally has a final fantasy game out I want to check it out too.


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## bluekey88 (Apr 30, 2009)

JadecloudAlchemist said:


> Guitar hero is difficult to play for me and I can play actual instruments!!


 
I, too, am a musician.  the trick for me is to approach guitar hero as a gamer and not a musician.  Don't play the song...play the game.  that being said...expert difficulty is HARD.  Still, it's a game I can come home from work, play for 10 or 20 minutes and then go about the rest of my evening...I don;t hve to wait for a save point or whatever (I'm also not likeyl going ot find myself up at 3:00 AM wondering where the hell the time went).

Peace,
Erik


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## cdunn (Apr 30, 2009)

bluekey88 said:


> World of Warcraft...the pinnacle of MMORPG achuievement that brought new players into the gaming fold.
> 
> Bioshock...for showing that a good, compelling story with great pacing and action coudl exist in a first person shooter.


 
System Shock, as mentioned, was the model for Bioshock. "L-look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bones, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"

As for WoW, the only 'game changer' it's been for MMOs is proving that people like to log into persistant worlds to play by themselves while talking to others. They're walking along the channel blazed by Everquest, and a little of Ultima Online, jump started with the help of an inexplicably devoted fanbase.


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## MA-Caver (Apr 30, 2009)

I dunno about pioneering games but there is one that I miss and that was Rampart, used to love that but got frustrated as hell with it when I didn't get the right pieces to (re) build my castle fortress so to continue defending against those pesky pirates. 

Haven't found a on line equivalent.

I'm still looking for variations of the tower defense games which if done right can be downright pretty neat to play... GemCraft is probably the best of the bunch on line.


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## KELLYG (Apr 30, 2009)

I'm glad that someone else mention pong.
Do you remember the hand held foot ball games that the men were shaped like diamonds,  Don't forget Donkey Kong.


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## crushing (Apr 30, 2009)

Speaking of pong, my first gaming console looked like this:


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## MA-Caver (Apr 30, 2009)

KELLYG said:


> I'm glad that someone else mention pong.
> Do you remember the hand held foot ball games that the men were shaped like diamonds,  Don't forget Donkey Kong.


I'd mentioned Pong but it was actually the gaming console that STARTED the whole mess. My dad bought us the first one that came out... I remember friends coming over and asking how does it work and being a NERD (geeks hadn't evolved yet) that I was, I explain in detail on it... instantly boring my friends to tears. 

I do remember those football games by mattel ... not the diamond shaped men but the little lines that you moved up down and forward or back to avoid the others in your way to a touchdown. At the time t'was pretty nifty little thing for kids/teenagers on long trips or boring classes *ahem*


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## bluekey88 (May 1, 2009)

cdunn said:


> System Shock, as mentioned, was the model for Bioshock. "L-look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bones, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"
> 
> As for WoW, the only 'game changer' it's been for MMOs is proving that people like to log into persistant worlds to play by themselves while talking to others. They're walking along the channel blazed by Everquest, and a little of Ultima Online, jump started with the help of an inexplicably devoted fanbase.


 
I never said Bioshock or WoW were the originals...but they did what others did in such a way a littel betetr and with these games people who were not "gamers" joined the fold so to speak.  To em, that is really what defines a a landmark game...it's ability to reach out to the general populace and catch hold (or to define/create a genre).

Peace,
Erik


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## Hyper_Shadow (May 1, 2009)

I think the major change was made with the advent of 3d home gaming. Though they'd been around a little while before, the main time for them to come to the forefront was with the advent of the Sega Saturn and it's later rival Playstation.

As for the games, well there are a few that spring to mind that were pushed forward with these consoles.

1.Tomb Raider (who doesn't like Lara Croft?)
2.Resident Evil (There was no such thing as survival horror until this.)
3Final Fantasy 7 (I could go on all day about this I'm a big RPG fan and a very big FF7 fan, hell I'm a massive Square Enix fan.)

Other games that were revolutionary I would include:

4.Goldeneye (This was THE FPS until Halo)
5.Halo (See above)
6.Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic (yes D&D rules but with an epic and engrossing Star Wars Story).
7.Devil May Cry
8.Tekken

I can keep going through every game I've played with explanations for each of em. I'm quite passionate about my games, I see em as the modern day story books that allow kids to find new heroes to look up to and encourage them to be imaginitave.

I expect we will be seeing many more groundbreaking things in futre and I for one am looking forward to it.


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## CoryKS (May 1, 2009)

Pong - first commercially successful arcade game
SpaceWar - First vector graphics game
PacMan - first game to successfully attract female gamers
Donkey Kong - popularized the run/jump genre
Dragon's Lair - first laserdisk game
Doom - popularized the first person shooter genre


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