Star Raiders gets honored

[mos6507]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/arts/des...xprod=permalink

[Nukey Shay]

“maybe we should do something about preserving them.”

 

Great. Now all of you collectors are gonna have more competition from historical preservationists on the Ebay front

[FastRobPlus]

Funny that Meretzky is one of the judges naming the top 10 games and Zork just happens to come in at #3...

 

Seriously, I agree with the list. In fact, I collect fot the exact reasons outlined in this article, so I guess you can consider me the historical preservationist competition.

 

I think they need to go a bit deeper (and likely do - that was just a short writeup) and collect with an eye towards trending cultural and historical tastes, marketing, and even moral/legal ramificaitons. A group where I work maintains an internal wiki where we discuss the significance of particular games and how they influenced these (and other) aspects of the industry.

[potatohead]

Nice starter list.

 

There is a lot more to be done, and I'm sure will be.

 

Star Raiders is an excellent game. I've kept my old 400, just for this reason. I did some reading and the author was worried about the slowdown when explosions were present.

 

This is a feature, not a bug! Makes for a great experience. Getting right in the thick of it, the slowdown simply adds to the already solid visual effects.

 

Glad he never worked it out.

[JamesD]

I'm not sure I agree with Zork. Scott Adams beat Infocom by years in the commercial adventure market and the original 'Adventure' was around years before that.

<edit>

'Adventurland' and 'Pirate Adventure' were released in 1978.

Zork was 1979

 

Not years but it was before Zork.

 

'Adventure' is also called 'Colossal Cave Adventure'. It has it's origins all the way back in 1972.

The "official" version in C was introduced in 1976.

http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/a_history.html

Edited March 14, 2007 by JamesD

[Jetboot Jack]

It's not about being first, it's about being significant - and whatever you like to say about Adventureland - it's nothing like Zork.

 

Zork is interactive fiction, not hunt the noun/verb combo...

 

sTeVE

[+DarkLord]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/arts/des...xprod=permalink

 

Nice list, good choices, but I don't know how they could leave out Dungeon Master.

 

The article comments that these games represent the start of genre's. Fine, I'm okay

with that - makes sense. So DM was the start of 3D Dungeon games and should be

included, IMHO...

 

(also, where is the Ultima series?)

[Jetboot Jack]

There were plenty of 3D dungeon games long before Dungeon Master (can you say Eidolon?) - not that Dm wasn't AWESOME, just not seminal...

 

I would say ultima is an amazing game - one I find hard to fathom why it is not included. Perhaps they deemed it was one of many early RPG games from around the same time, but it by far the most influential -perhaps it just missed the top ten (pipped by SWOS - WTF)?

 

The article doesn't say all the titles are the start of genres' it says

"Almost all of the games on the Lowood list represent the beginning of a genre"

 

sTeVE

[ijor]

It's not about being first, it's about being significant - and whatever you like to say about Adventureland - it's nothing like Zork.

 

 

There were plenty of 3D dungeon games long before Dungeon Master (can you say Eidolon?) - not that Dm wasn't AWESOME, just not seminal...

 

Do I sense some contradiction? Or are you claiming Eidolon was more significant and influential than DM?

 

I also find strange they didn't include any flight simulator (whichever was the first or more important).

[Pengwin]

The trouble with these lists is that everyone will have their own.

 

I agree that Star Raiders should be there. It influenced a lot of games, not least of which were the Wing Commander series.

 

From what I can see in the list is that each of the games influenced a particular genre. They may not necessarily be the best in each genre, but I think they are right in that they could be the most influential.

 

I agree there should be a flight simulator in the list. My choice would probably be Flight Simulator II, or possibly even Spitfire Ace. But we should also remember that this list is not an Atari list, it is a list of influential games on all platforms.

[Jetboot Jack]

ijor,

 

I guess I was saying that as there were so many 3D dungeon games (inc Ultima as it happens) before DM perhaps one of them is the seminal moment in the genre...

 

I don't think DM was the most important 3D dungeon game (and no I was not suggesting Eidolon was either) - I wonder what contenders there are??

 

sTeVE

Edited March 17, 2007 by Jetboot Jack