This week at work we had our game-expert Jørgen Kirksæther count down the top five groundbreaking games of all time (http://bit.ly/IPJ8U6) .
On 5th place he has MUD (Multi-User Dungeons). The text-based adventure game.
He claims MUD is the first game that managed really well the concept of playing with and against other real people.
– MUD is not only the predecessor to the World of Warcraft, but most multi-player online games and the online-adventure genre, says Kirksæther.
On 4th place he gives us Donkey Kong, the original arcade game from 1981.
Donkey Kong makes his list for being the first real platformer game. Additionally, this is the game that introduced Mario and Princess Peach to the world. The game was the beginning of the great Nintendo as we know it today.
On 3rd place we can find the first-person shooter game Half-Life. When Half Life came in 1998, first-person shooter games had already been around for many years, but Kirksæther says the game gave the genre a whole new dimension.
– The first time I played Half-Life, I had to pick up my jaw from the floor, he says. Thou the graphics may not be all that impressive today, they were quite groundbreaking back when the game came out. Half-Life was originally a huge success.
2nd place on his list is Tomb Raider from 1996, thou he credits the whole game series.
The game introduced us to heroin Lara Croft.
– The game is fantastic, Lara is the first digital lady who ended up on the covers of lifestyle magazines such as The Face, says Jørgen.
Her big boobs and shapely figure attracted many young boys to this game, but this game also introduced many woman to gaming.
Jørgen Kirksæther has many games he wishes could make the list.
– There are many memorable games that could have been on this list, like Space Invaders, Tetris and World of Warcraft. But this game obviously has to be on the list.
The 1st place goes to:
Pong!
Launched by the newly founded Atari in 1972. This was the first game with commercial success.
– This is the first game to successfully make money, so we may well call it the origin of the entire gaming industry, says Jørgen.
He believes that the game’s simplicity was its strength.
– The game is so simple that it can be in a pub and even after several pints of beer you can still enjoy playing it. This was proven by the first prototype, which was in a bar and was chock full of quarters within a very short time. That’s how they realized they had a success.
– The major game manufacturer Atari was built on the basis of this success. Without Pong, the game industry would not have developed into what it is today.
Now, what are your favorites games?
JC's life 