After 15 years, I am at page 64 or so in that list (starting from page 22), trying to at least play every game for a little bit and completing those that have an ending or some story to it (so far I only completed Oregon Trail and Dragon’s Lair; those text adventures are too hard) and Alone in the Dark is on page 216…
At this rate I’ll get to it in 2080
I do expect to simply watch a few minutes (or seconds) of gameplay on youtube for most of the games released after 2000.
What do you think about the list (so far)? Would you agree with the selection of games?
You could press shift or double tap to run or something along those lines if I’m not mistaken. Not that you’d want to ‘cause you’d sprint (if that’s the word) straight into a trap.
Mostly, yes. For the first decade there are probably too many entries of games that add only a small variation or one new element to pong/breakout/galaga to warrant its own entry. I’ve also skimmed through to the later years and no way so many Mario games deserve to be included. Luckily some of the writers really liked Lucasarts too, so that one has more entries than I expected.
In general, the list is a mix of games that are important from a historical or innovative point of view and others that simply are (or were) just very good games. Especially the later ones may not hold up that well today, as there is bound to be a better version or remake.
My major gripe with the book is that it lists the platform as “Various”, while for others that had ports to every computer and console as “Arcade”. So the stone cold classics Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken are listed as various. And they have an Amiga (or PC) screenshot. Well, at least not the FM-Towns horror.
But overall, it is a fun journey to (re)visit and (re)discover a bunch of games.
As for Dragon’s Lair, its graphics were at least 20 years ahead of its time (and even by then, everything had to be 3D) Gameplay wise… meh.
I can probably compile a list of games that are missing (Pitfall! 1&2 and River Raid to name a few)
I had a look at the table of contents (archive of the publisher’s website; I recommend sorting by date), and get the impression that there are quite a few instances of game series with multiple entries, though given the sheer amount of games it’s probably inevitable. I also think a couple more early flight sims and racing games would deserve a spot on the list. At least there’s Stunt Car Racer.
I played about 15 of the first 100, and there’s a slightly larger number where I have no clue what games those might be.
I sorted by date and saw that there are about 90 games released in 2009, compared with about 30 released in 1998, which many consider the greatest year for PC gaming ever and saw strong releases for Playstation too. Not only racing but the whole sports world is almost ignored.
The list is missing milestones like Wizardry, Dune and Fallout 2, which are still remembered and critically praised after 30+ years. Not one of the FIFA games is included. Nor is any of Geoff Crammond’s Grand Prix games. Nor Benoît Sokal’s graphical adventures.
Any “best of” list is debatable, but the flaws of this one seem bigger than usual.
I don’t think that you can elect a “greatest year for PC gaming”. Each year has some highlights. And it depends on how many developers and companies existed (and actually released games) in the past years.
Some years have many more highlights than others of course. Though I think ‘96 and ‘97 were much better than ‘98.