25 Most Popular Video Games Ever 25 Most Popular Video Games Ever Posted by Josef on February 14, 2013 57 Share on Pinterest Video games inherently make more money than any other kinds of gadgets or toys because of their accessibility to a wider audience, especially with the recent proliferation of technology and mobile devices throughout the world. And these day, whether you’re a hard core gamer or not, smart phones have nearly guaranteed that you are at least mildly guilty of wasting time swallowing ghosts or chucking birds. These are the 25 most popular video games ever. Share on Pinterest Considered one of the best games ever when it became a hit on Gameboy it was released by NES in 1998 and players were blown away by the graphics and gameplay of the game compared with the other Gameboy Zelda games. Originally designed for the Nintendo 64DD, it was released instead on a 256-megabit cartridge, the largest-capacity cartridge NES ever produced and also was the first with 3D graphics. 24 Share on Pinterest Over 20 million copies of these role-playing games were sold by Nintendo for Gameboy.

Developed by Game Freak, the first installments were Red and Green, which were released in Japan in 1996. Blue was later released in the year as a special edition, with Pokemon Yellow subsequently released three years later. Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green were remade afterwards for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 where upwards of 10 million copies were sold. 23 Share on Pinterest Published by Nintendo for its Nintendo 64 and released in June 23, 1996 Super Mario 64 sold over 11 million copies worldwide. The third-person, free roaming, 3D platform was the brainchild of Shigeru Miyamoto who had spent years trying to build a fully-3D platform for the SNES before he quit the idea altogether. However, when the company shifted to the development of N64, he played a big role in helping the company veer away from same thumb-destroying crosspads the company had been employing for over a decade. 22 Share on Pinterest Often considered the most successful video game series of all time, The Sims has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide as of May 2011.

A strategic life simulation video game, it is also hailed as the best-selling PC franchise in history. The sandbox game was developed by Maxis, and was later turned over to The Sims Studio published by Electronic Arts. The gameplay involves creating virtual characters called ‘Sims’ who are placed in homes where players can direct their moods and satisfy their desires. 21 Share on Pinterest Released in June 6, 1984, this tile-matching puzzle video game was created by Alexey Pajitnov, a young researcher at Moscow’s Academy of Science. The inspiration for this game came from a board game called Pentomino where 12 different shapes made out of five squares are twisted and turned until they all fit together in a box. Nowadays, an estimated billion people have played Tetris, the first entertainment software from the USSR that was exported to the US. This game is available on nearly all platforms helping it earn the topmost ranking on the ‘100 Greatest Games of All Time’ list from the Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue. Get more stuff like this in your inbox Join over a million subscribers in our community, and never miss another List25 article.

Patriot games: a brief history of Russian video gaming — The Calvert Journal Patriot games: a brief history of Russian video gaming 4 December 2014 We all know that Tetris originated in Russia (and celebrated its 30th anniversary this year). But the country's video gaming history — from Soviet arcades to online role-playing games — is rich and varied, and intersects with politics and patriotism in fascinating ways Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on LinkedIn Share via Email Tetris, originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov and released in 1984 Although the Russian video game industry dates back decades to the 1970s, until recent years few Russian-made games have gained attention outside of the Russian-speaking world. Russians who crop up in non-Russian games (and films ) are often the bad guys. Cigarettes, vodka, Soviet soldiers, red stars, gritty dialogue, gangsters; these are the tropes upon which Russian representation in games is built. It’s not surprising then that Russians should approach video game creation differently, particularly where notions of Russianness are concerned. Soviet arcade and handheld games The Soviet Arcade Game Museum has caused minor ripples in the blogosphere lately.

Here, lovingly maintained and preserved is a wealth of early mechanical arcade games from the late 1970s to mid-1980s. The options on offer recall healthy, Komsomol-approved Soviet youth pursuits: shooting, folk games, sports. Also represented are military and space operations, in which schoolchildren could live out prominent fantasies of becoming expert snipers or cosmonauts. The sudden availability of so many different arcade games in the Soviet Union corresponded very closely with the popularity of arcade games in the US and Japan. However, while the American industry has experienced periods of renewed interest, the Japanese and Russian arcade game industries have atrophied with the rise of home computing and handheld games. Take a look through the periscope in this simulation of the classic arcade game Morskoi Boi (Sea Battle), in which the player fires torpedos at enemy ships. This simulation shows Gorodki, the arcade version of the traditional Russian folk game of the same name, similar to skittles. By the mid-1980s, enterprising engineers were looking to provide portable, handheld games to meet the increasing desire for consumer products.

The solution was the igra mikroprocessornaia or microprocessor game. Out of context these small, boxy consoles stamped with the brand name Elektronika look almost cartoonishly Soviet, but a sharp-eyed submitter at English Russia demonstrates that they were frequently cloned from Japanese and American games. Over that technical skeleton, Russian programmers layered characters, games and sports from popular Russian culture: hockey, cartoons, mathematics and space exploration. This early Elektronika game, Nu, Pogodi!, featured the wolf from the cartoon of the same name. The aim is to catch the eggs before they fall and hatch. Gaming at home Games from the 1970s and 1980s often required players to calculate distances and speeds, solve mathematical puzzles, prioritise actions and engage twitch reflexes. As personal computing became more accessible, even if only to a small percentage of the population, Russian game makers began to move towards logic and puzzle games. These, along with fighting and racing games from abroad, were played on the highly sought-after Taiwanese NES clone, the Dendy, on clones of the ZX Spectrum like the Kvant-BK or the odd imported Atari.

In the early 1990s, dedicated Russian studios began making multiple, original games for the mass market. Many of these will be familiar to non-Russian readers after a combination of international licensing agreements, clones and shareware popularised them in the English-speaking world. Gamos, for example, released roughly three puzzle, strategy or logic games a year and ex-Commodore users might remember that version of 7 Colours, one of several that were soon made available outside Russia. These simple but hard-to-beat games weren’t an exclusively Russian craze, but there was a certain cultural logic to them. In a climate where engineering, science and mathematics were highly prized, games like these promised mental training. They were socially palatable, devoid of any clear political ideology and they offered a comforting view of the world. Strategise, make the correct moves and a win is assured. On the cusp of the new millennium, K-D Labs released Vangers, a game which inexplicably blended a driving game with a peculiar action-adventure role-playing game about space travel and intergalactic warfare. A cult classic among Russian gamers, Vangers created a world in which all prior knowledge of cosmology became irrelevant.

Humankind is thrown into warfare and even the player’s role of exploration is inherently destructive as the scenery can be affected by the player’s vehicle. The confusion of alien technology, the terror of constant warfare with an unknown enemy and the disconcerting erosion of past truths make Vangers a powerful metaphor for the fears of immediately post-Soviet Russia. IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad is a lovingly-detailed flight simulator based on World War Two’s Eastern Front. The player may select one of several dozen aeroplanes and then conduct missions based on historically accurate air battles. Every two to three years the developer releases an expansion or an upgrade — more planes, a more responsive flight experience or a new theatre of war. The development of the game coincided with a renewed interest in pouring money and personnel into the Russian military. This trend spilled over into videogames and from the early 2000s, Russian games have been drawing ever more heavily upon historical recreations of war, first-person shooters and military strategy games.

Although IL-2 Sturmovik is popular worldwide it is hard to escape the sense that its popularity is in part due to its lack of overt political ideology; the first game focuses on the Eastern Front, true, but pilots may select any plane for missions. This is more a love letter to military aeroplanes than a political statement, unlike the next game on this list. The Truth About 9th Company, and the reactions to it, are a good example of the increasing awareness about video games from political figures in the past decade. The game purports to be a “documentary game” in which the player experiences the historic battle for Hill 3234 during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Dmitry Puchkov (the translator of films and, more recently, games) claims he inspired the project and has presented it as a reaction to the erosion of Russia’s “historical memory” and a counterpoint to the “lies” about Russian military history. When the game was shown to a collection of delegates at the 2008 World Russian People’s Council, it was described as a game which could “ educate young people in patriotism but also provide objective knowledge about military affairs, history and geography ”.

This isn’t a unique scenario. As gaming has become vastly more accessible, the idea of using games to promote certain viewpoints or educate young people in state-approved ways has received a significant amount of traction. As it happens, the game was not especially well received, particularly because the controls and gameplay were considered very mundane. It seems from this example, and from my further research on the topic, that before the Russian government can inspire the youth through the medium of games, they’re first going to have to choose a game that is, you know, fun. Allods Online is the latest game in the Rage of Mages series, Nival Interactive’s seven-year-old project thick with Russian folkloric references, such as bogatyrs, knight-like heroes, and imposing Sovietesque cities. Players choose one of two factions, League or Imperium. The League — elves, humans and tiny anthropomorphic animal triplets named Gibberlings — reside in rustic towns and lush forests. By contrast the Imperium are a coalition of orcs and undead who are described in game fiction as a military-industrial, empire-building society with an autocratic leader.

These contrasting depictions of quasi-human races echo two similar themes in Russian culture and history: the idealisation of a simple, rural life and the glorification of military power and progress, and strong leadership. The game is full of references and features that tell the player that this is fundamentally a Russian enterprise; communal apartments, tiny kiosks in the streets, domed buildings, orcs in Russian naval uniform and red stars perched atop concrete skyscrapers. Quests make mocking reference to Russian bureaucracy, or demand players must collect fuel and birch twigs for the banya, the communal bathhouse. The course of game development hasn’t necessarily run smooth, but today an overview of the Russian gaming industry reveals an economic and creative powerhouse, from which only the most controversial or remarkable games are ever covered in the English-language press. The industry is diversifying with big-budget, long-running series like Rages of Mages or IL-2 Sturmovik rubbing shoulders with independent games like Ice-Pick Lodge’s Knock-knock, which was funded by a Kickstarter. Yet, despite this, Russian gaming feels oddly disconnected from a wider game history.

We’re a long way from being able to pick out Russian games in the same way that we can identify big-eyed, spiky-haired game heroes of Japan or hypermasculine war simulations from the US. For a long time, our perception of what Russianness in games looks like has been filtered through heavy-handed western depictions of Russian characters or clones of Russian-made games. But there’s a whole world of characters, scenarios, alternative histories and settings that Russian developers can uniquely draw on. Perhaps in time this rich and varied industry will enjoy the global exposure it deserves. How Tetris Helped Game Boy Take Over the World How Tetris Helped Game Boy Take Over the World Go to permalink GIF Thirty years ago this week, Russian computer programmer Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov created Tetris. Unveiled behind the Iron Curtain, the deceptively simple, maddeningly addictive game soon left the Soviet Union. It lived on dozens of platforms, but its Lennon-McCartney (Lenin-McCartney?) partner was Nintendo's Game Boy. And the duo defined modern mobile gaming as we know it.

Steve Wozniak Was So Good at Tetris He Got Banned from Nintendo Power Steve Wozniak Was So Good at Tetris He Got Banned from Nintendo Power Steve Wozniak Was So Good at Tetris He Got Banned… In our article about Tetris's 30th anniversary, the one and only Steve Wozniak dropped by to… Read more Read more By now, Tetris's history is well-known among gaming fans: introduced on June 6th, 1984 as a PC game, the product of Moscow's Academy of Science of the USSR spread to the rest of the world in short order. It was the first video game exported from the Soviet Union to the U.S., by way of Commodore 64. But it was in 1989, when it was included in the U.S. launch of Nintendo's Game Boy, that Tetris entered a generation's psyche.

Advertisement Advertisement The Game Boy was neither the first hand-held video game (rudimentary devices began arriving as early as the mid-70s), nor the most powerful: both the Atari Lynx and the Sega Game Gear , released around the same time as the original Game Boy, packed backlit, color screens. Nintendo didn't bring color to the Game Boy until 1998. But where Atari and Sega's offerings were battery-thirsty powerhouses, Game Boy's simple features and long gameplay time (up to 12 hours from four AA batteries) made it a favorite among more casual gamers. And pretty soon, the Game Boy made casual gamers out of tons of people. Sales surpassed 1 million mere weeks after the Game Boy's August 1989 U.S. debut. Between the original Game Boy and the Game Boy Color, nearly 120 million of the handheld devices were sold. Tetris was one of the five game cartridges that Nintendo chose to include in the box with the first run of Game Boys. It ran on to be the far-and-away best selling game on the system: more than 30 million cartridges that bear its name made it into loving homes.

More importantly, Tetris helped define the kind of mobile gaming that's still so popular today. Sponsored Think about it conceptually: a game you can start from scratch and play for a minute or an hour (or several grinding, increasingly adrenaline-jittered hours). There's no storyline. The maneuvers are stone simple. You could hand it to someone who's never played a video game in their entire life, and they'd be able to figure it out within minutes. My grandmother was one of those people. She was born in 1930, and had zero interest in video games. But as a grade-schooler in the early 90s, when I'd wake up on Saturday mornings, I'd find my gray brick Game Boy on the kitchen table, batteries dead again from one of her late-night Tetris marathons. The sheer joy she exhibited at receiving a purple Game Boy Pocket as a birthday gift completely ruined gift giving for me. Nobody will ever be as happy unwrapping something I've given them. And I know it's not just me. Everyone has a "non-gamer who fell in love with Tetris" story.

Advertisement Mobile gaming has come a long, long way since Tetris and Game Boy started giving people thumb-blisters and nightmares about continuously-falling bricks . Today, you can play astonishingly realistic first-person zombie shooters on a full-color touchscreen device that fits in your pocket and carries the whole gosh-danged internet on it. But the most popular mobile games are still the ones that fit the Tetris mold: deceptively simple . Instantly understandable. Maddeningly un-beatable . Wait, What? Flappy Bird's Creator Says He's Removing The Game (Updated) Wait, What? Flappy Bird's Creator Says He's Removing The Game (Updated) Wait, What? Flappy Bird's Creator Says He's… A tweet from Dong Nguyen, creator of the maddening and virally popular game Flappy Bird, says the… Read more Read more Maybe you and your tech-savvy friends probably play all kinds of convoluted, plot-driven games on your handheld devices.

But the people around your dinner table, or on your subway car, or next to you at the office or airport, are probably consumed by some sort of angry or flappy bird game, one that in a very real way owes its design and existence to the Game Boy and Tetris. Advertisement Advertisement So here's to you, Alexey Leonidovich. You may have had to wait until 1996 to start making money from your creation, but we're still playing , riffing on, and rhapsodizing your beautiful masterpiece today. Gear from Kinja Deals About Tetris - Tetris | Official Site What is Tetris®? It's the addictive puzzle game that started it all! By embracing our universal desire to create order out of chaos, the Tetris® game provides intellectual sport that combines continuous fun with mental stimulation. As one of the most recognizable and influential video game brands in the world, it’s no wonder why there are hundreds of millions of Tetris products being played, worn, and enjoyed by fans in their everyday lives. For thirty years, the game and brand have truly transcended the barriers of culture and language, resulting in a fun and exciting playing experience for everyone, everywhere! How do you play?

The Tetris® game requires players to strategically rotate, move, and drop a procession of Tetriminos that fall into the rectangular Matrix at increasing speeds. Players attempt to clear as many lines as possible by completing horizontal rows of blocks without empty space, but if the Tetriminos surpass the Skyline the game is over! It might sound simple, but strategy and speed can go a long way! Are YOU up for the challenge? Who Created Tetris®? In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov was diligently programming computer games that tested the capabilities of new equipment developed by the USSR. In his spare time, he drew inspiration from his favorite puzzle board game, Pentominos, and decided to create a computer game for himself. Pajitnov envisioned an electronic game that let players arrange puzzle pieces in real time as they fell from the top of the playing field. The resulting design was a game that used seven distinctive geometric playing pieces, each made up of four squares. Pajitnov called this game “Tetris,” a combination of “tetra” (the Greek word meaning “four”) and “tennis” (his favorite sport).

Alexey Pajitnov, creator of Tetris The 50 best games of the '80s | GamesRadar+ The 50 best games of the '80s Shares A decade of gaming history You will disagree with our list. We already know that, because we sent out early draft versions to our closest friends game designers, journalists and publishing execs and they all disagreed with us. We listened to them and we argued and we negotiated and wheedled until the final list represented the world view of all of us here at Edge, and of some of our friends in the business. But not one of us not one single person involved agrees with every game on this list, or thinks its in exactly the right order, or does not harbour at least one game they really think should be on this list. Not even me, and Ive spent the last three months working on this, not to mention the last 30 years playing games or writing about them. Some of these games are fun to play, even today, and some of them have been vastly surpassed in the intervening years by smoother, better-looking games that took what was there and improved. Thats what games designers do.

Our criteria here is not how do these games stack up against the games we make and play today. Our criteria is which games of the 1980s do we owe the greatest debt to because they innovated so much at the time, and because they represent all that is best about original game design. Its also, which games do we remember most fondly and, in this regard, we are aware that you will have an entirely different perspective. Nostalgia is a troublesome thing. We cannot possibly represent everyones golden memories of an entire decade, nor should we try. Prev Next 49. 3D Deathchase (1983) 3D Deathcase is a reminder of just what could be achieved with a paltry 16K of memory back in the early days of the home computer. Lifting the speeder bike sequence wholesale from Return Of The Jedi, 3D Deathchase seemed almost comically single-minded even in an era of simple pleasures. Yet what it does, it does flawlessly, ratcheting up the challenge of bobbing and weaving through a forest while blasting at enemy bikes, tanks and helicopters, until either nerves or reflexes ultimately give out.

Little wonder it remains so fondly remembered by UK gamers of a certain age, and why almost a decade after its release it was ranked as the best ZX Spectrum game of all time by Your Sinclair magazine. Prev Next 48. M.U.L.E. (1983) All but ignored at the time of its release receiving little critical acclaim and selling poorly, despite the publishing power of Electronic Arts M.U.L.E. is now rightfully acknowledged as one of the most groundbreaking videogames of all time. Though an update of the age-old Kingdom formula at heart, M.U.LEs innovative single screen multiplayer mode and arcade-style take on resource harvesting and economic strategy helped create a game style that would ultimately lead to the Civilization series, Dune, Command & Conquer and countless other real-time strategy titles. Author Dan Bunten (later Dani Berry) died in 1998, before completing an online version of the game. Prev Next 47. Impossible Mission (1984) Impossible Mission was the game that introduced many C64 owners to voice synthesis for the very first time. Stay a while, stay forever!

bellowed the players unseen nemesis at the start of a heroic, against-the-clock battle across multiple screens populated with platforms, lifts and robots. Possibly even more sinister was the digitized scream that accompanied the many inevitable deaths that followed. One side effect of the somewhat cheeky title is that many gamers of a certain age still have trouble correctly naming a certain 1960 TV spy show (and the associated Tom Cruise blockbusters). Prev Next 45. Lode Runner (1983) It was generally the text-based adventurers that made the transition from the minicomputer platforms of the 1970s to the home computers of the 80s, but Lode Runner is an honourable exception. Bizarrely, architecture student Douglas Smith originally coded his ladders-and-levels chase game for the VAX system, before rebuilding it and refining it for the Apple II. Though maddeningly addictive in its own right, much of the games popularity and enduring appeal can be attributed to inclusion of more than a hundred levels, along with an editor enabling gamers to fashion countless more. Lode Runner even transitioned to the arcades, while variants continue to thrive to this day. Prev Next 44.

Star Raiders (1979) Granted, the first iteration of Star Raiders hit shelves at the tail end of the 70s, but its subsequent appearance on other Atari formats at the start of the following decade legitimises its inclusion here indeed the 5200 version is arguably the superior, thanks to that consoles analog controller. With its fast-moving starfields, deep space dogfights and hyperspace effects, its little wonder a world in thrall to Star Wars fell so deeply in love with this game. Although preceded by one or two space-based 3D coin-ops, Ataris Star Raiders is the game that laid down the blueprint for a space opera genre that would later be inhabited by Elite, Wing Commander, the X-Wing Vs Tie Fighter games, and Egosofts X series. Prev Next 42.

Lords Of Midnight (1984) Released at a time when other games might offer ten, twenty, or gasp even a hundred locations to explore, Lords Of Midnights canny ability to somehow squeeze almost 4,000 into a mere 48K of memory was nothing short of incredible, and the ability to view each of these from multiple angles **and** in 3D pretty much revolutionary. Somewhat shockingly, Lords Of Midnight creator Mike Singleton also appreciated that size isnt everything, and so the vast, Tolkien-indebted game world merely served as the backdrop for a mammoth turns-based blend of role-playing, wargaming and strategy. Even today, game developers struggle to combine so many game strands so seamlessly or conjure up such a fully formed fantasy world. Prev Next 41. Pinball Construction Set (1983) Having already introduced the very first pinball simulation to the Apple II format with Raster Blaster, PhD student Bill Budge inadvertently stumbled upon fame, a degree of fortune, and the honour of inventing a whole new kind of computer game, with the creation of this follow-up.

With the ability to drop pinball table components onto a blank canvas and even modify the physics governing ball behaviour, players were effectively handed a game of infinite possibilities. Electronic Arts, who snapped up publishing rights, went on to sell almost a third of a million copies and further develop the idea with a number of other Construction spin-offs. Budges game also made a belated appearance on the Genesis platform in the 90s, under the name Virtual Pinball. Prev Next 40. Emlyn Hughes International Soccer (1988) Computer games bearing endorsements from sports personalities were given a wide berth by those in the know in the 1980s, the licence generally being used as a way to sell subpar software to an easily swayed older generation out shopping for their children or grandchildren. This one was a little different. Taking inspiration in both name and game style from Commodores highly lauded 1983 offering, International Soccer, this classic beat the competition through a combination of fancy footwork, skilful integration of complex moves like headers, barges, and even back heels, and even some basic management features.

Rival title Kick off often grabbed the headlines, but it was Emlyns offering that truly captured the magic of the sport. Prev Next 39. Ballblazer (1984) Hailed by many as the very first futuresports video game, Ballblazer was one of two launch titles for LucasFilm Games (the other being Rescue On Fractalus). Its arrival immediately established the developer as a purveyor of original, highly polished content, with the games unique combination of air hockey, one-on-one soccer, and first-person, split-screen action proving so simple yet effective that many doubtless assumed it had originally been conceived as a coin-op. Indeed, two remakes attest to the enduring appeal of the concept. Curiously this was another LucasFilm game to make use of fractal mathematics this time in the service of a bizarre, improvised jazz soundtrack. Groovy. Prev Next 38. Thrust (1986) Rare is the home computer game that takes its cue from a coin-op without coming across like a pale imitation. Yet, while clearly riffing on gameplay mechanics first floated by Ataris Gravitar, Thrust was hailed not as a cheap cash-in but rather as a genuine improvement over the original.

Piloting a craft through caves using the same rotate-and-thrust system from Asteroids, players not only had to deal with enemy fire, but also contend with the eternal pull of gravity, and the complexities of inertia that arise once pods are picked up using a tractor beam. Who knew physics could be such fun? Prev Next 37. Out Run (1986) Age may have withered its charms, but Out Runs place in history should not be forgotten. This was arguably the first coin-op to deliver a real sense of high-speed, against-the-clock road racing, largely thanks to the power of Segas own sprite-based 3D graphics hardware (also used to great effect on After Burner, Space Harrier, and Power Drift), and in part due to the shiny allure of a real steering wheel and even a vibrating sit-down cabinet version. Also innovative was the games use of music, with a selection of smooth numbers emulating a suitably beach-kissed radio station. Some home versions even included an audio tape featuring recordings of the original tunes, for enhanced sensory gaming pleasure. Prev Next 36.

Missile Command (1980) Maybe it was the Cold War, but whatever the reason gamers in late 70s and early 80s couldnt get enough of videogames where destruction rained from the skies and defeat was always one warhead away. Conceptually similar to Space Invaders and Centipede, though practically a world away thanks in part to the use of a trackball controller, Missile Command proved so popular in arcades that it continued to draw crowds well into the 90s. It was also one of the few early coin-ops to benefit from relatively loyal translation by console programmers, no doubt largely thanks to the beautiful simplicity of both the concept and the graphics. Prev Next 34. Archon (1983) The more cynical might suggest the reason Archon exhibits such classic gameplay is that it borrows so liberally from the game of chess. Its fans, however, prefer to think of it as standing on the shoulders of giants.

Though the action does indeed all take place on a familiar chequerboard, and while the various pieces move around in a rather familiar fashion, it is unlikely Kasparav and his cohorts ever had to deal with an additional combat arena, spellcasting, power points on the chequer board, and a distinction between ground-based and airborne pieces. Even today Archon feels at once reassuringly familiar and excitingly fresh. Prev Next 33. World Class Leaderboard (1987) Long before Electronic Arts enlisted Tiger Woods to help in their plan for world domination of yet another sports simulation genre, golf fans got their leisurely kicks with the Links series. And prior to developing that winning franchise, American outfit Access first swung out with the Leaderboard games. The last in the series, World Class Leaderboard refined the wind/snap/power balance of earlier games, as well as mixing up fantasy courses with decent renditions of real fairways. PC owners were even treated to an early use of audio sampling, with a process dubbed RealSound adding interactive commentary to the proceedings. Prev Next 32. Zork (1980) In the beginning was the word, in the form of the text-based Colossal Cave Adventure.

And then just after the beginning there was Zork. Like its predecessor, Zork was developed for the PDP-10 mini-computer system in the late 70s, but crucially its developers quickly recognised the commercial potential for their creation, and set about reworking their creation as a trilogy of adventure games for home computer formats under the Infocom development banner. Boasting cunning puzzles and an ambitious text input system, Zork was to prove highly influential, also giving Infocom an foundation on which to build a whole series of interactive fiction titles. Prev Next 31. Star Wars (1983) Those who remember the 1980s as a period littered with cynical computer games spin-offs of movies and TV shows would do well to remember Ataris Star Wars coin-op. This was clearly a labour of love for designer Mike Halley, who took his cue from the climactic Death Star battle scenes in the first of the sci-fi trilogy. Although rendered using a colour vector graphics display, the game does a fine job of bringing iconic shapes like the X-Wings and Tie Fighters to life, while voice samples from the original movie lend extra gravitas.

Many of the home computer editions were actually coded by Vector Grafix, a company ideally suited to the job, having already ripped off the entire concept so successfully with its own Star Strike title. Prev Next 30. Exile (1988) Any game that dares implement a physics-based control system inevitably risks alienating a large section of the gaming community, despite the fact that such a move invariably adds enormously to the subtly of the gameplay (see also Lunar Lander, Asteroids, Defender, Lunar Jetman, and so on). Exile is no exception. With the interplay between gravity, natural phenomena like fire and water, plus a protagonist equipped with a jetpack, Exile immediately presented players with a fairly steep learning curve, before further complicating matters with massive pseudo-random levels, uncommonly intelligent enemies, and a bewildering array of useful objects. Scary stuff, but Exile may just be the most ambitious title to emerge from those golden years of gaming. Prev Next 29.

International Karate+ (1986) Though Data Easts Karate Champ was the game that first introduced many to the mighty beat-em-up, the finest martial arts thrills to be had in the 80s were actually those coded by bedroom programmers. First came The Way Of The Exploding Fist Melbourne House, followed by Archer Macleans International Karate (also known as World Karate Championship), a game that almost prompted a lawsuit from Melbourne House and in fact did lead to a legal battle with Data East. When this failed, the maverick coder was free to further polish the already gleaming format with IK+, improving the fight mechanics, adding two-on-one battles, and sneaking in all manner of easter eggs. Prev Next 28. Ms. Pac-Man (1981) Having transformed expectations about how the demographic coin-op games could attract with their US launch of Namcos Pac-Man, Midway decided to target the female gaming market a little more blatantly with this sequel, creating one of the most popular arcade games of all time in the process. Initially released without permission from Namco, Ms.

Pac-Man featured near-identical gameplay to its predecessor, but adds longevity via the inclusion of five mazes and more random ghost behaviours, and considerable charm via pastel colour schemes and suitably themed cut-scenes. The original home computer and console versions also add various features, such as a simultaneous two-player mode, though whether any of these improved the formula any is questionable. Prev Next 27. Lunar Jetman (1983) Scoff at the limited colour palette, by all means (as per all games for the ZX Spectrum), but theres no denying the genius of the Stamper brothers sequel to their own Joust-inspired Jet Pac. Greatly expanding the gravity-enhanced gameplay of the original, Lunar Jetman adds smooth scrolling, in-vehicle travel, meteorites, multiple waves of aliens, and a series of pesky craters that must be filled in order to access the enemy missile base at the end of each level all pretty advanced stuff for 1983. Jetman sadly only made one more game appearance (on the NES in 1990), but then the Stampers were somewhat preoccupied with the creation of a multi-million dollar gaming empire. Prev Next 25.

Ikari Warriors (1985) You couldnt move for bulging biceps, sweaty headbands and pithy putdowns in the mid-80s. And with Schwarzeneggers Commando and Stallones Rambo ripping up the flesh in cinemas, it didnt take long for arcade game designers to get in on the act. Capcom/Data Easts Commando (no relation) was the first out of boot camp and ultimately proved best suited to home computer and console treatment. But in the arcades it was SNKs Ikari Warriors that triumphed, simply by upping the body count through the inclusion of a wildly enjoyable simultaneous two-player mode and guns lots of guns. Prev Next 24. Ant Attack (1983) Probably the worlds first isometric 3D home computer game (and this at a time when few coin-ops dared to toy with such an ambitious graphical technique), Ant Attack remains a game sadly known to few US-based gamers by dint of its initial appearance on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

A shame, as author Sandy Whites revolutionary Softsolid 3D technique was put to great use in a game populated with giant ants, grenades, and equal opportunities players either had to rescue a man or woman depending on the gender theyd chosen for their own hero character. Prev Next 22. Final Fantasy (1987) Nobody does epic role-playing quite like the Japanese, and no Japanese company does it quite like Square. So named because designer Hironobu Sakaguchi planned to retire after its completion, Final Fantasy was the game that brought Square back from the brink, while simultaneously established the NES system as the must-have system for role-playing fans. In truth the game lacked much in the way of innovation, but Hironobus knack for storytelling elevated the game to another plane altogether and kickstarted a franchise that now spans multiple sequels (with more than 80 million games sold to date), numerous printed spin-offs, and even two full-length CG animated movies. And Hironobu is still producing role-playing games Prev Next 20.

R-Type (1987) Arguably the definitive sideways scrolling shooter of the 1980s, Irems R-Type is a game far more innovative and subtle than its basic premise suggests. Chief among its USPs was the way firepower could be accrued, not least through an advanced power-up system dubbed The Force. A living weapon, The Force trails the players craft until fired off in a specified direction using one fire button, with the collection of extra power-ups further increasing its destructive capabilities. Throw in a Zaxxon-like approach to level design (the correct pathways must be learned through repeated playing) and no small number of end-of-level bosses, and the result was a game strong enough to inspire several sequels and influence shoot-em-ups games all stripes. Prev Next 18. Robotron: 2084 (1982) A spiritual brother to equally frenetic coin-ops Tempest and Defender, Eugene Jarvis Robotron 2084 is incredibly viewed as more challenging than either of those pant-wettingly difficult games thanks to a then-unique twin joystick control system.

Challenging gamers to get to grips with the notion of moving a lead character with one stick and firing independently with the other, and then throwing them into a robot-infested arena reminiscent of Berzerk and even Asteroids for good measure, Robotron was never going to be a game to enjoy mainstream appeal. Mores the pity, as the learning curve was never quite as bad as it first appeared. Ultraviolence has rarely been so simple yet profoundly satisfying. Prev Next 17. Rainbow Islands (1987) Though Taitos Bubble Bobble sequel undoubtedly enjoyed much success in arcades, it was Rainbow Islands arrival in the home that catapulted it into the public consciousness. Much of the credit must go to UK development team Graftgold, which worked to produce near-perfect versions on a whole range of formats, the 1990 Amiga edition being regarded as the finest, despite the absence of the arcade games final levels (it held the number one position in Amiga Powers highly influential All Time Top 100 list for several years). Rainbow Islands colourful platform-based action retains enormous charm, and continues to find and gain new fans with additional versions periodically arriving on contemporary formats. Prev Next 16.

Metroid (1986) Forget the famous reveal at the end of Metroid, its the non-linear sprite-based alien blasting that ensures its place in the gaming hall of fame. And yet the game that spawned one of Nintendos most-treasured franchises wasnt even a great success when originally launched for the NES disk system add-on in Japan. It was only when the game was given a cartridge format release in the USA (perversely on the same day as Legend Of Zelda) that the game really began to resonate, and through comic strips and more ambitious console sequels that Samus laid the groundwork to become one of the best-known game characters of all time. Prev Next 15. Paradroid (1985) The game that launched a thousand titles sporting bas relief visuals, Andrew Braybrooks Paradroid may well be the finest original title ever developed for the Commodore 64 computer. Superficially a basic corridor-based shoot-em-up, the game is built around a finely wrought power struggle mechanism, with players taking control of a lowly droid and battling to rise through the ranks, gaining power and wiping out every enemy in the process either by blasting them or transferring control to their body.

Quite why more contemporary games designers havent taken inspiration from, or even simply ripped off, the near perfect Paradoid remains a mystery. Prev Next 13. The Legend Of Zelda (1986) Sure its quaint, even primitive by todays standards, but The Legend Of Zelda was never about the sensory experience. Its success can instead be attributed to Shigeru Miyamotos unparalleled knack for combining rich characterisation, narrative, and joyous adventuring. Indeed its these qualities that led to both Japanese and American audiences embracing Links debut adventure so readily, spawning a multi-million selling franchise (52 million and counting), leading to a cartoon series, and helping to cement Nintendos reputation as the home of the role-playing game. And Zelda? Miyamoto bizarrely named the character after F Scott Fitzgeralds wife. Prev Next 12. The Hobbit (1982) In a time when even movie spin-offs were a rarity, an officially licensed game based on a literary classic seemed nigh on revolutionary. Throw in lavish packaging that included a copy of the original book, and its little wonder The Hobbit caused such a sensation.

Incredibly, Melbourne House invested just as much time developing the game itself as snagging that coveted licence. Closely following Tolkiens original story, throwing in some handsome static visuals, and boasting an advanced input system dubbed Inglish, The Hobbit sold millions and gave tens of thousands their very first taste of text-based adventuring. Prev Next 11. Ultima IV: Quest Of The Avatar (1985) Undoubtedly one of the industrys more interesting larger than life characters, games designer, programmer, and budding astronaut Richard Garriott is one man who has always embraced the inner geek. Not content with simply updating the simple pleasures of the first three Ultima games, Garriott bravely chose to take things even further with the fourth in the series. Sending players on a quest to display proficiency in eight noble virtues and became a mythical saviour, Quest Of The Avatar added a whole new philosophical and moral edge to the hack and slash genre, and laid the groundwork for a series based in the land of Britannia that eventually spilled over into the groundbreaking MMORPG Ultima Online. Prev Next 10.

Dungeon Master (1987) Wizardry and The Bards Tale may have been the first to successfully twin Dungeons & Dragons-inspired adventuring with 3D visuals, but it was Dungeon Master that finally brought the genre firmly into the mainstream. Dodgy genre staples like orcs, magical arm and hit points are all present and correct, but with its mouse driven interface and revolutionary use of real-time exploration and combat, Dungeon Master proved accessible enough to become the most popular game ever released on the Atari ST, and a heavy influence on Eye Of The Beholder, Might & Magic, and the highly revered Ultima Underworld. Prev Next 9. Maniac Mansion (1987) Its easy to forget just how quickly the adventure game genre evolved during the 1980s. At the start of the decade the very idea of including graphics seemed outlandish. Indeed Zork and other groundbreaking early efforts from Infocom managed fine without them. Taking a cue from The Hobbit and the Sierra-On-Line graphic adventures, LucasFilm Games took a first dip into adventuring with Labyrinth before further developing its craft on the landmark Maniac Mansion.

Featuring multiple protagonists, in-jokes galore, several possible endings and the innovative SCUMM scripting system, it laid down the blueprint for the Monkey Island games, Sam & Max, Grim Fandango, and a dozen other classics. Prev Next 8. Prince Of Persia (1989) Having already made a name for himself with 1984s karate title Karateka, Jordan Mechner returned to close combat with his sophomore Apple II effort, this time swapping the fist for the blade and amping up the graphic fidelity through the use of rotoscoping. Its doubtful that Mechner was the first person to use live footage for reference when punching in pixel data, but at the time nobody had created such meticulously natural-looking animation in a humble computer game. Sadly Mechner only ever coded two further titles, although he did serve as a consultant on 2003s Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. Prev Next 7. Sim City (1989) Few game design legends have had to fight so hard for success as Will Wright, but its the fact that he struggled for four whole years to get this seminal title published that really beggars belief.

Initially inspired by the map toolkit in his game Raid On Bungeling Bay, Wright originally coded Micropolis in 1985, but faced rejections from all the major publishers, until new outfit Maxis finally agreed to bring it to market. Ironically, its the very features that were deemed commercial poison no way to win the game, no set objective, and no right and wrong way of doing things that made Sim City such a milestone title and so resoundingly popular. Prev Next 6. Defender (1980) With its daunting array of controllers (five buttons and a joystick), a range of bad guys sporting complex behaviours, plus a weird control system drenched in inertia, its little wonder that so many chose to admire Defender from afar when it first arrived in arcades. Even today Eugene Jarvis uniquely challenging creation for Williams remains one of the most difficult-to-master video games ever conceived. Yet its also one of the most elegant and inspired narrative-and-character-free coin-ops ever created. While several Defender games finally made it to consoles and home computers, only the unofficial BBC version Planetoid really came close to recreating the finely tuned gameplay of the arcade original. Prev Next 3.

Super Mario Bros 3 (1989) Who at the time would have guessed that it would be the plumber, rather than the ape, that would emerge from Donkey Kong to become the official Nintendo mascot? While it was the original Super Mario Bros that introduced a groundbreaking platform-based action adventure formula, it was the third in the series that really turned the moustachioed one into a fully-fledged superstar. Evolving the format with the addition of minigames, map screens, and a range of now-familiar power-ups and environment designs, Super Mario 3 went on to sell over 18 million copies in its original NES format, before going on to enjoy SNES success in the 90s, and more recently reaching the GBA and Wii platforms. Prev Next 2. Tetris (1985) Smartarse pundits may have initially compared Alexey Pajitnovs maddeningly addictive falling blocks puzzler to the Rubiks Cube, but Tetris has ultimately proved to have far greater longevity, despite the fact that its been the subject of more (and more ridiculous) legal battles than just about any other leisure product of the last hundred years.

Originally developed at the Academy of Science in Moscow for the Elektronika 60, the game that most famously helped Nintendo turn the Gameboy into a multi-million seller has since been released on just about every computer, console and portable format imaginable, up to and including the iPod. Prev Next 1. Elite (1984) Sacrilege? Heresy? Lunacy? All of the above? A lack of commercial success in the USA means many sadly never got the opportunity to appreciate Dave Braben and Ian Bells masterwork, so will doubtless view its top ranking in disbelief. But those lucky enough to experience the wireframe thrills back in the day know that nothing else came close to providing such an immersive, one-more-hit, all-consuming experience. Blending complex physics, trading elements, and plenty of Star Wars indebted shoot-em-up action, and framing the action in an open-ended universe, Elite is the spiritual predecessor of everything from Wing Commander through to the Grand Theft Auto series. Elite at number one? Damn right. Prev

Question: What well-known video game was created in Moscow in 1984?
Answer: Tetris