1980s
25 games
Galaga
The sequel to Galaxian added tractor beam captures, challenging stages and the dual fighter risk reward play. It became ...
Donkey Kong
Shigeru Miyamoto first game gave arcades climbing platforms, a rampaging ape and cutscenes between levels. Mario debuted...
Pitfall!
David Crane jungle marathon across 255 connected screens of vines, crocodiles and quicksand proved the humble 2600 could...
Super Mario Bros.
The game that revived the home console industry after the 1983 crash, selling more than 40 million copies as the NES pac...
Mega Man 2
Capcom tightened the boss rush formula with eight stealable weapons, energy tanks and a password system for Western cart...
Adventure
Warren Robinett hid his name inside a secret room because Atari refused credits, inventing the easter egg. Sword, duck s...
Metroid
Samus Aran maze planet exploration rewarded backtracking with new abilities, and the ending reveal that the armored hunt...
The Legend of Zelda
Battery backed saves, a non linear overworld and secrets behind every burnable bush made exploration itself the reward. ...
Zork
MIT hackers turned the cave idea into the Great Underground Empire with a parser that felt conversational. It sold hundr...
Dragon Quest
Yuji Horii turned western computer RPGs into a friendly console loop of turn based battles with Akira Toriyama art. Japa...
Final Fantasy
Hironobu Sakaguchi named it for a last chance at a failing company, and the four Warriors of Light saved both the world ...
OutRun
A Ferrari convertible fantasy with branching routes, sprite scaling horizons and Magical Sound Shower on the radio. Yu S...
Tetris
Seven falling tetrominoes on a Soviet minicomputer became a universal cognitive itch. The Game Boy bundle ensured world ...
Elite
Two programmers fit eight galaxies of procedural stars into a BBC Micro with wireframe ships and open trading. It proved...
SimCity
Will Wright found more fun in the level editor than the game and built a city simulator with no win state at all. Disast...
Metal Gear
Hideo Kojima ran short of hardware for bullets and designed a game about avoiding them instead. The MSX original invente...
Pac-Man
Toru Iwatani wanted characters instead of spaceships, and a pizza missing two slices gave the world Pac-Man. It grossed ...
Defender
Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar built a side scrolling shooter with a radar map and a then daunting five button control la...
Centipede
Dona Bailey and Ed Logg designed a trackball shooter set in a mushroom field, with pastel colors that stood out in dark ...
Ms. Pac-Man
It began as an unauthorized enhancement kit for Pac-Man made by a group of MIT dropouts, which Midway bought and release...
Frogger
Guiding a frog across a busy road and a river of logs and turtles turned a simple idea into a lasting hit. Distributed i...
Tempest
Dave Theurer used a color vector display to place the player on the rim of geometric tubes, spinning a rotary knob to bl...
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Richard Garriott replaced the usual quest to slay an evil overlord with a journey of personal virtue, judging players on...
Super Mario Bros. 3
Released in Japan in 1988 and promoted in North America through the film The Wizard, it added a world map, power ups lik...
Prince of Persia
Mechner filmed his younger brother running and jumping and traced the footage to create startlingly lifelike animation. ...