I've been thinking about writing a book with this title. There are several reasons why I think it would be useful. For one thing, I (and everyone who comes into contact with game design wannabes) am often shocked at how ignorant such people often (not always) are--how limited their experience with games. In some cases, they don't even seem to play games at all; in others, their experience is limited to a very narrow range of games.

For another thing, it would be a cool project, and a cool reference.

What are the criteria for including games? There are a bunch of them. Some games are historically important. Some games are highly innovative, landmarks in design. Some games are miserable failures, but the ways in which they fail miserably are important and informative. Others are obscure, but interesting and innovative attempts that may point the way to fruitful future development. Some are perfect examples of a particular design idea, or a particular design flaw.

I spent some time today hacking together a list--it's a lot short of 300 (and maybe we wind up with 200, or some other number--it's not that important). But in putting it together, I also realized that =I= have a lot of blindspots, too. For one thing, I've never had any interest in sports games, and you can't ignore them. For another, while I'm not totally ignorant of console games, I'm primarily a paper and PC gamer--and the console games I do play tend to be RPGs, action-adventure, etc., meaning I know very little about racers, sports games, and other whole categories.

So I thought I'd post the list here. Please do comment--suggest games I'm missing, criticize choices I've made, and so on. With some help, I think we can put together a pretty solid preliminary list. So here goes:

FOLK GAMES
Tic-Tac-Toe
Rock-Paper-Scissors
Chess
Go
Backgammon
Hearts
Poker
Dominoes
Solitaire
Twenty Questions
Charades
Memory

(Maybe: Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Owaree, Pachisi, Peg solitaire, Bridge, Spades, Gin)

EARLIEST DESIGNED GAMES
The King's Game
Kriegspieler

MASS MARKET GAMES
Candyland
Monopoly (& The Landlord's Game)
Pit
Clue
Risk
Scrabble
Acquire
Trivial Pursuit

HOBBY GAMES--Miniatures
Little Wars
Fletcher Pratt Naval Miniatures
WRG Ancients
Warhammer

HOBBY GAMES--Boardgames
Tactics II
Stalingrad
Napoleon's Last Battles
War in Europe
Diplomacy
Stellar Conquest
Ogre
Titan
Kingmaker
Axis & Allies
Cosmic Encounter
Advanced Squad Leader
Tales of the Arabian Nights
BattleTech
Car Wars
Settlers of Catan

HOBBY GAMES--RPGs
Dungeons & Dragons
Call of Cthulhu
Vampire: The Masquerade
Champions
GURPS
Toon
Shadowrun
My Life with Master

HOBBY GAMES--Other
Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks
Starweb
The Larp
Heroclicks
Magic: The Gathering
Stratomatic Baseball

ARCADE GAMES
Pong
Breakout
Asteroids
Space Invaders
Missile Command
Pac-Man
Pole Position
Gauntlet
Donkey Kong
Robotron
Dragon's Lair
Virtua Racing
Street Fighter II
Dance Dance Revolution

(maybe: Centipede; Tempest; Battlezone; Atari Football; Defender; Berzerk; Sinistar; Q*Bert; Commando; Double Dragon)

COMPUTER GAMES--Early
Willy Higginbotham's Tennis
Space War
Hunt the Wumpus
Hammurabi
Adventure
Rogue/Nethack
Pinball Construction Set
Loderunner

COMPUTER GAMES--Adventure
Zork
Kings Quest
Monkey Island series
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Myst
7th Guest
Grim Fandango

(maybe: The Neverhood, Leisure Suit Larry)

COMPUTER GAMES--RPG
Ultima IV
Bard's Tale
Morrowind
Ultima: Underworld
System Shock
Thief
Baldur's Gate
Diablo
(Maybe: Temple of Apshai; Wizardry)

COMPUTER GAMES--Strategy
M.U.L.E.
Civilization
Balance of Power
X-Com
Populous
Master of Orion
Dune II
Heroes of Might & Magic
Command & Conquer
Starcraft
Dope Wars
Europa Universalis
(maybe: Age of Empires)

COMPUTER GAMES--FPS
Doom
Quake
Half-Life
Counter Strike
Deus Ex
Battlefield 1942
(maybe: Unreal)

COMPUTER GAMES--Sports
John Madden Football

COMPUTER GAMES—Other
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Railroad Tycoon
Harpoon
You Don't Know Jack
Wing Commander
Lemmings
Tetris
Deer Hunter
SimCity
The Sims
Sim Life
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Barbie Fashion Designer
Rockett's First Day

ONLINE GAMES
MUD
Netreck
Modem Wars
Habitat
Air Warrior
Gemstone
Hundred Years War
EverQuest
The Sims Online
A Tale in the Desert
Laser Squad Nemesis

CONSOLE GAMES--Old School
Atari Football
DragonQuest/Dragon Warrior
Final Fantasy
Super Mario Brothers
Legend of Zelda
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Pokemon
Castlevania Series
Sonic: The Hedgehog
Toejam & Earl
Earthworm Jim
Megaman

{maybe: Phantasy Star, Nobunaga's Ambition, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man}

CONSOLE GAMES--64bit
Metal Gear Solid
Twisted Metal II
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy X
Parasite Eve
Wipeout XL
Resident Evil
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Super Mario 64
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
Parappa the Rapper
Gran Turismo
(maybe: Shen Mue, Golden Eye, Panzer Dragoon, Jet Set Radio)

CONSOLE GAMES--modern
Grand Theft Auto III
Halo
Frequency
Mojib Ribbon

ODDITIES
Tamagotchi
Botfighters
Conway's Game of Life
The Prisoner's Dilemma
Cortazar's Hopscotch
afternoon, a story
How I Ran the Z/o/o Con

posted by Greg at 3:29 PM 4 comments