The Top 10 games that were most ahead of their time!

[Trantor]

Well, the title says it all. Here are the 10 games that I think were most ahead of their time, pushing the gaming industry further and further. I have absolutely no idea why I made this list, but I am pondering sending it to gamefaqs for publishing. But before I do that, I wanted to share it with you. Consider it a Christmas present, because we all know which game holds the top spot, right?

Alright, here is the list:



10.Pong (by Atari, released in 1972)

Let's start with the grandfather of today's video games. Pong was the first electronic game to be widely recognized and played, and thus, was ahead of its time as well, though this is more of an honorary mention.

9.Wing Commander (by Origin, released in 1990)

For many years, PCs based on Microsoft operating systems weren't exactly considered as gaming machines. Since those PCs had a lot of trouble with scrolling present in most games of the late 80s, games were usually not even ported to them, so PCs were basically only good for games with lots of text and little action, like adventure, strategy or role-playing games. Chris Roberts' Wing Commander introduced action games to PCs, though in a somewhat different way. Playing a pilot in an intergalactical war between humans and the cat-like Kilrathi, Wing Commander featured the same in-cockpit perspective as games like F16 Falcon or Gunship, but with much more emphasis on action and fast-paced combat. With a compelling storyline and spectacular graphics, Wing Commander did not only offer an excellent game, but also a movie-like experience that was unheard of before. The game showed that fast action games were very possible on the PC, though through a first-person perspective rather than side scrolling, a concept that would eventually take the world by storm with first-person shooters. Furthermore, the game also made clear that action games could also greatly benefit from atmosphere and mood. Last but not least, Wing Commander tried everything it could to look as good as possible. In order to see all details of the game, many players had to upgrade their hardware, which was rather unusual at the time. Today, the need of having state-of-the-art hardware in order to fully experience a new game has become standard procedure and may have started with Wing Commander.

8.Ultima IV – Quest of the Avatar (by Origin, released in 1985)

Though the first three Ultima games were very successful, they are hardly remembered today. The reason is that the fourth installment, subtitled „Quest of the Avatar“, is where the series found its true identity for which it is remembered until today. In almost every preceding role-playing game (including Ultima I-III), the player's goal was to kill a tremendously dangerous villain who threatened to take over or destroy the world. The player would usually never meet that villain until the very end of the game, and said villain had no other purpose than being evil for the sake of it. Ultima IV changed that. The game did not feature a final „boss“ villain; instead, the ultimate goal was to become a better person, a role-model for all the people in the world, an „Avatar“. This could be achieved by strictly following eight virtues – justice, compassion, humility, valor, honor, sacrifice, spirituality and honesty. Though the gameplay itself kept close to the predecessors, the whole tone and spirit of the game were new. Instead of battling evil, the main focus was becoming a better person. This brought a new, philosophical and more mature theme to computer games.

7.Elite (by Acornsoft, released in 1984)

Elite was a revolutionary game at the time of its release, with incredible size and lasting appeal as well as being a mixture of several genres. Stepping in the shoes of the space pilot Commander Jameson, the player had to assemble credits which could be used to upgrade your ship with better weapons, shields, or other accessories. These credits could be obtained via trading, piracy, or fulfilling certain missions. The game had no real goal like defeating a boss; instead, the ultimate goal was to reach the legendary status of „Elite“ through fulfilling missions and killing enemies, a feat that was both very hard and required an amazing amount of time. With thousands of planets to explore and several possible approaches to the game, the long-time motivation of Elite was enormous. Unlike most games before, Elite didn't focus on beating a linear path to the game's goal, but instead tried to simulate a certain world where you could do more or less what you wanted to within the boundaries of the game. In a way, the game was thus a predecessor for games like Sim City or The Sims.

6.Resident Evil (by Capcom, released in 1996)

Released in 1996, Resident Evil (called Biohazard in Japan) quickly became a reason for many gamers to buy a Sony PlayStation. The game eventually turned into one of the biggest franchises in the gaming industry, having spawned six official games, numerous spin-off games, two Hollywood movies and all kinds of merchandising, ranging from action figures to comic books. Being trapped in a gigantic old mansion filled with zombies and other horrific creatures, the player had to solve several puzzles and fight the monsters. This, however, was not new. Infogrames' series „Alone in the Dark“ was a definite influence on Resident Evil, also featuring a horror mansion as the setting, isometric graphics presented from certain „camera angles“, and obscure puzzles. But still, Resident Evil was far more successful and memorable than Alone in the Dark – because of the presentation.

Resident Evil's graphics were astounding for its time. The pre-rendered backgrounds combined with the detailed polygonial characters looked very realistic and, together with the eerie, spooky music and the very realistic sound effects, formed a very creepy atmosphere. Complete voice-acting for all dialogue in the game was still relatively new, made possible by the CD being the new medium of choice, and the voice-acting also added to the atmosphere (in spite of the incredible cheesiness of the dialogue and the bad voice actors). The game certainly put style over gameplay, as is evidenced by several points. For example, there is no indication on screen how much health or ammo your character has left; you have to access the inventory screen to view those. It seems the designers didn't want anything on the screen that could distract the player from the „movie feeling“ the game tried to evoke. Furthermore, certain camera angles in the game were deliberately disadvantageous to the player. Quite often, you could only hear the monsters, but not see them, since they were located off-camera. Also, the player could only carry a very limited number of items, which had to include weapons, ammunition, health and key items. This meant that it was impossible to explore a new area with full weaponry and all necessary key items, so you had to compromise. Together with the limited ability to save the game (you could only save at certain spots in the game at a typewriter and had to find an ink ribbon in order to save), this led to many unexpected deaths. Gameplay purists complained that it made the game unnecessarily hard and frustrating, seeing it as a cheap means to lengthen the time needed to spend on the game. Fans however thought that the feeling of being underprepared for a situation and the risk of having to replay the last 30 minutes if you died actually added to the tension and suspense that was vital to the game's success.

Though Capcom eventually departed from the radical „style over gameplay“ attitude with Resident Evil 4, the first game in the franchise showed the world that style and atmosphere could be at least as important (if not more) than gameplay in a video game, thus paving the way for games like Silent Hill or Fear Effect.

5.Maniac Mansion (by Lucasfilm Games, released in 1987)

In 1987, the text adventure was still regarded as the „king of genres“ by many players, especially the games made by the legendary company Infocom who gave the world such unforgettable classics as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the Zork series. Still, the technical advancement could be felt in this genre as well. While Infocom stayed content with adding a few sound effects to their text adventures as in The Lurking Horror, the rival company Sierra On-Line was already one step ahead, as they had included full graphics to their games like Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest or Police Quest. Though you could move your character around with a joystick or the keyboard, you still had to type in all your commands. Lucasfilm's Maniac Mansion was the game that abandoned the concept of typing. Instead, there were about a dozen command verbs on the bottom of the screen. By clicking on these verbs and certain objects on the screen or in your inventory with a cursor, you created commands like „Open Door“ or the infamous „Use Hamster with Microwave“. Purists complained that the game was much more limited than a text adventure, for you could simply try out every possible command if you were stuck. Thankfully, the game was complex and big enough that this was hardly an issue, and though some of the numerous puzzles were a bit obscure, almost all of them could be deducted logically. The weird, ironic humor in a game where three teenagers broke into an old mansion to rescue their friend from a mad scientist also helped in becoming a hit.

Originally released for the C64 and playable with a joystick, it is pretty clear that the cursor-based interface was planned to be used with a mouse (the later 16 bit versions were indeed playable with a mouse). The simple interface attracted players that weren't into text adventures, thus broadening the appeal of the game. Ultimately, it is responsible for the death of the text adventures. By the early 90s, the so-called „point and click adventure“ that originated with Maniac Mansion was one of the most popular genres, with games like Simon the Sorceror, Broken Sword, and Lucasfilm Games' very own The Secret of Monkey Island.

4.Dune 2 (by Westwood Studios, released in 1992)

Dune 2 was not a direct sequel to the Dune game by Virgin Interactive; in fact, the two games only shared the background of Frank Herbert's famous science-fiction novel. Westwood's program was considered as a good, but not great strategy game by the critics and was moderately successful, but it wasn't until 1994 that the game received further notice. The reason was a game called Warcraft, made by the then-unknown little company Blizzard Entertainment. Warcraft substituted the sci-fi scenario for an original fantasy setting and added the possibility to hook up two computers so players could play against each other, but apart from that, the game was almost a direct copy. Its success prompted Westwood to strike back again in 1995, with the hugely popular Command & Conquer. Only then did the world realize what Dune 2 had done – it had invented Real Time Strategy games. Of course, this statement is only partially true, as there were other strategic games before that were played in real-time, like Populous. But it was Dune 2 that patented the formula of building structures like barracks and factories in order to build units like soldiers, tanks or aircraft, all the while collecting resources with a special type of unit. Once developers discovered that this type of game is perfect for multiplayer games, the popularity of Real Time Strategy games exploded. While Westwood expanded its Command & Conquer series, Blizzard had at least as many devoted followers with their Warcraft and Starcraft games. Other games like KKND, Warzone 2100 or Z were also successful. Even today, there are still TV stations in Korea that show nothing else but Starcraft games – all thanks to Dune 2.

3.Super Mario Bros. (by Nintendo, released in 1985)

In 1983, the still-young video game market crashed, as a result of many low-quality games and the increased popularity of home computers like the C64 that also were potent game systems. Nintendo was the first company to try a new game system with their NES (or Famicom in Japan). The system was tremendously popular, holding about 90% of the US market in the late 80s. This success can largely be attributed to Super Mario Bros., the game that came packaged with the NES. Though it wasn't the first true jump 'n run game, it took the genre to a whole new level due to its gameplay and size.

Back in the early 80s, games were much shorter than today because of limited memory capacity. In order to keep the player interest for a long time, games were usually considerably harder than today. But Super Mario Bros. showcased Nintendo's policy of „entertainment for the whole family“ by being relatively easy for its time, making up for that with an amazing size of 32 full-fledged levels. The simpicity of the game's premise – running, jumping and collecting coins – was contrasted by lots of depth in level and game design. Several passages could be solved in different ways, sometimes only enabled by collecting (or even not collecting) power-ups. With lots of hidden power-ups, coins, bonus sections and even „warp zones“ that enabled you to skip several levels, the game also had a lot to offer even after multiple sessions. Underwater levels and sections with blowing wind gave additional variety.

Super Mario Bros. was immensely popular, so it was no surprise that its concept was copied countless times, from Sega's Alex Kidd and Wonderboy series to Great Giana Sisters, a clone for home computers that was so similar to Super Mario Bros. that it was withdrawn from the shelves shortly after its release due to Nintendo's threat of legal actions. But in spite of new ideas from other companies (like the RPG-like elements in Sega's Wonderboy in Monsterland), Super Mario Bros. remained unequalled in the eyes of many fans and critics, at least until 1989, when Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. 3 took the throne for most.

2.Doom (by id Software, released in 1993)

Released in late 1993, Doom's influence on the gaming industry can still be felt today, and it might very well be the most influential game ever created. The genre of first-person shooters didn't originate with Doom – that honor would belong to id's own Wolfenstein 3D, made in 1992 –, but Doom took the genre to a whole new level. While Wolfenstein only allowed rectangular walls and no height difference, Doom's engine was capable of incorporating all kinds of shapes in its levels complete with different heights. It was also much more interactive, with stairways, elevators, moving floors and ceilings, poisonous areas, and different light levels. The graphics were considered miraculous at the time of its release, with a high amount of detail and a surprisingly high running speed. The engine was not only miles ahead of all competition, it was also highly customizable. Within a few months, many tools were around that allowed building your own levels or incorporating your own graphics and sounds.

But the technical prowess wasn't the only reason why Doom got a cult following immediately after its release. Apart from excellently designed weapons, monsters and levels, the game also featured extensive multiplayer support. Up to four players could battle the monsters together in the cooperative mode, but the real gem was the Deathmatch, where the players could take on each other. This proved to be so popular that the term „Deathmatch“ itself is still used today. Companies banned Doom from their office computers because the employees would play Deathmatches during working hours. It wasn't even a full year later that id published Doom 2: Hell on Earth, a sequel that used the same engine with a few added monsters, textures and the popular double-barrelled shotgun as a new weapon. These two games, and especially the Deathmatch mode, made first-person shooters the most popular genre even to this day. Be it Quake, Half-Life or Unreal, all these games go back to Doom. Even the violence still featured in practically every shooter goes back to Doom, which gave rise to concerns about glorifying violence and gore in games. Also, the phenomenon of LAN parties originated with Doom. Though other games have since surpassed it, Doom shaped the way of today's gaming like few others did.

1. Dungeon Master (by FTL, released in 1987)

This list contains many games that were very influential and advanced the gaming industry in large steps, but none of them was so far ahead of everything else at its time than FTL's masterpiece Dungeon Master. Developed for the Atari ST, the game became the best-selling ST game of all time; the Amiga version, released in 1988, became a hit as well. Entering a deep dungeon full of monsters, traps and puzzles that was displayed in the first-person perspective, the goal was to defeat the evil Lord Chaos. Having first-person graphics in RPGs wasn't new; both the Ultima and the Wizardry series used this perspective for their dungeons as well. However, none of them looked as good and real as Dungeon Master. The numerous monsters looked especially great, and it is hard to believe that only four different pictures were used for each creature (front, side, and back view as well as an attack view). The huge innovation was that the game took place in real time. Usually, RPGs used turn-based combat on special combat screens, making it possible to carefully plan out what to do. Not so in Dungeon Master, where everything happened in real time. If a monster proved too tough, you could try to run away, but you had to make sure to do it quickly, or the monster might have chased and caught you. The real time approach also made for some excellent puzzles where you had to react quickly. Due to this, Dungeon Master also appealed to people who usually didn't like RPGs, thinking they would be too dry and generally missing action.

The other huge innovation was the interface. Dungeon Master was completely playable with the mouse, which was generally unusual in 1987, but almost unthinkable for such a complex game. When you saw an item in the dungeon, you simply clicked on it to pick it up, clicked again to open a character's inventory and placed it there with yet another click. This interface is so innovative and natural that it actually hasn't much improved over the last 20 years, making Dungeon Master still highly playable today, unlike practically every other RPG from the 80s which featured dozens of keyboard commands. Though the game was playable entirely with the mouse, you could also move around with the keyboard, and players quickly adopted moving around with the keyboard using the left hand and doing everything else with the mouse using the right hand. This control scheme is still the primarily used way to play first-person shooters today.

Dungeon Master was also a fantastic game, with excellent puzzles, innovative magic and experience systems, great attention to detail (hunger and thirst were important parts of the game, as was the encumbrance of the characters) and a learning curve that many feel is still unequalled. Clones started coming in quickly, from Bloodwych (which allowed two players simultaneously using a split screen, but was inferior to Dungeon Master in every other way) to Xenomorph (a game with only one character set on a space station) and the popular Eye of the Beholder series (which offered great graphics, but lacked the depth and brilliant design of FTL's original). FTL released an „Expansion Set“ called Chaos Strikes Back in 1989, which was supposed to be only for those who beat Dungeon Master and enabled converting your old heroes. Though almost nothing changed apart from some minor graphical fixes, a few new items and monsters, Chaos Strikes Back featured a whole new, non-linear dungeon with very difficult, but excellently designed puzzles and traps. Most players think that Chaos Strikes Back was the only game to actually rival Dungeon Master's excellence in its genre, which points to another impressive feat: though Dungeon Master practically invented its genre (real time dungeon crawling, if you want), it was never surpassed in the public eye, unlike games like Resident Evil, Dune 2, Super Mario Bros. or Doom, who also either invented or at least popularized their genre. FTL finally released a true sequel called Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep in 1993, but reception was completely the opposite of that of the first game. Dungeon Master 2 felt like an old game to many, with only little changes made to its predecessors. Especially Ultima Underworld with its free movement – The Legend of Skullkeep still used the step-by-step movement with only 90° turns – made the game seem dated. However, Dungeon Master, with its intuitive interface, innovative blending of RPG and action games and simple, but beautiful graphics remains the game that was most ahead of its time.

[cowsmanaut]

actually one of the more advanced games of it's time released only a year after pong containing vector graphics was

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Lander

[Sophia]

Did you ever play Herzog Zwei?

Strange little game! Something of a combination between a space shooter and a RTS, and probably also deserving some of the credit for the formative years of the RTS genre. I'm actually a little surprised and disappointed nobody's done much with the shooter/RTS hybrid concept since, really.

Nice list, though!

[Ameena]

Hmm...probably being thick here, but what's RTS? Ohh wait...it's Real-Time Strategy isn't it...umm yeah if it's that then never mind lol.

[Gambit37]

Really cool run down, well written and informative. Nice job, Trantor.

I would however suggest that Tomb Raider should be in that list as it was one of the first games to marry action and exploration and had a lead character with the most animation of anything seen to date, and perhaps most importantly created a lead character that transcended the medium and became a cult internationally recognised figure. It set a precedent for merchandising and marketing, though maybe that's not a good reason for metioning it! I don't know which game to drop in favour of it!

[Sabreman]

A very well-considered list and a good read. I pretty much agree with the whole thing. I'd try to find spots for Phantasy Star Online (multiplayer online gaming on a console, laying the foundations for things like Xbox Live), and Super Mario 64 (a true reinvention/evolution of a genre, and one endlessly imitated since but never bettered).

(I use to be pretty heavily addicted to Herzog Zwei, and spent many entire days playing it two-player with a friend).

[cowsmanaut]

uh gambit.. prince of persia.. hello..

I would agree the first 3D action exploration game.. but there are many 2D ones of it's time.. and prince of persial had a whack of full frame animation.. in addition to that there were a few other richly animated things on the SNES.

Prince of persia had me checking ceiling tiles for openings, and hanging off ledges hoping to find out if I could get down without dying..

great game and got even better when it hit SNES.

Now, well.. it's leaps and bounds.

[Suule]

May I add that Fade to Black was made before Tomb Rider?

[cowsmanaut]

thats the one I was thinking of.. SNES.. or no.. flashback.. or are they the same thing..

http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ ... shback.htm

yeah.. good game.. infuriating.. but good game

Annother good but under apreciated game would be 3 vikings. Some nice characters and a nice coop mode.. clever puzzles.

[beowuuf]

Another world being the prequel to fade to black that sdet the whole thing off - man, have not played that series in so long now!

[Lunever]

Trantor: Right, but one of the greates games ever is missing imho: Pirates!

[Ameena]

Ooh what about point-and-clicks like Monkey Island! I have no clue whether MI was the first of that type of game, but it was fantastic anyway .

[Lunever]

Ameena: The first one is listed here: Maniac Mansion 1987 (about the same time as DM1). After Maniac Mansion came Zack McKracken, and these two are still the most brilliant imho. Next came Loom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Loom had some naive charm but was not as brilliant as the other ones. Only after all these above SCUMM games Monkey Island was created.

[cowsmanaut]

Well first were text based games. I seem to remember a 3rd person game based on tolkein.. I think it was hobbit. I kept dying.. it wasn't point and click though you did see your hero's. it was for c64 and I played it on an emulator on my amiga way back when.. anyway.. here's a list leading UP to 1987 with 3rd person point and click adventures prior to the above mentioned.

Kings Quest : 1984
The Black Culdron : 1986
Space Quest : 1986
Leisure Suit Larry : 1987

Kings Quest is noted as having stated the trend and Sierra games is actually well known for this type of game as it's mainly all they produced at the time. Lucas arts didn't even have a game company at that time

here's annother link on adventure starting with the good old text based ones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_game

one not mentioned up there that I loved and still hum the music to is

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dragonworld/cover-art

woot!

[Suule]

Graphic adventures started out with "Mystery House" by Sierra.

[Adamo]

well. good list Trant!!
but half of these games I never played (6-10)..
Especially i like your DM review

[Trantor]

Thank you for your comments. Such a list is definitely hugely subjective, and way too short. An argument can certainly be made for most other games mentioned here as well.

[Suule]

Except for RE I agree with all that you mentioned above.

Wing Commander is STILL excellent after all those years. I really don't know what pulls me into that game... it has that... feel. Hard to describe it really. You feel like you're a part of a giant war machine, yet you share the victories with your comraders, the deaths... the events that shape the outcome of the war. The storytelling in WC was something that can't be reproduced by today's games. X:Beyond Frontier series tried that as well as Darkstar one, but there isn't that special touch that made you feel like you're a part of the game's universe.

Elite and Frontier (and then later Frontier: FE) were a milestones of their own. Open-ended game with a HUGE world. It was so amazing that the whole universe could be fitted on a 880k disk.

Dune 2 lost it's replay value. It's a fun game but it shows a sad thing: the AI in Westwood games is plain primitive and it was unchanged since Dune II.

There isn't much to say about other ones... other than they were good games.

[PaulH]

Dungeons and Dragons for the Intellivision! Loved that game.

[Adamo]

yeah, i played Dune2 on Amiga - awesome! I must play it again, I still like it much more than modern games of the same style.

[cowsmanaut]

did anyone ever play Dragonworld the text based adventure.? it was on C=64 where I first played it.

Amsel and Hawkwind..

[cowsmanaut]

no one eh? oh well.. I was for fun making a few new images based on their work, but if you never played it..

[Ameena]

My dad's told me about a cool game he says he used to play (but which I don't remember at all). I think it was a MUD (perhaps the "original" MUD, but I have no clue), which was called something like "Crystal Cave" or something.

[cowsmanaut]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Caves

[Ameena]

Hmm no I don't think that's it...that looks like a platformer and Dad's not really into them (well, he liked Gods...). I'm sure he said this thing was a really really old MUD. Ooh, maybe it was Colossal Cave. Bah, I can't remember. And he's gone to bed now, so I can't ask, lol.

[Gambit37]

Colossal Cave is indeed that which you refer to, though most people know it as 'Adventure':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave

[Ameena]

Ahh yeah, that must've been it .

[Kelly]

Speaking of text adventures, I still have the entire collection of Level 9's.
My Mam and Dad was really into them when I was a kid, and are years old. On the Amiga I think it was, or Amstrad? I think they also did a PC import as well or I used an emulator (can't remeber now). There on my Hard-drive somewhere!

Also Infocom (I think is was) did a collection of them - Planetfall being a fav'. It had a robot in it which became a firm friend. Unfortunately he died, but you can sing him a song to ease his passing! I remember my Mam getting very upset about it!!!

Anyway, totally of topic I know, but since Cows' mentioned them, it just got me thinking is all!!

[Tom Hatfield]

I nominate:

http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/entry/wime.html

There's a copy in the basement here (not mine), but it's on three 5.25-inch floppies. I think it deserves an honorable mention just for scale.

[sucinum]

That are 10 great games, but i really wonder about the absence of Civilization. TBS wasn't really new at that time, but THAT complexity...