Doom. Was on more PCs than Windows, defined a genre and is still referenced today.
I have been gaming since 1980. I have never had a more visceral blown away reaction to a game than the first time I played Doom. We even setup a LAN in our dorm so that we could play it multi-player. The only other computer experience with a similar impact was seeing web pages for the first time and realizing that my parents would be able to use the internet with them (no need to learn usenet, ftp, archie, gopher, and all of the command line utilities that I used). Doom felt so revolutionary.
Continues to have a large following, ported to everything thats powered. This is the answer for me!
I see a lot of downvotes from people. Listen, it’s okay to disagree and we can have discussions about it. None of the comments so far are offensive or anything. Tell these people why you disagree.
Half-Life for me. The moment games really became an interactive storytelling medium.
Of course it’s Half Life. Sad to see that people have forgotten the impact it had
I also said half life. Doom was a leap forward, but Half life actually set a technological and story telling bar, on a budget, in 1998. Many videogames drew inspiration from its innovations, storytelling or themes.
And it’s not just that. Half-Life also spawned Counter-Strike, one of the foundational pieces of e-sports (if not also the modding scene in general today). Not to mention being a precursor to today’s digital distribution model in the industry.
Minecraft
Minesweeper.
… and why it’s World of Warcraft.
Do I want that to be the answer? No.
Sadly, that’s actually a decent choice, as much as I hate to admit it.
Might be biased but not only does the FF7 story hold up close to three decades later but it was also the catalyst for introducing Japanese RPGs into a western market.
Chrono Trigger predates FF7 by two whole years, and is, objectively, one of the best Video Game RPGs of all times, while also being a JRPG in itself.
Pong
Bad rats.
The intersectional apex of interactivity and storytelling
Oh, it’s a “type your pick”, not a list of choice. Interesting
Gamey McGameyface it is then
Mario? Tetris?
Tetris brought in the normies.
I’d say everyone knows what Tetris is, so that’s a good argument for it.
I bet noone’s gonna mention the great grandfathers of modern RPGs. Bard’s Tale, Ultima, Dungeon Master… all modern games are standing on the shoulders of giants.
While they’re important, I think they’ve also aged poorly in many ways something like Doom has not. I’d compare their importance more to something like Pong or Galiga. Good games, that pushed the limits of the medium for their time, and are foundational, but more acted as a steping stone rather than something other games were widely inpired by or modeled after.
I wouldn’t disagree that Doom is a very good choice here too. The fact that it has become a tradition and challenge to try to run Doom on all kinds of hardware alone proves how influential Doom is. However, I wouldn’t say Dungeon Master has aged more poorly than Doom. Both games are really fun today I think. Dungeon Master is just way more niche, it’s older, it had fewer players and the franchise has died a long time ago, while Doom is going strong. It’s a tough choice and I admit I’m a bit biased here anyway - Dungeon Master was my first true love when it comes to video games.
“Aged poorly” was a bad choice of words. My point was more that the industry has moved on from them, and while some of the conventions are the same, its largely stuff that predates them. If you go back to retro RPGs when you’re used to Skyrim, Dark Souls, Final Fantasy, ect. you’ll be unfamiliar with much of how the game plays. Not much was carried over from these games specifically. I’d argue that the influential RPG, that would be the genre’s equivalent to Doom, would be D&D. While not a video game, thats the model everything referenced, and still references, moreso than even Doom. It’s what codified core mechanics like HP, classes, character stats, and more, in the same way Doom codified modern first-person mechanics, ammo management, and exploding barrels.
Super Mario Brothers is what brought video games into the household.
This one game is why every game system was called “a Nintendo” for decades. Yes, other games came along and changed the landscape dramatically, but SMB1 created that foothold into the home.
Exactly my thinking as well. Super Mario Brothers was the game that made “couch gaming” popular for more than just kids. Adults were getting into it as well. I still have fond memories of my dad trying his best at it and thinking sticking his tongue out in the right direction would somehow help his jumping ability.
Without the NES, the couch-gaming scene as we know it wouldn’t exist. And Super Mario Brothers was the game that brought it to the masses.
None of the others come close to this. This game rescued the industry and set it’s new trajectory
DOOM 1993
