Greatest Video Games of All Time Poll: 1970s-1984

[JimmyJazz]

Welcome, fellow AM gamers, as we celebrate the best that gaming has had to offer, from the early days of the Atari and the golden age of arcades, to the massive open worlds and innovative indie games of today.

The way that this poll will be run is as so:
There will be six mini, generational polls, focused on the 1970s-1984, 1985-1990, 1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005, and 2006-present (more specific details regarding consoles and PC games will be explained in their respective polls), to find the Top 20s of each period in gaming. Every poll will be held for entire week, opening Sunday mornings and closing Saturday by midnight. After the six weeks, there will be a month (roughly five weeks) of voting to rank the final 120 games, to create an all-time list.

You can have a ballot of any size, but it must have at least five games, and no more than 15 will be factored in.

The point formula is as follows:
1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 30
4. 20
5. 15
6. 10
7. 9
8. 8
9. 7
10. 6
11. 5
12. 4
13. 3
14. 2
15. 1

Also, you can feel free to allot less points for smaller lists, but not more points.

The final 20 will be compiled from the vote.

For this poll, we will be focusing on all video games released between the years 1970-1984, before the release of Super Mario Bros., and ushering in the revival of the video game console industry after the crash.

Here is page for references to games released in this period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_y ... ideo_games

Let the voting, and inevitable nostalgia for some, begin!

[Pierre]

A quick question: should Tetris, for instance, be voted for now? Because of course, I know the game better through 1989's Game Boy version, but the first one was released in 1984. Same question applies for Donkey Kong and the others.

[Nassim]

Donkey Kong yes for sure, the 81 arcade version is the most known.
For Tetris that's harder, but technically the first version came out in 84 so it should be counted.

I won't vote this round, I'm born in 84 so I haven't played much games that old, but starting next round I will (though I will have big lists only from round 3 on)

[Pierre]

I won't vote this round, I'm born in 84 so I haven't played much games that old, but starting next round I will (though I will have big lists only from round 3 on)

I understand this position, for I'm born in 1988 and I have not played many games from before either. However, I think I can build a list of at least 5 games, as stated by JimmyJazz With Donkey Kong, Tetris if allowed, Space Invaders, Pac-Man and a few more, this shouldn't be too hard. Furthermore, many old games are now available for free here and there on the net, on Internet Archives for instance, and a game is rarely long (although Zork and other text-based games might be exceptions).

[Jirin]

I'm born in 1983, but I've gone to lots of retro arcades.

1. Galaga
2. Pac Man
3. Donkey Kong Jr
4. Oregon Trail
5. Asteroids
6. Frogger
7. Burger Time
8. Space Invaders
9. Mario Bros (Not to be confused with Super Mario Bros)
10. Donkey Kong
11. QBert
12. Marble Madness
13. Defender
14. Paperboy
15. Centipede

[JimmyJazz]

In the case of Tetris, I could certainly make an exception. I figure if anybody is voting for THAT game, they could theoretically vote for it in either the first, second, and third polls.

[Live in Phoenix]

1. Ms. Pac-Man
2. Pac-Man
3. Asteroids
4. Moon Patrol
5. The Caverns of Freitag (Apple IIe, 1982)
6. Megamania (Atari 2600, 1982)
7. BurgerTime
8. Missile Command
9. Tron
10. Parsec (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, 1982)
11. Joust
12. Munch Man (Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, 1982)
13. Return of the Jedi (Arcade, 1984)
14. Centipede
15. Donkey Kong

Some other games of note:
Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1984), Defender, Space Invaders, Popeye, Vanguard (Atari)
Robotron 2084, Spy Hunter, Dragonfire (Atari), Hangman (Atari), Star Wars, Taz (Atari), Pole Position

[JimmyJazz]

LiveInPhoenix, do you really consider Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man to be that different? I was personally going to just place Ms. Pac-Man on my list, and I will probably count the Pac-Man votes collectively, unless anyone objects. I will mention which Pac-Man got the most points, but I will probably consider them to be equally represented on the final list.

[Live in Phoenix]

Hm, I didn't think this would be controversial. I don't know if I can make a slam-dunk argument, but I'll try. In terms of gross revenue, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are the #2 and #5 biggest arcade games of all-time (Space Invaders is #1, btw) out of 119 listed. The only other Pac-Man game on the list is at #104 (Pac-Mania). In terms of units sold, the two games are #1 and #5, with Ms. Pac-Man selling over twice the "original" Street Fighter II (apparently not even counting the Galaga/Ms. Pac-Man units). This is all to say that compared to other arcade games (not even other Pac-Man games), they're like a red hypergiant and red supergiant next to some little pebble planets.

I'd say that old school arcade games foster and reward obsessiveness, and along those lines the two Pac-Man games have been fully embraced. Players might enjoy chasing after the fruit, or the varying mazes, or the new ghost patterns in Crazy Otto / Ms. Pac-Man. (This game was NOT developed by Namco, but by an American company which sold what was once called "Crazy Otto" to an American distributor, who then decided to remake it into the likeness of the Pac-Man characters.) But then, players might like the original setup -- the "perfect Pac-Man game" represents, alongside the top score on Donkey Kong, the best of the best in gamer achievements. Because of the distinctions of the two games, and the staggering popularity of each one, at the very least I think they deserve their own voting spots.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcade_g ... franchises

[Jirin]

Pac Man and Ms Pac Man are two different games, one is a sequel to the other.

[JimmyJazz]

Very well, I will count them separately. I don't personally consider them to be all that distinct, in terms of gameplay, necessarily, which is how I usually assess these games. Frankly, I view them the same way as I view Tetris, or your typical sports game like NHL or Madden. The "sequel" is more like a refined version of the previous game than anything else. Unless there is literally a totally different story to the game, and certain drastic gameplay differences, games in a series tend to be pretty identical.

Me and Bleu brought up this point in regards to the Pokemon games in the previous thread. The way I see it, so many unique video games could potentially be shoved out because of repetitive entries. In the final list, if both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man get in, I will probably have to rank them neck-in-neck, because they are so identical to my eyes.

But, if everybody prefers to rank them separately, then that's fine with me.

[Live in Phoenix]

If the two games are ultimately going to be lumped together, then I offer Robotron: 2084 for my #15 slot

[Pierre]

I'm just exploring a bit the period (using the Wikipedia page linked by JimmyJazz as a basis) and, truly, it's far more fascinating than I initially thought it to be. I don't know if among you there are real specialists of early video games, but I see that alongside the many arcade games that are probably going to dominate this round of the poll, the period also saw the dawn of early adventure games/RPG with titles like Ultima, Wizardry, Temple of Apshai, Zork, King's Quest and others. They seem to present an unreasonably long duration to become personal favourites by this Saturday (which is rather unexpected from games of this era), but I would welcome any suggestion if there are.

[JimmyJazz]

I'm just exploring a bit the period (using the Wikipedia page linked by JimmyJazz as a basis) and, truly, it's far more fascinating than I initially thought it to be. I don't know if among you there are real specialists of early video games, but I see that alongside the many arcade games that are probably going to dominate this round of the poll, the period also saw the dawn of early adventure games/RPG with titles like Ultima, Wizardry, Temple of Apshai, Zork, King's Quest and others. They seem to present an unreasonably long duration to become personal favourites by this Saturday (which is rather unexpected from games of this era), but I would welcome any suggestion if there are.

Wizardry, Zork, King's Quest, Pitfall on the Atari, Adventure...
All of these games are definite interesting gems that will probably make my list (still drafting it myself, with only 15 games you have to limit your choices)

[JimmyJazz]

1| Elite (easily one of the ten most influential video games of all time, still a fascinating game in the way it influenced the very idea of the sandbox game)
2| Ms. Pac-Man
3| Robotron 2084
4| Donkey Kong
5| MULE
6| Galaga
7| Zork
8| Space Invaders
9| Wizardry
10| Pitfall
11| Adventure (Atari)
12| Defender
13| Missile Command
14| Battlezone
15| Joust

[BleuPanda]

1. Ms. Pac-Man/Pac-Man
(2. Pac-Man if they're being counted separately)
2. Galaga
3. Donkey Kong
4. Frogger
5. Q*Bert
6. Oregon Trail
7. Marble Madness
8. Paperboy
9. Space Invaders
10. Asteroids
11. Missile Command

[Jirin]

6. Oregon Trail

So happy I'm not the only person who voted that.

Have you played the parody version, Organ Trail? A zombie apocalypse version of the game. You're traveling across the country to Oregon to escape the zombie apocalypse.

[BleuPanda]

I always see it in Steam sales but haven't gotten around to it. I own over 500 games and still need to finish around 200 of them...

[Pierre]

6. Oregon Trail

So happy I'm not the only person who voted that.

I just tried it. Of course, it's not well-known here in France, for obvious reasons. That's a very interesting and challenging little piece of gaming here, however, I did not go very far (how was I supposed to know people were so reluctant to trade food? ). It won't make my list, but I would recommend it nonetheless.

[Pierre]

1. Donkey Kong
2. Mario Bros.
3. Zork
4. Tetris
5. Galaga
6. Pac-Man/Ms. Pac-Man
7. Space Invaders
8. Q*Bert
9. Centipede
10. Missile Command

I'll be fine with this very classic top 10. I'm not familiar enough with and I don't have enough emotional attachment to the other games from the era to vote for them. An interesting exploration though.

[JimmyJazz]

One more day to get those ballots in for any of those stragglers, as the poll closes at midnight!

@Pierre

Pierre, I have decided to count Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man as separate games, do want the first game in front of the second, or the reverse?

[Jeff]

I'm not one for nostalgia, so I'm only listing stuff I could conceivably see myself playing now given the time and inclination. However, since this era's before my time, nostalgia doesn't really factor in anyway.

1. M.U.L.E.
2. Tempest
3. Ultima III
4. Donkey Kong
5. Galaga

Sorry for the small list. I would like to have more, but to even get to 10 I would have to start listing stuff that I'm indifferent to.

[JimmyJazz]

Crap, I forgot MULE on my list before I saw Jeff's. Will edit properly.

[Pierre]

Pierre, I have decided to count Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man as separate games, do want the first game in front of the second, or the reverse?

Then Pac-Man is #6 and Ms. Pac-Man is #7

[JimmyJazz]

Poll is officially closed, gentlemen. Results will be posted later, along with the the next poll thread.

[Rocky Raccoon]

Sorry I missed the deadline, will try to be more punctual in the future. Here’s my two-cents anyway.

1. Galaga (Arcade)
Best moment: Getting sucked up by an alien ship and then destroying it to make a combo ship capable of firing two shots at once.
2. Star Wars (Arcade)
Best moment: Blowing up the Death Star of course. Because of how much I loved the movie, with an unlimited supply of quarters I could have played this game forever.
3. Space Invaders (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Flipping the score back to zero. In the era of never-ending games, that was the equivalent of defeating the game.
4. Load Runner (Apple IIe)
Best moment: Digging holes and then walking on the guards heads when they fall in.
5. Punch-Out!! (Arcade)
Best moment: Knocking out opponents with the super punch.
6. Berzerk (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Destroying the cylon-looking robots and avoiding the weird bouncing ball bad guy.
7. Cosmic Ark (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Sucking up the animals two by two to save biodiversity across the galaxy.
8. Donkey Kong (Arcade)
Best moment: Finally getting the top of the first fucking level. I had a hard time with this game.
9. Decathlon (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Finally finishing the 1,500 meters, which is an endurance test for your arm, especially when you have to sprint the last part of the race. If I was playing with a friend, we’d switch off to complete the 5-6 minute race. I’m a sucker for sports games.
10. Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade)
Best moment: Getting to eat the ghosts of course.
11. Chopper Command (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Zooming through the sky and destroying enemies in rapid-fire succession
12. Track & Field (Arcade)
Best moment: Setting new records by slamming the buttons so hard it sounds like you’re playing drums in a rock band.
13. Pitfall (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Getting to pretend to be Indiana Jones in video game form.
14. Spider-Man (Atari 2600)
Best moment: Swinging back and forth from your web.
15. Asteroids (Atari 2600)
Best moment: It’s all just solid.

Worst game: Journey Escape
What a piece of garbage. Way worse than E.T., which I actually didn’t think was that bad as a kid. I never played Custer’s Revenge, or that might have been my choice.

[JimmyJazz]

Sorry for the delay, guys. Swamped with working on a stupid presentation for a class. Because of the delay (and because of the rather small voter base as it is) I am factoring in Rocky's ballot.

The results:

[imgsize 220x280]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... Galaga.png[/imgsize]

1| Galaga / 170 points / 6 votes
2| Ms. Pac-Man / 155 / 5
3| Pac-Man / 130 / 4
4| Donkey Kong / 105 / 6
5| M.U.L.E. / 65 / 2
6| Space Invaders / 60 / 5
7| Asteroids / 51 / 4
8| Donkey Kong Jr. / 50 / 2
9| Elite / 50 / 1
10| Mario Bros. / 47 / 2
11| Star Wars / 40 / 1
11| Tempest / 40 / 1
13| Zork / 39 / 2
14| Robotron 2084 / 30 / 1
14| Ultima III / 30 / 1
16| The Oregon Trail / 29 / 2
17| Frogger / 25 / 2
18| Q*Bert / 22 / 3
19| Missile Command / 20 / 4
20| Tetris / 20 / 1

And, as you can see, gentlemen, we have a tie in our first week! So, by midnight of Monday, please vote for which of the three tied games you feel most deserves the spot on our Top 20 (and final Top 150).

Regarding Tetris, which I vote for right off the bat, please keep in mind that, while I am lenient on the Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man thing, if Tetris is included on this Top 20, I will factor that in as Tetris being in the final 120 permanently. I was going to vote for it myself in the third poll, when the Game Boy games show up, but if it is already included then I can make an extra space on my ballot for that poll.

[Pierre]

20| Load Runner / 20 / 1
20| Moon Patrol / 20 / 1
20| Tetris / 20 / 1

And, as you can see, gentlemen, we have a tie in our first week! So, by midnight of Monday, please vote for which of the three tied games you feel most deserves the spot on our Top 20 (and final Top 150).

Regarding Tetris, which I vote for right off the bat, please keep in mind that, while I am lenient on the Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man thing, if Tetris is included on this Top 20, I will factor that in as Tetris being in the final 150 permanently. I was going to vote for it myself in the third poll, when the Game Boy games show up, but if it is already included then I can make an extra space on my ballot for that poll.

Tetris, being coherent with myself. I'm sorry to make things more complicated, even more so since I'm basically voting for the Game Boy version of the game (it's disappointing how you cannot find soviet computer emulators on the net ) but, hey, I asked in the beginning if I could vote for it

[Live in Phoenix]

I actually have a screenshot of me beating the first wave of Moon Patrol, which is not super hard but it gives you an idea where my loyalties lie. My issue with Tetris, irrespective of the game itself: Have any of us, ever, played the 1984 USSR Elektronika 60 version? The first several releases are as follows:

Elektronika 60
USSR June 6, 1984

MS-DOS
NA 1986 [North America]

IBM PC
NA 1986

Amstrad PCW
EU 1987 [Europe]

ZX Spectrum
EU 1987

[imgsize 200x200]http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r57 ... j5qf1c.jpg[/imgsize]

Vote: Moon Patrol

[Pierre]

My issue with Tetris, irrespective of the game itself: Have any of us, ever, played the 1984 USSR Elektronika 60 version?

It was mine as well, that's why I asked Jimmy if I could vote for it this round.

[Jirin]

Yeah, I think Tetris would have gotten more points but people were waiting for next round to vote it.

[JimmyJazz]

So, I am taking these as votes for Tetris, with a vote for Moon Patrol from Live...?

When it comes to that game, I insist that the versions are essentially the same game. Pac-Man I can sort of see, Tetris no.

[Live in Phoenix]

It looks like 2 votes Tetris, 1 vote Moon Patrol

[JimmyJazz]

And the winner is Tetris. It is officially included in our Top 120.