What Video game changed the face of Video games?

[MA-Caver]

I'm glad that someone else mention pong.
Do you remember the hand held foot ball games that the men were shaped like diamonds, Don't forget Donkey Kong.

I'd mentioned Pong but it was actually the gaming console that STARTED the whole mess. My dad bought us the first one that came out... I remember friends coming over and asking how does it work and being a NERD (geeks hadn't evolved yet) that I was, I explain in detail on it... instantly boring my friends to tears.

I do remember those football games by mattel ... not the diamond shaped men but the little lines that you moved up down and forward or back to avoid the others in your way to a touchdown. At the time t'was pretty nifty little thing for kids/teenagers on long trips or boring classes *ahem*

 

[bluekey88]

System Shock, as mentioned, was the model for Bioshock. "L-look at you hacker, a pathetic creature of meat and bones, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"

As for WoW, the only 'game changer' it's been for MMOs is proving that people like to log into persistant worlds to play by themselves while talking to others. They're walking along the channel blazed by Everquest, and a little of Ultima Online, jump started with the help of an inexplicably devoted fanbase.

I never said Bioshock or WoW were the originals...but they did what others did in such a way a littel betetr and with these games people who were not "gamers" joined the fold so to speak. To em, that is really what defines a a landmark game...it's ability to reach out to the general populace and catch hold (or to define/create a genre).

Peace,
Erik

 

[Hyper_Shadow]

I think the major change was made with the advent of 3d home gaming. Though they'd been around a little while before, the main time for them to come to the forefront was with the advent of the Sega Saturn and it's later rival Playstation.

As for the games, well there are a few that spring to mind that were pushed forward with these consoles.

1.Tomb Raider (who doesn't like Lara Croft?)
2.Resident Evil (There was no such thing as survival horror until this.)
3Final Fantasy 7 (I could go on all day about this I'm a big RPG fan and a very big FF7 fan, hell I'm a massive Square Enix fan.)

Other games that were revolutionary I would include:

4.Goldeneye (This was THE FPS until Halo)
5.Halo (See above)
6.Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic (yes D&D rules but with an epic and engrossing Star Wars Story).
7.Devil May Cry
8.Tekken

I can keep going through every game I've played with explanations for each of em. I'm quite passionate about my games, I see em as the modern day story books that allow kids to find new heroes to look up to and encourage them to be imaginitave.

I expect we will be seeing many more groundbreaking things in futre and I for one am looking forward to it.

 

[CoryKS]

Pong - first commercially successful arcade game
SpaceWar - First vector graphics game
PacMan - first game to successfully attract female gamers
Donkey Kong - popularized the run/jump genre
Dragon's Lair - first laserdisk game
Doom - popularized the first person shooter genre