These Games Shaped Entire Genres
They were not always the first of the genre, but still crucial for the gaming industry. Meet the games so influential that they shaped entire genres. Give thanks to these old boys – without them your favorite games wouldn't be as cool as they are today.
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The King's Quest was the first animated adventure game of all time – it was developed by Sierra in 1983. The main breakthrough of this game was its use of 16-color graphics and the high level of inter…
Maybe Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the most popular horror game series, but it was Alone in the Dark that inspired them. One of the first horror video games, it was released in 1992 by Infogamers…
Street Fighter is a fighting video game franchise, started in 1987. Since then it got five more games and a lot of spin-offs and set the standards of the one-on-one fighting genre. The game wasn't bal…
This iconic platformer by Nintendo doesn't need to be introduced. I only list the numbers: 40 millions copies sold (with entire franchise 500 million copies) and 200 games of various genres produced. …
Everybody knows the name of the first role-playing game – Dungeons and Dragons. This tabletop RPG was published in 1974 and since then inspired different video games genres. The Bard's Tale is D and D…
Pac-Man, released in Japan in 1980, became a social phenomenon and created the genre of arcade. It has 8 records in Guinness World Records, 30 licensed spin-offs, and was truly revolutionary. It had t…
The first city-building simulator, SimCity was released in 1989 and shaped the entire genre of simulation games. It began with city building (so realistic that it was even used as a part of the curric…
The grandfather of 3D-shooters and the shooter genre in general Wolfenstein 3D was released by id Software in 1992. The game was a huge success, made $100 000 in its first month and won a lot of award…
What Wolfenstein 3D was to first-person shooters, Dune 2 was to real-time strategies. Released in 1992 by Westwood Studios the game was the first RTS for PC. Dune 2 had some important advantages over …
One of the first adventure games, Maniac Mansion by Lucasfilm Games was published in 1987 and became an early classic of quests. The game introduced new ideas into gaming like multiple possible ending…