Strachey's List (1974)
The Most Consequential Games of All-Time
Strachey’s List is my list of the most acclaimed, consequential, and influential titles of all time. There is a max limit of 20 games per year. As always, this is all my opinion and research.
Airfight
One of the games created under many education institutions’ PLATO computer systems, Airfight is credited as the first flight simulator. The game went on to have multiple variants, but it most notably inspired the creation of Microsoft Flight Simulator in later years.
Spasim
Spasim was another game created for the PLATO computer and network of systems, developed by Jim Bowery. It was the first massive multiplayer game, supporting up to 32 players. You are grouped into different factions to protect and control a planetary system. Players control a spaceship in a first-person view, making it one of the earliest first-person shooters.
TV Basketball
After working to make the successful Soccer, Tomohiro Nishikado set his sights on basketball. The game would be the first to feature character sprites and representation of an actual human character. It is similar to the paddle and ball games that filled up the market, but Nishikado added a basket to put the ball in and had the new human character sprites hit it. Despite its simplicity, it's the first true basketball video game if you don’t count the Magnavox Odyssey’s basketball overlay sheet.
Gran Trak 10
Gran Trak 10 was an ambitious title for Atari. They created a more complex arcade cabinet with the driving wheel and peddles as part of the control input. Players would race around a track under a timer. The game had many realistic elements, such as applying brakes that didn’t halt a speeding car right away, and you could skid and hit the walls. While it got a good reception, the game did lose Atari so much money that the company almost closed down before they made some financial adjustments and merged with their subsidiary Kee Games to prevent bankruptcy. Despite this, Gran Trak 10 has gone on to be seen as one of the first consequential racing video games.
Tank
The last game from Atari subsidiary Kee Games was Tank. Released under the pressure of Atari’s financial troubles following Gran Trak 10’s weak investment returns. Luckily, the game performed well and was one of the reasons Atari pulled the nose up. The maze game has two players control tanks with the goal to shoot each other, but they have to deal with the maze itself and obstacles like landmines. The game was so successful it got many clones and copycats. Tank also led to the popularization of dueling-based multiplayer arcade titles.
Speed Race
Tomohiro Nishikado continued his dominance over the industry with his next release. Inspired by Gran Trak 10, Nishikado decided to make his own racing game. Like Gran Trak 10, the arcade cabinet had a steering wheel, but the player would drive on a vertical road. The object of the game is to pass as many cars as possible under a 90-second time limit without hitting them. The game would prove to be another success for Taito and Nishikado. An updated version would be released in 1975 called Speed Race DX and it got the treatment most successful games of the time would get, copycats and clones. With his move away from sports, Speed Race showed that Nishikado could work with any genre given to him.