Strachey's List - 1975
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.
pedit5 (The Dungeon)
The first example of a dungeon-crawling adventure game and of the roguelike genre is Pedit5, also known by some as The Dungeon. The player has to deal with randomly generated encounters with monsters or treasure and decide what to do from there. You can either cast a spell or flee against a monster. The legacy of Pedit5 can’t be understated, as it’s one of the first role-playing games and a great example of moving video games beyond just scoring points.
dnd
The game dnd is essentially the first video game based on the popular tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons - licensing fee not charged. Your goal is to obtain the grail and orb, two treasures. You advance through a multi-level dungeon, fight enemies, and get new abilities as you progress. It’s also the first game to have bosses, a major enemy variant that has become commonplace in video games. You also can visit past levels and leave the dungeon, making it one of the first games with a non-linear structure.
Panther
Another PLATO system game that showed the future of multiplayer gaming. Panther is a tank simulation game that pits players in team deathmatches. Each player in the team has their own special skills, and they must work together to win. It was a game that was definitely ahead of its time.
Moria
Yet another PLATO system dungeon crawler, which was heavily inspired by dnd. However, in this one, you can have multiple players journey together through the generated dungeons; so, in many ways, this was an early example of today’s MMO RPGs. The game’s name is taken from The Lord of the Rings’ infamous setting but is mostly based on Dungeons and Dragons. Several updates were made to the game over the following decade, including adding color.
Western Gun (Gun Fight)
Tomohiro Nishikado is back, adding another gem to his portfolio, Western Gun. It’s a simple game with a simple concept, but revolutionary for the time. You have two cowboys dueling. As a result, this is the first game credited with human-to-human combat. Like TV Basketball, Nishikado pushed for more realism and worked hard to have the graphics show sprites resembling cacti and human characters. The North American version was handled by Midway, who improved the graphics by using a microprocessor for the cabinet, a first in gaming at the time.
Shark Jaws
Shark Jaws was inspired by Sega’s 1972 electromechanical game Killer Shark and the recently released blockbuster hit Jaws. Ironically, Killer Shark was briefly shown in the movie. Originally, the game would be a licensed game of the movie, but Bushnell couldn’t get the rights, so he worked to tie it into the movie without making Universal mad. The marketing and text for the game purposely focused on the word Jaws to make it seem like it was based on the film. Bushnell even published it under a subsidiary of Horror Games, just in case Universal decided to sue him. The game has you play as a fisherman, trying to catch fish while avoiding a shark. It was a big hit and even appeared briefly in another fish horror movie, 1978’s Piranha.
Crash N’ Score (Stock Car)
One of the more popular arcade titles of the year, Crash N’ Score is a demolition derby game in which players crash into other cars and flags to score points. While simple, it proved a nice success for Atari and continued to equate the brand with quality and fun. The game was titled Stock Car in Europe.
Jet Fighter
This arcade shooter was another Atari hit. The game uses two joysticks to simulate flight control sticks as you aim to shoot down other planes. Like Crash N’ Score, this one sounds simple today, but it was integral to establishing Atari as a quality and major player in the arcade market then.
Steeplechase
Atari’s breakout year continues with Steeplechase, a horse racing title in which up to six players jump obstacles to win the race. Much like Crash N’ Score and Jet Fighter, the game may look basic today, but it was part of establishing Atari as the force in American arcade gaming. It became popular enough to be released in other countries, becoming a hit in Japan.