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These Games Are Now in the Video Game Hall of Fame

Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Doom, and World of Warcraft make up the first wave of inductees.

139 Comments

The first inductees for the "World Video Game Hall of Game" have been revealed. No surprises here, as classics like Pong and Pac-Man made the cut, along with the relatively recent World of Warcraft.

No Caption Provided

The full list of first wave inductees from The Strong Museum's Hall of Fame is below.

These six games were pulled from a pool of 15 finalists. Games that were passed over include Angry Birds, FIFA, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Pokemon, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders. These games still have a shot at induction to the Hall of Fame, as nominations for the class of 2016 will be accepted through March 31, 2016, with voting to follow sometime later.

Inductees for the World Video Game Hall of Fame include games that "have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general." A panel of journalists and scholars ultimately decide which games make the cut.

The six newly minted Hall of Famers have been put on permanent display at The Strong's eGameRevolution exhibit. For more on The Strong Museum, head to its website.

Do you agree with The Strong's Hall of Fame inductees? Let us know in the comments below.

Back in February, GameSpot editors revealed their own picks for games that should be included in the Hall of Fame.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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FoodRules

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What the hell?! No E.T?

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notorious98

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@foodrules: It's going in with Superman 64 and Big Rig: Over the Road Racing next year.

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Avatar image for Renunciation
Renunciation

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That's a fairly agreeable first wave of VGHoF inductees.

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SaturatedButter

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@Renunciation: Why is it agreeable to put Pong in there?

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santinegrete

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I hate WOW but I understand why it's on this list along with such great gems of gaming.

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youre_a_sheep

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I'm amused that your image is of the worst version of Pac-Man ever. Three decades later I still can't get that heinous music out of my head.

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Homey_D_Clown

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I'm glad i kept all of my old games and systems, the only one I do not have anymore is pong.

And even to this day my mom hates that little Pacman arcade, due to it's repetitious noises, and I would play it for hours, no silent mode back in the day!!

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Validifyed

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And one of these games still has 10 million players and pulls in billions in revenue for its creator every year :P

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_DrSteveBrule_

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@validifyed: It's now down to 5 mil ;).

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fig56

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@validifyed: I know right. I never thought Super Mario Bros. could still do it after all these years. ;P

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Validifyed

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@fig56: Got a source for that? The last report I can find was the Q1 2015 that had 7.1 Million. 5 Million would be like an 8 year low for WoW

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_DrSteveBrule_

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@validifyed: That's what I meant lol, my phone sucks for this. But I've heard and read from friends and on the forums that this is WoW's biggest drop in such little time of an expac release.

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notorious98

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@_drstevebrule_: Yes, but it jumped from 7M to 10M after the expansion's release, so the drop isn't that much of a surprise.

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_DrSteveBrule_

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@notorious98: True, but it's how quickly the numbers dropped in such a short period of time compared to other expacs. Even Pandaria didn't even have this big of a drop untill the end of its cycle. WoD has only been out for about 8 months and it's already this low.

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notorious98

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@_drstevebrule_: That's because Pandaria had 9.1 million subscribers before it made the jump to 10 million just prior to release. After that, it dropped down to 9.5 million. What got a good amount of the people back was the free 90 offer for buying the expansion. I think a good portion of them came back, experienced it and understood why they left in the first place. I'm sure that some stayed and others left. The MMORPG genre, as a whole, seems to be dying off.

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_DrSteveBrule_

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Edited By _DrSteveBrule_

@notorious98: Also true, Pandaria dropped as low as 6 million, people (myself and friends included) came back for the free 90, and exp this "big" expac. What did me and my other acquaintances over and to never comeback was how easy and small it felt, and the content felt smaller (and many players on the forums pointed out, is actually less for more). It is sad to see this genre slowly die, as well as the WoW I used to play and enjoy. Either way, I still like the lore and will keep up with it, but will be playing other MMO's I like in place of WoW.

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notorious98

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@_drstevebrule_: Less dungeon and raid content has done a great job at killing the game.

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PrechaNBK

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@notorious98: The fact that there have been 8 replies to just this one comment, that all simply discuss/debate the subscriber population status of WoW should be a strong indication that it deserves to be in the "Hall of Fame" lol.

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notorious98

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@prechanbk: The fact that, at one point, it had 24 times the amount of subscribers as the next highest populated subscription MMO should tell anybody all they need to know about its status in the annals of video game history.

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_DrSteveBrule_

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@prechanbk: Lol I can agree to a degree, it did popularize genre and do stuff MMO's never really did before... Advertise, which introduced a lot of people into the genre and game. :)

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_DrSteveBrule_

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@_drstevebrule_: www.mmo-champion.com/content/4878-WoW-Down-To-7-1-Million-Subscribers

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LJChronx

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Why was FIFA even a mention? Did the series invent some new video game technology?

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zeldafan195

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How the hell did Zelda not make it? It was the first game to have save states, and it created the open world. Can't get much more influential than that.

I also hope more modern games get a chance too. Demon's Souls is one I think deserves a mention.

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hystavito

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@zeldafan195: Maybe Zelda was the first open world on consoles, but overall I'm not sure. It's definitely an early one, but I'm pretty sure there were already several open world RPGs on computers (Apple, IBM PC, C64) in the early to mid 80s, before Zelda in 1986.

Save states, no idea, that sounds odd :). You'd have to explain what you mean because certainly other games had saves. Other games also saved more persistent state data than Zelda, at least on computers at the time.

Anyway it's certainly up there as a classic. I never actually played it until a few years ago :). I had an NES and SNES but I just never got into Zelda back then. Maybe that's because I was already into games that were more RPG-heavy. But then again as a kid it's not like I knew much about a game before I would buy it or ask my parents to buy it, no reading about and analyzing games for years before launch like I do now :).

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zeldafan195

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@hystavito: It was the first game to be able to have a saved file. Others before that would have a code that you'd have to write down, and put it in later to get your progress. In this way, Zelda literally influenced, and continues to influence every single modern game created.

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hystavito

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@zeldafan195: Ok the codes thing, I remember those, you must mean it was first to have those things on consoles then, which makes sense.

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zeldafan195

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Edited By zeldafan195

@hystavito: No, it was the first game that didn't use codes to save. It was the first that had the save data in that cartridge, rather than having codes that you'd use.

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solidsnake7882

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Edited By solidsnake7882

Good list but Sonic or Zelda should be there instead of WOW.

Edit: Looking at the Doom box man I forgot how huge pc game boxes use to be.

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Thanatos2k

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World of Warcraft is out of place.

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godfather830

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I'm glad Angry Birds didn't make it.

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Henninger

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Good picks. Good to see that Minecraft & FIFA didn't make it yet. Same with Angry Birds.

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Poodger

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@Henninger: Minecraft is a worthy one. The others, not so much, though Angry birds did have a big impact on the mobile industry, so maybe.

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RSM-HQ

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Always loved Pac-Man and D00M . Great start to the list.

Street Fighter II should be added at some point, game inspired a whole genre of great games.

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Hagan

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Edited By Hagan

A Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time

Wolfenstein or Duke Nukem 3D

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spartanx169x

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This Comment System Sucks! That is all.

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quickshooterMk2

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@spartanx169x: no it's fucking amazing

no nazi censors or any other bullshit

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silverwings21

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@quickshooterMk2: Fucking Free-speech FTW! Fucking Fantastic! Fucking death to the Nazis! I fucking like it!

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fig56

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Edited By fig56

@quickshooterMk2: really? You can fucking curse now?

oh shit! you can! haha

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Prats93

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Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 should be in the next batch.

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Arachnofunk

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Dark Souls should be there

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zeldafan195

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Edited By zeldafan195

@Arachnofunk:

I'd say Demons deserves it more. Dark was great, and did innovate, but Demon's was the one that turned gaming conventions upside down first.

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Prats93

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Agree with the list, with the exception to WOW.

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tesfan1999

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Hmm no modern games WHAT THE HELL.

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SaturatedButter

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@tesfan1999:

"Hall of Fame"

not "Top 5 Games released in 2014"

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BDRTFM

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Yay Doom! One of my all time favorites. Can't wait for Doom 4. Zelda needs to get in their next round.

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iandizion713

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Great picks, every single one is living legends.

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quickshooterMk2

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i wish i could just black list all eddie articles, his articles are full of shit and plainly copy pasted from other sites

he doesn't even read them! but he generates half of gamespam's traffic

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JonnyC0mbat

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@quickshooterMk2: that's the exact reason I like his articles

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SaturatedButter

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@quickshooterMk2 said:

he generates half of gamespam's traffic

lol, only half? More like 90%.

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quickshooterMk2

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@saturatedbutter: actually it's 80% but yeah

it's sad...

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