4 New Inductees Into The Video Game Hall of Fame

Sorry, Half-Life fans, you'll have to wait at least another year to see the classic FPS make it into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The National Museum of Play has announced this year's batch of inductees: Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, Colossal Cave Adventure and Microsoft Windows Solitaire.

The latter was a nominee two years ago but failed to make the cut that time around. Along with Half-Life, the other games that just missed out this year were Asteroids, Call of Duty, Dance Dance Revolution, King's Quest, Metroid, Minecraft and Ms. Pac-Man -- all of which were finalists in 2018 as well.

The museum said all four inductees "significantly affected the video game industry, popular culture, and society in general." The Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Kart series are still going strong, with Mortal Kombat 11 dropping just last week, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to thrive in sales charts and there's a Mario Kart mobile game set to arrive this summer. Solitaire helped countless office workers and students while away the time when they got bored with life (or Minesweeper), but you might be less familiar with Colossal Cave Adventure.

Despite its lack of polygons, the 1976 text-based adventure "still offered a fully-realized realm to explore, with treasures to find and puzzles to solve," according to the museum. That paved the way for "an entire genre of fantasy and adventure games, and it directly inspired other pioneering titles, such as Adventureland and Zork."

It's absolutely a worthy quartet of inductees. They join the likes of John Madden Football, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy VII, Sonic the Hedgehog,Grand Theft Auto III, The Legend of Zelda, The Oregon Trail, The Sims, Space Invaders, Doom, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and World of Warcraft.

What are your thought, SW? Well deserved or undeserved? What additions would you like to see? I'd vote Chrono Trigger, Streets of Rage, or Contra.

Despite not knowing the adventure game, the three others are well deserved imo. A bit silly that half life isn’t in the hall of fame though.

Would also vote for baldurs gate for reviving the very dying rpg genre at the time.

@djoffer: Good choice! I haven't played Baldurs Gate yet but I've heard great things about it. Most likely picking it up when it drops on PS4. Also agreed about Half-Life 2. If Call of Duty manages to get in there before it it'll completely invalidate this Hall of Fame lol

never heard of colossal cave adventure. amstrad connoisseurs like myself will agree that roland in the caves is the quintessential cave game, but whatever. surely the dizzy games - fantasy world or treasure island - deserve to be in contention. plus a lucasarts (monkey island obvs) and / or a sierra point and click adventure

Hmm. I did not know there was a video game hall of fame.

If these got in now, Half Life will be in 2055 if people even remember it by then.

Me neither tbh that's why I posted this article to see if anyone even knew wtf it was lol

“Colossal Cave Adventure”

Some terrible pc text game from 1976 that 23 people played worldwide.

What a freaking joke. The game is trash and it didn’t do anything for the industry. No one liked it then and everyone hates it now.

But because some 60 year old nerd that owns this “Hall of fame” likes some terrible game he played as a kid, he decides it gets a spot.

This is the definition of “revisionist history”.

Here are the “standards” for the HoF:

Video games become eligible for the World Video Game Hall of Fame by meeting four basic criteria:[3][4]

Icon Status - is widely recognized and remembered

Longevity - is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time

Geographical Reach - meets the above criteria across international boundaries

Influence - has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general.

This game does not qualify for the first 3. No one remembers this trash. No one but a handful of Americans know about it. Longevity? This game was never popular and no one plays it today.

Influence: All it did was impress a dozen nerds who made even more niche genre adventure games that no one played either.

This is the dumbest game to ever be inducted and this HoF is a joke with its inclusion.

About the World Video Game Hall of Fame

The World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong was established in 2015 to recognize individual electronic games of all types—arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile—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. Inductees were announced at The Strong museum in Rochester, New York, on May 2, 2019 and are on permanent view on the museum’s second floor. Anyone may nominate a game to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Final selections are made on the advice of journalists, scholars, and other individuals familiar with the history of video games and their role in society.

I think this explains a LOT about the games being nominated and indeed the games in this "hall of fame"

There's nothing wrong with that.

@ajstyles: Colossal Cave Adventure didn’t do anything for the industry?!?!?! You’re nuts. The game was like the precursor to RPGs, adventure games and Rogue-likes rolled into one. I’m also pretty sure it was the first piece of interactive fiction. How does that not have an influence on the industry?

And they have voted games like John Madden Football into the "hall of fame" yeah i'd say there is a lot wrong with that.

@i_p_daily: Why wouldn't Madden be in there?

@ajstyles: Umm, millions of people played text adventure games. From the Vic20 to the C64, to everything else with a keyboard. Just because you aren’t familiar with them doesn’t mean they don’t hold nostalgia for many others.

Although I’d argue Zork I, II, and III were more popular representations of the genre and deserve HoF status over Cave.

Colossal Cave Adventure? That would be like putting Michael Olowokandi in the basketball HOF.

@i_p_daily: WTF? Madden absolutely belongs in the HoF. Madden releases were like holidays in the 90’s and early 00’s. Madden still sells incredibly well decades later.

Madden fits the criteria for sure.

@goldenelementxl: he has no idea

@goldenelementxl: @xantufrog: @vfighter: Its a generic Gridiron game that only sold well because its an American sport, and 90% of its sales would be from America, the rest of the world hardly gives a shit about the game.

Its also hard to be out of the publics mind when a "new" one is released every year on just about every gaming platform.

Just because EA rehashed it EVERY year doesn't mean it belongs in the hall of fame, but at lest the video game is way better than the actual sport.

But hey i'm sure you guys are gonna explain why i'm wrong, right?

@i_p_daily: wut? I'm not talking about you or Madden. Apologies for the lack of clarity. I'm talking about Colossal Cave Adventure, which is arguably one of the most influential gaming titles AJ has never heard of

This Hall of Fame thing seems to be pretty garbage.

@goldenelementxl:

Because those games were never popular and no one played them but a handful of nerds.

It didn’t influence the industry at all. No one knows about trash game like that because they suck.

Zork? Castle Cave whatever?

I can’t even name the other games as examples because they are no name trash.

Hope mario Kart gets it, Mario Kart is awesome

@ajstyles: “Because those games were never popular and no one played them but a handful of nerds.”

And that handful of nerds proceeded to create the Infocom empire (Zork, Planetfall and more), the Sierra On-Line empire (King’s Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, more), online MUDs/MMORPGs, and the VCS “Adventure.” Then all these games went on to inspire their own followers.

The first Velvet Underground album sold only 30,000 units during its first five years, but everyone who bought it started a band.

@i_p_daily: It revolutionized sports games and was the first truly great football sim (American) on the market. I do think Tecmo Super Bowl should have gotten in before Madden, but it still belongs. This is coming from somebody who doesn't watch football at all and only plays a season of Madden once every few years. But we all know you have dipshit gaming opinions so this isn't any surprise really.

@xantufrog: Yeah I only added you because you replied to golden which was just above comment, all good.

So the first Madden game came out in 88, and the first Tecmo Super Bowl came out in 91 and yet you say Madden revolutionized the sports games and yet say Tecmo Super Bowl should have been in there first wtf.

How did it revolutionize the sports genre?

The game is only popular because of the population of America as the game sells like shit around the world, and this "hall of fame" likes to call themselves the WORLD hall of fame, and yet here is a game where its popular in 1 country, but how about Fifa Soccer then? as you can say it revolutionized Soccer games, and not only has the game been on the market less than Madden (7yrs I think) but has sold more and is popular around the WORLD.

In the end its of no surprise that you resort to insults, but hey when you have nothing to counter my argument I understand you're frustrated :(

Dance Dance Revolution?

Really?

I’m being genuine. I knew the game was popular in arcades but is it really worth the Hall of Fame?

@i_p_daily: Learn to read, I said Madden revolutionized sport SIM games, and it didn't get popular until 90 when it hit consoles, I don't think it was very big on pc in 88. I'd put Tecmo bowl in over Madden but both are deserving to be there. Also the first Tecmo Bowl came out in 87 in arcades, but like Madden it wasn't a hit until it came to consoles. Now did you understand that or should we have somebody read it to you?

Now your adding words that were not there in your original post. I asked for you to explain how it revolutionized sports games and you still haven't.

And you also avoided the part I said about Fifa Soccer as its more popular around the world and has sold more than the Madden franchise in nearly a decade less on the market, but we both know why that is. No Madden doesn't deserve to be in the "world" hall of fame. Its sales come down to 1 country, its popularity comes down to 1 country, it was never a system seller etc.

Again with the insults, you're not doing yourself any favours here.

I wonder what makes a game worthy of being in the Hall of Fame? It's interesting that many classic titles are still vying for a position.

That's a fair group to enter in It hink... all things considered.

Random game award organisation gives random awards.

do publishers or programmers get a trophy or certificate?

or is this shit just to get more clicks on their website and make money of views?

DDR is the most important music game. It paved the way for games like Guitar Freaks, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc. And DDR also laid the groundwork for physical exer-gaming, paving the way for the Wii. DDR was influential, popular, had geographic reach, and had longevity, so it fits all the criteria.

Either way, DDR didn't actually make it into the Hall of Fame. But it's definitely a worthy candidate.

One of those "nerds" was Neil Druckmann, the creator of Naughty Dog's biggest hits this decade, The Last of Us and Uncharted 4. He cited the adventure games King's Quest (by Roberta Williams) and Monkey Island 2 as some of his biggest influences, along with Ico and Resident Evil 4.

But I think there are other adventure games they could've picked instead of Colossal Cave. It was very influential, but not popular, or iconic, and lacked geographic reach. I think Roberta Williams' adventure games are more worthy candidates, such as Mystery House or King's Quest. Both of these games were influential, and crossed geographic boundaries, with Mystery House fairly popular in Japan and King's Quest fairly popular in Europe.

Uncharted 2/TLoU = strongest forces that redefined "movie games"

Gears of War 1 = core design of modern TPS.

Resident Evil 4 = camera up your butt works, root of modern action horror spawning Dead Space, TEW, TLoU

The fact that they chose Madden over FIFA is a complete joke. It seems like the Video Game Hall of Fame aren't even sticking to their own criteria. They mention international "geographic reach" as one of their criteria, yet Madden has no international geographic reach. It's only popular in North America, and nowhere else. Whereas FIFA is popular worldwide. It only goes to show how America-centric the Video Game Hall of Fame really is.

That said.. Colossal Cave Adventures? Never actually came ar across that one...