Games you would teach in a video game history course.

Pretend for a minute that you're going to be teaching a course on the history of video games. What games would you include on your syllabus and why? What would make those games good teaching material for a class on video game history? Just one thing before you post:

Assume your students already know about Super Mario Bros. Seriously. That's just far too obvious a choice.

I don't know all of my choices, but I know that I'd choose Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken. Obscure choice, but it had an amazing impact on how Japanese game designers told their stories in games.

Mario 64. The Sims. Apocalypse. Final Fantasy IV. Space Station Silicon Valley. NES Track & Field. Fight Night Round 3. NBA 2K11. Madden 2001. DOOM II. Medal of Honor Allied Assault. Sewer Shark.

Metal Gear Solid 2 - Postmodernism in gaming

My real question is whether a class like this would ever be feasible. As someone who devoured "history" classes about pop art in college, from rock to rap, the one barrier to entry is obviously hardware. You can't get enough systems of any kind together for an entire class to use unless a sign-up requirement is that you own the systems required (similar to books), which is likely too high a price to ask for anything other than an extremely granular, Jesuit liberal arts school.

@nodima:

You could have a digital distribution system with some type of cloud gaming. That way, hardware requirements become irrelevant, and the whole class can play the game. Either that, or you could just link to videos or whatever, but I wouldn't recommend that strategy.

Also, wouldn't Night Trap be a better choice? (Assuming I know why you picked it, of course.)

FFVII would have to be in there somewhere. That game was/is wildly influential.

Pong! It's like the Paleolithic-era Venus sculptures of video games.

Feasible in what sense? We have degrees for almost anything now. Its not just about a means to a vocational end. I'd argue it'd go hand-in-hand with a design course.

Oregon Trail. At least for the time period that was a game that could sort of simulate real world events in a "oriented for a kid to understand" way in those primitive early days.

FFVII for both the death and rebirth of the JRPG, Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past in how there can be two different interpretations of franchises and ideas, Halo CE and Doom 1 comparison of the evolution of shooter, Dota in how games are sports. Finally throughout the course Persona 4 in how to make a near perfect game

I felt an example of poor game design demonstrating at-the-time revolutionary tech would be necessary at some point. The film class always has to feature a poor movie done brilliantly, the music class always has to feature a bland track played brilliantly. Sewer Shark was a brilliant game in its day, I can tell that much (my hands have never touched it). It is just also supremely awful in a way any FMV game I've played (or watched) isn't. It makes nearly no sense in a modern context, as well. I personally would have no touchstones for it and offer it to the class as a free thought experiment, combined with an essay explaining its effects on the industry or lack thereof. I would smoke a joint while I read the students' papers and give B+'s to everyone.

In that case, I'd either pick Myst (for historical importance) or Lunacy (for comparative accessibility).

By the way, I thought you included it for the FMV trend from the early to mid 90s.

FF7, Halo, COD4, Bioshock, The Walking Dead, Tony Hawk 2, Tetris, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, and Geometry Wars. I think you would want an emblem of each of the major game types and how they originated, as well as any games that ushered in a paradigm shift in their genre. For example, Doom or Castle Wolfenstein could be used as an original FPS with Halo then COD4 each shifting the genre.

There was that, too. I also think it's important to emphasize a somewhat irrelevant piece of hardware at some point (Night Trap also offers this, I guess, but I only just found that out writing this reply). You get to discuss the idea of using a VHS as a home for software and one of the last great failed gambles to enter gaming with the 3DO, all centered around the weird idea that you'd attach a hunk of plastic that plays CDs to your other hunk of plastic that played cartridges and get a novel experience.

In that spirit, Dragon's Lair is probably another "easy" choice.

Wizardry (probably II or IV), Ultima IV and Elite would have to be in there, considering their huge impact on JRPG's, player choice, morality systems and open worlds.

The Sims and Little Computer People would certainly have to be there somewhere too.

Sim Isle, Sim Health, Cannon Fodder and Shadow President (and maybe Alpha Centauri and Bioshock) as examples of political games.

I'm not all that knowledgeable about Japanese dating sims, but some kind of comparison and contrast with how character relationships are handled in some classic one of those, Mass Effect/Dragon Age, Wing Commander and maybe one of the Larry games could maybe be kinda interesting?

Vagrant Story and then some more Vagrant Story. Super Metroid for Halloween.

For that, I can only recommend the games I have some level of experience with:

• Tokimeki Memorial
• Sakura Taisen
• Love Plus
• More recent Japanese games like Persona and Fire Emblem

I have taken several courses that involved game history. Some commonly taught games include

1960-1984 (Pre-Nintendo)

- SpaceWar (arguably the first fully digital game ever. Not played of course. Either shown in video form or merely discussed)

- Pong (both in the form of Pong arcade/home machines which aren't played and Pong as a game on the CVS/2600. Generally you play a browser based version)

- Space Invaders (Generally used to show the rise of Japanese games in Arcades)

- Asteroids

- Battlezone (Used as an example of vector graphics and early first person gameplay)

- Adventure (Example of games with a story and an end state)

- Various other CVS and arcade games tend to be shown but what games generally depend on the personal preferences of the professor

- Wizardry (Early influential RPG)

- Ultima (Another early influential RPG)

- Ultima IV (Early example of a system of morals and moral choice in games. Early game Warren Spector worked on)

- Donkey Kong (First game by Miyamoto)

8-Bit

- Super Mario Bros

- Legend of Zelda

- Metroid

- A selection of Konami NES games including Contra at the very least

- Final Fantasy

(Note that generally these games won't be played in class due to their length and the technical difficulties of displaying an NES on a modern projector. You'll get videos at the most while some will merely be discussed in lecture and read about in text)

- Early Sierra adventure game will likely be discussed

- Other games are largely based on instructor preference

16-Bit/Late Arcade/DOS/Windows 3

- Sonic The Hedgehog

- Final Fantasy VI

- Street Fighter 2

- Ultima VII

- Ultima Underword, System Shock, or Thief (Basically some sort of mention of Looking Glass, Warren Spector, and/or Ken Levine)

- Doom

- Likely some sort of mention of early attempts at 3D rendering including the pre-rendered Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox, and Sega's Virtua line

- Discussion of Westwood, Blizzard, and the birth of the RTS

Rise of Polygons (From 1995 to the release of the PS2)

- Quake

- Mario 64

- Tomb Raider

- Starcraft and/or Command and Conquer may be mentioned

- Half Life

- Discussion of the rise of online multiplayer will be included with various examples

- Goldeneye

- Mention of FMV games and their failure possibly including a rant from the instructor about their focus on story over compelling gameplay and how to never ever make a game like that.

- Final Fantasy VII

- Other games will be mentioned based on preference.

This Century

- Deus Ex

- Ultima Online

- Everquest

- World of Warcraft

- Grand Theft Auto 3 and the rise of the open world and sandbox style of game design

- Halo and Halo 2

- God of War and the character action genre

- Call of Duty which will likely be used to contrast the more freeform mechanics of Deus Ex, Halo, Far Cry, and Half Life

- Call of Duty 4 will likely be used to discuss gamification and how games use drip-feed upgrades to compel players to play games that don't have compelling gameplay

- Doom 3 and Half Life 2 will be used to discuss modern graphics techniques

- Zynga and Angry Birds will represent casual, mobile gaming

- Some sort of discussion will likely occur over the evolution of gender roles in games with a mention of modern movements for gender equality in gaming. I would assume that these discussions might these days also include sexual orientation.

- Red Dead Redemption is a current academic favorite that I have a feeling will be getting more class time going forward.

- Mario Galaxy is sometimes brought up to discuss IP evolution and using popular characters to sell risky gameplay mechanics

- And of course Wii Sports will be used to discuss alternative control mechanics

Most of the ones I thought off have been mentioned so I'm going to say Braid.

Max Payne for introducing and perfecting bullet-time as a gameplay element (or gimmick, if you prefer). Remedy showed people that spinning camera tricks and slow-motion could be done in games, and actually enhance the gameplay.

As a note, this list is obviously incomplete and tends to my own tastes a little too much (I don't even know what I'd say about Myst, for instance) but I'll try my best. I'm not particularly familiar with pre-NES era games, which ones I'd teach, what's important, etc. Obviously there's the basic arcade games (Pong, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Missile Command) and Tennis for Two, but I couldn't tell you all that much about Atari or PC's of the era. I'd have to say something about Wizardry (a game that JRPG's owe a lot to) and text adventure games.

It's also worth noting that you're looking for history and not mechanics. So, while Super Metroid may be superior to its predecessors in every way, it's a bit less important than the original Metroid and The Legend of Zelda and the focus of those games on directionless exploration. If you were talking about video game design, then it would probably be the other way around - Metroid patented it, Super Metroid made it way better.

So, really, I'm just going to mention what I know.

The NES and SNES eras are obviously important. The rise of JRPG's (Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger) and platformers (Metroid, Castlevania, Mega Man, and duh) would definitely be a focus for me. Outside of Nintendo systems, Sonic would be something to talk about. And on the PC, we have id Software and the invention of the shooter. Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake would all get discussed, though as per what I said above, Wolfenstein 3-D and Quake would probably get discussed a little more because of what they invented rather than what they perfected.

Later on, in the N64/PS1 era, Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time would be the obvious two to talk about. Metal Gear Solid would get some discussion. Goldeneye would. This is also the era where shooters on consoles really got started and people began to tire of platformers and JRPG's, so that would be a discussion. Really, looking back, the N64 did have more revolutionary games than the PS1, it just didn't have enough of them.

On the PC end, we'd first have first person dungeon crawlers (Might and Magic, Lands of Lore, Wizardry) and then isometric CRPG's (Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment). Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 are important, mostly because they took PC multiplayer shooters and made them a hell of a lot better. And then there's the big one. The Super Mario Bros. of PC gaming. Half-Life. Narrative, mechanics, environments, set pieces, immersion - Half-Life did for storytelling in games what Super Mario Bros. did for mechanics. It's probably worth spending an entire class or two discussing.

And this is where things get a lot muddier. Some games in the early PS2/Xbox era are worth talking about, but this is where huge leaps slowed down and more nuanced advances started. Halo Combat Evolved is definitely worth a discussion. It made shooters on consoles seem equal to their PC counterparts, though I would argue that Halo CE is so great because it knew the limitations of console FPS's and designed around them instead of tackling them head-on with the design philosophy of a PC shooter. Final Fantasy X was where JRPG's largely became fully 3D. Grand Theft Auto III was a very impressive open world at the time.

Half-Life 2, Resident Evil 4, FEAR, Far Cry, and perhaps Kill.switch (for the cover-based shooting that Gears of War would later perfect) would probably be the last few weeks of class if it were being taught now, in 2014. It's hard to tell what's really important after this. Gears of War and Call of Duty 4, obviously, but other than that I'm not a hundred percent sure what will be considered important when we can really look back on gaming since 2006. Dark Souls seems like it's going to be important. Braid. The rise of "metroidvania" games in general, and indie games.

This list is, of course, very incomplete and full of holes. It doesn't really focus on technology, for one. Graphics leaps, faster internet, Steam, how video game budgets have risen to insane levels, etc. - all of those are pretty important. You might be able to argue that video game history should be taught based on what technology allowed and what games did with that technology, at least early video games.

I just came up with another game to teach: the Uncharted series, at least compared against Modern Warfare. These games would demonstrate the increasingly cinematic nature of games in the modern era.

You could also do some contrasts against old games and their new counterparts, like Wolfenstein and Tomb Raider and maybe even Doom, to show what trends were popular in their days and how gaming changed between those two points.

Pong. Warlords. Windjammers. Course done. Final evaluations will be pass/fail based on the results of me vs. my students in a round of Windjammers.

It's handy that the QL went up today because I think Hidden in Plain Sight is a great example of how simple game design can be very entertaining and engrossing.

Without mentioning anything too obvious or things that have been said already

I feel like Donkey Kong Country is important.

Castle Crashers even though I hate that game.

Metal Gear Solid 1 (extremely important game)

Super Mario RPG and or Paper Mario (for showing Nintendo's willingness to take risks)

Halo 2

Money Puzzle Exchanger - Just for being extremely weird

SOTN for being a close to flawless game

Mirrors Edge - ditto

Street Fighter 2

I would teach:

• The classics: Pong, Galaga, Pitfall, Soccer (Atari 2600), Donkey Kong, E.T;
• The plataformers: Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong 2, Kloona, Abe's Odyssey, Crash Bandicoot: Way of the Warrior, Super Mario 64, Spyro The Dragon, Super Mario Sunshine, Limbo, Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 3D Land;
• The JRPGs: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy VI, Soul Blazer, Secret of Evermore, Super Mario RPG. Final Fantasy VII, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Pokemon Gold, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Lost Odyssey, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Super Mario & Luigi:Bowser's Inside Story, Pandora's Tower;
• The RPGs: Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, Fallout 2, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim;
• Soccer: Nintendo World Cup, Fifa 97, International Superstar Soccer Deluxe, World Wide Soccer, Fifa 98, ISS Pro Evolution, Pro Evolution Soccer 3, Fifa 07, Fifa Street, Fifa 14, Pro Evolution 2014;
• Racing: Rad Racer, Road Fighter, Super Mario Kart, Outrun, Power Drive, Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Destruction Derby, Gran Turismo 2, Need for Speed, Wipeout 2047, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, Gran Turismo 4, Gran Turismo 6, Forza, Forza 4, Forza Horizon, Need For Speed: Rivals, Super Mario Kart U;
• Fighting: Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 3, Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, Super Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Darkstalkers, King of Fighter '97, Tekken 3, Virtua Fighter 2, Bloody Roar, Battle Arena Toshiden, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, Tekken 5, Guilty Gear XX, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Blazblue: Calamity Trigger;
• Horror: Clocktower, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 4, D, Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 0 (Gamecube), Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 4, Silent Hill Origins, Resident Evil 5, Silent Hill Downpour, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Nanashi No Game, Theresia;
• The First Person Shooters: Wolfenstein, Doom, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Deus Ex, Unreal Tournament, Halo, Call of Duty, Half-life 2, FEAR, Crysis, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Titanfall;
• Third Person Shooters: Max Payne, Max Payne 2, Resident Evil 4, Uncharted, Uncharted 2, Dead Space, Resident Evil 5, Dead Space 2, Max Payne 3, Gears of War 3, Dead Space 3;
• RTS: Command and Conquer, Warcraft 2, Total Anihilation, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, Supreme Comander, Starcraft 2;
• Action RPGs: Diablo, Diablo 2, Sacred, Diablo 3, Torchlight, Path of Exile, Torchlight 2;
• The Brawlers: Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, Batman Forever, Fighting Force, Die Hard Arcade, God Hand;
• Open World: Grand Theft Auto, GTA 3, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, inFamous, Prototype, GTA 4, Red Dead Redemption, Sleeping Dogs, GTA 5;
• The unique: Tetris, Puzzle Quest, Wii Sports, Angry Birds, Minecraft.

Surprised no one tried to be funny and put Custard's Revenge.

But on topic, I'd go for one game per generation.

1. Pong

2. Asteroids

3. Super Mario Bros

4. A Link to the Past

5. Mario 64

6. Silent Hill 2

7. Mario Galaxy

Considering the E-sport events of the last few days (and years) I'd probably have a punt at Dota 2 and it's predecessors.

I'm not the most knowledgable person when it comes to Dota but, y'know. I wouldn't be the first teacher to charge on through despite a lack of knowledge about a given subject.

@shivermetimbers: Custard? XD

Rapelay. Only in an upper level course called 'The Dark Side.' Duke Nukem Forever and ET would also be in there