Inducted: 2024
Ultima: The First Age of Darkness designer Richard Garriott seemed almost destined to create immersive video game worlds. The son of a professional artist and a NASA astronaut who had spent 60 days on the Skylab space station, Garriott grew up in a community of engineers and scientists who, like his father, worked at the Johnson Space Center near Houston, TX. As a boy, Garriott began making immersive Halloween and other holiday displays after entering a recreated witch’s chamber […]
SimCity
Inducted: 2024
Simulations are some of the oldest forms of video games, but few have had the popularity, influence, or staying power of SimCity.
The germ of the idea for SimCity came from designer Will Wright’s earlier work on the game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984), in which he found playing with the map editor he made as much fun as playing the game itself. Fueled by an interest he developed in the ways cities grow and evolve—and the impact city planning […]
Resident Evil
Inducted: 2024
Although not the first horror-themed video game, Resident Evil (or Biohazard as it was known in Japan) was the first game to popularize what game publisher Capcom called the “survival horror” genre. Created by game director Shinji Mikami and released in 1996, Resident Evil’s combination of cheesy B-movie dialogue, engrossing gameplay, and chilling suspense made it a favorite of gamers searching for more mature video games.
In 1993, Capcom producer Tokuru Fujiwara tasked Mikami with remaking the company’s 1989 […]
Myst
Inducted: 2024
Most games reward action, but Myst was something altogether different. The brainchild of brothers Robyn and Rand Miller, it gave players the chance to explore a haunting world in order to decipher the mystery behind its creators. Featuring more than 2,500 beautiful, evocative screens, it boasted a level of depth and immersion never before seen in computer games.
In the 1990s, consoles dominated the video game market but as it turned out 1993 was an annus mirabilis (wonderful year) […]
Asteroids
Inducted: 2024
In 1978, Taito/Midway’s Space Invaders filled Japanese and North American arcades, knocking Atari off its throne as the king of coin-operated video games. Atari could have capitalized on the Space Invaders craze by producing yet another clone, but when Atari executive Lyle Rains discussed with designer Ed Logg his idea for a new and different space-themed video game, they planted the seeds for one of the most popular video games of all time, Asteroids.
Released in November of 1979, […]