Asteroids, Resident Evil among latest titles inducted into World Video Game Hall of Fame

The Associated Press

· Posted: May 09, 2024 3:32 PM EDT | Last Updated: 12 minutes ago

The World Video Game Hall of Fame inducted its 10th class of honourees Thursday, recognizing Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, SimCity and Ultima for their impacts on the video game industry and popular culture.

The inductees debuted across decades, advancing technologies along the way and expanding not only the number of players, but the ages and interests of those at the controls, Hall of Fame authorities said in revealing the winners. The Hall of Fame recognizes electronic games of all types — arcade, console, computer, handheld and mobile.

The Class of 2024 was selected by experts from among a field of 12 finalists that also included Elite, Guitar Hero, Metroid, Neopets, Tokimeki Memorial, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and You Don't Know Jack.

The honour for Atari's Asteroids comes 45 years after its 1979 debut in arcades, where it was Atari's bestselling coin-operated game. The game's glowing space-themed graphics and sound effects made their way from more than 70,000 arcade units into millions of living rooms when a home version was made available on the Atari 2600.

"Through endless variants and remakes ... Asteroids made a simple, yet challenging game about blasting rocks into one of the most widely played and influential video games of all time," said Jeremy Saucier, assistant vice-president for interpretation and electronic games at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y., where the World Video Game Hall of Fame is located.

The next inductee to debut was Ultima, not necessarily a household name, but a force in the development of the computer role-playing genre, digital preservation director Andrew Borman said in the news release. Designed by Richard Garriott and released in 1981, Ultima: The First Age of Darkness inspired eight sequels and is credited with inspiring later role-playing games like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

The urban design-inspired SimCity was released by Maxis in 1989 and found an audience among adults as well as children who were challenged to build their own city and respond to problems. Among the sequels and offshoots it inspired was 2016 World Video Game Hall of Fame inductee The Sims.

"At a time when many people thought of video games in terms of arcade shooters or console platformers, SimCity appealed to players who wanted intellectually stimulating fun on their newly bought personal computers," said Aryol Prater, the Strong's research specialist for Black play and culture.

The adventure game Myst sold more than six million copies, making it a best-selling computer game in the 1990s. The 1993 Broderbund release used early CD-ROM technology and allowed for a level of player immersion that until then had not been available in computer games, the Hall of Fame said.

"Few other games can match Myst's ability to open imaginative worlds," said Kristy Hisert, the Strong's collections manager. "It was a work of artistic genius that captured the imagination of an entire generation of computer game players, and its influence can be seen in many of today's open-world games."

The final honouree, Resident Evil, featured "cheesy B-movie dialogue, engrossing gameplay, and chilling suspense" that helped popularize the "survival horror" genre following its release by Capcom in 1996 and offered mature entertainment for older teenagers and adults, video game curator Lindsey Kurano said. Created by game director Shinji Mikami, it also inspired an action horror film series that as of 2022 had grossed more than $1.2 billion US ($1.64 billion Cdn), according to the Hall of Fame.

How do games make it into the hall of fame?

The Strong established the Video Game Hall of Fame in 2015. Its first class of inductees included Doom, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and World of Warcraft.

Anyone can nominate a game to the hall of fame. Members of an international selection advisory committee submit their top three choices from the list of finalists. Fans also are invited to weigh in online. The public as a whole is treated as a single committee member.

According to Borman, deliberations on each year's inductees focus on four key criteria.

First is "icon status," meaning it's widely recognized and remembered. Second is longevity: the game must be "more than just a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time," Borman told CBC News.

Third is a game's geographical reach, to recognize that games can become popular outside of the U.S. or North America and shape the gaming industry across international borders.

Fourth is influence — mainly if a game's design or characters have influenced later releases, but also taking into account other forms of entertainment or society at large.

"Think about the Mario [games], which were huge in the game world. But then they had cartoons, they had products, they had all these things that went beyond," he said. 

Borman says the selection process for each year's inductees has become more difficult, but added there's still a long list of titles worthy of contention to go.

"I love the discussions that come out of it. I love when we nominate a game like [2019 inductee] Candy Crush, and, you know, those that maybe identify themselves as gamers think that it shouldn't be in. 

"But then you look at the millions upon millions of people that have played it, the impact that it's had? I think it's a fascinating discussion."