20.
Evolution
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You start out as a one celled animal and move through different stages to become a man (the last level could almost have political meaning to it with the thought of 'all this evolution for this?'). Along the way you need to catch flies as a frog, get cheese as a mouse, and throw coconuts as an ape. Each level is completely different from the one before it and thats where the fun is. I'm actually surprised that this idea hasn't been used again with newer games, it seems like such a great idea. Maybe people are afraid that they won't be able to compete with this classic.
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19.
Arkanoid
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As fun as breakout and highres breakout could be they were missing something that made you want to keep playing (and even if it was just to see what the end would bring you could be severely disappointed, right dad?). Arkanoid changed that by adding levels with different block types and with powers that would fall from the sky. Rendered beautifully on the Amiga with great sounds effects (I can still remember the ting when it hit a silver block) I played it all the way to the end.
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18.
Captain Goodnight
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For a long time this was the ultimate game for me. The idea is that you are one man who needs to go to an island to stop a bomb from detonating. To do this you need to get there by taking on all sorts of bad guys, grabbing tanks and jeeps and boats when possible (but you don't have to), and doing your best to stay alive. Although the game is very linear the process isn't. Taking a jeep will speed things up but pose problems of it's own, while a tank is great until it gets stuck. I think that most of the games that I thought up were variations on this one, the idea of just being a guy a doing whatever you needed to in a game is something that is very much alive in stuff like Halo today (which in many ways is the descendent of Captain Goodnight).
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17.
Mario Brothers
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Before "Super" Mario Brothers there was simply Mario Brothers. I remember when NES came out and my friends talked about the Super game I would wonder how it could be so similar to one of my favorite games on the apple. When I finally played it I realized that it was the same characters. There isn't much to this game, the screen doesn't move so you are stuck on the same platforms, but it's still fun (better with two players). All you need to do is hit creatures from below to make them flip over on their back, then you kick them all to move to the next level. Always such a big decision if you should use the pow or not, especially with two players when you have to both agree.
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16.
Super Mario Brothers
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Successive versions would get better in graphics and gameplay but they still can't beat the original. This was the king of games back when it came out and put Nintendo into first place of a market that it was creating all over again. Endless talk at school about how to get to various warp levels and kids who were able to get 100 lives from jumping on a turtle at a specific step.
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15.
Faerytale Adventure
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Before Baldur's gate and Neverwinter Nights there was Faerytale. A game so large that I remember my dad telling me that the map would be much larger then our house if laid out (it took at least 30 minutes to go from one end to the other!). You started out as one of three brothers until you died and then you moved on to the next one. There was really nothing to tell you what to do so you had to check everything out, looking in every house, talking to every person, walking on every path. It was also very hard to do with one person and I really needed my sister to click on the weapon that I needed or to search a body before it faded away. So many things to do, walk to the desert, ride a turtle, go to various castles, walk through forest... and all the while the music giving you note of what was about to happen. When enemies were approaching the music would jump into a charge and you'd quickly find out if you had to run or not (thank god for my sister's fast use of the mouse to give me arrows when she'd pick some up). A marvel for it's day.
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14.
Marble Madness
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When we first got the Amiga I was shocked at how great things looked, until we loaded up Marble Madness, then I was stunned. I remember very well my best friend and his brother and I in the computer room with the lights off at night playing this game with absolute awe. Every time we saw something new we'd all gasp at the beauty of the graphics (I still remember the heated discussion if it was the right thing to try to squish the little bad guys for time or to simply carry on). If this couldn't make the Amiga dominate the market then Commodore must have been brain dead (which we know it was).
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13.
Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade
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I preferred Lucasfilm's adventure game style of Sierra's because it seemed much more natural to put actions together with clicking the mouse rather then typing in some command set. The game was perfectly suited to the movie in every way, even when I watch it now I smile when I hear the music in the sewers under Venice.
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12.
Civilization 3
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The big difference between this version and all others before it is the AI. Finally the other civilizations are intelligent and can be unpredictable. Diplomacy now plays a big part in if you are going to be able to win the game, and guessing how dynamics are playing out between other factions. Even the AI of the workers is much improved with the computer doing a much better job of building mines, roads, and irrigation then you can.
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11.
Karateka
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If all of western philosophy is just footnotes to Plato, then all fighting games are derived from this. Karateka only gave you six moves (high medium low punches and kicks) but it was a blast to play. Little details was what made i: the subtle storyline behind the scenes, getting killed with one hit if you weren't in stance, having the gate kill you with one swipe, and even the bird that would finish you off when you were so close to the end. I was lucky enough to not approach the princess in stance so I won, but I wondered what other pour souls who didn't do the same felt like after such a long trek.
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