Video Game Design Between 1990-2008

STUMBLED!

What a fantastic post and a great journey in time.

How things have changed over the years.

you kinda forgot tes 4 oblivion only the greatest visual orgasm of our time, kinda revolutionary buddy

Man this brings back memories. IMHO, you should include good ol’ Goldeneye 64.

Not only no tes 4 Oblivion, but not once did it show a zelda game. WTF

In 2001 it says: “Nintendo Game Boy Advance. First handheld device that integrates Wi-Fi”.

The GBA didn’t have integrated Wi-Fi. The first Nintendo handheld console to have integrated Wi-Fi was the DS.

PS3 release was not included and I also think Zelda was left out!

Good list, little inaccuracies here or there (usually release dates) but mainly you skipped some influential land marks. You touched on some hardware landmarks but forgot about huge leaps in game engine tech. (introduction of physics for example), DX9 and 10, and probably one of the largest things to ever happen in games…WoW (from release, to record sales, to history making player base).

Not to be a pain, was still a trip to look back at all those games…fond memories

wonderful post.. but where is gears of war and resistance? And am a gamer, like to read your blog a lot

How the times have changed. This brings some memories, some dont feel like its been that long ago. Good memories.

The psp wasn’t released until March 24, 2005 It was being developed in 2003.

What a fantastic post. Brings back a lot of memories. To bad I don’t have that much time to play anymore…

Hello, I wrote the article
I read a couple of complaints about the games included, the thing is that Zelda wasn’t included, because I simply couldn’t find the right screen shots of the game.

Many other games were not included. If I were to include all your favorite games then I would have aggregated into a book and released it

The whole point of this post is to illustrate how things have changed since 1990. The most notable improvements in graphics, hardware and performance.

I saw complaint about inaccuracies, if you search a little bit around you’ll find that the particular information on many sites are all different, in this case I tried to pick the most trustworthy site which has authority in that particular field. (Wikipedia wasn’t all the time my best pick!)

WHAT??? no PACMAN??

lol…loved this list~

Nice article, you missed a few important games, and the screenshots are not that representative (most look worse than the actual game), but it’s nice to reminisce.

Great list. I found here some great games which I played when I was young. I’m missing here MS Flight Simulator X.

Wow, what an awesome trip down memory lane! I love it.

jess
http://www.anonweb.eu.tc

At least use Wikipedia for some facts, Activision has been around since ‘79, Electronic Arts in ‘82.

Where is Mirror’s Edge? Aside from the cut scenes, the graphics are amazing.

too bad there aren’t any screen shots of Microsoft’s Flight Sim throughout the years.

Omg.I played all of them..Great Journey.The pictures spoke for themselves.good list but you can add a couple more to make it better.

what about mario 64, he’s what started 3-D gaming/platforming

Hi,

very great list!

Maybe you missed (not my favorite games, but those brining advances in game desing):
- Many F1’s games (Titus F1 GP to now)
- Fligh simulator (from 2D pixelised version to current 3D world)
- Tony Hawk
- Tomb raider I (that was a revolution in gaming)
- Midtown Madness
- Motocross madness
- Motoracer (what a 3dfx showroom!)
- Rainbow Six (first game in its kind)
- Return fire (how the game evolved shows that following trends for game design is not often good)

G.

Couple of comments and corrections…

You forgot the original Metal Gear Solid, back in 1998, and Knights of the Old Republic in 2003, and the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in 2006. All great games.
And, GTA2 was released in 1999, unless you are referring to the DC version which was released in 2000.
The PSP was not released until 2004, both in Japan an NA.
ATX standard was introduced in late 1995, so may call the first motherboards for 1995, and not 1996.

But, all in all, great article. Brings back lots of memories.

Great post. Some facts are quite fascinating (Sim City 2000 – released in 1993). Brings up memories. Thanks a lot! Really good effort!

There’s not enough screen shot to please you all

Great list. Thanks for remembering the good old days

I’m amazed by the complexity of the graphics in the newer games, although I can’t wait until we move from animation to real life photos/video for game production. This will produce a true real life experience.

Wyatt

What about all those Sierra games like Kings Quest, Space Quest. Also the Ultima series was pretty popular.

Neverwinter Nights mislabeled. That is Pool of Radiance. Kudos to 2 HOMM

You put several totally obscure and crappy games up here and didn’t show Mechwarrior. What kind of a fag forgets Mechwarrior 1,2,3,and4. Those were benchmark games and would have shown technology progression bigtime. oh well, FAIL

While obviously a subjective list, seems World of Warcraft is a pretty huge ommission, considering it’s one of the best selling PC games of all time, and certainly has more cultural relevance than a few on this list.

you left off rock band.

The only one you missed that I played like crazy was Star Control II. Great list!

I hope there’s a good reason for leaving off Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander ^_^

Nice list, but not that nice. Missing some games that should be up on the list, also, your need to go back and reread and fix the typos. Also forgot about Apple Computers.

and the christians think that evolution is a myth? just show them this page. why didn’t god just create fallout 3 to begin with? because god sucks, he gave us crappy qubert first and then we have to evolve to fallout 3 25 years later, which in turn will suck in comparison to fallout 20 25 years from now.

The screenshot you have from Half-Life 2 is actually from HL2: Episode 1, which came out in 2006. Just saying.

This list is great. Just one major problem: false information regarding “Nintendo Game Boy Advance. First handheld device that integrates Wi-Fi”. Oh so wrong. Please edit this immediately.

And joining everyone else, where are the Wii and PS3?

Just to let you know- the GBA doesn’t have wi-fi. The first handheld game system to implement wi-fi would be the Nintendo DS

Putting at least one Fallout game and maybe the remake of Neverwinter Nights or even the real Baldur’s Gate games would have made this snazzier. Cool, though.

Super Metroid, Super Mario 64 and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time belong on that list, no questions asked.

No Big N games? tisk tisk

If Metal Gear Solid 4 is on the list, the launch of the PS3 oughtta be too.

Nice post. To me I can’t believe you didn’t include Mario 64. That use to give me dreams how well the 3d was done.

Z

No World of Wacraft? Seriously? It has only made a billion times more money than almost all of these games combined.

Very cool list of video games over the years.
Its amazing how life like the games appear today.

thanks from tony

PacMan in 94????? WTF?

Pac-Man (パックマン, Pakku man?) is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the U.S. by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980.

“Sony Playstation 2 is released with better graphics capability than a PC” — who’s PC, my grandmother’s? By the time the PS2 came out, PC gamers were already enjoying their games at 1024×768 in 32 bit color. The PS2 didn’t deliver anything close.

A good list of Western-developed games (with a few exceptions) primarily for the PC and Xbox/360. I couldn’t help but notice though that while the post seems to be about game ‘design’, a lot of the screenshots are totally lacking the actual game interface. That to me seems like it would indicate the design far better than simply posting a lot of screenshots of PC strategy and FPS games that honestly haven’t evolved too much in design aside from ease of use and graphic fidelity.

Although I’m not a gamer but this technology tour is amazing.

Thanks for your efforts.

enjoy

Best game ever is Return to Castle Wolfenstein!!! gameplayer >>>>> graphics
(even tho i mainly play RTCW: Enemy territory)

<3

you’re forgetting my favorite game of all time! it was completely revolutionary and came out only last year! it was very significant! and if you’re going to make a website regarding video game design, how could you possibly leave out the launch of my favorite console! it was completely revolutionary and significant!

i hope that my keen powers of observation have helped you to realize just how wrong you are, and how this article is so lacking in things that i like that you should perhaps give up the internet all together and maybe take up pottery…

but all ‘n all, great post! thanks!

Street Fighter NEEDS to be added to this compilation. Seriously.

And Driver? Messiah? Giants: Citizen Kabutto? Tomb Raider Series? Monkey Island Series? Quake III?

I think X-Com: UFO Defense/Terror from the Deep (considering no one has copied this formula properly yet) and the original Fallouts should be on this list. Also Company of Heroes since it is a pretty revolutionary RTS (could add Dawn of War also, but I’d rather see Company of Heroes up there).

Forsaken (1998) should have been on the list as well. Fantastic graphics for its day, as well the unconventional ability to move up or down instead of the typical first person game. Great list otherwise!

Excellent list — just two seemed to be missing to me. Myst and Tetris. Both launched genres and still have some relevance.

Great list, but what about Commandos?

No Elite? WTF?

Nice list, but What about Myst, Syberia, Longest Journey?!

How can you talk about hardware enhancements without mentioning the FF series??

You’re missing Tombraider.. at least put up the first one, it changed PC Gaming forever.
Also, I’d say Civilization 2 should be on the list, and Final Fantasy VII, which kickstarted Console Gaming.

You also forgot Rome:Total War, which was the best game of 2003. Just find a screenshot with two huge armies fighting eachother.

Prey can be removed, as it’s just another shooter.

For the rest, great list!

I love how the list culminates with Fallout 3. What an amazing game. The graphics are, for the most part, amazing. It’s funny to think how, judging by this retrospective, in a few years Fallout 3 will look dated. I can’t wait for that, haha.

Wait, you go up to 500mhz processors but leave out the Athlon? As I remember, the first 1ghz processor was a big deal, AMD even threw a huge party in Austin, TX where Fab 25 is located

Um, what does this article have to do with web design?

Nice post. I think Conkers Bad Fur Day should be on this list. One of the last few games published for N64 which pushed that system to the limits. RareWare should be on this list, as they were known for pushing the limits when in came to graphic design. A lot of techniques they used were eventually adopted by other companies.

Always a little disappointing to see a list of influential video games with Starsiege: Tribes not included but I suppose that’s a title that’s faded into obscurity. Released by Dynamix in 1998, Tribes was arguably one of the first games to include a host of game mechanics that inspired many modern day team-oriented gameplay in titles such as Battlefield.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starsiege_Tribes

Great list man, ignore all the tards who are sayin’ “Oh NOEZ u missed ma fave game/processor out, this list is gay!” (write ur own f*ckin list jeez). The fact that some figures and dates MAY be incorrect, and yeh u stated why, isn’t the point of this i’m guessin’ nor should it be – it brought back some nice memories and made me even wanna re-install some of these badboys. Cheers.

Warcraft 3 was released in 2002. Not 2003.

Great post. But where is Black Bass? j/k. Loved seeing all these games. MANY MANY memories of late nights. If anything though maybe the release of Quake 3 Arena and CounterStrike Source and Day of Defeat Sourse. Those three games along with Halo that you have included led to many sleepless nights and LAN parties. Thank you.

Good list but there are hardly any Japanese games on there… What about Ico or Shadow of the Collossus? FinalFantasyX? Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker?

These were all pretty groundbreaking games imo. I’d presume the list is about western games only but you’ve got some Japanese games up the top…

“Sony Playstation 2 is released with better graphics capability than a PC”

HAHAHA yea right. Most launch games looked poor(jagged edges) and the playstation II would only drive 640×480i while PCs had games running at 1024×768p.

Also, almost half of the written facts are incorrect. PS wikipedia is actually a great source for trustworthy information.

Great to see Dune 2 on there, that is the game that really made me a hardcore gamer. Though what I found truely amazing was going through all the games which, at the time, had unbelievable graphics. Like Everquest, or Half Life, Diablo 2, and Far Cry, and how… well… poor they look compared to 2008 games.

Games I’d like to see in here would be at least one mario kart (if not the first mario kart, and the latest wii mario kart) Mario Galaxy or Mario 64 just to compare to the original mario. Perhaps also some early MuD’s to compare to EQ and WoW, also would be nice to see X-com (which always comes high on the nostalgia lists), Freespace 2 (had tremendous graphics for its time), and where is Tetris??? My first ever game

Good post btw, these comments are just the fanboy inside.

Age of Empires was released in 1997, not 1999…. Man… so many of these dates are wrong…

I would have included Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies.

GOLDENEYE

needs to on here, for definitely. This game has been the inspiration of everything any first person shooter has ever had. Remember how people were freaking out about gears of war 2’s using a living shield thing. Goldeneye has it. Goldeneye also has shields like in hale, and other special things. Just play it and you’ll see.

Marathon.

Hey thank you for taking the time to post this stuff… Just wanted to let you know this and that it was much appreciated…

Oh not a criticism but the Ultima series was pretty big back in they day.

Where the fuck is Bioshock!??!

Its ridiculous that it got left off this list.

you forgot Dark Reign

Great list. Missing is Ultima VI (1990) surely one of the best RPG series of its day.

Wow,

I think you played all the same games I did growing up.

Kind of trippy. I thought I was special. ^.~

In any case, you have good taste, those are all the best games. I’ve played every single one of them growing up and still do play the most recent ones.

-Jack

No virtua fighter?
Sir, you forget yourself! You can thank AM2 for those nice 3d graphics you like, they pioneered them!

Viva la SEGA!

A couple of “minor” corrections …

The 1980’s, in particular the early 1980’s, are generally considered the golden age of videogames as that was when the first truly original (i.e. not derivative form other forms) ones emerged, forming the first installments of its canon.

And Activision and Electronic Arts were both “born” during that very golden age, not in the 1990’s.

MMM just want to point out that WoW was mentioned and so were the three Warcrafts.

Aside from that great list of games showing the progression of designing in games showing how we have evolved from 16 bit games to 3D graphics in just a little over a decade. Today we have more interactive games and who knows maybe Tron will become more and more of a reality in gaming fighting each other in virtual environments.

Well the Wii is certainly moving in that direction anyway.

Too bad the 80’s weren’t included in this series though the Atari was the bomb. I would play Pac Man, Asteroids, and Space Invaders forever until my hands hurt.

First of all, great post! And I’ve read all the other entries, and your replies, but I still have to say that Final Fantasy VII should definitely be included! I mean, it completely revolutionized gaming! And it was huge step in the progression of video game graphics!

But, all-in-all great post. Well done, sir.

Unreal Tournament should have been included – groundbreaking multiplayer and one of the most highly commended games in existence.

A few others I would have liked to see:

- Lemmings (Commodore/Amiga/etc.)
- Wonder Boy (Genesis/Megadrive)
- Dizzy (Spectrum/Commodore/Amiga etc.)
- Shenmue (Dreamcast, revolutionary, first “free roaming” game)

You might want to replace the screenshot from splinter cell as it is from chaos theory not the first splinter cell http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Splinter_Cell_Split_Jump.jpg that might be a more accurate depiction of the first splinter cell

Love the list and the memories, too many fun games or the list would go on forever, but I wanted to make a special mention of the Descent series. Amazing games for their time.

i m enjoyin gaming since 1999….
thnx for helping in recalling the games.

Wheres Deus ex……..

Kinda forgot to put Fallout 1&2 there. It would be interesting to see how it changes through the years,

The first metal gear solid title for PSX should certainly have been included. Such graphics did not exist before this time.

Final Fantasy also saw a very small part of this article, despite receiving critical acclaim the world over for its graphic design advances.

http://i.testfreaks.com/images/products/600×400/6/final-fantasy-viii.480518.jpg

http://www.virginmedia.com/microsites/games/slideshow/stealthgames/img_4.jpg

Wow… nice list

Certainly brings back the good old times…

And I’ve played all those games on the list so far.. which makes me kinda proud, i must admit, for being part of this great evolution of game design history..

Kudos.

Really great list! A lovely trip down memory lane…
PS. Should have included “God of War”!

thats great, specially MAFIA that waited me 2 years before release, but you forgot COMMANDOS series, those are legends of reality

Bioshock is missing from the list (under year 2007) – one of the most acclaimed games that year.

Also, you placed Age of Empires I under year 1999. The game was actually released in 1997.

A web design oriented blog… OK. That’s yet another reason why Bioshock should be included – graphically it’s stunning

Only a couple of genres are included here, which means some of the biggest milestones are missing. Everquest comes to mind. Being the first really successful MMORPG.

I would like to see Jet Set Radio added, and maybe a newer cellshaded game like the new PoP. And some drawn games like Warioland: The Shake Dimension, Street Fighter II and Street Fighter HD. Obviously Shen Mue would be a good addition too.

My favourite: Heroes III

Warcraft 3 was released in 2002. There are plenty of recommendations that I’d make in terms of demonstrating the evolution of design, but you already have enough people whining about their favorite games not being mentioned that I’ll pass. Figured you might want that correction, however.

I saw so good games which I had played long time ago
Thank you! It was intresting

It’s like my life flashed before my eyes…

Finding all those pictures must have been a pain… Well done. Always nice to be reminded of how good we have it these days.

“Half Life 2″ best…

I do not see the game ” The last Ninja” for commodore 64&128 , which has been very popular in the year 1990.

Just wanted to add a couple of things- first off, I’m going to go all geeky fanboy/girl and whinge and cry about Portal being left off the list. The tech behind the portals (and making them look realistic) is pretty amazing. Second, just wanted to point out that WoW was actually released in November of 2003, not 2004… yes, some people do remember that day! November 23, wasn’t it? Or 28? Anyway, great list. I’m glad you included Half-Life- for some reason, a lot of game lists don’t include them, which is stupid, because they were immensely important! Thanks for the nice list.

Great post.
Very interesting!

Uh…Tekken? Maybe you forgot the first 3d fighting game? Virtua Fighter? Yeah. More impressive. Worked on the Genesis/MegaDrive, too.

After all of what this has turned into I was wondering what exactly with the game design you were trying to represent here. Visual design or overall game design?

I didn’t see any golden age point-and-click adventure games in there.
Here’s a couple of comparison suggestions:
– Monkey island 1 and 4.
– Sam and Max: Hit the road and Sam and Max Season 1 Episode 1.

You mention Diablo II and correctly state it to have been released in 2000 but you provide a screenshot of the Expansion (Lord of Destruction), where the graphics changed (at least you could set up a higher resolution).

Otherwise great, I really enjoyed this.

woww i remember past.

Thanks for this collection.

To All Posters:
This is an article about graphics and design, not every great game under the sun. A single representative example of various types (shooter, RTS) on various hardware (PC, Nintendo, etc.) for each year is all that is necessary. For example, if Quake 3 is there, then there’s no need to show UT. So stop requesting things that have already been covered. This article is being stretched beyond its initial scope and purpose.

To The Authors:
This is a great idea. Thanks! I especially like seeing the like seeing how various series have evolved over the years: Wolf 3D – Doom – Quake – Q2, etc.

A few suggestions:
1. Perhaps you should add a few more flight sim examples. Those games dominated the state of the art graphics wars in the 1990s.

2. Although they are wildly popular, I’m not sure I would have included any Blizzard games. Blizzard intentionally sets their graphic technology two years in the past and relies on superior art work in order to have lower system specs and appeal to a broader audience (i.e. Diablo 2 was all 2-D when all other RPGs came out with 3-D engines in 2000). So their games are unrepresentative of the graphics for the year they were released.

3. More technology: When was each version of Direct X released? What year did antialiasing become popular? What game had the first instance of HDR? When did bump mapping and ansiotropic filtering start showing up in games? When was the Nvidia TNT released? When did Intel release P2, P3, P4? When did ATI come on the scene? Obviously, this is ancillary to the article so it’s important not to go overboard, but it can help give foundation to the graphics that were built on these technologies and provide context.

4. For each year, include an approximate screen resolution that most games were played. In 1990, I think it was 320 x 240px. whereas today it’s 1600×1200. This has a high impact on the design.

Ideas for future articles:
1. As this is a designer website, I think it would be really interesting to see how game UIs have changed over time, and perhaps some discussion to that end. I’d be interested to read your unique insight as designers on how UIs have evolved, and become more efficient and user friendly (or not).

2. I would love to read a discussion of landmark games over the past 18 years. As designers your unique insights would provide a fascinating look at game design. It could be done in the same style as this article, but only with games that had some kind of innovation that resulted in a change in the industry. Some examples: Dune II “creates” the RTS genre; Quake introduces a full 3D game engine (I know, UU did it first); Diablo introduces the “Action-RPG”; Rainbow 6 creates the “realistic shooter” sub-genre; BF1942 popularized shooters-with-vehicles (now ALL shooters have vehicles); etc. Each of these games introduced an industry-changing element in their design that caused others to change the way they created games or be left behind.

3. The opposite side of that coin is to choose several games with very poor designs and discussed how and why they failed from a design standpoint. These games may have even been quite popular (The original NWN comes to mind as a poor design that nonetheless succeeded in becoming wildly popular for other reasons).

I’ll be checking back regularly to read. Thanks for listening.

Amazing post! This makes me want to play Duke Nukem 3D and Doom again!

Dont think that games are getting better in time. Only graphics just look like they are getting better… Pixel art owns 3d graphics. And about the storyline of the games, they are all cheezy. and fallout 3 sucks. Add fallout 1 and 2 on the list instead

Where is Medal of Honor 2 and Call of duty 1 & 2 ?

dude c’mon, is this a list of games between 90 and 08, or a list of YOUR games between 90 and 08?

i’m not going to bother saying you left out particular games because that’s petty, but you’ve left out entire genres! Your first sports game isn’t until fifa 08? you sum up the whole of ‘96 with three games of which two are first person shooters. did you even bother?

No Starfox? First 3d Shooter. No Mode 7? Cmon it started 3d worlds.

Nice list. Have to agree with those above who mentioned Kings Quest and Ultima series. Also on the idea of evolution of multiplayer, dont forget door games. I know lots of ppl played trade wars back in the bbs days, but me and my friends were into LOD (Land of Devestation), (was like multiplayer fallout, online). those were the true ancestors of WOW.

No Final Fantasy VII? As epic and groundbreaking as that game was?

LAME.

Hey i don’t see Gothic
But i play in kenn xD

I miss a few things to:

‘Another world’ on amiga (that was amazing at the time)
http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgkf6wooDmw&eurl=http://dikko-rotterdam.hyves.nl/

and the dreamcast console (first online console?)

Great List. Anyway there used to be a lot more notable old games… I think the focus is set to much on the new games.
Just think of Command & Conquer 2, Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Tomb Raider etc.

You should have included the old pre-mouse PC games. Like Space Quest, Police Quest and Kings Quest.

I miss those… Monolith Burger FTW!

Thanks for the great list, I was born in 1990 so Its all a part of my life…
Man those days

I remember getting a P3 computer and it was like a dream come true hehe!

What about Settlers?

i miss fifa 98, the best soccer simulation ever

short attention span everyone, i think.
1991: the legend of zelda. its right there.

sad thing is, i played almost every game in this list

Second vote for Descent!

OMG amazing =)

I miss so much Command and Conquer Red Alert and Total Annihilation!

Great List!

http://dead-underground.blogspot.com

TIE Fighter, KotOR, Orange BOX (PC)
Another World, Flashback, Syndycate (PC)
Formula 1 Grand Prix 2 (PC)
Scorched Earth (PC)
The Last Ninja (C64)

Hey you forgot Turok, the first game that needed Graphics Accelerator to start running

OMG really bring back the mood!!!

Well, you’re missing some notable titles like Battlefield 2 and so on, but wow. This was a nice time capsule for me. Nice memories and good times with most of those games. Command and conquer and diablo were very good games.

Great list you had. There shows the evolution of games and graphics. Ha!

Nice!

good list, but missing zelda OoT, goldeneye 64, FF7, megaman, kirby n.e.s, red alert, pokemon…but most importantly mario 64 in my opinion.

Great post!
I think the jump from 1999 to today is amazing. Great example of that is Grand Theft Auto! The change is unbelievable!

Great summary of graphics advances. Graphics really changed rapidly in spurts here and there.

A few of my own evolutionary memories that aren’t already in the article:

3dfx Voodoo 1: Though the article mentions 3dfx being formed as a company, that seems much less important to me than its release of the original Voodoo. That card had more impact than the original GeForce and was definitely a revolution from my perspective. Voodoo 1/2 changed Quake1 from pixellated and choppy to blurry and smooth, incredibly improving the game experience. Most would claim this combo was *too* blurry at the resolutions playable in 1997, but the foggy look seemed to fit this dark, austere environment.

-Tomb Raider. Tackled environments with unique “tiled” approach, providing far fewer polys than Carmack could offer, but with the benefit of comparatively HUGE spaces. This game offered a few jaw-dropping scenes that no other game could match at the time, despite Lara’s very blocky, ridiculously top-heavy torso. When the 3rd person perspective was endowed with watching your character climb, mantle, and flip, this game simply delivered enjoyable graphics and design.

Though this article is about graphic advances since 1990, I am compelled to mention that gameplay is *so* much more important to me. I still play many of the games in this article and the “obsolete” graphics become irrelevant after the release date fades into the background. Screenshots may impress, but great gameplay is more likely to attract sustained sales figures and loyal fans. I now play my original Super Mario World with my nephew. I’d bet few of my other games will share that priviledge. Great graphics is more than the latest technology; it’s what you *do* with that technology to make the game experience better. New game ideas seem to be a lot harder to invent than better graphics.

sweeeeeet

Woah that Alan Wake screenshot looks awesome. GO REMEDY!

Great JOB! Enjoyed it

but pls add: Settlers, Monkey Island, Commandos and Fifa98 series! Just classic ^^

Oh i think i saw zelda there, maybe 2, feels like there´s something missing, at least 2008 farcry2 but still some good old game from the years, maybe tonyhawk 1 or 2…

great site still, had few flashbacks

Fantastic list that took me down memory lane and made me feel sooo old..
the first Tomb Raider should be there though.. first 3d 3rd person shooter twas amazing for its time!

Where’s Sonic the Hedgehog??

hmmm, now i know im not that old. lol, i never imagined this kind of games exist before.

Umm, Fallout 2, anyone?

X-Wing (PC)
TIE Fighter (PC)
X-COM Terror From The Deep (PC)
KotOR (PC)
Barbarian [Death Sword] (C64, PC)
Saboteur (C64)
Giana Sisters (C64)
The Last Ninja (C64)
Winter Games (PC)
Wings of Fury (Amiga, PC)
Sensible World of Soccer (Amiga, PC)
Formula 1 Grand Prix (PC)
Formula 1 Grand Prix 2 (PC)

Another World (PC)
Flashback (PC)
Prince of Persia (PC)
Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Thanks for the memories.

what about the release of PS3?

Touching! Almost brought tears to my eyes. Nostalgy, happiness, memories – all mingled together – what a feeling!

Such a trip in time via the screenshots. I humbly thank you!

Great post!!! Sure of those games sure do bring back good memories!

Great list, but I’d like to see the first Baldur’s Gate here. That game is a legend and it was way more popular than Dark Alliance.

It amazes me that the Wii was never even mentioned…

I don’t want to be rude but where the hell is gta4 or even worse, where is ps3 ?!

I mean you did mention 360?

This post is amazing, very nice, love halo 3

Hey! where is the Ultima Online? !

@Jaaaaay GTA4 is on the list, but probably you missed it…

GTA2 is older!!

Where’s Gran Turismo?

EPIC FAIL

Where’s Fallout 1 and 2? I can’t see here Silent Hill or Resident Evil and I don’t know why:)

I did a video compilation of this pictures. Hope you enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltICbUimmvM

My Favorit ever is “Mafia” – this perfect detailed and lovely designed grafics the great story telling like a movie the hole game and the nice gameplay combined with a revolutionary engine for that times… Still like to play it and feel young again

A good compilation of the CIA Mass conditioning program for America’s youth. Don’t forget to enlist when your recruiter stops by to keep the Homeland safe!!!

Ah,this takes me back.
To think I was a part of the 90’s game revolution.
There are times when I miss my old 486 and Pentium 1.
Onward I say.For a better tomorrow!

Good list and the usual funny comments you get on these lists. Next time replace the standard comment box with:

Hey! I can’t believe you forgot .

I just get remember to DUNE 2000 and Age of Empires I that I was playing all day without pause. I grow up with these games.

Great journey trough the time. Great post.

P.S. I just get download DUNE 2000 to play it again.

The first time the title “Neverwinter nights” appear its is over the wrong screenshot, the screenshot is obviously champions of krynn. (It might be one of the other titels but I think not the hp is too low for any of the other titles).

Activision and Electronic Arts were founded long before the 90’s .. I’ve got C64 games from early 80’s with their labels on

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision

Great list. Brings back memories of far too many youthful hours wasted away in front of a computer.

It’s also interesting to see some of the changes that took place in such short time spans. Look, for instance, at Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2. Given just a year between releases, WC 2 is a pretty big improvement in terms of graphics (as I recall, it was a pretty big improvement in gameplay, too).

Great collection, I remember so many of those classics.

How can you not include WII console? One of the greatest gaming innovation!

Great idea for a list. I’m looking forward to seeing it grow.

One suggestion: It seems that some screenshots are not very representative of the games. Whether that is for content or for quality, perhaps some of the readers of this blog could help update some of the screenshots. For instance, many of the Nintendo screenshots look terrible and don’t accurately portray the games (SMB Galaxy and Twilight Princess).

Myst was revolutionary, wasn’t it? Seems like it ought to be here.

In general, though, thank you very much for the excellent review!

I love this timeline! Some games evoke memories to many many hours playing in fantastic worlds. I really miss Monkey Island!

Awesome post, I have to subscribe your rss feed!!!

Regards
Tobi

Nice games !! what a revolution in graphics.

but one of course is always missing:

MONKEY ISLAND 2 !!

Great list, lots of nostalgia walking down memory lane. I missed Outcast, Tiberian Sun, Monkey Island IV, Dreamfall, Morrowind and Unreal 2, each of them milestone games when it comes to graphics and technology. Tiberian Sun and Outcast featured voxel graphics, in itself worth mentioning!

mmm… where Amiga games? Moonstone, Monkey Island, Shadow of the beast, Syndacate, Centurion, Lotus and more great games?

GTA San Andreas
Created-2005

This is a great list! However, GTA 2 was 1999, not 2000. I know there was two years between GTA 2 & GTA 3.

I think system shock 2 deserves a mention in this list. Great look and feel for the time it was released.

Very nice list, brings back memories!
I do miss Grand Theft Auto: Vice City though..

Mostly because of the truly incredible soundtrack.
If i remember correctly, it was the first computer game to such a big soundtrack with nearly 100% licensed material (I think a few tracks were made in-house specific for the game, though I’m not sure).
Anyway, amazing soundtrack and brilliant game. Deserves a spot in the list of 2002 if you ask me

Wow… That was basically my childhood in pictures.

video games are cool and addictive to everyone

Missing Descent?

Wonderful, I almost yearn back to Doom

Check out these videos I did for AMD/ATI this summer…

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/AboutAMD/0,,51_52_15438_15106,00.html

Interesting list, but like others I need to ad my type. After seeing the topic title “Video Game Design” I thought about one game: Homeworld. It was revolution in game design in almost every element. Please forgive me broken english

You got some of the release years wrong sir.

Great list and I think you achieved your goal of showing the evolution of GRAPHICS over the past 18 years. I wish some people could read and understand that this isn’t just about capturing the best games in time but the best graphics of the time. I liked seeing the games that defined my youth (like being scared shitless watching my brother play Duke Nukem and Doom, I was born in 89) but man were things different back then haha.

One thing though, since I totally bought into The Sims your screenshot for it is from the Makin’ Magic EP and not the first game. Here’s one.
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/screenshots/4/193984/thesims_screen005.jpg

Btw, you should try some game websites like gamefaqs.com or gamespot.com if you want better screenshots of the gameplay as opposed to the ever erroneous wikipedia.

OMG ,, nice memories came back to me ,, thank you so much

gta 4 the best!!!!!!!!!!

My son turned 10 on the 19th and is amazed that video games looked the way they did the years he was born. It’s so funny to him! What a great list.

STUMBLED!

Donkey Kong for SNES anyone? That was a huge step in graphics according to me. Goldeneye for N64? Further primes the market for fps multiplayer games (as did Doom II), capitalized on by the Halo franchise and others.

I’ll start my comment as all the other people with; a truly a great list that brings many memories back. But I do miss some games, that I think is very important from a Graphical view.

The settlers (I’ve played all the games from Settlers II)
And also, a not so known game, EVE Online. It has got stunning graphics and effects. And the texturing and modeling are very nice.

How the hell could you leave out the Monkey Island games? You could at least have included ONE of the many adventure games released by LucasArts or Sierra during the 90’s.

Great list.
brings many memories back, Especially Doom

Good list, what about gears 2 or mass effect or assassins creed?

i agree great list, should have put tf2 in there though

Where is the best game?
Where is “Gothic”?
Where?

Nice to see some comparisons between older then revised titles. With that being said, we’re missing Gears Of War 2 and Far Cry 2 for that very reason. What about Bioshock? Halo3?

Great list and really brings back memories and shows how things have changed.

Everyone who is saying that there are games missing, not all games can be included as the list would be ridiculously long. This post is just to illustrate how things have changed, not showcase everygame from 1990-2009.

halo and warcraft 3 are the best

Your screenshot of half life 2 is actually from episode 1.

Great post, looks like things just stopped advancing so rapidly around 7-8 years ago

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is missing
and snake fights dirty in MGS 4 picture !!!!!

I remember those old school days when we used to play the DOS game Prince on our Pentium -5 computers…. hehe lol…
Your list is awsum man… & my BEST game till now is MAX PAYNE 1 & 2. The narration, the action, sound effect everything is just toooo good..
I miss playing those old games…

this all happened just in 10 years!!

this is very scary indeed of how our technology have developed in just 10 years

salute

Wow, great list! A lot of my favorite games were listed. Glad to see counter-strike listed.

Wolfenstein was the big one for me. I remember lots of early games even back when Pong was new but wolfenstein looked amazing with the 3d style.

I actually own a copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III… good times

Yes! Tekken, need for speed, and mario was the shit! Currently Gears of War is the most challenging game tho. Especialy if u try and master the sniper up close look up some montages on youtube. I’ve mastered it before i was top 10 MLG . But umm gears of war was mentioned by the way and i did see a zelda too. I am waiting for a new challenge tho. i suggest u guys don’t play wow tho it looks fun but when u hit the top level theres nothing fun to do and ur disappointed u just wasted a year of your life its also extremely addicting and the only way u can beat the final bosses is if your in the best guilds in your server and the only way u can get in one of those is if you literaly play like 18 hours a day so fuck that. Take my advice and just wait for a new great game or make one! Ive gotten bored of the same old 1st person shooting games. I’m looking for a whole new type of game i even have my idea for a new one on http://www.mygameideas.com/?page=2 my user name is geo and my ideas Headline is ” this game will have more players than W.o.W”

In a list still heavily populated by 3D games, not mentioning Descent series is completely unacceptable. Descent I, in addition to being the first game with full 3D movement, was also the first FPS with fully renedered characters (as opposed to sprites), if I remember correctly.

Nostalgie….

Good stuff. A mention of the Atari 400/800 series of computers should have been mentioned in your brief look at the 80s computers; they introduced such innovations as player/missile graphics (read: sprites) and display lists, as well as the (in)famous POKEY chip. But this is a minor omission, since your focus is 1990 to now.

I’m not a huge fan of newer games. I think they’re too complicated and take too much time to learn, as I’m a “pick up and play” type of player; must be my old age and arcade experience talking. But I do appreciate the technology behind the newer stuff. I do love my Dreamcast, though

Nice article. I cant forget Mario as I used to reach the level where I have to slay the dragon.

Mechwarrior!!! IMHO the game remains unique.
See details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MechWarrior_(video_games)

If we are talking about evolution of graphics, where’s Myst? Boring game, but for the time, farking amazing graphics!

brings back some of good memories wing commander make me buy Stereo chips for my soundblaster

The DUKE is not dead !

It looks like you’ve got enough suggestions to write a book instead of just a blog post.

It is obviously a really good post to get all these hits and comments.

Well, here’s mine…
That Tennis for Two game that you say is the first video game, it really a computer game that, as you say, was displayed on an oscilloscope. The first true video game played on a television or monitor was “The Brown Box” which was invented by http://www.ralphbaer.com

So, nice, well done!
But it’s rather strange just why you put NFS “Most wanted” but not even one of “Undeground” before…

Godfather?! WTF?! Where’s Fallout 1 & 2?

i miss far cry in the list, wonderfull designs in the game

how is ocarina of time not there? Z lock anybody, the whole “3D” movement was shit without it.. And mario 64, seems no one knew what to do with “3D” cameras before that.

This crap was quite disappointing, I was expecting something more informative than random games from different eras.

Everyone is up in arms about games not mentioned that were released within the past 5 years. This post is more about the 90’s into the 2000’s, not 2005 and on.

Though I do agree Myst is a must/classic in edition to Goldeneye for N64. I would also mention the first starfox for supernes, the original castlevania for NES, Super mario 3 for NES, and the Sonic series for genesis. Also another poster mentioned the “original” metal gear solid, but most of us remember the original Metal Gear (had to use mines to blow up the final boss LOL.)

Great post and it brought back ALOT of memories.

Mirror’s Edge !!!!!!!!

no ME?

How did you forgot Ultima Online!

where is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?? :-/

You missed out Duck Hunt

Nice collection.
Thanks.

awesome post delicious indeed

2008: LEFT 4 DEAD.

Oldie-classics that weren’t on list:

- Prince of Persia I (Classic PC game)
- Blackthorne (another Classic PC game)
- Fallout Series (I, II, tatics and warhead)
- Baldur’s Gate Series (Legend of RPG PCs)
- Icewind Dale Series
- Jet Set Radio (Dreamcast – the best game ever made by SEGA)
- Mirro’s Edge (another OMFG game..!)

Very sad the nostalgia felling of that classic awesome games! Good times, when MMORPG doesn’t dominate RPGs. I must play all this games one more time before I die! xD

Great list lots of memories. I have spent my life on those games but there were many games I missed in that list. Here are my favorites Id add: Machines, Sin, Delta Force, Project IGI, Rainbow six, Aliens vs. Predator, Pro Evolution Soccer, NHL, Stalker, CaC Generals, Tomb Raider. Those games are classics and they shouldn’t be missing. Maybe next time

Hello, I grew out on the PC games Golden Axe, Lotus, Wolfenstein. You are forgot this two first games Thanks

Nice Comprehensive list mate… Excellent effort!! I personally don’t care about the left-outs… You’ve done pretty well here!! I’ve been on computer games since, 1990’s, that’s when the 286 came to india… remember playing the ‘Prince of Persia’, ‘Test Drive’, Barbarian & Indiana Jones… that time What fun as a kid!! hehe…. Thanks!!

Zero mention of Rock Band at all?

This list is incomplete

Wow!!

XD

I keep listening to the news speak about getting free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the best site to get one.

Wow! Thank you! I always wanted to write in my site something like that. Can I take part of your post to my blog?

NHL 09 – Possibly the best sports game of all time. Yes even better than Madden.
Golden Eye N64
Soldier of Fortune
Portal
TF2

Overall good list though

hi thank you for this great site it made me remeber an old game Rides adventure or s.th like that not sure it was really nice their was alogo in it (RA) so if anyone help me to find it I will be grateful really
thanks

The good old nostalgia years. Well, i wish we could play again the games of 90s and 80s to return back to true, quality games.

I think you should post some older amiga games, as they far surpassed most of the old games back in the day. I remember playing Test Drive before pc could even think of a 1st person racing game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUoJBerFDsA

i love halo 3

God bless you man!
You’ve made my memories alive.

Chris I pray that every thing go Gods way and you do not serve any time for this. I pray that you help others

Hey dude! Awesome post !
It makes remember the time i spent when i was young on my videogames.
And my first pc too…
Simply love the post! ^^

Dude! You left off Virtual Boy by Nintendo!!!!

You went straight from The Legend of Zelda straight to Zelda Twilight princess… Tht was a great game and all but it is nothing in comparison to Zelda Ocarina of Time that is one of my favorite games of all time and probably many other peoples! Shouldnt have left it off!!!!

I agree, Ocarina of Time deserves a mention here.

You have contradicting information. In 1997 Grand Theft Auto came out. You stated Rocksstar started in 1998. Ive check this up on the internet and could find the exact answer, but i had to look at the orginal game made in 1997, it had the rockstar icon during startup.

you barely talked about sega and i think that you are missing the sonica saga!!! and for upcoming releases your missing final fantasy 13!!! i dunno when is actually coming out but it should be there, overall is a really good list!!

Nostalgie

On the third paragraph, “phase” is mispelled. I should be “pace”.

Also, I’m sure that the PSP came out much earlier than the XBOX 360.

nice collection
your post is helpful and informative

My life just flashed before my eyes

amazing post

cheers for progress

Nice list and stuff.. good work.

Amazing collection! I love playing many of these games.

Goosh… I didn’t know the game has evolve that long.. thanks for sharing this.I’ll keep it as part of the history post that I should always remember off..

lol, look at Tekken (1) on the PS1 the graphic sucks major, but back then i was really loving the game, especially the effects and everything when the PS1 came out.
I think in terms of shoot em up, quake was kinda like setting standards !!

Nice list and stuff.

Thank you for that list, that is a brilliant collection of games throughout the times, and certainly brings back memories. I do wonder about the absence of Age of Empires 2 though…

Pretty cool, but misses the mobile game movement of the last few years…

Diablo 3 will be released in the end of 2010 not 2008 … ?!
And i think zelda twilight princess is´nt a new game from 2006 i think it´s realeased in 199x….
And you forget the anno series!

Very nice post!
This graphical evolution of games and its interface reminds my graduate work!

You missed some incredible games (oldest ones and some recent ones), like pacman, pong, pitfall, Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts and Age of Empires II! Those ones were incredible hits!

Anyway, I liked your post very much!

Very nice post!

Thanks

Ehm where is Fallout 1,2? and The Elder Scrolls: Dagerfall? the biggest RPG ever?(also bugged but after year…)thats the gems.

What about the PS3 release date and two of the best ever games to grace that console – Ratchet & Clank and of course Uncharted!? Uncharted I think has the best graphics to have graced any console ever.

Article could do with a few Amiga classics too – Grand Prix & Xenon 2 spring to mind.

And not forgetting Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive of course!!!

Nevertheless this is a great article.

Wow!!
This post is pretty good. It brings me good memories of past.

I really liked the evolution of GTA and Neverwinter Nights.

IMHO you should add Final Fantasy X. This game was so important that they released FFX-2. I’d also like to see KingdomHearts and Streets of rage.

where’s Left 4 Dead??

btw, awesome list! come to think of it, i’m getting old..

Now that was a great trip down memory lane

I used to play most of the old skool game back when I was in school. Now, I don’t really play game anymore. Just play once in a full moon. By the way, my current fave is Call Of Duty and Guitar Hero. Nice to play with X-Box.

strange….Alan Wake, SC2, and D3 don’t come out in 2009.

Where’s Assassins Creed? That game had awesome graphics!

man I have a lot of my favorites here. The one that I really miss in GoldenAxe. I beat that game at least 1000 times with my brother. Resident Evil 5 has a high replay value as well. I’m still playing it online.

As post #91 … Where is Shenmue (1999) ? Better than some game few year later