The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY has chosen the first games that it will add to its World Video Game Hall of Fame. Pong, Pac-Man, Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Doom, and World of Warcraft have all been inducted in this round. This is the first group of entries to the Hall of Fame, which opened this year with the goal of recognizing “individual electronic games of all types—arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile—that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general.”
These six games were chosen from a group of fifteen finalists, which featured Angry Birds, FIFA, The Legend of Zelda, Minecraft, The Oregon Trail, Pokemon, The Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Invaders. Those games that made it into the exhibit will be on permanent display within the museum’s eGameRevolution area. Nominations for games are accepted openly, with the 2016 class closing on March 31st, 2016. Selections from that group will be made “on the advice of journalists, scholars, and other individuals familiar with the history of video games and their role in society.”