Today (May 3), the most recent inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame were announced. This year, four games were inducted, ranging in original release dates from 1962 to 1997 and spanning genres from RPG to action-adventure to sports.
The Strong Museum recently announced that Spacewar!, John Madden Football, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII have officially been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The 1962 space battle simulator Spacewar! was originally created for the PDP-1 computer and was one of the earliest video games to reach a somewhat significant level of popularity across computer centers. John Madden Football originally released on the Apple II computer in 1988 and is credited with revolutionizing sports video games. Tomb Raider was released in 1996 on the Sega Saturn and came to PlayStation and MS-DOS later that year. The game was one of the first 3D games to mix action, platforming and puzzle-solving and essentially paved the way for future action-adventure games. Final Fantasy VII launched on the PlayStation in 1997 and helped popularize the JRPG genre on a global scale.
Other games that were nominated for the World Video Game Hall of Fame this year but didn’t make the final cut include Asteroids, Call of Duty, Dance Dance Revolution, Half-Life, King’s Quest, Metroid, Minecraft and Ms. Pac-Man. Many of these games are likely to be nominated again next year. In the meantime, Spacewar!, John Madden Football, Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII join the ranks of the following games, making up the World Video Game Hall of Fame:
- Donkey Kong (inducted in 2017)
- DOOM (inducted in 2015)
- Grand Theft Auto III (inducted in 2016)
- Halo: Combat Evolved (inducted in 2017)
- The Legend of Zelda (inducted in 2016)
- The Oregon Trail (inducted in 2016)
- Pac-Man (inducted in 2015)
- Pokémon Red and Green Versions (inducted in 2017)
- Pong (inducted in 2015)
- The Sims (inducted in 2016)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (inducted in 2016)
- Space Invaders (inducted in 2016)
- Street Fighter II (inducted in 2017)
- Super Mario Bros. (inducted in 2015)
- Tetris (inducted in 2015)
- World of Warcraft (inducted in 2015)
