Asteroids, other games called to Hall of Fame
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — 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, hand-held 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 best-selling coin-operated game. The game’s glowing spacethemed graphics and sound effects made their way from more than 70,000 arcade units into millions of living rooms when a home version of Asteroids was made available on the Atari 2600.
“Through endless variants and remakes across dozens of arcade, home, hand-held, and mobile platforms, 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 museum, 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 roleplaying genre, digital preservation director Andrew Borman said in the news release. 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. The adventure game Myst sold more than 6 million copies, making it a best-selling computer game in the ’90s. The final honouree, Resident Evil helped popularize the “survival horror” genre following its release by Capcom in 1996.