The Ten Greatest Years in Gaming

Ground Glass writes "Next Generation has posted an abbreviated version of gaming's history by only chronicling the high points - the ten best years in the history of the medium. While it doesn't cover 1998 (and therefore forgets the birthdays of Half-Life, Starcraft, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time), most of the memorable moments are there. What was your best year for gaming?"

Comments

Link dead already

[Cinnamon Whirl]

Fast work guys. Nice!

Re:Link dead already

[Robmonster]

http://www.mirrordot.com/stories/222733443c847e741 a8f3b197b4aa059/index.html

Re:Link dead already

[pneumatus]

Corel Cache version also available here

Re:Link dead already

[Vo0k]

Nope, they just forgot to mention him. He'll be back in the new Zelda for Wii.

Re:Link dead already

[IDontAgreeWithYou]

Coral Cache should die if the don't get serious about using port 80 so I (and most people at work) can see TFA!!!

ironic domain name

[The Mighty Buzzard]

If the next generation of web hosts get slashdotted as quickly as this one, we're in trouble.

Re:ironic domain name

[Rob T Firefly]

Slashdotted off the Games section, no less. That's like being a super-villain with the Superfriends after you, and being busted by Marvin and Wendy instead of Superman and Batman.

1993-1994

[unity100]

Those were the best years. Innovation, new ideas, great titles, content, gameplay were king. Star Control 2, Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis, Aces Of Pacific, and many more.

Re:1993-1994

[epiphani]

I have to go with 1996-1997. Simply because of Final Fantasy VII. That game revolutionized the industry, made the playstation a true contender, and has haunted my dreams ever since.

Re:1993-1994

[arivanov]

The entire article is a load of utter garbage.

It follows mostly console development and visual development and is severely biased towards shoot-em-up retards and their taste. The other branches of game genealogy are not followed at all.

It does not mention Rogue-to-Nethack and dungeon exploration games of old, Larry, Civilisation series, Sims to name a few.

The apogee of quests games does not even get an honourable one-liner. Neither does the original Castle Wolfenstein.

Yuck...

Re:1993-1994

[Jugalator]

Agreed these are good years, especially for adventure gaming. :-)

Also...
- Day of the Tentacle, 1993
- Sam & Max, 1993
- Legend of Kyrandia, 1992-1994
- Simon the Sorcerer, 1993
- Myst, 1993

But not just that genre, how about:
- DOOM
- X-Wing
- Pirates!
- Syndicate ( I hope you didn't miss this one! :-) )
- X-COM
- Frontier: Elite 2 (some purists didn't like it, but I did)

A funny aspect of this is that these games look pretty old and bland in effects and such things, but then you consider Jurassic Park with its realistic dinosaurs and breakthrough in CGI was also done in 1993 and the mind boggles a bit.

Re:1993-1994

[Gulthek]

Palum and Porum gave their lives, their lives dammit! Only to be forgotten and ursuped by lesser pretenders in a crappy story on a crappy system with a crappy reliance on FMV sequences (yeah, I'm looking at you FFVII).

I see FFVII as the end of the Final Fantasy series.

Re:1993-1994

[ShibaInu]

See, this is the problem game companies have. Goldeneye was a freaking fun game. But, MR PC FPS here thinks that no matter what the game play was like, if it didn't show 100+ frames per second, have 4x anti-aliasing, etc., it sucked.

Thus, creativity in gaming is now measured exclusively by how many frames you can push, how many polygons you can render and how it looks. Yes, for those that complain about the game market, just remember, we've made it that way.

Re:1993-1994

[Anonymous Coward]

The release of Final Fantasy VII did mark something, but it wasn't a great milestone. It marked the end of games being created for gameplay and the start of games being made for graphics.

Prior to FF7, the emphasis was on changes to the story and improvements to the battle system. Starting with FF7, that all changed. Originally Squaresoft was considering/working on a Final Fantasy game for the N64 - it's unclear how far it got, but Squaresoft was, traditionally, a Nintendo developer. That changed with FF7, because while the N64 was graphically superior to the PlayStation, it didn't have the FMV support that the PS had.

If that last sentence doesn't sound completely ass-backwards to you, you need your head checked. Squaresoft declined to use the technically superior console in favor of the one that let them play movies. Great games are not played based on movies. They're based on gameplay.

Instead of improving gameplay, they improved the graphics aspect, creating large graphical cutscenes. They destroyed the character advancement system, making all characters essentially identical, based on skills you could move between characters.

1996-1997 has to go down as the worst year in gaming, because it marked the devolution of games from being about the gameplay to being about the graphics and sound. Prior to FF7, the Final Fantasy games were about challenging gameplay and interesting stories. Starting with FF7, they became videos with brief periods of gameplay added in. And seeing Squaresoft's success in impressing people with pretty pictures, the entire industry became infatuated with graphics.

Re:1993-1994

[Sepper]

What about Star Control 2 ? Did you miss it ?

I really missed it... That why i've installed it: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

don't forget to *enjoy the sauce*!

Re:1993-1994

[Reapy]

I liked it. I had played wolfstien, the dooms, quake, dark forces, strife, heritic, duke nukem, whatever else the pc had at the time. It was a good game. It did what halo is doing for this generation. It brings the fps game to a bigger audience then the pc. I didnt play 007 until my first year in college, wow, that was 8 years ago, where does the time go? Anyway at the time not many people had pcs and even fewer people had games to play on them (I probably went to the wrong college). But they did have n64s and playstations. I initially hated 007 for the same reason pc people hate halo, controls and graphics just weren't up to par with the pc stuff. But 007 had one thing that my pc games didn't, 3 other people in the room yelling and screaming and having fun. So I ground my teeth and learned how to play it, and ended up having a fun time all year with it. I later got into the single player aspect of it and found it to be a lot of fun. It had its moments, and i really enjoyed how they changed the level objectives as you scaled up the difficutly. In multiplayer it also featured a mode I had not seen before, though I will admit that at the time the only mod of a game I had played was quake ctf. Anyway it had the 1 shot 1 kill mode. I racked up many hours with my friend playing pistols only with 1 shot 1 kill. It was a ton of fun. Maybe rainbow six was out at that time? I remember buying that and it didn't work due to my video card being unsupported (glad those days are gone). Anyway 007 was the precursor to halo. Halo is the holy mecca for younger gamers now just getting into it, the same way 007 was before it. We people fortunate enough to have PCs had a lot before it, but 007 was still a very signifigant game.

Re:1993-1994

[arivanov]

It also existed for IBM PC/XT and it was tremendous fun. You had to think, plan ahead and operate with a very limited amount of resources counting up to a single bullet in many places. It also increased in complexity as it went along instead of being evenly daft and putting a fat retarded accelerated supercretin in the last room. Most of that got lost in the 1990es rerelease which has degenerated into a doom-like shoot-em up vs retarded monsters (with german uniforms) and mandatory last-level "big ones".

As far as shoot-em ups are concerned the article also misses one of the 1990-es pinnacles of shoot-em ups - Star Wars: Dark Forces. It was the first successfull FPS shoot-em up with some resemblance of a plot, a story line and real artwork thrown in between the levels. Half life, Unreal, Duke Nuke 'M, Jedi Knights all followed on where this game trailblazed. Granted, it suffered from some of the major problems of all shoot-em-ups (compensating for poor AI by high speed and lots of HP in high level monsters). None the less it was fun to the extent Quake and many of the more visually rich games never were.

The article also completely misses the early space simulators - Wing Commander and X-Wing/B-Wing/Tie Fighter. The artice also misses another game which was nothing much as far as game play, but was definitely a turning point in 3D game design - Terminal Velocity.

As I said, it is written to appeal to the common values of the current mainstream gamer which has been brought up to enjoy shoot-em ups with Tits, shoot-em ups without Tits and shoot-em ups with Tits and Hot Coffee. Speaking of tits, the article also misses the first year of Lara which was the first successfull game with a female as the main personality.

I can continue ranting forever but the summary shall remain the same "the article is garbage".

1990 - The year of SMB3

[Slightly Askew]

I spent more time playing Super Mario Brothers 3 than any other game...ever. SMB1 was fun, and I can still usually beat the game losing only one or two lives, but SMB3 was the pinnacle. It was previewed in the movie "The Wizard", and I remember the talk at school the day after the movie opened. It wasn't about how good or bad the movie was, it was ALL about the new Mario game coming out.

Re:1990 - The year of SMB3

[voice_of_all_reason]

I disagree, and I've got systems as far back as the Atari 2600.

Mario 64 was my high point in the series. The sheer size of the world, the open-ended nature... It was really the first time I felt I was in a game instead of playing a game.

The only thing I think that would've improved it was to use the same format but on the mario RPG system, where you walk from town to town, get equipment, and level up.

West of House

[Atomm]

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
There is a small mailbox here.

It has been all downhill from there.....

Re:West of House

[Gulthek]

open mailbox. get it. read it. drop it. s. e. open window. w. get all. open sack. get lunch. eat it. open bottle. drink water. drop bottle. w. get all. e. turn on lamp. u. get all. d. w. move rug. d. n. (Troll!)

But it can't have all been downhill from Zork, Zork III came out after Zork. Let's not forget Enchanter, Planetfall, Deadline, Ballyhoo, and many many more (A Mind Forever Voyaging!).

Not to mention modern day classics like "Spider and Web" (best "Aha!" puzzle I've ever encountered), "Photopia" (superb, moving story), and "Blue Chairs" (trippy, melancholy, uplifting, depressing, and wonderful).

Re:West of House

[david.given]

Not to mention modern day classics like "Spider and Web" (best "Aha!" puzzle I've ever encountered)...

Spider and Web (which you can play online!) is, indeed superb --- and I know the moment you mean; I remember sitting there in amazement that he'd managed to pull off something so perfect and so unexpected.

It's not perfect --- the 'that's not important right now' bits really annoyed me for reasons that would be a spoiler to go into. But it's a great game. It's also very hard.

(Background: Spider and Web is a modern adventure game written to run on Infocom's Z-machine. There's a large and vibrant community based around writing and playing adventure games --- the genre's never been healthier. You can find more information than you ever believed possible off the link above.)

Analog Wizardry

[Doc Ruby]

How could they leave off the early peak of 1969?

Slashdotted, here's a full mirror

[bcat24]

Wow, that was quick! Anyway, here's a full mirror of the one-page printable version.

Judging

[OSS_ilation]

from the dead link, this is probably not going to be one of Next Generation's "Ten Best days" for bandwidth

Well, the link's down, so I made my own list

[TadZimas]

Starting at 5
5: 1984, The year the apple macintosh computer was first released, thus cementing the place of PC-based video-games forever.
4: 1944. D-Day, the source of 9/10th of all game ideas ever produced.
3: 2020. Both the setting of every style of cliche 'near future cyber-tale', and the year Duke Nukem Forever will be released.
2: 1889. Namely, november 6th, 1889. Founding of a little playing card company was made in a little backwards country called japan that would later become Nintendo. The company, not the country...
1: 1992. The year E.V.O. The Search For Eden was released. Quite possibly the single greatest evolution-themed platformer for the SNES ever produced. 'nuff said.

Re:Well, the link's down, so I made my own list

[moon-monster]

1984 was also the year that Elite was released on the BBC. Why has nobody else mentioned this? I spent more hours playing that than any other game since, including Doom.

I know I'm young

[neonprimetime]

But of what they have listed there ... 1991 was by far the best for me ... Super Mario 3, Sonic & Gameboy pretty much encompassed my childhood. So much so that just within the past year or so my wife and I went with a blast from the past, getting a Ninendo & Sega Genesis off eBay for cheap. Long live the classics (or at least what I consider the classics)!

Hello? Hello?

[MyOtherUIDis3digits]

I thought I read that "slashdotting" was no longer a concern to web sites. There's a smoking hunk of plastic and metal at next-gen.biz that would disagree.

Re:Best Year? A.D. 2101!

[Trigun]

In A.D. 2101, war was beginning.

        Captain: What happen ?
        Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
        Operator: We get signal.
        Captain: What !
        Operator: Main screen turn on.
        Captain: It's you !!
        CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
        CATS: All your base are belong to us.
        CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
        Captain: What you say !!
        CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
        CATS: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
        Operator: Captain !!
        Captain: Take off every 'Zig' !!
        Captain: You know what you doing.
        Captain: Move 'Zig'.
        Captain: For great justice.

Re:Civ I and II

[letto]

Exactly! The golden years of gaming where 1991 - 2001. Those were the years that were really innovative. It ended with Black and White . That was the last game to be anything near innovative IMHO. The game industry becoming "big buisness" made it lose it's soul.

1986!

[ahoset]

On the Commodore 64, 1986 saw the release of such illustrious titles as Marble Madness, Ark Pandora, Saxion, Parallax, International Karate, Paperboy, Thrust, Green Beret, Warhawk, Gauntlet, Comic Bakery, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Bomb Jack, etc...

(By the way: You can listen to cover versions of the above at Press Play On Tape's website.)

1990

[alewar]

The Secret of Monkey Island!

X-com, or UO

[Orclover]

The biggest hallmarks for me was first Ultima 7, which showed how huge a video game world could get and how detailed, it for me first definved "VIRTUAL WORLD" in which you could do anything and be as cruel and depraved as you wanted.

The next hallmark was X-Com, Mass destruction of the battlefield which to this day still hasnt been duplicated.

Finally the year UO was released, the 2nd real grand daddy of all MMO's after meridian, playing with yourself is all well and good *cough* but playing with several hundred people is priceless.

Re:Civ I and II

[Ubergrendle]

The early 1990s were clearly the best for innovation and gaming, on ALL platforms -- but particularly the PC.

SimCity. Civilization I and II. Masters of Orion. Panzer General. X-Com. Wing Commander, Ultima 6 & 7. Doom. Tie Fighter. Dune 2. Warcraft. Not only were these games are very playable, but they defined genres unto themselves. The height of creativity.

Most games today are incremental improvements upon those original gems. I am disappointed with the lack of solid turn-based games in recent years (Advance Wars on the DS notwithstanding), but most of the rest of those genres are doing well -- FPSes, RTSes, first person RPGs, etc.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

It's a matter of perspective.....

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

My vote for the best year is whatever year MAME came out. Seriously!

When I was 14 my Dad kicked my ass because I wasted about $20.00 playing Crazy Climber at the arcade. Flash forward years later to MAME. I definitely got my money back......

You've got it backwards

[Mr. Samuel]

The original Metal Gear Solid was already kind of silly - intentionally so. It did everything it could to break the fourth wall and force its audience to notice how absurd it was. The problem was, nobody noticed; the existing gaming audience simply accepted the game at face value and thought it was awesome. For his sequel, therefore, Kojima simply turned up the heat. He put the player in the role of an effete, emasculated "gamer" who yearns to meet up with Snake. He put far more polygons than necessary into Snake's buttocks. He put Snake in a questionable relationship with his scientific advisor Otacon, and turned Otacon into a complete weirdo. Fans screamed bloody murder and stormed out of the building. Kojima began to attract a completely new base of fans.

Uh, I'm sorry? The original offered great characters, (quality) Hollywood action movie story telling, and polished gameplay. The game is actually quite immersive (the only breaking of the "fourth wall" I can think of was the second controller trick for Psycho Mantis).

MGS2, on the other hand, was way over the top at times, convoluted, and wanted so badly to lack immersion. And of course, nobody liked Raiden. For those just looking for great gameplay, the game still had it.

1987

[99luftballon]

It was the year I finally got to play Elite unsupervised. I wince to think how long I spent on that game; whole nights spent hunched over a BBC Model B trading, pirating and cursing Thargoids who trapped me with low fuel. To my mind it's still one of the most addictive games around, after Civ 2.

There used to be a version that mimicked it on a PC floating around but I can't find it anywhere and I understand the creators had it pulled.

Re:1987

[MrCopilot]

Here Ya Go.

http://oolite.aegidian.org/
http://retrospec.sgn.net/users/tomcat/miodrag/xEli te.zip?
http://www.rebelstar.cd2.com/cgi-bin/dc.cgi?file=r emakes/elite_-_the_new_kind_v1_0.zip

May I also recommend:

Privateer...
http://priv.solsector.net/
http://wcuniverse.sourceforge.net/

put the crack pipe down and get off my lawn

[puto]

Wow, forcing me to post from work.

Although I am an Apple fan, I am by no means a fan boy. "Cementing the place of pc games forever", is a bit strong.

Many of us were playing games on our apple 2s way before the mac was released.

Mask of the Sun
Lode Runner
Miner 49er
Wavy Navy
Everything by Infocom
Kareteka
Summer games, Winter Games

I would say the early apple 2s and the Commodore 64 were the ones that cemented the pc game world. The Commodore was cheap and great. Also do not leave out the Trs-80 and the CoCos. Not everyone had the cash for a Mac, and when it came out most Apple guys did not like it at the time.

Puto

+/- 1990

[Draracle]

Lets see... starting in 1989 with Prince of Persia and Mech Warrior. Add the "Quest" years of Serria with Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest and Quest for Glory. Put in some Aces of the Pacific. Then bow down to Wolfenstein 3D. And then... good god, if this wasn't enough, along came Sid with Civilization (91). Finally, in 1992, the RTS comes into its own with Dune 2. It was a good thing I had a summer job.

my timeline

[deviceb]

the classics.. space invaders
pacman
yars revenge
ect..

Nintendo days were the most revolutionary
SMBs - SMB1 was a insane leap from the 52 or 7800
Metroids
Zelda
final fantasys

PC
Castle Wolfenstein was ok, but Doom had me scared to move out of my "safe spot" backed into a corner
Everquest was the last big jump in a different direction for gaming. Why did they have to ruin this game? now look how many MMORPGs spawned.. /ack
Im sure i could edit this timeline better.. but thoes are the ground layers
I'm still waiting for a good FPS. Red Orchestra is #1 for me right now. the modding community and UT engine make it so.

FFVII was *NOT* "revolutionary"

[Anonymous Coward]

It's one thing to like FF VII, or to even think it's the best in the entire series. That's an opinion and everyone's entitled to have them.

But revolutionary? I take issue with the concept, and since your conclusion is based on that one game, your entire statement.

Let me try to wrap my head around the point, starting with how it could be revolutionary within the realm of Final Fantasy games. I'll start with the most common "points" brought up, with games noted by "US/JAP" release titles:

-(Obviously)It wasn't the first FF game

-(The Aeris point) It wasn't the first FF game where characters, party members, and large numbers of innocents died (see FFII/IV's Tellah, FFIII/VI's Castle Doma, Breaking of the World, General Leo, and many others related to the recurring party members, and FFV's Galuf)

-(Materia) It wasn't the first FF game where you could teach your characters things (Espers in FFIII/VII, and the Job/Skill System in the Famicom's FFII, as well as FFV)

-(Story) It can be argued, as a matter of opinion, that FFII/IV and FFIII/VI had incredibly good stories, especially by those who played them before Playstation/FFVII came out.

-(Soundtrack) Granted that FFVII's music didn't have to be midi's, but by the same measure, FFIII/VI's soundtrack was available at the US's release date and was fully orchestrated (and sounded damn good)

-(Chocobos) Nope, been around since at least FFII/IV, and IIRC, FFII on the Famicom/GBA.

-(Party Switching) The ability to select who comes and who goes at will has been around since FFIII/VI. In fact, some of the best and more "revolutionary" sequences forced you to split up your party into multiple groups, causing some potentially difficult battles if you didn't know how to play each character's strengths and/or poorly developed their skills and misgrouped them.

-(Active Battle System) Not even close...see FFII/IV and beyond.

The only "revolutionary" action for FFVII in the Final Fantasy series I can think of is that it was the first one to come out on a platform that could support FMV-style animation sequences and also use polygons instead of sprites, thereby appealing to a wider audience.

Now, taken in a greater scope of all RPGs, I really can't think of *anything* that FFVII did that no RPG previous to it (on any computer system or console) hadn't done first, or better.

Now, for my "old man" disclaimer...I'm 25, and grew up on the early FF games. I played through FFVII, and enjoyed it. FFVIII didn't do it for me, but FFIX I enjoyed, and I found Final Fantasy Tactics (like Tactics Ogre) to be refreshing and extremely enjoyable. I stopped playin' them after that, but not for dislike of the series -- my interests simply changed, though I do plan to try to come back to the series in the future, when there's time in my life.

I've just heard the (relatively baseless) "OMG FFVII is teh best ev3r!!!" argument too often, and felt the need to offer rebuttle.

Thanks!

Re:FFVII was *NOT* "revolutionary"

[script_daddy]

I feel a great disturbance in the Slash-sphere. As if millions of geeks suddenly got a bulge in their pants, and were suddenly stained.

Re:FFVII was *NOT* "revolutionary"

[menace3society]

That "one little point" is actually a big deal. Up to that time, nerdy gamers who preferred RPGs to fighters and racing games lived by the "good graphics don't make a good game" mantra, and were actively hostile to improved graphics and systems that boasted ever-greater graphics capabilities--the idea being that game developers are a finite resource, and effort spent on graphics is effort not spent on the gameplay and story-writing.

Then the bomb, in the form of Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation, was dropped.

The gameplay was as smooth or smoother than any other RPG of the time period, the story was was acceptably decent (whether is was good or not is subject to strenuous debate). But it had killer graphics. All of a sudden, the crap people were spewing about graphics not mattering or not improving the experience was demonstrably false,[1] and in an instant, the video game industry was changed. FFVII led, in a serious way, the charge for multi-million-dollar big-budget games, by requiring development studios to have story AND gameplay AND graphics, instead of just one or two. It also introduced a huge number of people into console role-playing games, indubitably far more than any other title.

[1]: I think that this is actually the reason that so many self-proclaimed "old-school" RPGers hate Final Fantasy VII so much: it made them look like total chumps and they resent Square for "abandoning" them... in favor of more exciting, playable games that more people than ever enjoy. Just goes to show, there's no pleasing some people.

Re:1972

[paro12]

Actually, you couldn't have played a thing without 1971 ... well unless your parents are freaks of nature and your mother popped you out in 27 days

That would be a record (not to mention make the entirety of the female population jealous of your mother)

My Personal 10 Best Years

[jeblucas]

Well, the article is crushed, and everyone loves blogs, so these are my personal 10 Best Years in Video Gaming...

• 1981--My parents divorce. My Dad needs to overcompensate, so he gets an Odyssey2. I play Pick Axe Pete and KC Munchkin until I fall asleep at the controller.
• 1983--I play Galaga at the Silver Ball Arcade in Worcester, MA, and just cannot be stopped. I was in a trance. I must have played for 45 minutes. Everyone was watching. I was 10 years old.
• 1984--My friend has a Commodore 64 and we play Archon endlessly. The Banshee cannot lose.
• 1986--I see a kid play Super Mario Bros in an arcade cabinet in Orlando, FL. I am HYPNOTIZED. $290 dollars, four months, and one still-overcompensating Dad later I can retire my Atari 5200.
• 1987--I get Metroid. This is the best game ever made. (Still).
• 1991--Street Fighter 2 is released. Only Tournament Cyberball competes for quarters for the next three years. Dhalsim cannot lose.
• 1994--The University of Redlands Physics lab has many Macs hooked up with Appletalk. These many Macs all have Marathon on them. Deathmatches ensue, and ensue hard.
• 1997--I get my first Mac, and Ambrosia Software gets half my paycheck. Maelstrom, Apeiron, Swoop, Escape Velocity.
• 2003--Some minigolf place in the SVF has a Street Fighter II: Turbo game in the "cheap corner". I play for the first time in years and thrash the shit out of a dozen young Vietnamese kids for about 30 minutes. Dhalsim still can't lose. I walk away from the game.
• 2006--I re-re-re-discover Diablo 2. MAN I love this game. Watch out, Metroid.

Some lowlights...

• I had an Atari Lynx.
• King's Quest IV--you throw a golden ball into the POND? What the fuck?
• Burgertime on the NES--worrrrrrst controllllls evaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrr!
• Rush'n Attack on the NES. Did you beat this game? You're a fucking liar.

1983 & the ZX Spectrum

[malf-uk]

Following its launch in 1982, in 1983 the ZX Spectrum really took off with the release of classic games such as Jetpac, Atic Attac, Pssst, Cookie, Tranz Am and Lunar Jetman and Manic Miner, to name but a few.

Two Guys from Andromeda think it's rigged.

[Civil_Disobedient]

The golden years for PC gaming were from 1984 (first King's Quest) to 1992, when Castle Wolfenstein was released.

First thing I thought when I saw the title

[Tolkien]

"The time spent anticipating Duke Nukem Forever."

Games

[Tribbin]

Games I played the most

Mother Goose
Supaplex
Larry
Eco quest II
Monkey Island
Stunts
Need for Speed 3
Day of the Tentacle
Wolfenstein 3D
Mortal Kombat
Street Fighter
The Incredible Machine
Doom II
Rise of the Triad
Mariokart
Sim City
Tristan pinball
Flight Simulator
Transport Tycoon
Settlers II
Unreal Tournament
Gunship 2000
Falcon 3.0
Strike Commander
Golden Eye 007
Jazz Jack Rabbit
Donkey Kong Country
Double Dragon
X-wing
Tetrinet
Nascar
Destruction Derby I & II
Red Baron
Duke Nukem
Topgear
Commander Keen 6

1999...a fateful day

[ScooterBill]

Everquest is released. I was having fun. Making friends, finding out that playing with others online brought a whole new dimension to gaming.
Sure the gameplay wasn't groundbreaking but there was a partylike atmosphere that just kind of sucked you in...

Fast forward to 2006: an entire generation of mindless clicking zombies are born. The infection rapidly spreads as lives are lost, families destroyed and new paradigm takes control. The overlords of the World of Warcraft smile contentedly as humanity is enslaved...

98' and 04' Missing

[The Agony]

1998, as said in the Shlashdot blurb, is missing. Ocarina of Time fully made Analog control perfect. Metal Gear Solid started the games-as-movies craze. Starcraft revolutionized/prefected the RTS genre. Half-Life change how games were developed, creating an easily moddable engine and gave us a game that had no cutscenes that people took notice to. GoldenEye made FPS's on home concoles possible. Gran Turismo 2 came out. 2004 saw the release of the DS and PSP, marking the first time their is an acual Handheld war. Reggie Fils-Aime became joined Nintendo's marketing cor. and started the revolution in Nintendo's image. People took notice that our industry is becoming plagued with sequals like Half Life 2, Doom 3 and GTA:SA, the last which truely showed off the power of the Playstation 2. The first of the "negt-gen graphics" came with the frist two games too. Lastly, they forgot to mention that GTA3 came out in 2001.