My Top Five Video Games

Timothy Cain

4 Dec 202312:07

EducationalLearning

32 Likes 10 Comments

TLDRTim shares his top five most influential video games, chosen for their innovation, impact on gaming, and personal meaning. Beginning with 1979's Star Raiders for its early 3D graphics and assembly code complexity, he continues chronologically through genre-defining RPG Ultima III, free-roaming space adventure Star Control II, immersive Star Wars space sim X-Wing, and massively multiplayer trailblazer EverQuest. He explores each game's key contributions to graphics, gameplay mechanics, music and sound, storytelling, and community.

Takeaways

😀 Tim shares his top 5 most influential video games
😎 The games range from 1979 to 1999, showing Tim's long gaming history
🤓 The first game is 1979's Star Raiders for the Atari 800
🎮 Star Raiders amazed Tim with its impressive 3D graphics in just 8KB
🎲 The second game is Ultima 3 from 1983, Tim's first RPG love
🚀 1992's Star Control 2 had a huge influence on Fallout with its open world and story
👾 1993's Star Wars X-Wing absorbed Tim with its immersive 3D space simulation
🕹 EverQuest in 1999 was Tim's first MMO, showing how multiplayer games differed
🤔 The games influenced Tim's own game designs and mechanics
🎉 Tim hopes the audience enjoyed hearing about his top nostalgic game picks

Q & A

What criteria did Tim use to choose the games for his top 5 list?
-Tim chose the games that were the most influential for him personally and were also potentially the first of their genre or to have certain features. He did not just pick games he played the most or had the most hours in.
What was innovative about the 1979 game Star Raiders that impressed Tim?
-Star Raiders was one of the first true 3D games, with 3D locations and rotations, despite using 2D sprites. It was extremely impressive that it was made in only 8KB.
When did Tim first play Ultima 3 and why did he have time to play it then?
-Tim first played Ultima 3 in the summer of 1987, after finishing engineering school and before starting graduate school. His mom encouraged him to take the summer off, so he spent mornings gardening and afternoons playing Ultima 3.
How did Star Control 2 influence the Fallout series?
-Star Control 2's open world/galaxy, story, characters, and blend of humor and dark themes directly influenced the Fallout series, which Tim worked on.
Why was X-Wing more impressive than similar space games of the era?
-X-Wing used true 3D graphics, so the ships and their motions were more realistic than competitors using 2D sprites. The sound and effects were also spot-on.
What unique guilds and groups did Tim join in EverQuest?
-Tim mentions joining guilds like the Spice Girls, where everyone played as a Spice Girl, an all-necromancer guild called Necro Squad, and a Hobbit-themed guild named after Lord of the Rings characters.
How old was Tim when the earliest game on his list, Star Raiders, first came out?
-Tim mentions he was 14 years old when Star Raiders came out in 1979.
What did Tim learn from EverQuest that influenced later work?
-EverQuest was Tim's first MMO experience, and he learned how multiplayer mechanics like difficulty, combat, exploration, and storytelling differ from single-player games. This directly led to him working on MMOs like WildStar later.
What genre are all the games on Tim's list?
-All of the games on Tim's top 5 list are considered role-playing games (RPGs) in some form, though they have different settings and styles.
Did Tim rank the games in any particular order?
-No, Tim specifically states he is listing the games chronologically by release year, not ranking them in order of preference.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introducing Tim's top five most influential video games

Tim introduces himself and explains he will be discussing his top five most influential video games that were innovative, memorable, and ignited his passion for gaming and technology. He decided to focus on games that were influential rather than just ones he played a lot. All the games he lists are over 20 years old.

05:01

😎 Playing Ultima 3 all summer long in 1987

Tim didn't play Ultima 3 when it first came out in 1983 because he was busy with engineering school. In the summer of 1987 between undergrad and grad school, Tim's mom suggested he take the summer off to relax. He spent his mornings gardening and afternoons playing Ultima 3. Tim loved the party control, puzzles, 3D dungeons, and final battle with Exodus. He explains dungeons had fixed difficulty unlike the scaled outdoor areas.

10:03

🌟 Discovering an open galaxy in Star Control 2

Star Control 2 exploded Tim's brain in 1992 with its nonlinear, open galaxy and great story full of memorable, funny characters juxtaposed with a dark storyline. It heavily influenced Fallout. Tim loved strategically choosing ships for combat. He still remembers the music today.

✈️ The joy of piloting X-Wings in Star Wars: X-Wing

Although Tim enjoyed Wing Commander, he loved Star Wars: X-Wing more when it released in 1993. The 3D graphics brought X-Wings and TIE fighters to life, and gameplay captured the feel of the movies with power management and authentic sounds. Tim was so obsessed he bought a joystick just for this game.

🎮 Getting addicted to the immersive world of EverQuest

EverQuest was Tim's first MMO experience when it released in 1999. He loved the huge, lore-filled world and addictive, challenging, rewarding gameplay that forced cooperation. Tim talks about his memorable groups like the Spice Girls and learning how single player games differ from MMOs.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡RPG

RPG stands for role-playing game. This type of video game allows the player to take on the role of a character and influence the story through their actions and decisions. Tim mentions several RPGs in his list like Ultima 3, Star Control 2, and EverQuest. He talks about how these games allowed him to level up his character, explore vast worlds, engage in strategic combat, and take part in epic storylines. RPGs were highly influential for Tim and directly inspired mechanics and design elements in games he later worked on.

💡MMORPG

MMORPG stands for massively multiplayer online role-playing game. This is a type of RPG but played online with thousands of other players. Tim discusses his experience with EverQuest which was his first MMORPG. He talks about how the shift to online multiplayer completely changed elements of RPGs like difficulty, combat, exploration and storytelling. designing quests and gameplay for thousands of simultaneous players was a new challenge. His EverQuest addiction inspired Tim to later work on the MMORPG WildStar.

💡simulation

Tim mentions simulation as a key aspect of the games on his list. For example, Star Raiders simulated 3D space combat on very limited hardware. X-Wing offered an immersive starfighter simulation with ship power management and authentic Star Wars sights and sounds. RPGs simulate living as a character in a virtual world. Tim valued games that provided engrossing simulations and let him feel immersed in their worlds.

💡sandbox

Sandbox refers to games that give the player freedom to choose their own objectives and paths through the world. Tim praises Star Control 2 for having an open world structure instead of a linear storyline. He could explore the galaxy at his own pace and choose how to interact with characters and stories. This sandbox approach was highly influential on Tim's design for the Fallout series which also featured large open worlds.

💡technical innovation

Tim frequently mentions being amazed by technical feats these early games achieved given the limitations of hardware at the time. For example, he is astounded that Star Raiders presented 3D space combat in just 8KB. X-Wing and Star Control 2 also found innovative ways to simulate 3D visuals and mechanics on 2D platforms. Tim valued games that pushed technical boundaries and inspired his own experiments programming games on early computers.

💡influential

The overarching theme of the video is games that were most influential to Tim across his life and career. Even though they lack the graphical polish of modern games, Tim argues these classic titles shaped his design philosophy and passion for RPGs, simulation, sandbox elements, and technical innovation. He credits them for inspiring his interest in game development and for pioneering design ideas he later built upon.

💡nostalgia

Tim clearly has deep nostalgia for these games, as evidenced by his vivid memories of playing them decades ago. He lovingly describes getting lost in the worlds, stories, and systems of each game. The nostalgia stems from these games capturing his imagination during formative gaming experiences in his childhood and teens. They left indelible impressions that shaped Tim's creative vision and approach to game design.

💡3D graphics

Tim emphasizes technical innovations that allowed early games to simulate 3D visuals and gameplay on limited 2D hardware. He praises Star Raiders for early 3D graphics, X-Wing for smooth 3D ship maneuvering, and Ultima 3 for 3D dungeon exploration. Pushing 3D graphics boundaries clearly impressed Tim and helped these become formative gaming influences despite their primitive graphics by today's standards.

💡storytelling

Several of the influential games on Tim's list exemplified innovative storytelling for their time. He praises Ultima 3 for placing the story in service of RPG mechanics. Star Control 2 wowed him with its expansive nonlinear space opera. EverQuest showed how storytelling mechanics change in MMOs. Tim clearly admired games that used narrative and lore to create immersive worlds that engaged players.

💡replay value

Tim emphasizes going back repeatedly to these classic games over decades, indicating their tremendous replay value for him. Even today, he still reminisces about Star Control 2's music and gets Ultima 3 melodies stuck in his head. The mix of roleplaying, combat, exploration, and storytelling gave these early titles virtually unlimited replayability despite limited content by today's standards.

Highlights

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Transcripts

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