MechCommander (1998)

Gestures broadly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Video_Game_Hall_of_Fame

• tetris, because it is tetris

• pong, and probaly other examples of early home console games

• wolfenstein3d, doom, quake, quake3, doom3 because all of them were technical milestones, had lasting impact on the industry and they show the rapid advancement of pc gaming in the 90s and 2000s

• the elder scrolls series, as a simmiliar showcase.

• final fantasy 1, 6 and 7, as a showcase of jrpgs through various generations and the fmv of 7 and onwards were imho precursors of 3d rendered movies.

• half-life, because of the impact of it's scripted set pieces and its level design

• counter-strike and starcraft, as the games that probably gave us professional e-sport.

• dota, because its for mobas what doom is for first person shooters.

• deus ex and thief, pioneered the "immersive sim" and they are great showcases of the interactive nature of games

• Pokémon, cultural impact can't be denied and the trading aspect is a great example of a non traditional multiplayer experience

• various Mario Games, but definitely Mario Bros. Super Mario World and Mario 64 and probably Galaxy as a showcase of the evolution of plattformers in 2d and 3d, maybe throw a spyro or banjo kazooie in there.

• Grim Fandango, Kings Quest, Monkey Island, point and click adventures are there very own beast and often feature actual memorable characters. I definitely think more often about Manny Calavera than i do about Gordon Freeman or any Morrowind NPC, even though i played half-life and Morrowind much more than Grim Fandango

• Minecraft

• super meat boy, fez, hollow knight... lots of interesting indie games and they show how much more accessible game development has become.

• Prince of Persia and karateka, the way they were animated alone would be enough, but they also featured an actual story, they were interested in showing and featured music used simmiliar to a movies soundtrack.

• probably much more

• games that are a product of a very localized culture (gothic could not have been made anywhere else but the ruhrarea for example)

• the whole military complex is missing (from Mil Sims like Operation Flashpoint to actual recruitment vehicles like Americas Army)

• more modern games, which i just don't know or that have not been rattling around in my brain for long enough, but baldurs gate 3, the last of us, or alan wake would probably end up on my list in a couple of years.

This is a more complex question than just "what is your favorite video game," or "what games do you consider works of art?"

If I'm putting a game in a museum, it's because there's something about it that warrants preservation on a greater level than other games. To that end, my candidates are

• Pong (1972)

The first commercially successful video game.

• Tetris (1985)

Arguably the most influential game of all time

• Rollercoaster Tycoon (1999)

Handcrafted in assembly, serves as a lesson both in optimization and harnessing the players' penchant for finding intrinsic value in simplistic game mechanics

Edit: I just realized this comment looks like an infernal machine wrote it. I want to make it clear that I'm a human, with skin and blood and stuff

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has some games in their permanent collection: Games in MoMA

So many people in this thread just listing games they like and don't know what museums are for.

All of them. In the Museum of All Video Games

Hmm... Good question... They'll have to be the kind of videogame that was the first to do something, or set the standard for something, or has had a huge, long lasting cultural impact that can still be felt today.

So in that hypothetical museum I'd nominate:

• Pong.
• Tetris.
• Donkey Kong arcade game.
• Super Mario.
• Super Mario 64.
• Crash Bandicoot
• Metroid (the first one).
• Castlevania (the original one).
• Hollow Knight.
• Mario Kart.
• The Legend of Zelda (the first one).
• TES III Morrowind.
• TES V Skyrim.
• Doom (the original one).
• Half Life.
• Counter Strike (the original one).
• Ultima.
• Ultima Online.
• Dune (the RTS game).
• Warcraft.
• World of Warcraft.
• Age of Empires II, perhaps alongside the Definitive Edition.
• Sid Meier's Civilisation (the first one).
• Final Fantasy (the first one).
• Chrono Trigger.
• Minecraft (as much as I hate it).
• Elite (the first one).
• Wing Commander Privateer Gold.
• 3D Space Cadet Pinball.

Dwarf Fortress, obviously.

"List all notable video game characters"

Oh cmon

Might as well ask someone to list the top songs of every year since the 80's.

Edit nvm it's not even characters, just games.

Pong is from like 1972.

Gris.

All of them.

Outer wilds

All of them.

Art is art is art.

Doom

I could write an essay significantly larger than the game itself and it wouldn't be as powerful of an argument as just saying the name with the weight of legacy it commands.

Mario 3 Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Minecraft Portal The original DOTA that was built on Warcraft 3 World of Warcraft

I choose these games not because they are good but because they had massive impacts on video games. Except for Mario 3, that ones just the GOAT.

The ICO trilogy

To get the obvious out of the way: Pacman, Doom 2, Starcraft, Simcity 2000, Civ 3. All genre-defining milestones.

Total Annihilation. They're still making sequels today (Supreme Commander, Beyond all Reason).

Warzone 2100 was the first 3D rotatable zoomable RTS which was pretty mind blowing at the time.

Another World/Out of This World. Short game, but also a 1991 game made by one dev and one composer in two years, and artistically it still holds up fairly well even today.

EA games deserve to be in a museum.

Because everyone needs to remember how a company can exploit their customer base with money grab schemes like loot boxes, pay to win junk and empty unplayable shells which need loads of expensive dlc's to make it even a little playable.

There should also be an entire wing for never finished bug simulators.

The area with actual proper games would be tiny. But it should include the old age of empires 2, city skylines 1, Kerbal space program 1 and everything from Larian studios.

Pong, Pac-man, OXO, Mystery House, Super Mario, Battlezone, Wolfenstein, Doom.

The classic pioneers.

It depends on what your museum is trying to convey. If it's moments of gaming history and games and consoles of significance, I'd go with:

For the earliest video games, I'd show the Tennis for Two on the DuMont Lab Ocilloscope, released in 1958.

You should also include the life of Warren Robinett, because he was the first ever game programmer to receive in-game credit for a game he made, because Atari never gave their programmers credit, but he snuck one in as an easter egg. He then went on to found the Learning Company which made all those Reader Rabbit games.

For the Crash of 1983, you have to include ET for the Atari 2600 as the posterboy, but "Pitfall!" should also be included. Pitfall was a good game, but it was the breakout hit of Activision and therefore proof that third-party video games were viable, leading to the glut of video games which, in combination with ET being such a colossal failure, caused the crash.

For the resurgence after the crash, the Nintendo Entertainment System, but specifically the one that came with the little robot to help you play games. It's essential that you convey that Nintendo intended to sell it as a toy rather than a games console because the games market in the US had completely died in the crash, but the toy market was very much alive.

Half-life: Alyx

Sneak King

Et for the Atari 2600

Doom OG

GTA 3

Half-life, or any source game along with minecraft.

Bioshock

Halo: Combat Evolved

Fallout New Vegas

Also, cynical answer is also whatever current mobile game is making a bazillion dollars right now because ✨capitalism✨

All of them.

• Street Fighter II - Not the first fighting game, but the one that kicked off a massive cultural phenomenon, and defined so much of the format that every fighting game since has taken influence from.

• Puyo Puyo Tsu - Although this game never got a chance to shine in the west, in Japan this game was just as influential to the puzzle game genre as Street Fighter II was to fighting games. I often describe Puyo 1 as the Street Fighter 1 of puzzle games, but I think you could make a case for whether 1 or Tsu really belongs in the museum, since 1 was plenty popular at release and did inspire other puzzlers even before Tsu hit the scene. However, Tsu is the game that really established puzzle games as a serious competitive genre, with large tournaments being held all the way back then.

• Beatmania - The original vertical scrolling rhythm game. Could include either the original, one of the first editions of IIDX, or even a current cabinet.

• Dance Dance Revolution - While Beatmania gets credit for being the first, and for being plenty popular in Japan, DDR is what popularized the genre in overseas markets. And for good reason, it's equally notable for not being played with typical inputs.

• Rogue - The thing that a whole bunch of other games are like. Except now most of the games we say are like this, aren't really like this at all...

• Like every major Nintendo game - fuck it not even gonna list them all

One that comes to mind is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.