LogFAQs > #979460684

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I'd argue Asteroids and Myst would outrank both of them.

Asteroids was a huge facet of both the arcade and console booms, became sort of synonymous with gaming for years, had a huge influence on the development of later games like Defender and Cosmic Avenger (and thus the games that followed them). And it made more money for Atari at the time than any other game. It's probably tied with Pac-Man for pointing to a single game from that era that most represents the era.

It best represents the era and unarguably played a huge role in the games industry growing as it did, but I'd argue that if we're talking about what's the most influential, it should be a question of which games have elements that have played the largest roles in their respective genres evolving. Granted, Asteroids is effectively the progenitor of twin-stick shooters, even if games that more closely resemble Asteroids itself aren't all that common (whereas games that closely resemble SimCity and Ultima are, which was my logic), so perhaps it deserves more credit than I gave it on the initial pass.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Myst basically helped push the adoption of CD-ROM and CD PC gaming as a whole, and had a huge influence on a lot of games that followed.

That, though, I would say is more a matter of "it popularized the platform" than influencing the market in ways that are felt today. It established a lot of the conventions for point-and-click adventure games, but that genre's heyday has largely passed such that I struggle to say it's been a major influence on gaming as a whole.