Okay, so here’s the thing. There’s this museum, right? It’s like the spot for all things play—The Strong National Museum of Play they call it. Anyways, they just said, “Hey, we’ve got some new video game legends for our Hall of Fame!” And guess what? The latest crew is a wild mix. You’ve got Defender from Williams Electronics, GoldenEye 007 by Rare, id Software’s Quake, and, of course, Bandai’s Tamagotchi. Yeah, that little digital pet thing we all wanted back in the day.
So, get this: they had a bunch of nominees, like a lot. I’m talking a 2025 list kind of deal. There were biggies: Age of Empires, Angry Birds (yup, those little mad birds), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Frogger (does anyone else hear the “ribbit” sound effect?), Golden Tee, Harvest Moon, Mattel Football, and NBA 2K. But only four made the cut. Kinda like video game Hunger Games, if you think about it. Or maybe not—I’ve confused myself.
Anyway, these games? They’re not just any titles. The Strong folks said they basically changed the world—or at least the video game world. Picking these games isn’t some random thing. There are, like, four big idea-things they use: icon vibes (like celebrity status but for games), how long the game hangs around, where in the world people played them, and their overall “hey, I changed stuff” factor. Fun fact: Quake is sitting alongside its sibling now. Doom joined the club in 2015. Small world, isn’t it?
The whole why-these-games-thing? Judges and curators got together and chatted about what makes Defender, GoldenEye 007, Quake, and Tamagotchi game-changing. Did you know there have been 49 games inducted since 2015? Last year, they pulled out some other game heavyweights—Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, Ultima, and SimCity. Those games basically laid the groundwork for my childhood, to be honest.
Okay, lost my train of thought. But seriously, it’s crazy how these pixels on a screen have made such a splash in culture. Or, you know, something like that.
