Five classic video games are now part of the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s newest class. Asteroids, Sim City, Ultima, Resident Evil and Myst are the latest games inducted to the hall, located in Rochester’s The Strong National Museum of Play.
The hall honors lasting contributions to the video gaming industry. Among those in attendance for Thursday’s event, Jeff Braun, who’s company, Maxis, created inductee Sim City.
“We never expected anything like this, 35 years later, that we’d be inducted into a hall of fame,” said Braun. “When we started this, there was no video game industry at all.”
Longevity is a key to all five class of 2024 inductees, including the Ultima series of fantasy role-playing video games.
“The only video game that really predates my kind of experiment to what became Ultima was actually Pong,” said Richard Garriott, Ultima creator. “Even things like Asteroids weren’t even out yet.”
The World Video Game Hall of Fame opened in 2015. It includes electronic game examples and collections from the earliest days of the industry to present times.
“I think each of these games were ones that somehow move the art form of video game forward,” said Jon-Paul Dyson, The Strong’s VP of Exhibits and director of the International Center the History of Electronic Games.
