Pretty much every Sierra franchise.

Warcraft, C&C, Street fighter two turbo, and final fantasy!

• super mario world
• doom
• age of empires 2
• RuneScape
• world of warcraft (only started it as young adult though)

• Super Mario 64

• Pilot Wings 64

• Balloons Tower Defense

• Portal 2

• Banjo Kazooie: nuts and bolts (I dont care if it killed the franchise, I really enjoyed this game)

• Commander keen

• Wingnuts

• Burn:Cycle

• Myst

• Duke Nukem (the first one but also 3D)

Wingnuts was a dumb fmv 'dog fighting' game, but when you beat it you could play it again with silly dialogue. I also remember when setting up the sound card the test audio was a guy saying 'ah veiners, just ze vay I like zem!' In a bad German accent.

Burn:Cycle was an fmv adventure game that I adored, it also came with a sound track cd and a little packet of leaflets based on in game stuff that was really cool. I still listen to the ost on occasion

• Sims 3

• Skyrim

• Animal Crossing New Leaf

• Cities: Skyline

• Sims 2

So I don't really feel that old when reading the notes, I do however apologise to anyone having an age crisis reading this.

• Star Fox 64, for sure
• Half Life was a very big deal for me. Couldn't finish it when I was 8 because it was too scary, and it felt absolutely amazing coming back at 15 and blowing through it.
• Turok 2 seeds of evil. Didn't play it outside of using the cheats. It was basically a gore Sim for me.
• LoZ series was a very big deal.
• Much later, Armored Core 4 and 4A would make me obsessed with good mech gameplay.

Man, it's hard stratifying games you care about, especially when you have a massive log of them that all impacted you in one way or another. There were a bunch of free Linux games that I have very fond memories of too, like Nexuiz, OpenArena, Abuse, etc. Also a bunch of weird niche games and demos, like One Must Fall and Food Fight and Fur Fighters. It's an impossible task, honestly.

• Pacman (bar arcade game with joysticks on the top and bottom, my mom worked there so I was often there during the day)
• Civilization 1
• The Incredible Machine
• Super Mario Bros.
• Duke Nukem 3D (Learned the commands to call a friend on my modem and then boot up duke3d.exe and play multiplayer, all from DOS)

Baulders gate on ps2 was my introduction into RPG and a bonding experience with my aunts ex.

GTA 1 was my escape from an abusive house

Tony hawk kept me from getting picked on for my gaming choices

Smash bros had me bonding with my closest friends

NBA street helped me and my brother escape from our parents.

• Zork Zero
• Streetfighter II
• Diablo
• GoldenEye
• World of Warcraft

My top 5 were (in no particular order):

• Pokemon Diamond
• Star Wars Battlefront: Rogue Squadron (PSP)
• Fossil Fighters
• Skyrim
• FTL: Faster Than Light

Halo >!because I played it with my older sister!<

Skyrim >!because it reminded me that I like RPGs!<

RuneScape >!because it taught me that I like RPGs!<

Minecraft >!because I played it with my little brother!<

DOOM >!because I was young and too scared to play it myself, but my mom enjoyed gaming sometimes, and watching her play are happy memories!<

• Half life
• NFS Most Wanted (2005)
• Heroes of might and magic 3
• Delta Force
• Unreal tournament

• Space Invaders I feel like I should include one of the classic games I played in the 80s. You never forget your first, and I played this more than any others and it influenced my career as an adult. However I think 10 mile hike, burger time, breakout and pacman are better.
• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 My room mates would hotseat games while watching movies. A lot of fond memories
• Factorio Probably played more than any other game
• Golden Axe Warrior Not to be confused with Golden Axe. This was a Zelda clone on the Sega Master System. One of the best games on that platform IMO.
• Boulders gate 1 Besides golden axe warrior the only other RPG I really got into. Unfortunately I wiped my hard drive with a game that I had been playing for months and I just couldn't get back into it after that.

• Dizzy (ZX Spectrum), all the games in the series
• Heroes of Might and Magic, played up to 5, but 2 and 3 were my favorites
• Masters of Orion 2
• Little Big Adventure
• Monkey Island, all the games in the series

Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, Space Invaders (on an Atari 2600), Tempest and Pitfall!

Just five is so limiting:

Mario Kart Mega Man 3 Donkey Kong Country Jet Moto Final Fantasy VII

Even expanding to ten feels restrictive, alas:

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 The Neverhood Perfect Dark Seventh Guest Earthworm Jim

In chronological order

1. Breakout
2. Oregon Trail
3. The Secret of Monkey Island
4. Sonic Spinball
5. FF8

There are so many more but these were all big moments. Ugh I didn't even mention the IBM golf game or Carmen San Diego, I think I need to do this list based on the systems we had.

Zelda II The Adventure of Link

Super Metroid

Another World / Out of This World

Myst

Doom

Honorable mention goes to Super Mario Land.

• super Mario world
• earthbound
• Mario kart 64
• halo 2
• modern warfare

• Super mario bros 3
• RuneScape
• Commander Keen (all of the series)
• Age of Empires
• Grand theft auto

Lego Star Wars

Discworld

Unreal Tournament

Doom

Halo

The instructions are contradictory. I’m not sure how it’s possible to comply.

• Pac-Man (Atari 400)
• Pole Position (Arcade)
• Parsec (TI-99/4A)
• The Legend of Zelda (NES)
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (PC)

Morrowind Ocarina of Time Donkey Kong Country The Sonic chaos game on dreamcast Time splitters

• Sonic The Hedgehog
• Ms. Pacman
• Diablo
• Starcraft
• CS:Source

• Super Mario World
• LoZ : Link to the Past / LoZ : Ocarina of Time
• FFVIII
• Super Smash Bros.
• Ragnarok Online

Moo2

FFT

Golden Eye

Red Alert

Mariokart 64

This list could also be alternatively titled: "Why I flunked out of college the first time."

• Starcraft
• Age of Empires 2
• Freddi Fish
• Pokemon yellow
• Zelda Ocarina of Time

1. Zork
2. Civilization
3. Daggerfall
4. MechWarrior 2
5. The Journeyman Project

I played a lot of Atari and Collecovision as a kid, but games didn’t feel “important” until my family bought our first PC. After that, game consoles in general stopped being important. It was a new world of possibility.

• Baldur's Gate 1 (I think it took me 10 years to actually get to the point where I was able to finish this, but it was still the best advertisement that D&D, and fantasy media in general, could have hoped for)

• DX Ball (breakout clone)

• Minesweeper

• Gothic 1 (Elder Scrolls just fucking sucks compared to this series, especially the melee combat system and the characterization of the NPCs (TES does have better lore))

• Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (to this day, I still haven't finished it. Outstanding multiplayer mode, though!)

I'm not that old, ya old coots!

1. Sopwith

2. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards

3. Super Mario 1 & 3.

4. 688 Attack Sub

5. Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

Halo:CE would probably be the single most important, but it just missed my teenage years.

-Copy Kitty

-Undertale

-Super Smash Bros. (4 & Ultimate)

-Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

-Fantasy Life

In no particular order

Command and Conquer Red Alert 2

Caesar III

Spyro

Metal Gear Solid

Gauntlet

Half life/2 should probably be on there, but it still doesn't feel like an "old" game, especially since I play them every year or two, they haven't left my computer since 2010, and honestly I can't see myself not playing it when I'm 60.

xenogears final fantasy 7 final fantasy 10 super smash Bros melee Diablo 2

• Pokemon gen 1 and 2 I guess
• Majesty
• aoe 2
• WoW
• gizmos and gadgets

• StarCraft
• Heretic
• Diablo
• Quake
• Half Life / Counterstrike

In rough chronological order:

Starflyers

Mario Kart

Shadow cities

COD zombies (ios app version)

Minecraft

I'm stopping this list before high school, as I built my first PC and figured out emulation, so I started playing a lot more games.

Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask

Super Smash Bros Melee

Halo: Reach

RuneScape

Guildwars 2

I can't limit it to 5.

I keep trying to, and it doesn't work, I end up leaving out something that I spent a massive amount of time on and also very strongly impacted my conception of what a game can be.

-Pokemon Gold (OG)

-Metroid: Zero Mission/Fusion

-SSBM

-Battlefront II (The OG one)

-The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons

In no particular order and with limited time thinking about it:

• Kirby Super Star
• Mario Sunshine
• Sonic Adventure (1 & 2 if I may)
• Guitar Hero
• Zelda: Link to the Past

My first console was a NES I inherited, but the first console gotten for me was a SNES, and the first console I received new in box was a GameCube. PS2 underrepresented in this list although Guitar Hero was on there and that game was wildly important for getting me more interested in music in general.