This is taken from the October 2004 Game Informer. They are listed chronologically, not ranked.

1971 - Computer Space (Arcade)
The first video game ever commercially released. A complex space-shooter that prototyped games such as Asteroids and Star Wars: Rogue Leader.

1974 - Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop)
Technically not a video game, but became the world's first commercially available RPG. With guidelines governing combat, character growth and interactions, it cleared the way for the modern story-driven RPG.

1979 - FSI Flight Simulator (Apple II)
Recognized as the first entertainment flight simulator, it had every last basic function present, from altitude and heading, to air speed and fuel indicator. It showed that games could be more than just an abstract concept - they could emulate reality.

1980 - Zork (TRS-80)
The first text based adventure game to beome popular. Required player interaction with environments, creative use of items, character development and problem solving. Current survival horror, stealth and RPG games each have something different to thank their forefather for.

1980 - Pac-Man (Arcade)
The first true blockbuster title ever released. Remains one of the most popular games of all times and has reportedly sucked up a billion dollars in quarters. More importantly, it is the first game to have a central chracter rather than a generic car, spaceship or faceless cube.

1980 - Adevnture (Atari 2600)
Incredibly complex to program, it was a graphic re-creation of a text game of the same name. Contained one of the richest gameplay experiences on the 2600. But, Adventure makes the list for an entirely different reason: it contained the first Easter Egg. Due to Ataris's tendency to not give programmers credit for their creations, creator Warren Robinett placed a secret room in the game that revealed his name illuminated in flashing lights. This established the precedent for hidden secrets codes and unlockables. From Contra's infamous extra lives code to unlockable Dead or Alive characters, it all started here.

1985 - Tetris (PC)
Tetris spawned a pop cultere phenomenon in the eighties. It's synonymous with the term "puzzle game," and its influence is so strong that it has not only spawned countless imitations, but the title hasn't even betterd itself. Tetris changed the landscape of who plays video games. It brought many casual and female players into the fold. Being packed in with Nintendo's Game Boy, one could make a strong argument that the company's dominance in the hand-held market is due to the universal appeal of Tetris.

1985 - Gauntlet (Arcade)
One of the first four-player, cooperative hack-n-slash games, direct imiations of this classic are produced in staggering numbers every year. While their specific titles may differ, the idea of grouping friends, coordinating your efforts, and escaping the perilous mazes as a group is constantly begged for by gamers of all ages.

1985 - Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Arguably the most important title in the history of video games. It changed the industry and the way we look at the game we play. As the grandfather of the platforming genre, it's significance stretches far and wide. SMB brought about an age of gameplay finesse, where complexity of control and user skill blended seamlessly. The level of control at your fingertips was unprecedented at the time, and its effect on the industry can be seen in virtually every game you play. SMB also ushered in the age of unpredictability with its array of mind-boggling secrets. To this day, there has yet to be a platformer that even comes close to touching its brilliance.

1986 - Outrun (Arcade)
Although Pole Position was widely popular, it took Outrun to really bring a feeling of freedom to players. An added dose of realism was thrown in with road traffic and letting you get behind the wheel of a ferrari. Outrun came in a sit-down version, and both had force feedback wheels. All of this provided that driving was more than just steering a car, it was an immersive experience - something that all video games strive to do, regardless of genre.

1987 - The Legend of Zelda (NES)
TLOZ will forever be remembered for its non-linear approach to adventure gaming. No guidance was provided and no clues were given. It was up to the player to figure out what to do and where to go next. The complexity of puzzles, incredible boss battles, and robust inventory sytem were unprecedented at the time. With a tiny battery tucked inside its gold chrome case, TLOZ became the first NES game to feature back-up save capabilities. Thanks to TLOZ, gone are the days of scribbling down lengthy passwords.

1989 - Tecmo Bowl (NES)
Although introduced to arcades in 1987, it's the NES edition that was the first to give us the all-important staple of real players, and it helped spawn a ravenous sports video game culture fueled by intense multi-player action and the all-important bragging rights. When EA Sports' Madden tournament rolls into town, Tecmo Bowl is largely to thank.

1989 - Prince of Persia (PC)
POP's rotoscoped animations created the first popular character that moved like a real person. He'd pull himself up from ledges and leap across pits, all with the illusion of weight, physics and an actual human anatomy. Motion capture and hand-drawn animations are often mixed to produce a staggering amount of realistic movements for each modern character. Still, POP was the first to really pull it off.

1989 - SimCity (PC)
SC opened people's eyes to the fun of non-competitive sandbox gaming. It challenged players to make something cool bound only by the rules of the system - no worries about "winning," just trying to create. A well designed SC was a work of art to a fan. Because it was based on real life, it made sense even to non-gamers; no longer was gaming only accessible to those with a BA in Dorkology.

1991 - Civilization (PC)
Civilization allowed players to test their mettle in the school of hard knocks, as the player was responsible for molding their tribe of hunter-gatherers into an empire to put Rome's to shame. It's incredibly layered strategy was leaugues beyond any of its contemporaries. It also included a random map generator with mutable paramters like continent size, providing nearly infinite replayability. In many ways, the gameplay of Civilization is still the bar that that startegy games must measure up to.

1991 - Street Fighter II (Arcade)
If there's one thing that you can count on when picking up a fighting game, it's that quarter circle forward+punch will do something. This motion introduced "hadouken" into the national vocabulary, and changed the face of gaming forever. Arcades replaced schoolyards as proving grounds, and feuds were resolved for the low arbitration fee of 25 cents. SF2 did have a predecessor, but it didn't have an array of quirky characters and myriad special moves. Not only do fighting game franchises owe a debt to SF2, but any game, such as extreme sports games (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) that focus on complicated button sequences also have roots in this historic game's mechanics.

1993 - Alone in the Dark (PC)
Not only was AID one of the first games to draw upon the works of classic horror writers like H.P. Lovecraft, it also established many of the genre conventions latre utilized by Resident Evil. It discarded the traditional video game camera system in exchange for cinematic camera angles that set the mood and highlighted the tension. Audio was also used in great effect, with both an atmospheric score and genuinely creepy monster sounds. Nearly every aspect of AID's gameplay was replicated in Resident Evil, which in turn influenced countless scary games.

1993 - Doom (PC)
Yes, we hear the cries already: "Heresy! Wolfenstein 3D is clearly the godfather of the first person shooter!" And yes, we agree. However, while it did take the FPS seeds that Wolfenstein planted and spread them to an even wider audience, Doom's biggest contribution to the world of gaming happened in bedrooms and basements, not development studios.
It popularized the trend of taking an already great game and tweaking it to your liking. Whether it was merely creating an arsenal of weapons or replacing the hellspawn with presidential candidates, the possible variants of this game seemed endless.

1994 - Road Rash (3DO)
Rather than the gameplay itslef (which was admittedly cool), this title's real influence is felt today in its soundtrack, which used 3DO's then state-of-the-art CD-Rom drive to deliver tracks by a host of the early-90's hottest up-and-coming alt-rockers including Soundgarden and Monster Magnet. Mining the sounds of the Billboard charts became a common practice in video gaming, sounding the death knell for the catchy MIDI tunes of our NES youth. Today, a slot on a best-selling title like Tony Hawk's Underground or Madden NFL is as coveted by record companies as heavy rotation on MTV.

1995 - Command & Conquer (PC)
While many people credit Dune with being the first RTS, and others point to Warcraft as bringing the genre into the limelight, C&C really pushed it forward into what we know and love today. For one thing, the two factions are very different, with unique strengths and weaknesses which have a huge impact on tactics and strategy. For another, the interface put other games to shame with the smooth way it put the action right at your fingertips - something any RTS veteran will call out as absolutely critical to a title's worth. C&C paved the way for the genre to become one of the major factors in PC gaming - after gamers got their hands on this, it was abundantly clear that RTS was here to stay.

1996 - Super Mario 64 (N64)
Everything about Mario's first 3D adventure - such as the move set, level design, objectives and the camera controls - seemed so well-executed at the time that Mario 64 had become the template for all 3D platformers to follow. In addition, this was the first title to tap into the power of the analog stick - now an industry standard for controllers. No matter what current generation action games try to differentiate themselves from the other titles on the market, all owe a debt to Mario 64 and its brilliant establishment of how a virtual 3D world should look and feel.

1997 - Ultima Online (PC)
UO more or less single handedly spawned the massively popular multiplayer online phenomenon, bringing thousands of dorks the world around together in a virtual fantasy playground for the first time. It was graphical, easy to use, and garnered the critical mass of players for a functioning community. The concept of building entire societies, economies and relationships within the game world proved so compelling that the march of imitators, everything from EverQuest to City of Heroes, continues to this day - and PC gamers continue to line up to buy the MMO du jour.

1997 - Final Fantasy VII (PSX)
Many call it the greatest RPG of all time. FF7 ushered in a new era for RPGs, assuring their place in the gaming mainstream and changing the way people thought about storytelling and scope in a game. With an epic and emotional story spanning an impossibly large three discs, FF7 had an enormous budget and was three years in development, both of which were unheard of at the time. But perhaps its greatest legacy for the future was its incredible use of cinematics to tell the story. Full motion computer graphic cutscenes not only served as a storytelling tool, but as one of the primary reward systems for progressing through the game. The sevent volume of FF pioneered the startegy with its innovative use of CG - giving birth to a whole new aspect of the industry.

1998 - Metal Gear Solid (PSX)
While many make the claim that Thief is the originator of gameplay related to shadows and darkness, any game that claims to have stealth elements should probably be paying royalty checks to Hideo Kojima and Konami. With the utmost silence, MGS came out of nowhere and created the stealth genre. Clinging to walls, crawling through ventilation shafts, hiding under boxes, sneaking up behind guards, and tapping into an array of high-tech spy gadgetry proved to be a sexy alternative to the popular running and gunning of the time. MGS is also one of the first action games to focus heavily on character development and plot. Along with games like Final Fantasy, MGS is one of the first to to feature motion picture-quality cinematics and voice acting - showing that games are not only fun to play, they are fun to watch.

2001 - Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
Every genration of consoles has its "defining" game, and we expect that GTA 3 will be associated with gaming in the early 2000s as much as Super Mario Bros. is with the NES era. GTA 3's genius is combining existing genres in a framework that creates the illusion that you're taking part in a living, breathing world. From the minute it was released, GTA quickly became a pop culture phenomenon, garnering millions in sales. Even in the three years since its been released, we've seen scores of companies trying to emulate the GTA formula, and even more titles from very different genres (like SSX 3 or Jak II) incorporating its "open world" level designs.

I see no Ultima. The list is a lie.

Oh, it's on there. I didn't feel like typing the rest yet. The most recent game on the list is in 2001.

This is cool. Thanks for posting.

wonder if Blades of Steel will sneak in here

Must be either GTA3 or Halo, or both.

super mario 3
super mario world
super mario world 2

how in the hell can you not have dragons liar on there?

No wolfenstien 3-D or Dune or Command and Conquer

Command and Conqueror is on there eventually. Doom made the list over Wolfentstein 3D, even though W3D came out first. Read the first page to see why.

I have 6 left that I'll do later. Here is the list as of now:

Computer Space
Dungeons & Dragons
FSI Flight Simulator
Zork
Pac-Man
Adventure
Tetris
Gauntlet
Super Mario Bros.
Outrun
The Legend of Zelda
Tecmo Bowl
Prince of Persia
SimCity
Civilization
Street Fighter II
Alone in the Dark
Doom
Road Rash

Tecmo Bowl makes the list. OUTSTANDING!

huthuthuthuthuthuthut

Haha...yea, I guess there is nothing really technical about that.

4 plays!! Das all you need, BITCH!

-Sunny

Toss right, toss (upper) left

How is it influential? Maybe innovative, but the gameplay SUCKS.

uh

why isn't pong on the list?

Marble Madness?

Got the full list up there. The final additions were:

Command & Conquer
Super Mario 64
Ultima Online
Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
Grand Theft Auto III

was starcraft released after c&c?

I think this list is very interesting and was really cool to read. I just realized that outside of family, the longest running constant in my life is video games. The Simpsons come in a very close second. I had an Atari when I was 4 (I have no idea how in the hell we were able to afford it) and I watched the first Simpsons episode, the night it aired, when I was 5.

I don't play games as much as I did when I was 9 or 10, but I'll always pick up one of the next generation systems. I'm sure I won't get a PS3 right away, but I'll have one eventually. It was pretty cool to just read the evolution of video games when I've experienced the bulk of their existence. I've played practically all of those game...even Zork! So I've been there for chasing ghosts around for hours in Pac-Man, ripping my hair out when missing a jump in Mario, fully mastering every possible scenario in SF2, watching in awe at the brilliance of FF7 (which I still say is probably the best video game I ever played) and witnessing an entire sub-culture of video games unfold with GTA.