The same tiny squads sent into space and back through history, with the graveyard on the hill still filling up.
Ryu tours ten fighters in 1987, on a cabinet whose two pressure pads read how hard you hit them.
Heihachi comes back and drops Kazuya into a volcano; the first Tekken people kept playing at home.
Hand-painted 2D worlds and a difficulty curve that stopped a generation; Michel Ancel, 1995.
One button per limb, eight fighters and eight sub-bosses; Namco answer Virtua Fighter in 1994.
Hipnotic add three episodes, a Mjolnir that arcs lightning and a proximity mine launcher; the first mission pack.
Twelve missions a side on Draenor, with named heroes who stay dead if you lose them.
A monk, a hive of demon insects and two side dungeons; the 1997 expansion Blizzard did not make itself.
Rogue send you back to ancient Rome and forward again across two episodes; the second mission pack.
Four players from four countries in one Dreamcast lobby in 2000, talking past the language barrier with a symbol chat.
Norrath in 1999, where dying left your corpse and your gear where you fell and you had to walk back naked; still running.
EA rename their basketball line in 1994 and start counting; the first NBA Live, after the NBA Playoffs games.
A prison ship crashes on Na Pali and the Skaarj hunt you out of it; the 1998 engine that ran for twenty years.
Rogue add turrets, tesla mines and a gravity well; the harder of the two Quake II packs.
Top-down and unforgiving since 1997: die and you lose experience, skills and part of what you were carrying.
Sega launch the series on the Dreamcast in 1999 against a franchise EA had owned for five years.
GDI against the Brotherhood of Nod over tiberium, briefed by actors on video; Westwood, 1995.
Fly for the Rebellion in 1993, managing shields and laser power by keyboard; the sim TIE Fighter answers.
A hero with no arms or legs against a pirate occupation; the 3D platformer that made the leap cleanly.
The same city seen by an adult magazine reporter, in the timeline Innocent Sin left behind.
Race for pink slips: lose and the other driver drives your car home.
A classroom game summons the other selves of a group of Japanese schoolchildren; the 1996 first Persona.
Four more campaigns and a shelf of new artefacts bolted onto Heroes II by Cyberlore in 1997.
The 1994 first game: a whole continent generated at random and a staff broken into eight pieces.
An arcade mode that finally puts a rival on the stage beside you, over the championship the first game shipped with.
Road & Track supplied the car data and the police arrive out of oncoming traffic; the 1994 original, on 3DO first.
Occult SS experiments and the castle to escape again, this time on the Quake III engine.
RECS builds a fresh course out of a typed-in code, so the trilogy closes with a track generator.
The 1994 original: two campaigns in Azeroth, mouse-driven, before anybody had heard of the setting.
The isometric 1993 original, the year EA bought the licence and the crowd was a single looping chant.
Infobox
