{"id":1036,"date":"2014-04-01T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/?p=1036"},"modified":"2014-04-03T08:07:37","modified_gmt":"2014-04-03T13:07:37","slug":"the-top-1000-video-games-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/archives\/1036\/the-top-1000-video-games-of-all-time","title":{"rendered":"Top 1000 Video Games of All Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

Today, PC World published my latest slideshow, The Top 1000 Video Games of All Time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The in-depth piece — split into 1000 separate slides, each with its own paragraph of text — took over two years to create.<\/p>\n

You may be asking yourself how one person could create such an epic work. Well, I got a little help from custom algorithms I programmed partially in Haskell — and partially in Minecraft’s<\/em> redstone circuitry using Boolean algebra.<\/p>\n

But I didn’t just rely on computer wizardry. Much self-deliberation went into choosing the order of the items on the list. I argued with myself for hours while sitting on the bench at a local park, on the bus, and in the North Regional Branch of the Wake County Public Library. After being arrested 13 times (twice in the nude), I decided to perform future deliberations in the privacy of my own bathroom. I feel that it made the results more pure.<\/p>\n

Here’s a sneak peek at the bottom 11:<\/p>\n

1000. Halo (Xbox)
\n999. Silpheed (IBM PC)
\n998. Sewermania (TI-99\/4A)
\n997. Quadrapong (Arcade)
\n996. Section Z (NES)
\n995. Pooyan (Arcade)
\n994. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
\n993. Popeye: Beach Volleyball (Game Gear)
\n992. Lloyd the Squirrel (???)
\n991. Snafu (Aquarius)
\n990. Descent (PC)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And here’s a selection from somewhere near the middle:<\/p>\n

\n555. Superman (2600)
\n554. Bioshock Infinite (PC)
\n553. Slipnosis (iOS)
\n552. Star Trek: Phaser Strike (Microvision)
\n551. Farmville (Flash)
\n550. Deadly Towers (NES)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As for the top 10, you may be in for a surprise. My Haskell program determined with scientific precision that the 10 greatest video games of all time are, in fact, different versions of Ms. Pac-Man<\/em>:<\/p>\n

10. Ms. Pac-Man (Apple iPod)
\n9. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 2600)
\n8. Ms. Pac-Man (TI-99\/4A)
\n7. Ms. Pac-Man (ColecoVision)
\n6. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 5200)
\n5. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 800)
\n4. Ms. Pac-Man (IBM PC)
\n3. Ms. Pac-Man (Intellivision)
\n2. Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade)
\n1. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 7800)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oddly, my redstone program placed Super Mario Bros. 3<\/em> in the top 10 seven times — that’s how good it is. But I can’t do the same game on the same platform in multiple spots, so I compromised. To see the full, final list, you’ll have to check out the slideshow yourself<\/a>. I hope you enjoy it.<\/p>\n

And remember: unlike most of my previous ranked lists, I used computer algorithms to ensure its accuracy, so don’t get mad if you disagree with the list. You’re completely wrong.<\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

Discussion Topic:<\/strong> What are your top 1000 video games of all time?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, PC World published my latest slideshow, The Top 1000 Video Games of All Time. The in-depth piece — split into 1000 separate slides, each with its own paragraph of text — took over two years to create. You may be asking yourself how one person could create such an epic work. Well, I got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,13,24,22,9,10],"tags":[774,88,220,773,90,158],"class_list":["post-1036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-games","category-video-game-info-and-history","category-humor","category-nes-famicom","category-retrogaming","category-computers","tag-april-fools","tag-freelance-work","tag-humor","tag-numbered-list","tag-pc-world","tag-slideshow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vintagecomputing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}