The Strong National Museum of Play has revealed this year's inductees into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, SimCity and Ultima have made the cut.
While that means the likes of Guitar Hero, Metroid and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater miss out from the slate of finalists, it would be hard to make a case against any of the five inductees.
Games are selected for the hall of fame based on a number of criteria, including cultural impact and their influence on the industry.
Asteroids absolutely fits the bill. The 1979 game was an enormous hit. Atari sold more than 70,000 arcade units, making Asteroids its best-selling coin-op machine.
The home version on the Atari 2600 was very popular too. While the vector graphics were rudimentary, that didn't take away from the immensely satisfying gameplay loop of blowing up a ton of space rocks.