Monkey Island - point 'n' click adventure (LucasArts)
The point 'n' click adventure was once a staple of PC gaming, and LucasArts, blessed with an in-house staff of uniquely talented writers and artists, dominated the niche for years. From Manic Mansion to Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis, it's a hard task to pick one of their adventures in favour of another. Monkey Island gets the Future Gamer vote though, simply because it made us laugh long and hard, from start to finish. Special mention must go to its sequel, though, for having the most eerie, yet brilliant, ending sequence ever.

Doom - first-person shoot 'em up (id)
Which virtue should Future Gamer extol? The fact that Doom - following the lead of Wolfenstein - created a blueprint for a genre that other games adhere to now? Should we mention its enormous impact as a network game? And what of its superb atmosphere, and the utter menace it exuded? Or perhaps its technical merits are of greater import - it did, after all, change the face of PC-specific videogame development forever. And it was fun, too.

Track & Field - button-bashing game (Konami)
Artful it ain't, but compelling it was. Track & Field demanded rapid, RSI-inducing waggles of a joystick or pressing of buttons. It spawned numerous aspirant clones, but successive updates added little in the way of additional gameplay, which is hardly surprising. As a genre it's a bit of an evolutionary dead end, but T&F made a mark that abides to this day.

Outrun - driving game (Sega)
Back in the days when Sega's sprite-scaling hardware was just about the best thing ever, Outrun was the ultimate in arcade excess. The sit-down cabinet version was fantastic, but even the traditional stand-up model was ace. Loud, fast and distinct, Outrun's car physics were as Mickey Mouse as Minnie's boyfriend, but did we care? Of course not, because it looked beautiful and played well too.

Boulderdash - puzzle game (Monolith)
Very few pieces of entertainment software afford you any real degree of influence over your surroundings - they're sterile, immutable playpens, rather than dynamic, deformable environments. Boulderdash, however, used cause-and-effect mechanics brilliantly. The whole idea was to disturb each level habitat, in order to pinch the requisite number of jewels. A remake is long overdue.