Colossal Caves - text adventure (Willie Crowther and Don Woods)
The first ever text adventure, this. While arguing over the shortlist for this feature, somebody suggested that Melbourne House's The Hobbit should be included. After all, which self-respecting Spectrum owner didn't play it? All of a sudden, though, Mark and the esteemed Mr Smith began to scream, "!" in high, tremulous voices. Colossal Caves is one of the most frightening innovative and influential games ever made.

ET - a disaster epic (Atari)
At a time when players were losing interest in their tens of thousands, Atari released ET, a awful game based loosely around Spielburg's film. But they apparently made more cartridges than there were Atari consoles. Even after drastic price cuts, ET just would not sell.

Zelda: A Link to the Past - adventure game (Shigeru Miyamoto/Nintendo)
This is, in all possibility, the most complete, refined and polished game ever released. It's a masterpiece of measured design that, perhaps more so than any other 16bit peer, is fantastic to play even now. It has just about everything: side quests by the score, level design on a par with anything ever made, and steady character progression that offers enormous rewards for success. It is, dare we say it, even better than Ocarina of Time as a creative work...

Marble Madness - puzzle game (Atari)
Another old arcade game that people either love or hate, but another valued member of Future Gamer's Top 100. For its services in establishing inertia as a force in videogames (heh), we are compelled to doff our caps at Marble Madness.

Tomahawk - flight sim (Digital Integration)
We sat for ages trying to think of an old combat flight sim that had truly left its mark upon us, and the gaming world. We talked about Fighter Pilot, F15 Strike Eagle, Tornado Low Level and, obscurely, Cyclone, before settling on Tomahawk - a fantastic game in its day.