1. Super Mario Bros. (1985)
This little Italian plumber came bundled with every Nintendo Entertainment System. And thus a generation of gamers were hooked.
2. Pac-Man (1980)
Back in the ’80s, a pocket full of quarters meant another bout with Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde at the local arcade.
3. Street Fighter (1987)
Ryu and Ken traveled five countries and battled 10 opponents. Who knew that so many nations had such fabulous ass-kickers?
4. Centipede (1980)
If you think that a game inspired by a lowly insect can’t possibly be exciting, you haven’t met a guy who grew up in the ’80s.
5. Joust (1982)
Players controlled a knight riding a flying ostrich, which, um, made perfect sense to us at the time.
6. Asteroids (1979)
One of the oldest games on the list still looks good, thanks to crisp black-and-white vector graphics, which feels fresh in the 2010s.
7. Robotron: 2084 (1982)
A single player facing off against a sea of barely visible machines equaled double-joystick heaven back in the day.
8. Tron (1982)
The MCP! The tank battle! The minimalistic joy of the light cycles level! They all came together to create one of the best movie-video game crossovers ever.
9. Galaga (1987)
Galaga was almost like Space Invaders, but harder. The enemies moved across the screen, then down, then across again.
10. Duck Hunt (1984)
Look: All you need for a good hunt is a gun and an animal. The makers of this game got all fancy by adding a tree and some grass.
11. Q*Bert (1982)
Before begging for change in Wreck-It Ralph, the little red guy wth the snipey beezer was the star of his own hit arcade game.
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