What is the most "essential" videogame?

Super Mario Bros.

That or Zelda.

I thought of those too, but they're still narratives-- Zelda is a straight fantasy story and Mario is an adventure. They're the best examples of the medium generally, especially Zelda, but I'm talking about games that are pure VIDEOGAME, that are most unique to the form. I mean, we all know videogame movies suck, but maybe a way to articulate what I'm saying is the type of game that would be impossible to make into a movie, that couldn't exist in any other form. (And I know there were all kinds of Pac-Man cartoons and stuff in the 80s, but that's just merchandise.)

Pac-Man, then

that a mario brothers game has a particularly significant amount of story is debateable (particularly the nes ones, which i am assuming we are most concerned with), and games like pac-man and tetris lack much progression (powerups, new skills, boss fights, new/varied/secret levels), which i think is a particularly video gamey thing

let me just say particularly again

http://www.coolrom.com/screenshots/nes/A%20Boy%20and%20His%20Blob%20%282%29.gif

I was gonna say, about Pac-Man! But it seems so easy to talk about lo-fi games-- of course they're not like other media, because they couldn't be. Portal's a cool example of a contemporary game that's very much of the moment stylistically and technologically but couldn't be anything but a videogame.

What I like about Tetris, for the sake of this argument, is that there's no pretense whatsoever that what's happening in the game is or could be happening in the real world. Unlike Mario or Zelda or whatever that thing is with the white Barbapapa and 72 licorice jellybeans up there. It doesn't represent itself in any way as some kind of human escapism or alternate reality. It's just a videogame, and it hits you right in that videogame pleasure spot faster than most other games, though maybe less complex or satisfying than others.

what about something like gta or katamari? they are sort of the opposite: something that takes the real world, puts you in it with a couple of tools/limitations, and then says "here, make your own fun"? something like that, where the user makes their own narrative, seems like it couldnt be done anywhere else

actually i guess mmogs are better examples of this

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5021/tetrisboardgameyd3.jpg

I was thinking about Katamari, which I love because it explores a completely abstract real-world fantasy in a way only a videogame could do, something that could probably be argued as art, and could certainly have been passed off as it if it wasn't a mass-marketed game. GTA though is the other kind of game, I feel, that has a lot of its satisfaction in giving you the world you get in any number of other media, or in life, except you get to control it. A lot of people would say it's like being in an action movie. And duplicating the experience of an action movie is, of course, what a whole lot of games these days are about.

Mario 64 is more like itself than anything ever.

Space invaders and Donkey Kong have some right to ur-game status.
And Pong of course.

The way this question is being posed, sort of slants itself towards very old or very simple video games. You could make the same argument for comic books, that trending them towards more "cinematic" or "literary" influences makes them less towards the pure form, but I don't necessarily buy it.

For example, let's take probably the most blatantly film-imitative series, Metal Gear Solid. I doubt there is or will be any great action film that gives you the same unique feeling of being tied into that crazy world, and being the player is integral to that experience.

Or RPGs like Fallout. Sure, like most RPGs the game system is derived from tabletop gaming, and if you were REALLY being cynical, you could say it's just a stat-crunching robot playing a very knowledgeable but inflexible GM. But it's a fantastic video game with tons of choices/effects that can't really be expressed in other media.

I just don't think their roots makes them "less" of a video game than something like Tetris. But how about this answer to your question: Elite. Expansive levels of choice with a completely randomized world and experience or self-imposed narrative every time you play it. Alternatively, another board game cum super-robot, Civilization.

qix

space invaders

1) shooting things - check
2) hiding - check
3) risky behavior in order to get bonuses - check
4) progressively more difficult - check
5) deformable/interactive environments - check
6) three lives - check

it's this last element of "essential" videogaming that has been lost in the console generation - games are now more like interactive serial dramas

ok, i first thought that said "robot cum shot" up there.

6) otm! But what bonuses are there in Space Invaders besides points? I think a really essential part of videogaming is the pleasure of powering up. Maybe Galaga?

I don't think I completely understand the question, but the first answer, from latebloomer, is the most correct one...

http://jl13.com/images/smb.jpg

This is like asking "what is the bookest book".

I think you're trying to get at the most abstract form a video game can take and still recognisably be a game. Tetris, qix, sokoban, sentinel etc are all reasonable examples. However, you should be asking the previous question first ie "what it the essence of a videogame? What makes this form different?"

yo antexit - the bonuses are the UFOs

King of Fighters series.

because in the beginning it was original

Shoot me. It was never original.

if you wanna play the "unoriginal" card i would nominate lock 'n' chase-- derivative of pac-man, but packed with even more video game tropes (for example, keys are more important, and collection is your major task)

Oregon Trail