“Space Invaders,” “Oregon Trail,” & “Legend Of Zelda” Inducted Into Video Game Hall Of Fame

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There are some video games you don’t have to explain to anyone, even if they were born way after those games first delighted fans. Among those are this year’s inductees into the Video Game Hall of Fame that were chosen from 15 finalists and make up the second group of games to join the list. If you’ve ever traveled digitally to Oregon or went on quests with Link, you’ll know which games we’re talking about.

Space Invaders, The Oregon Trail, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, The Sims, and Grand Theft Auto III were all chosen to make up the class of 2016 honored Thursday at the hall, which is inside The Strong museum in Rochester, NY.

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Other contenders included in the thousands of nominations but that missed the final cut: John Madden Football, Elite, Final Fantasy, Minecraft, Nurburgring, Pokemon Red and Green, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Street Fighter II, and Tomb Raider.

The Strong is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame, and opened the doors of its World Video Game Hall of Fame last year to honor all kinds of electronic games, from arcade to console, computer to handheld and mobile. In order to be considered, games must have had sustained popularity and influenced the video game industry or society.

Last year’s inaugural class ushered in Doom, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Marios Bros., Tetris, and World of Warcraft.

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