1 of 11 Horse Race Program (TRS80)
What? Never heard of it? Of course not, unless you were in Mr. Wagner’s computer programming course in 1982 and had a bit of money to lose, no you’d never see this game. I made this game on a TRS80, which really got me into computer gaming. The odds of each horse would dictate the random number of spots the horse would move. My buddies and I would sit in the back and play, though they could never quite figure out how I’d win all the money, could you? I got an "A" and some spare change..

2 of 11 Adventure (Atari 2600)
A game that doesn’t keep score nor has a timer? This game showed me that it was always about beating the next guy, sometimes you had to go things alone. What a wonderful game..

3 of 11 Bezerk (Arcade)
I was dragged to the local grocery store one day to help out with shopping, recalling looking out the back of our Dodge Duster seeing the neighborhood kids playing a favorite game called Fumble Rumble. We got to the store and there it was a shiny new arcade game. I played and played until I ran out of quarters. I brought more next shopping trip and those thereafter. This was the game that I dreamt about. That summer we went on a trip to Mississippi via station wagon and that’s all I remember thinking about. At each hicktown we stopped at, I immediately checked out the stores close by to see if there were any games to play..

4 of 11 Defender (Arcade)
This was not a machine, but a friend, pal, buddy. It was at our local Wawa convenience store and was there for me during some rough teenage times. I’d always stop off on the way home for a quick game. The machine has long been gone, but whenever I stop by that store, a little grin appears on my face thinking about that machine..

5 of 11 Tempest (Arcade)
Up the street from the Wawa was a pizza joint called Tony’s, which introduced me to Tempest. Sure we knew about the video games there and played them quite frequently, but when Tempest arrived, that was the game I truly mastered. No, not TT/Missile Command type mastering, but was the first game I’d be able to totally smoke my friends in.. This past Philly classic I had the high score for the whole weekend..

6 of 11 Mean 18 (DOS)
"You have to be kidding me, Hollywood video now rents computer games?" a young, college-aged maibock exclaimed. My buddy Carl just informed me that you could rent computer games from the place we got our rented videos. I checked out Mean 18 and quickly learned you just copied the game on the hard drive and that was that. Sorry folks, no copy protection back then. Being a CPA, my mom had a computer for business, not sure the specs, but the monitor was green. I think an 80286 or some such, it was ancient. I didn’t care, this game had a course designer program, which really appealed to me. You could make your own course!

7 of 11 Global Conquest (PC)
At the age of 13, I had a wicked idea. A wonderfully, wicked idea that would take a simple game we played at school, with pencils and paper, and to make it into an epic battle! One that would canvas our living room. Spending hours on making the map and units, we soon realize the enormousness of the game, just couldn’t be tackled. About 15 years later Dan Bunten had the same idea, but was able to program the game for the PC. This was it! War! Tanks, troop movement, planes, battleships, maps, terrain. Oh man it was all there. One Christmas Eve while drinking much cabernet and well after Santa wrapped the gifts, my brother and I played ‘til sunrise via modem. Really opened my eyes to multiplayer gaming.

8 of 11 John Madden (Megadrive. Probably)
Yes, the first one, not 2038. I love football, American football. Probably as much as a Brit could love soccer, or umm… football. This game had it all and then some. You could make your own plays, by instructing each player to do a specific task and then make a playbook and use them in a game. Would you believe that to this day, this feature has been absent from subsequent version of the game. It was the best feature..

9 of 11 Age of Empires (PC)
While we’re at it, just go ahead and include Age of Kings. The second game that I’ve actually seen the sun come up while still playing from the night before. This game truly grabbed me like no other game has. Marching little soldiers around and putting them into battle.. ahhh yes, what red-blooded male wouldn’t want to do this? I excelled at this game, simply because of the love of playing this made me a very good player. I’ll still pop this in and play. Can still hold my own, too!

10 of 11 Super Smash (N64)
This game was really the pinnacle and representative of the system, in which my kids could thoroughly and unequivocally kick my ass in. At ages 10 and 12, they could master that damn controller so much better than I. It was truly a revelation, realizing that I didn’t have to let them win anymore.

11 of 11 Ticket to Ride (Table)
Ok, this isn’t really a computer game, although there is one available. A board game that has reminded me that gaming should be about fun, imagination and interacting with other people. Board games are more similar to the old days of video gaming. Simplicity yet immersion, you don’t need a realistic picture to let you think and believe, truly believes that you’re in charge of a railroad. It’s all about make believe isn’t it? Board games have that ten fold over most modern games. Board games today are the video games of yesterday where designers are known for great games. One person can design and make a very successful board game and sell thousands, if not, millions of copies. Those days are pretty much over for video games.