World Video Game Hall of Fame announces 6 new inductees

A video game that had players zapping space aliens with lasers and another that put them in covered wagons in 1848 have been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, along with four other games recognized for their influence on gaming and pop culture.

The class of 2016 was honoured at The Strong museum in Rochester on Thursday. Inductees are:Space InvadersandThe Oregon Trail,along withGrand Theft Auto III,Sonic the Hedgehog,The Legend ofZeldaandTheSims.

The winners were chosen from among 15 finalists culled from thousands of nominations.

The Strong established the hall last year to recognize electronic games that had longevity and influenced the gaming industry or society.

Contenders that missed the final cut were:John Madden Football,Elite,Final Fantasy,Minecraft,Nurburgring,PokemonRed and Green,SidMeier'sCivilization,Street Fighter IIandTomb Raider.

The Strong, which also houses the National Toy Hall of Fame, opened the World Video Game Hall of Fame last year to recognize electronic games of all types arcade, console, computer, handheld and mobile. To get in, games must have had sustained popularity and influenced the video game industry or society.

About this year's honorees:

Space Invaders

The high score display at the top of Space Invadersquickly became a standard feature in arcade games. In 1980, the game that had been released in Japan in 1978 broke free from the arcade and entered the home console market to become the Atari 2600's most popular game.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the HedgehogwasSega'sanswer toNintendo'sMariocharacter, and was launched in 1991. It remains thebestsellingSegaGenesis game of all time and has inspired more than 20 additional games and spin-offs, as well as a television show and comic book, said Strong Associate Curator ShannonSymonds. It also inspired the first videogame-themedballoon inMacy'sThanksgiving Day parade.

The Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trailwas developed by three student teachers in 1971 and gave many players their first introduction to computers. It was designed to teach Minnesota schoolchildren American history by making them settlers heading west toward the Pacific coast. Jon-Paul Dyson, director of The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic games, said "The Oregon Trail" pioneered the valuable blend of learning and play.

Grand Theft Auto III

The first 3-D open-ended game that let players control the action became a model for the "sandbox-style" games that followed. But the flamethrowers and automatic weapons that were part of the action in the 2001 bestseller fed worries about the influence of video game violence and reminded that video games are not just for kids, said Jeremy Saucier, the history centre's assistant director.

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zeldaof 1986 also spun off sequels, comic books and a television series. Inspired by creator Shigeru Miyamoto's childhood expeditions through woods and caves, it popularized non-linear open-world exploration.

• 30 years later, does The Legend of Zelda need to be reinvented?

The Sims

The Simsprovided a digital dollhouse setting for endless domestic dramas and gave players flexibility to tell stories in an open-ended environment. Its nearly 200 million sales in 60 countries and more than 20 languages following its 2000 release make it the bestselling PC game franchise ever.

The inaugural inductees last year included Pong,the game that introduced millions to electronic play, and Doom,which triggered a debate over the role of games and violence in society. Also inducted were Super Mario Bros.,Pac-Man,Tetrisand World of Warcraft.