Obsessed with Lists, Again
Published on March 17, 2022 2:37 AM
4 minute read
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It seems, every once in a while, I get on a list kick with games, music, or film and can't stop researching and making them. Well, I'm on a list binge right now with games. 

I need some game lists in order to randomly pick a game (my new favorite thing to do). I have a top 100 at Metacritic for any console since Dreamcast, but I need good lists for everything else. The last few days I've been collecting lists for board games, pinball, Atari 2600/ColecoVision/Intellivision, arcade and PC. 

Board Games (68): I found this article at, of all places, Popular Mechanics from 2018. If you click the slide show you get a board game from every year starting with 1950. It's an interesting list. My friend could remember some of the 60s games, and I the 70s and 80s ones. This became my starting list. I also looked over the incredible database at Boardgamegeek. They even have a random button if you want that sampled from the entire database. I figure, if I find a game in my current list that I can't find or just aren't interested in, I'll substitute one from Boardgamegeek. I've already started substituting games that I used to play or really love. I want a list that has popular games in it, but also my favorites. The list is 68 games strong right now. 

Pinball (100): I found this cool top 100 at Pinside.com. It actually changes week to week as more of the site's users rate the games. I love a dynamic list like that. I thought also about video game pinball like in Pinball FX3, worthy additions in my mind, so I decided that if a choice from pinside was too hard to find, or play, I'd substitute a random Pinball FX3 table. I could always use an excuse to play that platform again. 

AVCS/ColecoVision/Intellivision (37): I rolled these all together into one list of 37 games. 27 Atari, 1 Coleco, and 9 Intellivision. It is mainly games I wouldn't mind replaying. I just went down the lists on wiki for each system. Most of the games listed in the best-selling category are arcade ports or licensed games. I'd rather play the arcade originals and the licensed games aren't really very good, so I made my own list from the complete game list on wiki. 

Arcade (141): This was a tough one but I started with a top 100 list at the arcade museum website. Then I added some of my own interest and ended up with a list of 141. Over time I will add or subtract titles as I see fit. I'm not going to force myself to play something I really don't like. Like let's say Defender II. Good game, but not one I like. 

PC (41): I started with a list I found in an article at HP.com. It lists the best-selling game each year from 2020 to 1993. Then I dug into wiki lists for the years going back to 1981 when Wizardry came out. I can't have a PC list without Wizardry on it. I also replaced a few I wasn't interested in for ones I already like and would play again. There are usually several important PC games (at least) every year. The very top-selling one may not always be the one I'd like to check out. My PC list has 41 games on it. 

That's what I got so far. NES is next. 

Comments
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Posted on March 17, 2022 12:14 PM

I don't really like board games that much, but I am working on a review of a Pac-Man card game!

I also just finished a review of a new Pinball FX3 table: Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure!

Posted on March 20, 2022 12:27 AM

I should make the category board/card because I love both. 

Oh, so their still making new tables. That's good. I hope I get to play it again soon. I may just reinstall it and do some of the tournaments again. 

Give me a link. I'll read your review. 

Posted on March 21, 2022 12:18 AM

I've finished writing the review, but I have it scheduled to post at a later date.  So I can't give you a link to it right now, but you know the next time I write a blog you'll probably see it there!  :)

Posted on March 21, 2022 1:44 AM

Great!

Posted on March 19, 2022 4:06 AM

I really need to start more lists. List #1: How many pinball games have I played in an arcade not themed after a movie, TV show or other well-known IP?

Posted on March 20, 2022 12:28 AM

Yeah, it seems a lot of pinball tables have some license attached to them: movies, tv shows, music groups. . . no books though. I wonder what a War & Peace table would look like. Ha ha. 

Posted on March 25, 2022 6:32 PM

Maybe you could just make it the biggest pinball machine ever to reference how long the book is and add a peace sign and some guns as background. 

Posted on March 26, 2022 12:59 AM

It needs to be the biggest pinball machine ever and have a huge number of French and Russian fighting forces battling it out on the playing field and the heads of the major characters on bumpers. . . Napoleon in there somewhere too. . . Cannon fire sound effects, lots of them, really loud.