CNN
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Four cult video games have been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame: Ms. Pac-Man, Dance Dance Revolution, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Sid Meier’s Civilization.
All four games “have influenced popular culture and the video game industry,” according to a statement from the World Video Game Hall of Fame, located at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.
Ms. Pac-Man is particularly key to the history of video games because she includes a female protagonist, says the World Video Game Hall of Fame.
The game, released in 1981, is built on the unexpected success of the original Pac-Man, a Japanese arcade game designed to be less violent than popular games at the time.
“Ms. Pac-Man promoted and signaled the spread of the game among the sexes. There was no gender in the early video games, but the coin-op industry certainly advertised them that way, “said Julia Novakovic, a senior archivist at the World Video Game Hall of Fame, in a statement.
“By offering the first widely acclaimed female character from video games, Ms. Pac-Man represented a turning point in the cultural conversation about the place of women in the arcade, as well as in society as a whole.”
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, one of the other inductors, also represents a significant cornerstone for the history of video games and game culture. The highly fantastic Zelda universe is still popular, with a sealed copy of an early version of the Legend of Zelda that sells for $ 870,000 in 2021.
Dance Dance Revolution, one of the oldest fitness games, and Sid Meier’s Civilization, a core strategy and simulation game, rounded out the selection of new attendees.
All games will be on permanent display at The Strong National Museum of Play.