10: SimCity

Number 10
(225.9 points)
SimCity
1991: 4 (9.7)
1992: 5 (19.2)
1993: 11 (36.0)
1994: 34 (40.2)
1995: 35 (52.8)
1996: 33 (68.0)

It should come as no surprise that much of the top ten is populated by games that made many list appearances, but this groundbreaking city-management simulation is the eighth to feature in all six lists.

You find a large plot of land and start building residential, commercial and industrial areas, along with power stations, police stations and so on. Connect everything with roads, railways and power cables, and you have a functioning city. Beyond that is up to you. SimCity was a controversial choice for the publisher at the time, as there is no real goal in the game: you just build and manage a city, and can do whatever you like, with no ultimate objective. It turned out that many people loved this 'sandbox' style, and nowadays it doesn't seem so strange, but at the time it was groundbreaking, and gave birth to an entire genre.

You can't have not played SimCity by now if you're my age, but I spent most of my time on the entertaining Super Nintendo version rather than the computer original. I'm sure this is just as good, though of course there have been tons of other games in the SimCity franchise, so it's up to you whether it's worth going back to the one that started it all.

Recommended TOSEC disk(s):
SimCity v1.2 (1989-10-23)(Infogrames)[cr RZR]