Older Than the NES

Here are The Oldest Ones in the Book for Video Games. The NES's US introduction in October 1985 marked the beginning of the end of The Great Video Game Crash of 1983, and we have chosen it as a cutoff date for The Oldest Ones in the Book of Video Game Tropes.

A good number of the RPG tropes can be found here, since these games trace their roots pretty much directly back to Tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, which were among the first commercial games to be ported over to a video game system.


 * Action Adventure: Adventure (Atari 2600), 1979
 * Adventure Game: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Arbitrary Headcount Limit: RPG version, Wizardry 1, 1981
 * Arbitrary Maximum Range: Space War, 1962
 * Artificial Stupidity: Many, many many games; in particular, Pac-Man, 1980.
 * Ascended Glitch: Space Invaders, 1978
 * Asteroids Monster: Asteroids (obviously), 1979
 * Attack Its Weak Point: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, 1982
 * Attract Mode: Many, many arcade games; Sinistar's (1982) is particularly famous.
 * Balls of Fire: Donkey Kong, 1981
 * Block Puzzle: Sokoban, 1982
 * Border Patrol: Saucers in shooting sections of I Robot
 * Boss Battle: Dnd, 1975
 * Bottomless Pits: Hunt the Wumpus, 1972
 * But Thou Must!: Grannys Garden, 1983
 * Character Level: Dnd, 1975, or Dungeons & Dragons, 1974
 * Clairvoyant Security Force: Zork, 1979, for one.
 * Color-Coded Multiplayer: Some Pong systems, 1975.
 * Color-Coded Armies: Kreigsspiel, the first example of War Gaming and used to train the Prussian General Staff, 19th Century
 * Controllable Helplessness: Adventure, 1979
 * Cores and Turrets Boss: Bosconian, 1981
 * Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Spikes Peak, 1983
 * Cosmetic Award: Activision mailed out physical ones for achieving a preset score in their Atari 2600 games.
 * Cosmetically Different Sides: Space War, 1962
 * Critical Existence Failure: Dnd, 1975, or Dungeons & Dragons, 1974
 * Critical Hit: Avatar, 1979
 * Cutscene: Space Invaders Part II, 1979
 * Deadly Walls: Berzerk, 1980
 * Death Mountain: Alpiner, 1982
 * Death Throws: Crystal Castles, 1983
 * Demonic Spiders: Centipede, 1980
 * Difficulty Levels: The Atari 2600 had two built-in difficulty level switches in 1977.
 * Direct Continuous Levels: Scramble, 1981
 * Directionally Solid Platforms:: Jump Bug, 1981
 * Driving Game: Gran Trak 10, 1974
 * Dungeon Crawling: Dnd, 1975
 * Easter Egg: Adventure, 1979
 * Enemy-Detecting Radar: Star Trek Text Game, 1971
 * Extra Lives: Space Invaders, 1978
 * Every Bullet Is a Tracer: Space War, 1962
 * Every Ten Thousand Points: Many, many arcade games. Goes back to Pinball.
 * Excuse Plot: Space Invaders, 1978
 * Eyes Are Unbreakable: Pac-Man, 1980
 * Faux First Person 3D: Maze War, 1974
 * Final Boss: Dnd, 1975
 * First-Person Shooter: Maze War, 1974
 * Flip Screen Scrolling: Adventure, 1979
 * Game Over: Space Invaders, 1978
 * Game Over Man: The TI-99/4A port of Hunt the Wumpus, 1980.
 * Global Currency: Ultima, 1980
 * Goddamned Bats: Hunt the Wumpus, 1972
 * Goomba Stomp: Horace And The Spiders, 1983
 * Gravity Screw: Space War, 1962
 * The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 (Duh)
 * Grimy Water: Spikes Peak, 1983
 * Guide Dang It: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Hit Points: Dnd, 1975, or Dungeons & Dragons, 1974.
 * Instant 180-Degree Turn: Basketball, 1978
 * Interactive Fiction: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Interface Screw: Rogue, 1983
 * In Vehicle Invulnerability: Gran Trak 10, 1974
 * Inventory Management Puzzle: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Invincibility Power-Up: Pac-Man, 1980
 * Invisible Grid: Maze War, 1974
 * Job System: Avatar, 1979
 * Jump Physics: Donkey Kong, 1981
 * Karma Meter: Ultima IV, 1984
 * Last Lousy Point: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Level Editor: Maze War, 1974
 * Level Goal: Donkey Kong, 1981
 * Level Grinding: Akalabeth, 1979
 * Level Scaling: Beneath Apple Manor, 1978
 * Light Gun Game: Ray-O-Lite, 1936
 * Match Three Game: OXO, 1952—You do have to match three to win.
 * Mini Boss: Dnd, 1975
 * Mini Game: Escape From the Mindmaster, 1982
 * Mook Maker: The oil drum in Donkey Kong, 1981.
 * Multi User Dungeon: Multi-User Dungeon, 1979
 * Nintendo Hard: Of course—if you're ignorant of anything Nintendo preNES—the title may now break your mind.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: Star Trek Text Game, 1971, running out of fuel.
 * No Plot, No Problem: Sports and board games in general are Older Than Dirt.
 * Numbered Sequels: Space Invaders II, 1981; not to be confused with Space Invaders part II.
 * Obvious Beta: ET the Extra Terrestrial, 1982
 * Old Save Bonus: Wizardry 2, 1982
 * One-Hit Kill: Space War, 1962
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: Space War, 1962
 * One Bullet At a Time: At least as early as Space Invaders, 1978
 * 1-Up
 * Oxygen Meter: Space Panic, 1980
 * Painfully-Slow Projectile: Air-Sea Battle, 1977
 * Palette Swap: First color games, 1970s
 * Pause Scumming
 * Porting Disaster: Pac-Man on the Atari 2600, 1982
 * Press X to Die: Star Trek Text Game, 1971
 * Press X to Not Die: Dragons Lair, 1983
 * The Problem with Licensed Games: Raiders of the Lost Ark, May 1982, Ur Example; ET the Extra Terrestrial, 1982, Trope Codifier
 * Puzzle Boss: Donkey Kong, 1981
 * Regenerating Health: Dragonstomper, 1982
 * Roguelike: Rogue, 1980
 * Save Scumming: Rogue, 1980
 * Scoring Points: Pong, 1972
 * Shielded Core Boss: Star Castle, 1980
 * Shoot'Em Up: Space Invaders, 1978
 * Side View: Tennis for Two, 1958
 * Silliness Switch: The potion of hallucination in Rogue, 1980.
 * Simon Says Mini Game: Touch Me, 1974
 * Simulation Game: Utopia, 1982
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World: |Indy 500, 1977
 * Smart Bomb: Defender, 1980
 * Space-Filling Path: Donkey Kong, 1981
 * Stalked by the Bell: Evil Otto in Berzerk, 1980
 * Stealth Based Game: Castle Wolfenstein, 1981
 * Strategy Game: Go, Older Than Dirt
 * Subsystem Damage: Star Trek Text Game, 1971
 * Super Title 64 Advance: Commodore 64 games
 * Solve the Soup Cans: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Status Line: Vector terminal port of Lunar Lander, 1973
 * Take Cover: Maze War, 1974
 * Text Parser: Colossal Cave, 1975; Zork, 1979
 * That One Level: Donkey Kong, 1981.
 * Trial and Error Gameplay: Zork, 1979
 * Turn-Based Strategy: Crush Crumble and Chomp, 1981
 * Violation of Common Sense:, Colossal Cave, 1975
 * You Can't Get Ye Flask: Colossal Cave, 1975
 * Walkthrough: There were guides written for Colossal Cave.
 * Warp Whistle: Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1982
 * Wide Open Sandbox: Space Travel, 1969
 * Wizard Needs Food Badly: Moria, 1975
 * Wrap Around: Space War, 1962