Bejeweled, Minecraft honored in hall of fame

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The World Video Game Hall of Fame inducted Bejeweled, Centipede, King’s Quest and Minecraft in a virtual ceremony Thursday that recognized their influence on the industry and the gamers who have spent tens of billions of hours playing them.

The hall of fame’s Class of 2020 was chosen from a field of 12 finalists that also included Frogger, Goldeneye 007, Guitar Hero, NBA Jam, Nokia Snake, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Uncharted 2, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Atari’s Centipede is credited with bringing more female players into arcades when it debuted in 1981, challenging players to fire on an insect as it zigzagged down the screen. Developer Ed Logg’s team included Dona Bailey, one of the decade’s few female developers.

“It’s also one of the bestselling arcade games of that era and its fast-paced, bug-blasting gameplay is as challenging and satisfying to play today as it was decades ago,” Jeremy Saucier, the hall of fame’s assistant vice president for electronic games and interpretation, said in a news release.

King’s Quest, designed by Sierra On-Line cofounder Roberta Williams, was honored for its continuing influence on adventure games since introducing players to the fantastical world of Daventry in

1984.

“More than any other game of its type, King’s Quest established or reinforced many of the conventions of the adventure games that followed it,” World Video Game Hall of Fame archivist Julia Novakovic.

Bejeweled, created as a web-based Flash game in

2001, is the first mobile game to be added to the

6-year-old World Video Game Hall of Fame, recognized for popularizing the “match three” puzzle game. The game’s developer estimated in 2013 that it had been downloaded more than 500 million times.

The building game Minecraft has found its way onto devices around the world and into schools since 2009, letting players build elaborate structures out of pixelated blocks they mine.

By last year, it had sold more than 176 million copies across all platforms.

“The success of Minecraft speaks to the maturing of video games as a cultural touchstone,” digital games curator Andrew Borman said. “No longer do game creators need to be obsessed about having the most realistic looking graphics.”