FPS legend John Romero says it’s a “huge honor” for Quake to join the World Video Game Hall of Fame alongside GoldenEye, the inescapable Tamagotchi, and an iconic ’80s arcade classic

The most recent group of inductees into The Strong Museum’s World Video Game Hall of Fame was revealed today, and this year’s cohort features a quartet of iconic titles. Defender, GoldenEye, Tamagotchi, and Quake have emerged as the honorees for 2023, and the esteemed John Romero expresses that it’s an “incredible privilege” for the 1996 first-person shooter he created to finally be recognized in the hall.

“It’s an incredible privilege for Quake to be welcomed into the World Video Game Hall of Fame,” Romero declared on Twitter. “On behalf of the original Quake team, immense gratitude to @museumofplay!”

Romero is familiar with the World Video Game Hall of Fame, as Doom was inducted in the inaugural class back in 2015. While Quake may initially seem to share the intense, dark excitement present in Doom, its influence spans even further. Quake played a significant role in popularizing modding, online multiplayer gaming, and the realm of esports, even paving the way for early machinima.

Interestingly, Quake is entering the Hall on the same day as GoldenEye 007, as both titles initiated the ongoing rivalry between PC and console first-person shooters. GoldenEye significantly advanced the genre on consoles, introducing four-player split-screen gameplay that became a model for local multiplayer for years to come.

The oldest game in this year’s selection is Defender, the notoriously challenging 1981 side-scrolling arcade shooter. While industry belief at that time emphasized that games should be easy to access and play, “Defender demonstrated that players would welcome more intricate experiences in arcades,” as noted by The Strong. The most dedicated fans of early video games undoubtedly rallied around it.

Lastly, we have Tamagotchi. This one is a unique entry, as it’s a handheld LCD toy instead of software that connects to a computer or console. Nevertheless, it’s hard to dispute Tamagotchi’s significance. These virtual pets thrived in the late ’90s, and the entire concept remains influential, continuing to inspire new iterations today.

Over the past 11 years, the World Video Game Hall of Fame has honored 49 titles, and every selection is deserving. From 1962’s Spacewar! to 2013’s The Last of Us, video gaming as we know it would be vastly different without these influential games, and I cherish opportunities to commemorate gaming history.

That’s just another of the greatest N64 games of all time recognized.

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently situated in Missouri. He has covered gaming (with occasional excursions into the realms of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, beginning as a freelancer and later serving as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His passion for gaming ignited somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and nowadays, you can find him enjoying retro games, the latest action-adventure titles, or logging long hours in American Truck Simulator.