The game gave players the freedom to complete activities and collect objects as they liked, with each day holding the potential for new surprises and discoveries.
“The freedom of play in Animal Crossing gave the game wider gender and age appeal than many other video game titles of its time,” says Research Historian Racquel Gonzales.
“It’s the most recent game of all these, it came out in 2001,” Dyson said.
“It was really big for the platform and it really saw a big bump, surprise surprise during the COVID all of a sudden when the new new version was released during COVID, the friend codes were flying everywhere… So it’s, not all about either the young kids or a adolescent guy in his basement playing the military shooter, upgrade games are everywhere.
Since its launch in 1982, the game has been regularly updated and remains the most popular, longest lasting, and most influential flying sim of all time.
“It’s hard to overestimate what a groundbreaking program Microsoft Flight Simulator was when it debuted in 1983,” says Jeremy Saucier, assistant vice president for interpretation and electronic games.
“They have mapped the entire planet… I think in the last year or two Microsoft rolled in all of the GIS, all of their mapping properties.
The single-player mode of the immersive, science-fiction game proved popular, but the multiplayer mode, which included a ladder ranking system, turned it into the largest esports title of its day.
“And then later everywhere, the first game where people were regularly broadcasting and even commenting on, you know, online game performance on a, on a large scale.
The game, which launched several sequels, also inspired a hit show on American Public Broadcasting in the 1990s and an animated series on Netflix —helping propel Carmen Sandiego and her world-traveling ways into the cultural zeitgeist.