Star Raiders for Atari 2600, also a '79 release.

Amazing game for it's time, I spent hours playing this a young kid.

First person space shooter game from the perspective of a space ship's cockpit... holy crap, in the time of Star Wars, it was genius, with a little imagination you were there, in space.

That looks crazy. I have Call of Duty 4 Modern Wafare 2 for xbox 360 but I'm complete sh*t at it and all oher FPS. I don't even dare play it online. It's an awesome game though.

Needed rehab back into real life after few seasons of FPS.

Ultima 6, originally on the Amiga. I started playing this when i was around 12 years old. Played it for around 5 years, but i never completed it.

Fast forward 7 years. I find a way to finally get the PC boxed set version i bought a few years ago, to run on the PC I had then, and it was like i was a kid again. Played it for 2 weeks straight, but this time, i completed it.

Best day ever.

Tried subsequent ones in the series since, but nothing matched the awesomeness of 6.

Long Live Lord British!

Hmmm, I don't think you could count either of the first two Wolfenstein games as RPGs, let alone the father of the genre.
RPGs were already established by the time they rolled around.

If you are referring to FPS games, then "Wolfenstein 3D" is indeed widely regarded as the first, though there actually were other much less successful FPS's before it.

If we are referring to the "Father" of the genre as the title that truly spawned the legion of imitators and gave birth to the legacy of FPS games that exists today...I would have to give Doom credit for that.

http://arma-tow.com/

diablo

Gear of war
Call of duty 4
Dungeon and Fighter (online game)

The Last Ninja on The Commodore 64

This wasn't a "best", but it was the only thing that made some Math classes tolerable way back in Grade 5, 1985 or so.

Math Blaster!

Our classroom had two computers and we each booked 15 minute time slots where we could play it every couple of days or so. Sure beat plugging through the textbook.

Considering the disparity between genres of games, one game could never truly represent the "best ever".

Is Gran Turismo better than Street Fighter?
That's like asking if Tyson is a better boxer than Schumacher is a driver. It's irrelevant.

Also, there will always be the line dividing those who rate what came first higher than what actually has superior features (and visa versa)

There is no doubt in my mind that "Super Street Fighter IV" is the best fighting game ever made.
But should it rank lower than "Street Fighter II" simply because they've had the benefit of 20 more years plus all the groundwork laid by the classic?

Maybe, but it's a better game.

I guess what I'm saying is that many people (especially gamers) give a higher rating to whatever came first simply because it came first.

There are plenty of games that came first and are also just genuinely better than many modern games.

If you look at Super Metroid and compare it to the latest Metroid Prime title, both are great games, but in my opinion all the evolution and improvements in the new series did not surpass the original.
(I know Super Metroid was the third title, but the majority of concepts in the modern series were drawn from there.)

I just think people give too many points for nostalgia.
Which can kind of detract from classics (like Super Metroid) which really are better than most other games.

I'd like to point out that in this instance very little is changed core gameplay, but I admit it may be nostalgia talking.