I agree with those who've said Pong, Pac-Man+Ms. Pac-man, Super Mario Brothers and Tetris.

Mario = hugely important, as others rightly point out, gaming (and consoles in the house) became common place and acceptable, not just fringe and geeky (not like i cared, as I was already an addict from playing my Atari 2600 and C64 before that).

Tetris = when I noticed my friend's parents, both conservative military sorts, were addicted to the game and playing for hours every night (and getting really good), I knew that gradually everybody would play games.

I find myself agreeing the most with those games listed here that follow the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid!) philosophy.  The only reason I don't include Zelda, which was awesome, is because there was more memorization in that game and the world was more open than many gamers could handle.

Still, if you really think about, even the little old grandma's and grandpa's are sitting in a casino playing games and interfacing with technology when they play video poker and those slot machines that have the little mini-games (sometimes) when you win.

Don't tell them that though.  In their own mind, many of them would say they know nothing about computers and might actually say video games are awful.  But, because we've all gotten so used to a game in the background, especially because of Mario and Tetris from back in their heydays... well, even ludites are better at using technology and find it less alarming to push a computer screen to gamble, or use an atm or cellphone.

A thread like this, and remembering all the memories of these older games shows a really deep aspect to something we all love, whether we are fanbois/grrrls for game XYZ, or absolutely hate the very same game and love nothing more than to trash it.  Gaming, when done in a way that is universally appealing, is all about limiting the difficulty of using technology to have fun.

Sometimes we get so hung up on exactly how devs should go about doing that, but I think this thread points to something that a lot of us don't want to adit: casual game play, and gaming "for the masses" is not always a bad thing, at least not for the greater society...

Seen a lot of games posted though out the thread. Like a few of them. Don't like a lot of them.

The game that I think everyone who grew up in the 80s can appreciate and agree was ridiculously awesome is Final Fantasy 1 for NES. Seen a few mentions of FF games throughout the thread but IMO FF1 was, and still is the best FF to date. At a time that most games were quite simple and only took a few short hours to finish, Final Fantasy offered more. The only one that I enjoyed almost as much(but still didn't compare) was FF IX. 

Saw someone say something about games they keep going back to.  That's the game like that for me.  Finished it a few hundred times over the years with every possible group combination imaginable. Final Fantasy 1 on NES I have been playing since it was released and I still have a working NES and FF rarely ever leaves the console.  Except for when people come over and we wanna rock some Bubble Bobble. :D lol

 I`m not reading the entire thread, just responding to OP:

I can name two:

- Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

- Worms. 

IF anyone can agree on a game it's going to be an arcade or old school game like Pacman, Mario, Tetris, ect. BUT I would say

Metroid Prime

Eternal Darkness

Resident Evil 4

Final Fantasy X

Those are the only games I can think of that people might agree with. Though if someone said FFXI I would agree with them.

Secret of Mana

Terranigma

Final Fantasy VII

EverQuest

Face of Mankind

There is no game nowadays that everybody will agree on being the best but before the home comp took off there was only 3 games that everybody was playing space invaders,pac-man and astroids and everybody loved them.

CaveStory

Uno and Old Maid are pretty flawless...

HAvent seen these 2 games mentioned although i didnt read all posts

Prince of Persia (the first)

and Another world (out of this world)

Imo 2 huge games that had a great impact on todays games

Two words: Golden Axe.

 Totally subjective, with the advent of graphics more powerful process resource, games just aren't games anymore just eye candy.

As far as gameplay goes:

• Jet Set Willy (Old single player but representative of real game content)
• Lemmings (same as above " ")
• Ultima Online (not spoilt by lame features and excessive world population)
• Simmultronics MUDS / Gemstone/Dragonrealms(great fun best community ever)
• Asherons Call(At the start before bots and cheats arrived, people just dont want to play anymore just want a maxed out char to gloat what is all that about??)
• EQ1 was good
• pretty much nothing since holds the attention span.

The real answer is NO to the OPs question

Wasteland.  Someone from the old school days tell me you thought it sucked, I dare you. ;)

Okay in all fairness it's an old game so most newer gen gamers won't recognize it or be able to see past the CGA graphics, but it holds a special place in many gamers' hearts that played in the 80's and early 90's.

One word "PONG"

Pong

Defender

Elite

Privateer

Empire

King's Quest series (some better than others)

Space Quest series (some better than others)

Gunship! (Microprose rocked in those days)

M1 Tank Platoon (Microprose REALLY rocked in those days)

Railroad Tycoon (Did I mention Microprose absolutely ROCKED in those days?)

Pirates! (In case you missed it, Microprose ROCKED ;))

A-10 Tank Killer (Dynamix)

Doom

Civilization (Sid Meier is a god)

Rollercoaster Tycoon

Command And Conquer: Red Alert

Baldur's Gate 1 & 2

Icewind Dale

Tribes (Dynamix) (Best online PvP game at least until the cheats started to appear)

Neverwinter Nights

EQ1 is probably the best "MMO" outside of the usual suspect

 Edit: Super Mario Kart was excellent as well for its time

Fallout 3

Final Fantasy 7

Realms Of The haunting

Chaos

Earth & Beyond!

Originally posted by xersent

Earth & Beyond!

I second that and I would also nominate the original UO before it was neutered.

Anyone remember System shock 2?  Bioshock kinda plays similar to it and I think some of the devs were the same, but Bioshock wasn't nearly as creepy or as atmospheric.

But yea, the elite games.  Even now developers havn't managed to make a sim that does space and planet flight as good or as seamlessly as Elite 2/3 (except maybe that Infinity: quest for earth MMO thats being made).

OU, EQ1, Mario Bro's 1,2,3, Blades of Steel, Technobowl, Doom, Wolfensien, C&C, CounterStrike.   I can name a few more.