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One of the oldest games in this list, the merest mention of Elite is enough to have most 30-something men sobbing into their beer glasses and moaning that they 'don't make 'em like they used to'. An epic space trading game that introduced freeform gaming to a digital world hemmed in by progressively tougher levels and bosses - instead giving players the liberty to tackle the quest in pretty much any way they wanted - Elite was the catalyst for a million space adventures and will be cited for decades to come as a major influence on every games designer in the Western world.

Memorable for...
Docking disasters. Many the time you'd complete a successful trading run, fight off a gang of pirates and a fleet of marauding Thargoids only to crash and die horribly while trying to post your ship through the space station's tiny, rotating entrance.

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