Older Than the NES | Before 1985
Older Than Cable TV | 1939 — 1980
Older Than Television | 1890 — 1939
Older Than Radio | 1698 — 1890
Older Than Steam | 1439 — 1698
Older Than Print | 476 — 1439
Older Than Feudalism | ~800 BC — 476 AD
Older Than Dirt | Before ~800 BC
A good number of the RPG tropes can be found here, since these games trace their roots pretty much directly back to Tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, which were among the first commercial games to be adapted for a video game system. And to be clear: as long as it was an actual game, it counts for the purposes of this index, video or not; that being said, if a pre-1986 video game example exists, it should also be listed here.
Of note, the Nintendo company itself is Older Than Radio.
Tropes:
- Three-Quarters View: Android Two, 1983
- Action-Adventure: Adventure (Atari 2600), 1979
- Adventure Game: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Always Close: Major Havoc, 1983
- Arbitrary Headcount Limit: RPG version, Wizardry 1, 1981
- Arbitrary Weapon Range: Spacewar!, 1962
- Armor and Magic Don't Mix: The Dungeons & Dragons Holmes Basic Set (1977) provides the earliest straight example, while The Fantasy Trip (also 1977) gives the earliest justified example.
- Arrange Mode: Some Pong systems, 197X
- Artificial Stupidity: Many, many many games; in particular, Pac-Man, 1980
- Ascended Glitch: Space Invaders, 1978
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: Nautilus, 1982
- Asteroids Monster: Asteroids (obviously), 1979
- Attack Its Weak Point: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, 1982
- Attract Mode: Many, many arcade games; Sinistar's (1982) is particularly famous.
- Blackout Basement: Adventure, 1979
- Block Puzzle: Sokoban, 1982
- Border Patrol: Saucers in shooting sections of I, Robot, 1983
- Boss Battle: dnd, 1975
- Boss Button: Bezare, 1981
- Bottomless Pits: Hunt the Wumpus, 1972
- But Thou Must!: Granny's Garden, 1983
- Character Level: dnd, 1975.
- Clairvoyant Security Force: Zork, 1979
- Collision Damage: Snake as Blockade, 1976
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: Some Pong systems, 197X
- Color-Coded Armies: Kreigsspiel, the first example of War Gaming and used to train the Prussian General Staff, 19th Century
- Command & Conquer Economy: Hamurabi (1968 then rewriting in BASIC in 1973)
- Compilation Rerelease: Video Olympics, 1977
- Controllable Helplessness: Adventure, 1979
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: Bosconian, 1981
- Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Spike's Peak, 1983
- Cosmetic Award: Activision mailed out physical ones
for achieving a preset score in their Atari 2600 games.
- Cosmetically Different Sides: Spacewar!, 1962
- Critical Existence Failure: dnd, 1975, or Dungeons & Dragons, 1974
- Critical Hit: Avatar, 1979
- Cutscene: The Sumerian Game, 1966
- Deadly Walls: Berzerk, 1980
- Death Mountain: Alpiner, 1982
- Death Throws: Donkey Kong Jr, 1982
- Demonic Spiders: Centipede, 1980
- Difficulty by Acceleration: Breakout, 1976
- Difficulty Levels: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, 1947 (altering the circuits could make targeting easier or harder)
- Digital Pinball Table: Video Pinball, 1977
- Direct Continuous Levels: Scramble, 1981
- Directionally Solid Platforms: Jump Bug, 1981
- Double Jump: Dragon Buster, 1984
- Driving Game: Gran Trak 10, 1974
- Drought Level of Doom: The "Void" levels of Sinistar, 1982
- Dungeon Crawling: dnd, 1975
- Easter Egg: Moonlander, 1973, Ur-Example; Adventure, 1979, Trope Codifier
- Edible Collectible: Pac-Man, 1980
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: Star Trek Text Game, 1971
- Expansion Pack: Upper Reaches of Apshai (for Temple of Apshai), 1981
- Extra Lives: Space Invaders, 1978
- Every Bullet is a Tracer: Spacewar!, 1962
- Every 10,000 Points: Many, many arcade games. Goes back to pinball.
- Excuse Plot: Space Invaders, 1978
- Falling Damage: Has been present in video games since at least Donkey Kong (1981)
- Faux First Person 3D: Maze War, 1974
- Final Boss: dnd, 1975
- Fireballs: Donkey Kong, 1981
- First-Person Shooter: Maze War, 1974
- Flame Spewer Obstacle: Jump Bug, 1981
- Flip-Screen Scrolling: Superman (Atari 2600), 1979
- Game Maker: Pinball Construction Set, 1983
- Game Mod: Spacewar! had many such as adding mines, 1962
- Game Over: Space Invaders, 1978
- Game-Over Man: The TI-99/4A port of Hunt the Wumpus, 1980
- Gameplay Grading: Star Raiders, 1979
- Global Currency: Ultima I, 1980
- Goddamned Bats: Hunt the Wumpus, 1972
- Goomba Stomp: Horace and the Spiders, 1983
- Gravity Screw: Spacewar!, 1962
- Grimy Water: Spike's Peak, 1983
- Guide Dang It!: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Hit Points: dnd
- Hornet Hole: Beezer, 1982
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: Donkey Kong, 1981
- Instant 180-Degree Turn: Basketball, 1978
- Interactive Fiction: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Interactive Movie: EVR Race, 1975
- Interface Screw: Rogue, 1983
- Intoxication Mechanic: Castle Wolfenstein, 1981
- In-Vehicle Invulnerability: Gran Trak 10, 1974
- Inventory Management Puzzle: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Invincibility Power-Up: Pac-Man, 1980
- Invisible Grid: Maze War, 1974
- Isometric Projection: Zaxxon, 1982
- It's a Wonderful Failure: Missile Command, 1980
- Job System: Avatar, 1979
- Jump Physics: Donkey Kong, 1981
- Justified Extra Lives: Major Havoc, 1983
- Karma Meter: Ultima IV, September 1985
- Laser Hallway: Caverns of Mars, 1981
- Last Lousy Point: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Level Editor: Maze War, 1974
- Level Goal: Donkey Kong, 1981
- Level Grinding: Akalabeth, 1979
- Level Scaling: Beneath Apple Manor, 1978
- Licensed Game: Fonz, 1976, based on Happy Days (a rebranded version of the earlier game Moto-Cross); Licensed board games go back to at least 1890, with Parker Brothers releasing a game based on Mark Twain's (1869) Innocents Abroad.
- Light Gun Game: Ray-O-Lite, 1936 (also found under Older Than Television)
- Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game: Even if you don't count earlier Multi-User Dungeons, there's still Island of Kesmai (1985).
- Match-Three Game: OXO, 1952 — You do have to match three to win.
- Metapuzzle: Jumble, 1954. There were already Jumble riddles back in the day that required solving individual Jumble puzzles to be fully solved. Metapuzzles in crosswords and word search games followed suit.
- Metroidvania: Depends on definition, but most elements are present in Aztec (Apple II, 1982).
- Mini-Boss: dnd, 1975
- Mini-Game: Escape from the MindMaster, 1982
- Mon: Mail Order Monsters, September 1985
- Mook Maker: The oil drum in Donkey Kong, 1981
- Multi-User Dungeon: Multi-User Dungeon, 1979
- Multiple Endings: Deadline, 1982
- Nintendo Hard: Of course — if you're ignorant of anything Nintendo pre-NES — the title may now break your mind.
- Non Standard Game Over: Star Trek Text Game, 1971, running out of fuel.
- No Plot? No Problem!: Sports and board games in general are Older Than Dirt.
- Numbered Sequels: Space Invaders II, 1981; not to be confused with Space Invaders part II.
- Obvious Beta: Too many to list, especially on home computers; the most well known is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
- Old Save Bonus: Wizardry 2, 1982
- One-Hit Kill: Spacewar!, 1962
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Spacewar!, 1962
- One Bullet at a Time: At least as early as Space Invaders, 1978
- Oxygen Meter: Space Panic, 1980
- Painfully Slow Projectile: Air-Sea Battle, 1977
- Palette Swap: First color games, 1970s
- Password Save: Diamond Mine (Apple II, 1983)
- Pause Scumming
- Pinball Projectile: Combat, Atari 2600, 1977
- Player Versus Player: Tennis for Two, 1958
- Polygonal Graphics: Wayout (Atari 400/800, 1982)
- Porting Disaster: Pac-Man on the Atari 2600, 1982
- Power-Up: Pac-Man, 1980
- Press X to Die: Star Trek Text Game, 1971
- Press X to Not Die: Dragon's Lair, 1983
- The Problem with Licensed Games: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982, Trope Codifier
- Puzzle Boss: Donkey Kong, 1981
- Real-Time Strategy: Empire I (PLATO, 1974)
- Regenerating Health: Dragonstomper, 1982
- Rising Up The Food Chain Game: Shark! Shark!, 1982.
- Roguelike: Rogue, 1980
- Save Scumming: Rogue, 1980
- Scoring Points: Pong, 1972 (Exidy's 1979 Arcade Game Star Fire was the first to feature a high score table)
- Scripted Event: Superman (Atari 2600), 1979 (Lex Luthor's henchmen blowing up the bridge)
- Shielded Core Boss: Star Castle, 1980
- Shoot 'Em Up: Space Invaders, 1978
- Shovelware: A lot, most famously E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982
- Side View: Tennis for Two, 1958
- Silliness Switch: The potion of hallucination in Rogue, 1980
- "Simon Says" Mini-Game: Touch Me, 1974
- Simulation Game: Utopia, 1982
- Skill Scores and Perks: dnd, 1975, or Dungeons & Dragons, 1974
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Indy 500, 1977
- Smart Bomb: Defender, 1980
- Solve the Soup Cans: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Some Dexterity Required: Crazy Climber, 1980
- Space-Filling Path: Donkey Kong, 1981
- Split Screen: Nautilus, 1982
- Sports Game: Tennis for Two, 1958
- Springs, Springs Everywhere: Mappy, 1983 (non-springboard version), Nuts & Milk, 1984 (springboard version)
- Stalked by the Bell: Evil Otto in Berzerk, 1980
- Stat Death: Dungeons & Dragons, 1974
- Status Line: Vector terminal port of Lunar Lander, 1973
- Stealth-Based Game: Castle Wolfenstein, 1981
- Stealth-Based Mission: 005, 1981
- Strategy Game: Go, Older Than Dirt
- Subsystem Damage: Star Trek Text Game, 1971
- Super Drowning Skills: While the trope is Older Than Dirt, one of the first video games to do this is Frogger, 1981
- Super Title 64 Advance: Every game on the Fairchild Channel F
- Take Cover!: Maze War, 1974
- Tank Controls: Tank, 1974
- Text Parser: Colossal Cave, 1975; Zork, 1979
- That One Level: Donkey Kong, 1981
- Tilesweeper: Mined Out, 1983
- Timed Mission: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, 1947
- Timed Power-Up: Pac-Man, 1980
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Zork, 1979
- Turn-Based Strategy: Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!, 1981
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Ultima I (1981), which suddenly switches from a Role-Playing Game to a Star Raiders-style first-person space shooter near the end.
- Unknown Item Identification: Roots in Tabletop RPGs where items may have hidden properties known only to the Game Master unless/until discovered by the players. For full video games, Rogue.
- Vector Game: Tennis for Two, 1958
- Vehicular Combat: Demolition Derby (AKA Destruction Derby, but not to be confused with a later game with that title), 1975
- Violation of Common Sense: Killing the dragon, Colossal Cave, 1975
- Virtual Paper Doll: FaceMaker, 1983
- Unwinnable Joke Game: El Ajedrecista, 1912note (A Chess endgame where the computer played a rook and king and the human only had a king.)
- You Can't Get Ye Flask: Colossal Cave, 1975
- Walkthrough: There were guides written for Colossal Cave (1975)
- Warp Whistle: Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1982
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Space Travel, 1969
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: Moria, 1975
- Wrap Around: Spacewar!, 1962
