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John | Video Game Canon

@videogamecanon.bsky.social

1.8K followers 440 following 1.2K posts

Amateur game historian and cataloger of links to great writing about games. 💻 videogamecanon.com ➡️ Video Game Canon Top 1000 ➡️ Bite-Sized Game History 💻 videogameresearchlibrary.com ➡️ Video Game Research Library

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · Mar 5

The 2025 Update to the Video Game Canon is now available for all!

Supergiant’s Hades makes its debut in the VGC Top 1000 at #7!

www.videogamecanon.com/adventurelog...

Hades Debuts in the Top 10 in the 2025 Update to the Video Game Canon’s Top 1000

It took a little extra time, but the Version 8.0 update to the Video Game Canon is finally here. With the addition of a handful of new lists since the last update, the Video Game Canon’s crit…

www.videogamecanon.com

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 2h

Tron really never went away. And it produced a great Simpsons bit in an episode full of great bits.

Stuff like that kept it in the atmosphere until Disney finally started making sequels.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Mm...

Did Anyone See The Movie Tron? (The Simpsons)

YouTube video by ThingsICantFindOtherwise

m.youtube.com

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 16h

I hope @discontinuedfoods.bsky.social is keeping track of all these weird (and weirdly early) Stranger Things tie-ins.

This one seems to be just Honey Combs with marshmallows.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 22h

Follow Leonard Nimoy’s lead and title the last chapter “It’s My Fault”.

Reposted by John | Video Game Canon

Aidan Moher @aidanmoher.com · 1d

Hating the Yankees is the natural, default state for all humans. You need a reason not to hate the Yankees.

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 1d

This is great! More people need to realize that pit bulls aren’t scary and are much closer to big goofballs.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 2d

If Take This counts, they started in 2013.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 2d

You’re right, they’re not all NBA Jam. But I do think a lot of them are pretty good history and having that kind of broad overview can be useful to find more in-depth sources.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 2d

But even when they’re high-level essays on the experience they still have a decent amount of history in them.

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 2d

Henk Rogers’s memoir came out this year.

There’s been a few books from Boss Fight Books.

Definitely more that I’m forgetting.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 3d

Jewel was also drafting off of Lilith Fair’s popularity. Collectively they were huge, but individually only Alanis Morissette managed to stay in the spotlight into the 2000s (though a few, like Sarah McLachlan and Jewel herself, voluntarily took themselves out of the spotlight).

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 3d

That’s Hall of Famer J. Monie to you!

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 3d

Is this a joke? Or is Digg actually back?

a man in a prison cell says hope is a dangerous thing

ALT: a man in a prison cell says hope is a dangerous thing

media.tenor.com

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah, I’m not really sure what else Bitmap could have done in this situation.

And the author even showed true remorse by agreeing to give up all his royalties. That’s a real apology, not an “I’m sorry I got caught” apology.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 4d

The guy who wrote it also wrote a bunch of pretty racist stuff on his Twitter a few years ago. Some people are pretty mad that Bitmap didn’t catch it before agreeing to publish the book.

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 4d

I wonder if Ken Jennings plays Immaculate Grid. I have a hunch he’d be really good at remembering some guys.

Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social · 4d

The Mariners trident raise is one of the goofiest things in baseball and I love it so much.

Reposted by John | Video Game Canon

Rebecca Heineman @burgerbecky.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve started a GoFundMe to help with my cancer battle gofund.me/6850175a3

Donate to Help Rebecca Ann Heineman Fight Aggressive Cancer, organized by Rebecca Heineman

I’m Rebecca Ann Heineman. The very first video game champion, creat… Rebecca Heineman needs your support for Help Rebecca Ann Heineman Fight Aggressive Cancer

gofund.me

25 1.5K 1.3K

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 5d

You’re welcome! I honestly never knew this was a real game. I guess I heard the “concept piece” quote and just filed it away in my brain that way.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 5d

Your second point contradicts your first. There’s no money to be made with generative AI, so these companies will never use it beyond a few small experiments to appease shareholders (and most of which have already run their course).

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 5d

The first AAAA game ever! (That was, obviously, never released).

Don’t have the time to watch this video tonight, but Liam’s stuff is always the best. Can’t wait to press play on this later.

Liam Robertson @liamrobertson.bsky.social · 5d

[NEW VIDEO] Xbox’s Cancelled ‘Uncharted Rival’ From Gears of War Studio

I investigate how Microsoft attempted to make its own Uncharted exclusively for Xbox from the Gears of War team and question if Phil Spencer misled the public about the project...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mT_...

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah, them figuring out each other’s secret identities so fast is great. And Clark is legitimately pissed, which happens in much pretty much every great Superman TAS episode.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 10d

I grew up pulling Oil Can Boyd, Rex Hudler, and Spike Owen from packs of baseball cards. But you are not going to convince me that Dillon Dingler is a real dude.

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 10d

There was a sense of theatrically to it. Which was a lot more than games like Contra or Mario did.

How many times was the checkpoint (even before a major boss battle) just some nondescript bush or ledge?

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 10d

Yeah. Going back to Mega Man, the hallway between the boss doors serving as the last checkpoint of the level made it pretty unique.

“The spot where you start after you die” (as kid me referred to checkpoints at the time) in a lot of games was not like that.

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John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 10d

Yeah, I never would have gotten that. Thanks!

John | Video Game Canon @videogamecanon.bsky.social · 10d

Thank god somebody else is saying it. What exactly is a “runback”?

The best I can tell, it’s a Mega Man-style rematch against all the bosses at the end of the game. Am I even close?

House of 1000 KaL's @kaly.blackskycomra.de · 10d

I swear I never heard the term runback in my life and then Hollow Knight 2 comes out and it's all anyone can talk about

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