Not enough credit given to Bungie, not for HALO, which was derivative, though not as some might expect, but for the Marathon Trilogy, first installment released in 1994. Innovative FPS, interesting story-lines and cool sounds, music & graphics. Even more fun as a network game. It sported editors for levels & physics and was clearly the origination for HALO. I was in the audience at MacWorld when the first HALO gameplay video was aired. My first thought was that it was basically Marathon Infinity on steroids. I also gritted my teeth when Microsoft bought Bungie and canceled development for everything but the XBOX, but that's another story.

Four factors made Myst groundbreaking. An immersive environment with beautifully rendered scenes, realistically-animated graphics and sound (something not done before). No violence, sex or profanity, which meant that anyone could explore it, whether that's 7 year old Timmy or Grandma. The puzzles themselves were engaging and beautiful. And it was made for Mac & PC. Certainly it inherited aspects from text adventures like Zork, but primarily due to the limitations of the technology and interface at the time. I see all modern immersive MMORPGs as descendants of CYAN's early work. It's even more amazing when you consider that they did it 20 years ago and people still play the game on PCs, consoles and even phones.