Friday 5th December 2003/... ELSPA, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association, and ComputerAndVideogames.com, the UK's leading multi-format video games website, today published the results of a unique poll seeking to find the most popular 30 games of the last 30 years.

The top five games voted most popular by the public are: Sonic the Hedgehog, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pac-Man, Tomb Raider and Space Invaders.

Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, SonicTeam/SEGA, commented: "I am delighted and extremely honoured that Sonic the Hedghog has been chosen as the most popular game over the last 30 years, especially against such strong competition. Sonic and I would dearly like to thank the wonderful game lovers that have voted for us. I hope to keep creating games that will be loved by everyone forever."

Roger Bennett, director general of ELSPA, said: "We wanted to find out what the people who play video games consider to be the best games of the last 30 years. Not the ones you think are great intellectually but the ones that have touched your heart and made your stomach churn as you battled for supremacy or raced to the winning line."

Johnny Minkley, editor of ComputerAndVideogames.com, added: "Together with ELSPA, we wanted to learn which games sum up the essence of video gaming for our million plus website visitors? Which games made them throw their controllers at the telly in frustration but to which they returned time and again?"

The top 30 games of the last 30 years, as voted for by the readers of ComputerAndVideogames.com are:

01 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog
02 1998 The Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time
03 1983 Pac-Man
04 1996 Tomb Raider (Lara Croft)
05 1980 Space Invaders
06 1997 Final Fantasy VII
07 1985 Elite
08 1985 Super Mario
09 1998 Half-Life
10 2002 GTA: Vice City
11 1993 Doom
12 1987 Tetris
13 2001 Halo
14 1997 Goldeneye
15 2001 Grand Theft Auto III
16 1999 Final Fantasy VI
17 1992 Super Mario Kart
18 1990 Super Mario World
19 1998 Metal Gear Solid
20 1996 Resident Evil
21 1988 Street Fighter
22 2001 Gran Tourismo 3
23 1992 Championship Manager
24 2000 The Sims
25 1996 Quake
26 2000 Shenmue
27 1990 Lemmings
28 1983 Manic Miner
29 1999 Medal of Honor
30 1981 Asteroids