I really didn’t want to just pick and choose the games in this project as I go because I knew that would lead to me to making a very top-heavy list and then I would have nothing to look forward to at the end. I also didn’t want to completely leave it up to random choice and have to wait years to finally play the most desirable games on the console. So, like I’m prone to do, I devised a way-too-complicated methodology for choosing my list of games! Of course if you are reading this page you want to know the method behind the madness, so here was my process for creating my master list:

1. I started with the complete list of all 677 licensed NES games and did a random sort on the entire list.
2. I removed duplicates, variants, and compilations. That puts the list at 669 games.
3. I chose all the games I know I don’t want to play and put them all the way at the bottom of the list. I chose 83 games to move, so the list is now down to 586 games. This will be considered the master list.
4. I chose ten games of personal significance to place right at the top of the list to get this thing started off with a bang.
5. I chose a small number of games in the top half of the list that I would defer to the bottom half of the list. Likewise, I chose some games in the bottom half of the list to promote to the top half of the list. Then, in order, switch a game selected in the top half with one selected in the bottom half. It was really tough to keep from swapping too many but I managed to keep the lists down to only 13 games each. If I were to choose too many games to move around then what’s the point of making a random list?
6. For any games that are part of a series, swap games so that they are played in chronological order in the master list keeping the original positions in the list intact. For example, take the Super Mario Bros games out of their original spot and put Super Mario Bros. in the first slot, Super Mario Bros. 2 in the next slot, and Super Mario Bros. 3 in the last slot.
7. Make small adjustments to the master list to balance it out. This will allow for some breathing room between similar games and games even in the same series if they happen to be close enough in the list.

I am going to keep the master list a secret to promote both mystery and intrigue!