DigDug
Montezuma
Star Control 2 (I think I have the equivalent of a Phd. in this game)
Super Fighter (& Street Fighter & Mortal Combat)
Ninja Turtles 2
I really liked games that had a good 2 player mode.
I'd play them for hours with my friends.
It seems to me that lately people have stopped playing together in the same room. 
I would've probably become a game developer regardless of the games I played. But the best experience I had was zombie mod for Counter-Strike 1.6, with flashlights in the dark with occasional lightening flashes where you realize you're completely surrounding by zombies (who can see with green nightvision) followed by frantic shooting.
I'll have to say: WarCraft 3, once I started to fiddle with its World Editor. However, I'd probably aspire to be a gamedev no matter what game I played.
As for the emotional etc. impacts... Kingdom Hearts series.
E.V.O. - Search for Eden for SNES. That game had a great blend of action, RPG, story, and character building.
Ultima Online - The first MMORPG I played, probably why it is so special for me. I also liked that in it you were not told what to do, you just have to figure it out for yourself.
X-Com Apocalypse - I love the turn-based tactics genre. There was something special in the cityscape mode in this game that made the world feel alive.
Counter-Strike - Countless hours of playing all the different versions of this must have influenced me somehow.
I've played so many games that I've completely lost count, after about 500+ titles. But the earliest titles for me started at about 3rd generation (8-bit) of gaming and exploded during 4th gen (16-bit, SNES and Sega Genesis/Megadrive)
My first games:
- Giana Sisters (Absolute first game I've played)
- Digger
- Supercars
- Commander Keen series
- Eye of the Beholder series
- Captain Comic
Here's my absolute favorite games:
Gameplay: GTA San Andreas!
Music: Zelda III, Super Metroid and just about every decent SNES game ever released.
Genre: FPS - Deus Ex, Half-Life, Farcry, Crysis, Borderlands and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Setting: Post-Apoc - Fallout series, Rage, etc.
Story: Final Fantasy VII and Baldur's Gate
Character: The Nameless One (Planescape: Torment)
Weapons: Gravity Gun (HL2) and the fully automatic eight-shot Fat Boy Experimental Mirv of Fallout 3. 
(The BFG can go to bed.)
Good question! Let's see now...
Maniac Mansion on the C64
Adventure on the Atari 2600
Legend of Zelda on the NES
The Adventure Construction Set on the C64 (first time with an IDE!)
The Secret of Monkey Island
X-Wing (and Tie Fighter) Series
Duke Nukem 3D (first real efforts at FPS level design)
Final Fantasy 7
Unreal Tournament
Final Fantasy X
Tron 2.0 (where I really discovered my passion for telling stories and made something worthy of sharing!)
Definitely games from my old TI99/4A days (which were games from other platforms too). Anyone remember Parsec?
Early arcade games are a huge influence and early NES titles (zelda, doubledragon, wizardry, castlevania, pool of radiance, and other early NES classics). I can't say I've been influenced much by modern/current games, although there are some definite modern-day titles that are favorites -- like the original Fable & Halo.
I still like to pull out my old copy of wizardry on 5inch floppy and play it on an old 386 once in a while.
Anyone remember Parsec?
That came with the TI99/4A we bought, along with Munch Man and a book with Bill Cosby on it.
Haha @ a book with Bill Cosby. I always thought Parsec was cool but really hard to play. I never got far in that game before getting killed but it was fun. I don't have a TI99 anymore but I'd like to get one for old time's sake. Maybe soon? 
