History of Games according to Jio
This is just some notes I took on a lecture. The history of games, bieng a retro fan, greatly interests me. I would LOVE to be corrected if something is wrong! Contact me using the email address supplied under 'Death'.
October 1958- William A. Higgenbotham creates ‘Tennis for Two’ on an Oscilloscope. It was not widely distributed therefore is considered by some to NOT be the first video game. It was made in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
1962- Steve Russell created the first video game, Spacewar. Digital Equipment Corporation bundled Spacewar with all PDP- 1s (Programmed Data Processor, the worlds first interactive computer for commercial use) to demonstrate its capabilities.
1971- the first Coin- operated arcade machine was created by Nolan Bushnell- with Spacewar. It was pronounced too complex to use, regardless of its mono- buttoned control system.
May 1972- The Odyssey (created by Ralph H. Baer) was distributed in the US for $99. There were 12 games available, some of which used light gun technology.
It was in black and white, with no sound. It flopped.
1972- Bushnell and Ted Dabney created the company ‘Syzygy’, but the name was taken by a roofing company, so it was renamed ‘Atari’, which is a term used in the Japanese puzzle game ‘Go’.
1975- ‘Midway’, the first video game system to use a CPU- an Intel 8080 is released.
1976- Exidy made a game named ‘Death Race’, where the player must run over pedestrians in a car. It caused much controversy!
Channel F made the Fairchild, the first cartridge- based games console.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozmak made a game called Breakout (Similar to 'Alleyway'). Jobs went on to found Apple.
1977- Atari is sold to Warner. By this time there are many Pong imitations.
1978- The Atari VCS 2600, with a joystick and a paddle, is created.
Toshihiro Nishikado of the Taito Company made Space Invaders. The arcade version was so popular it caused a coin shortage in Japan!
First video game crime- a girl steals $5000 to play.
1979- Galaxian was made. It is similar to Space Invaders, but there are different flight patterns. This game was the first game to use colour graphics.
Essex University students make ‘Mud’, Multi- User Dungeon.
Ex- Atari employers create Activision.
1980- a year of great games, such as Battlezone (Atari), the first 3D game, Defender, by Midway, and Pac man, created by Toru Iwatani. Pac- man was originally called Puck- man, but the designers feared vandals may turn the ‘P’ to an ‘F’. The design of Pac- man itself was made by cutting a slice out of a pizza.
Pac- man was the first game with ‘cut scenes’.
Stratovox, a Galaxian clone, was the first game to include digitised speech.
1981- Nintendo and Sega begin to export to the US.
Gamers start to suffer from Repetitive Strain Injuries from excessive gameplay, such as ‘Space Invaders Wrist’. The first video game fatality also took place in this year.
Shigeru Miyamoto makes Donkey Kong, the first platform game.
1982- Commodore makes Commodore Vic 20 and Sinclair makes the Sinclair ZX80/81 as an educational computer.
1983- the second video game crash happens. Many companies became bankrupt.
Bushnell creates ‘Sente Games’.
Cinematic graphics appear in games.
1984- Mattel sells their electronic division.
Warner breaks up Atari.
1985- Microsoft releases the first Windows system.
Commodore releases the Amiga range.
1986- the NES is released, along with Mario Bros.
Sega releases the Master System- there is competition between the NES and the MS.
1987- software developer Acclaim is founded. It bought other companies and used them as separate publishing houses to avoid Nintendo’s rules on quality control.
1988- Nintendo is the best seller!
1989- The Sega Megadrive is released.
Gunpei Yokois Gameboy system is released along with Alexi Pajitnovs Tetris.
The Atari Lynx was released, but was no competition to the lighter, cheaper Gameboy, regardless of its unique backlit, colour screen.
Sega released the Game gear, the companies own approach to a handheld system. It was technologically superior to the Gameboy, but because of its 3- hour battery life, the Gameboy remained on top.
1990- Super Mario Bros 3 grossed $500 million.
SNK releases the Neo- Geo, but the games were very expensive- about £70.
Shops start renting out video game cartridges.
1991- Sonic is created to deliberately compete against Mario.
The SNES is released, along with Street Fighter 2, which blew people away.
1992- the controversial Mortal Kombat is released on the SNES and Megadrive. Although the gore was removed from the SNES port, it remained far superior to the Megadrive version.
1993- Sega releases Mortal Kombat, which spawns political debates regarding games age ratings.
John Carmack creates Doom, the first real First Person Shooter. It becomes extremely popular.
NBA jam becomes the most successful arcade game.
1994- PC CD- ROMs are used for more storage. This pushed PC production.
1995- Virtua Fighter, the first 3D polygon game, is released in arcades.
This inspired the creation of Tekken.
1996- Arcade systems start to fade away from the public eye as the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64 are released.