Timeline of Gaming
Timeline of
Gaming
This blog will consist of the gaming
timeline starting from the 60’s to 2010. In each era I will discuss what
happened what gaming technology can out in that time also what company was the
most dominant and influential at that time. Each era must be covered with what
console was and games where mostly sold and play in that era.
·
Arcade games
·
Console games
·
Mobile Game platforms
·
PC based games
·
Interactive TV based games
The blog and each timeline will cover the points that I’ve put
above
1950’s
Claude Shannon created the foundation for programming with a
computer that was able to play chess. The same year Claude and Alan Turning
made a chess program. Two year later A.S. Douglass made the game OXO also known
as nought and crosses in the UK and tic-tac-toe in the US. This was done on a
Cambridge computer as a research. New Mexico programmers created the first
blackjack program in 1954. The year after in 1955 the US military created a
game called Hustpiel, this game involved Red and Blue players. Red being NATO
and the Blue being the Soviet were player battle against each other and create
war. 1956 was the year Arthur Samuel created a checker program that was written
in IBM-701 and was showed on TV. After six year the program finally defeated
the master. A programmer by the name of Alex Bernstein wrote the first chess
program in IBM-704, the program was able to look at the way a player played the
game and evaluated their move the program was able to evaluate moves that could
be made four hours later.
In 1958 Willy Higinbotham created a tennis game that could be play
on an oscilloscope and analogue computer. The project was later terminated but
this set the way for games like Pong,
In 1959 students from MIT created a Mouse in the Maze game using a
TX-0 computer provided by MIT. The player would have to draw a maze using a
light pen, soon after the mouse would have to make its way through the maze to
try and get to the cheese.
Era conclusion
Due to the nature and the time that these programs were developed
there weren’t really any huge advance but the program that were created and
developed set the way for other programs like Ping. The programs helped later
programs use the base line of the earlier programmer like Alan Turning to make
and program other games or software.
1960’s
In the early 1960’s computer programmer by the name of John
Burgeson stayed home and with the help of his brother created the first ever
know baseball computer program.
1961/62
In 1961 a company called Raytheon created a strategy that was
based on the Cold War. The game was fairly hard for players that were used to
this type of game.
In 1962 a student from MIT called Steve Russell created Spacewar
the first ever video game, the game the spread around the country. Spacewar was
the first computer game that could be interacted with. The game was created by
Steve Russel and a group of students at Massachusetts Institue of Technology
(MIT). The game ran on a Digital PDP-1 computer frame and the graphics were
made of ASCII text characters.
Few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the US defence
department made a game known as STAGE. The game was based on the US defeating
the Soviet Union in a thermonuclear war.
1964/65/66
In 1964 John Kemeny created time-share system and basic programming
allowing other students to program and create their own games.
1965 was the year that Dartmouth defeated Princeton 28-14 in a
game of American football, due to the win a student from Dartmouth created the
first football game. Ralph Baer had the idea to make video games playable on a
television; this idea came to him in the 1966.
1968
The next year Ralph Baer created a brown box prototype allowing
user to play tennis and other game on the television. 1968 Four years later a
company by the name of Magnavox release Odyssey which was the first home video
game system. This system was based on Ralph Baer system.
Era conclusion
10 years later programmers started using pass knowledge of
programming and started making actual games. The graphics in the 50’s would
have been fairly basic compared to the 60’s where the programs and the computer
power started to evolve and were a lot more power. Programs like Spacewar was
the first program that programmers or people could interacted with meaning
pressing certain buttons or moving an analogue stick for the space to either
move up, down, left or right even pressing a button to shoot this laid way for
later consoles utilizing this early concept and implementing it. Early work by
Alan Turning and Claude Shannon was later improved but John Kenny to like it a
lot easier for students that wanted to be programmers.
Around 1968 we started to see programmers and companies like
Magnavox wanted to bring the games right into people’s home, this way possible
due to the work of Ralph Baer and his early prototype of the brown box.
1970’s
In the 1970 Scientific American published a book Life in Martin
Gardener’s “Mathematical Games”. The simulation had certain cells reproduce and
other die. Hackers then used the based simulation to create the game Tetras. Founders
of Atari Nolan Bushell and Ted Dabney made their attempts of making the arcade
version of Spacewar labelling it Compuer Space.
1971
In 1971 students from Minnesota Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann and
Paul Dillenberger created a game called Oregon Trail, a simulation game based
on pioneers. The game was later reinvented and brought to Minnesota Educational
computer game. Computer Space became the first arcade game.
1972
In 1972 Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcon of Atari created an arcade
table tennis game. The arcade game was tested in California but it stopped
worked due to the amount of people playing it. The arcade machine got stuff
with coins, from there Pong was born.
1974/75
In 1975 Atari created a home version of their game Pong. Nolan
Bushnell the founder couldn’t find a company would partner up with him in
selling the home console, so to sell the console he had to go the through Sear
Roebuck. In 1974 two decades before the first Doom, the first ever first person
shooter was created. This game allowed player to work their way through a maze.
The maze was created using wire-frame graphics. The game was known as Maze War.
1976
1976 Dan Woods created a text version of pioneers which was an
adventure game that put players into a world full of caves and treasures. Games
like this and Dungeons and Dragons created the way for other games like Zark
and multiple other role-playing games.
1977
In 1977 Atari made the Video Computer system also known as Atari
2600. This console had joysticks, changeable cartridges, games in colours and
also a switch allowing the player to change game and also their difficulties. Atari’s
console was retailing at $249.95 and was the first cartridge based home
entertainment system.
1978
In 1978 Taito’s release Space Invaders in Japan, the release of
this arcade machine cause Japan to have a shortage of 100-yen coins. It only
taken a year for 60,000 Space Invader machine to enter the United States,
America spent millions on quarter coins making the already popular Space
Invader game even more popular. When Space Invaders when introduced in arcade
form it was the first game to display whoever had the highest score, Atari also
attempted to compete with Apple in the pc industry by creating the Atari 400
and 800. The products didn’t take off and they were taken off the market.
1979
1979 was the year where toy creator Mattel made their
Intellivision. Mattel console was well received even better than the Atari 2600
because of the graphics and the lovely sports games that came with the console.
Mattel sold 3million Intellivision units. Asteroids was made to be the first
game to have three initials score board, for whoever could hit the highest
score.
Era conclusion
Atari Nolan Bushell and Ted Dabney founders of Atari made the
attempt of making an arcade version of Spacewar the game was labelled as
Computer Space this showed as the advantage in technology and how people with
the right tech and knowledge could make any advancement they wanted. The 1970’s
were the year that arcade games started to pop up Computer Space and also Table
Tennis was a game that made a transaction to arcade the game was extremely
popular with players so much that the first machine broke due to the amount of
player playing it. At the time of arcade game and Atari console the first ever
FPS came out known as Maze War, this defined another game genera. Other gaming
genera came about in 1976, this game was a texted based meaning player would
have to type in the actions for it to take place the game was known as Pioneers.
Atari stared releasing game console that implemented cartridges that could be
changed also with a controller that had a joystick. One of the biggest arcade
game to ever to release came out in 1978 and was known as Space Invader, the
game was first release and Japan and was well receive. Due to the demand of
gaming console Mattel came out with they own console to compete with Atari and
compete it did because Mattel’s console had better graphics and controls. Arcade
became really popular do to this fact companies started implementing a score
board to make player more addicted and player against their friends.
1980’s
In July of 1980’s the arcade version of Pacman came out, soon after
the arcade release a home version of Pacman came to the Atari 2600 making it
the first arcade game to come to a home console. Two year after the original
release of Pacman, Ms Pacman came out for arcade. Ms Pacman became the
bestselling arcade game of all time.
1980
Activision made they debut as a third company game vendor, the
company was made up of old Atari programmers that wanted to be known for the
work they did while working at Atari. 300,000 units of Pac-Man were released
worldwide. Battlezone was the first 3D game that was made, the game was set in
a battlefield and the game was later used by the US government for
training.
1981/82
1981 was the year Nintendo release Donkey Kong, the game featured
an iconic character called Jumpman who is now known as Mario.
Disney tried they own go at video games by releasing Tron.
Multiplayer games made a huge leap forward with the release of Dan Bunten’s
M.U.LE. The main aim of the game was for each player to gather the most
resources while saving the must for your colony on the planet Irata. The video
game magazine Electronic Games was founded by Arnie Ktaz and Bill Kunkel in
1981. 1982 was the year the Atari 5200 was released.
1984/83
1984 the game Tetris was created by a Russian mathematician named
Alexey Pajitnov. The game was leaked and four year after Nintendo sold it with
every Gameboy unit. Nintendo released their NES console to Japan in 1983. Atari
controlled the US market and didn’t want competition and offer a deal to
Nintendo so that the NES was not released until 1985, the deal was accepted by
Nintendo and the console wasn’t released until 1985.
1985
In 1985 Nintendo release their first home console called The
Nintendo Entertainment System or NEIS for short. The console came out two years
after its Japan release, the release of the console help revive a dying
industry. Tetris was developed by a Russian programmer called Alex Pajitnov and
was playable on PC.
1986
Shortly after the NES was release in the United States Sega
release Sega Master System in 1986 or SMS for short. To compete with Sega
Master System Atari release the Atari 7800.
1987/89
In 1987 Legend of Zelda was release.
In 1989 Nintendo release the Gameboy handheld gaming console.
Gameboy wasn’t the first handheld console to come out Milton Bradley release Microvision
10 years before the Gameboy. NEC released the first16 bit console. The console
was called TurboGrafx- 16 sold for $189 it was the first console to run games
on a compact disc. Sega released its own 16bit home console for brought the
true arcade experience right into people home; the console went for $249.
Era conclusion
Nintendo started to make an impact of the gaming industry with the
release of Donkey Kong, the power of the machines started to improve because of
this multiple player games came out one of the first was M.U.L.E. The game main
go was for each player to gather resources and keep their colony alive. 3D
games al.so started to make an appearance with the release of Battlezone this wasn’t
able to be achieved before but because the machine powers have increased it was
possible. Milton tried to make handheld console earlier but the technology wasn’t
there but in the 1989 Nintendo had the previous knowledge and the tech to make
it happen and they did. The technology was also there for disc base game to be
release instead of cartridge and the console to achieve was TurboGrafx.
1990’s
In 1990’s Microsoft release Solitaire a pc game that came with
Windows 3.0. People that didn’t have a gaming console enjoyed playing game on a
pc. Solitaire became one of the must played game ever made and was there for
people that didn’t like spending too much time playing and were casual. Nintendo
needs a character to revitalize their brand, Sonic the Hedgehog was the
character to do it. The game came out for the Genesis and was especially loved
in the US.
1991/92
This was due to Sonic’s
blue colour and flashy speed. Dune II was a strategy game that came out in 1992
that let players establish a colony and attack other colonies to take their
resources. The Super NES was released on
the US market for $249.95.
1993
Mortal Kombat was released in 1993 and was pretty violent for it
era. That same year the US senate issued a meeting to try and put rating on
video games. The releases of Mortal Kombat spike the government, into making
video games rating. This meant that video games that came after had to rating
of M for Mature, E for Everyone and the respectable age to go along with the
age. Atari released a console called the Jaguar, this was done to try and make
the first console to hit 64-bits but the console actually ran two 32-bit
processors.
1994
In 1994 Blizzard released Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, is was real
time strategy game that lead player into the legendary world of Azerath. Sony
made the debut as a video game industry. Video games made after 1994 had to be
rated alongside with a certain age or an M or E rating. This bill was passed by
the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
1995
Sony released their Playstation in the US, the console was sold
for a $100 less than the Sega Saturn. This really hurt Sega’s console business
alongside Sony’s console release Nintendo also release their own console called
Nintendo 64. Sony’s console was the cheapest home console at the time really
helping them sell the units.
1996
1996 was the year that the virtual pet called Tamagotchi was
release in Japan and was well received, it was then released in the US and sold
an amazing amount of 30,000 units in 3 days. Atari founder also made a return
to the gaming industry, Lara Croft made he star debut on the ps1 in the game
Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider was one of the early 3D games that came out at that
time.
1997
By 1997 Sony sold 20million of their playstation console and was
the most popular console at the time. Tiger put their own handheld console on
the market this was done to try and compete with Nintendo Gameboy console. The
console was called game.com the console was a lot more like present day phone,
it allowed you to connect it to a pc and check your emails, and it had a
calculator and a stylus to allow the use to interact with the console via touch
screen.
Arizona also tried to reduce the amount of game that was sold by
making it so video game couldn’t be sold to minors and the law was never
passed.
1998
Nintendo release Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time the game was
full of characters, incredible story amazing music. The game brought player to
Hyrule the gameplay was full of puzzle and twist making sure players had a hard
time getting through the story. Sega released the Dreamcast in Japan in199. The
console was able to run on Microsoft Windows CE allowing user to make an easy
transition between the Dreamcast and PC games.
1999
Sony Online Entertainment introduced Everquest an online game that
lead hundreds of player into the world of Norrath. The game allowed players to
their guilds, fight monsters and level up. A player by the name of Billy
Mitchell go a score of 3,333,360 score on Pac-Man which was the highest score
of player could get at the time.
A shooting happened in Columbine High School that made Sega not
release a gun with their Dreamcast in the United States of America. Due to the
shooting gamers weren’t allowed to import guns to play with America consoles,
this made players play game that would of gave them a better experience with a
gun play them with regular controllers.
Era conclusion
Pc games started to make an appearance with Microsoft Solitaire,
this is where the separation between console and pc started as people that didn’t
have a console started to payer pc game and enjoyed playing them more. In the
90’s console power also improved making companies being able to make and show
how violent they could make certain games. A game that started arguments in
certain countries was Mortal Kombat. The game was pretty violent with its
finishers and the way players could kill other players. Due to this game that
came out after Mortal Kombat had to have some sort of rating which is why with
have E rated game or M games today. 64bits console started to make an appearance
this could only be done by having 32bits processors. The technology for console
advanced some much the pass few year that every company that was able to
release a console did so bringing a bigger divide in the gaming world. One of
the consoles that made a huge impact was the ps1 this was because the power of
the machine allowed player to play 3D games like Lara Croft. Sony wasn’t the
only company that tried 3D Nintendo also gave it go with Legend of Zelda:
Ocarina of Time. Along with 3D games companies also released games with better
story and controls.
2000’s
Sims was released by Will Wright it was real time simulation game.
Sims wasn’t the first simulation game that was release, other games like Utopia
on the Intellivision (1982), Populous (1989) and Sid Meier’s Civilization
(1991) we’re some of the earlier real life simulation. Sims went on to be the
best selling computer game at the time and was really popular with female
players.
Sony release their PlayStation 2 in early 2000 and the console
were sold for $299.99, the console was sold out by early morning after launch
day. Due to high demand on the console it was fairly difficult to obtain one,
this also due to the fact that only 500,000 units were made available at
launch.
2001
Microsoft jumped into the video game industry with their Xbox
console console. The console was a huge hit due to its memorable games like
Halo: Combat Evolved. The console was sold for $299.99 the console was
introduced with hard drive and an Ethernet port. Nintendo also made a lead with
their latest console Nintendo’s GameCube the console was sold for $199.95, the
console offered better experience for player and the console new hardware made
it easy or game developers to create new games. Nintendo also release the
latest Gameboy called Gameboy Advance.
2003
Valve released Steam for PC. Steam is a platform for PC gamers
that allow them to play, download and update games. The Steam platform is still
growing today, the platform now allows players to look at achievements, speak
in chat room and up your friend’s profiles. Looking up a friend’s profile
allows you to see what games they’ve played and what they’ve been recently
doing.
2004
Nintendo release they latest candidate into to the handheld
industry. They release the Nintendo DS it was an easy to use and hold. The
gaming system had two screens, two processors and had loads of capabilities for
example a stylus for the touchscreen.
2005
Microsoft brought their latest entry in the gaming industry with
the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 brought better graphics to the gaming market at the
time it also brought along better co-op and multiplayer gameplay. Xbox 360 can
along and introduce Xbox live which allowed players to interact, player and
share games with each other.
Sony also release the PSP (PlayStation Portable) the handheld
console high resolution and really good display screen.
2006/07
Nintendo release the Nintendo Wii, the new console allowed the
players to play while they move. The Wii was release with a rage of sport games
that made player work out while playing also introducing new player to the
console because they could play and lose weight at the same. The console wasn’t
just work out players could also play the console like any other console using
the controller.
Sony’s PlayStation 3 was also release to the public gamers had to
pay a lot for the console. The console was $499 for the 20GB and $599 for the
60GB, the price was the main reason the ps3 didn’t sell as well as the previous
version of the PlayStation.
2007 saw the release of Rock Band a game that allowed player to
play with instruments like guitar, microphone, drum or bass. 2007 also saw the
release of Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo’s new console the Wii, the game
carried Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach adventures. Super Mario Galaxy also saw
brought back Mario and Luigi’s old friend Bowser.
2008/09
World of Warcraft (WWO) was release to pc gamer’s, the game had a
subscription that allowed player to receive a certain amount of content for
that month or for however many month the player had paid for. As the game
release more than 10 million players paid for the subscription.
2008 was also the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 a game that broke
record the first week it was release selling more than 6 million copies that
week.
Nintendo release Wii Fit for their Wii console making the barrier
on age mean nothing anyone, any age would be able to play it without any issue.
Video games also made a huge transaction with Farmville on
Facebook allowing players to farm for food trade with players and ask then for
goods that they may need to improve their farm.
Angry Birds was release in 2009 for mobile allowing players that
never thought of playing games, played Angry Birds for hours on end. Facebook
and iPhone were now new gaming platform that players could play and interact
with each other.
Nintendo’s Wii sport was the bestselling console game of 2009 with
over 40 million units sold, the previous record was held by Nintendo’s Super
Mario Bros.
2010
We saw the release of the indie game Minecraft, an addictive and
fun game for all ages. The game let players get into their own world building
house, with bricks, stone and wood the game let players created pretty much
anything they wanted without any issues. The game also has a survival mode
where player have to find food created a house pretty much like the open world
version by the resources at the players disposal are limited meaning they
couldn’t do what they want, they had to choose what to make and when to make
it.
2010 was also the year that PlayStation and Microsoft release
their new motion controls. For PlayStation it was PlayStation move and
Microsoft had the Kinect, this new way let plays play without a controller and
the player’s body were the controller.
Era conclusion
Sony released another called PlayStation 2 along a more powerful
console and 3D graphics the console came with the ability to allow players to
play online. Microsoft also entered the race of the console war with their
Xbox. The console was fairly costly and didn’t sell as much this was also due
to the amount of console on the market. There were a few amount of console on
the market with this we saw the raise of console exclusive, game like Halo for
Xbox and Crash for PlayStation.
Pc became an official console with the released of Steam, the
social space worked a bit like Xbox and PlayStation allowing players to play
share game and download software.
Technology improved so much that Nintendo was able to create a
handheld console with two screens, one for display and the other to interact
with because it was touchscreen. The Xbox 360 was Microsoft latest console
which had better graphics compare to it previous version and also had better
co-op play with an improve version of Xbox live.
The Sony released their ps3 which was sold for a lot but came with
improve graphics like Xbox 360 better social improvement like PlayStation Live.
This is where the console war actually started and the game industry was
divided. Nintendo released the Wii and
with it came tools that allowed players to interact directly with the games,
instead of having a controller the players could interact directly with the
game. Pc games started to have subscription where players were able to pay a certain
amount for in game items and an edge other certain players. Mobile games
started to make an appearance with Angry Birds and Farmville, mobile were able
to work because phone improved from just phone and sending messages to playing,
watching video and video calling. The technology improved such much is unbelievable.
Microsoft and PlayStation wanted to make the move into motion tracking the
Microsoft Kinect and Sony’s PlayStation move.
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