Highlights in Video Highlights in Video Game HistoryGame History

Highlights in Video Highlights in Video Game HistoryGame History

1952: Tic-Tac-Toe

1952 A.S.Douglas was passing his PhD degree at the University of Cambridge the university had an EDSAC vaccuum-tube computer, which used a cathode ray tube to display with a graphic Tic-Tac-Toe game displayed on a cathode ray tube

1958: Tennis for Two

William Higinbotham created a video game in 1958. His game, called "Tennis for Two," was created and played on a Brookhaven National Laboratory oscilloscope.

1962: SPACEWAR

In 1962, SpaceWar! was the first game intended for computer use. Steve Russell used a MIT PDP-1 mainframe computer to design his game.

Spacewar was the predecessor of Asteroids (Atari)

SPACEWAR! ASTEROIDS

1967: Chase

In 1967, Ralph Baer wrote the first video game played on a television set, a game called Chase. Ralph Baer was then part of Sanders Associates, a military electronics firm. Ralph Baer first conceived of his idea in 1951 while working for Loral, a television company. 

Baer is best known for leading the development of the first home video game console with the Magnavox Odyssey, which was introduced in 1972

1972: PONG

The arcade game Pong was created by Nolan Bushnell (with help from Al Alcorn) a year later in 1972. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney started Atari Computers that same year. In 1975, Atari re-released Pong as a home video game.

1980: Pac Man

Pac-Man was designed by Toru Iwatani. It was based on an ancient Japanese folk-tale. The idea of the game was to control the Pac-man character which was moving inside a maze eating dots and to avoid ghosts which tried to kill Pac-man

1981: ZORK

An adventure game capable of responding to complex sentences.

The first version of Zork was written in 1977–1979 on a DEC PDP-10 computer by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling of MIT.

1985 Tetris

The popular game Tetris is developed by Russian programmer Alex Pajitnov. It is played on a PC.

1989 Game Boy

Nintendo released the handheld Game Boy for $109. The Game Boy was invented by Gunpei Yokoi and released in Japan in 1989.

1993: Sim City

Sim City was originally conceived and designed by Will Wright, co founder of Maxis in 1993.

The Sims skyrocketed to the top of the charts when it began shipping to stores in February 2000 and has quickly become a universal gaming and cultural phenomenon. "The Sims" was the best selling PC game of both 2000 and 2001 and is now the best selling PC game of all time. Translated into 16 different languages, "The Sims" has inspired many expansion packs; "Livin' Large", "House Party", "Hot Date", "Vacation", "Unleashed", "Superstar", and "Makin' Magic". Its combined sales for the franchise have topped 15 million units life-to-date.

2000: The Sims