1985 & Beyond - Significant Computer History Inventions timeline

The C++ Programming Language is Published. Bjarne Stroustrup, from AT&T Bell Labs, said his motivation was to create a language that allowed for more complex programs.

Compaq introduces the Deskpro 386. Beating IBM to the market, the Deskpro 386 was the first computer to use Intel's new 80386 chip, a 32 bit microprocessor with 275,000 transistors on each chip.

PERL (Practical Extraction and Report Language) is written by Larry Wall. It was designed for ease of use and quick programming. It is very useful in making other programs work together and has been called "the duct tape of the Internet."

The Morris Worm. 23 year old Robert T. Morris, the son of a computer security expert for the NSA, sends a nondestructive worm through the Internet causing major problems for days for about 6,000 of the 60,000 hosts linked to the network. This is the first worm to have an effect on real world computer systems, and publicizes the importance of network security. He apologized in 2008, saying he'd sought to estimate the Internet's size, not cause harm.

Nintendo releases the Game Boy handheld game console. The system used removable game cartridges to play on its black and white screen. Game Boy's popularity was helped by its major release title, Tetris.