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Arcade Game "Computer Space" was born
Nolan Nushnell and Ted Dabney developed "Computer Space" in their spare time, this game played on a 13" screen with left, right, fire and thrust buttons while you are fighting enemy flying saucers. -
Bushnell hires Alcorn, Development on "Pong" Begins
Alcorn was a young engineering sudent who Bushnell hired out of university and sets him the task of developing "Pong" for Bushnell and Dabney's new company. -
Bushnell splits wth Dabney, Bushnell then form his own company, "Kee Games"
Dabney split with Bushnell after the release of Pong. Bushnell proceeded to form Kee Games in order to get around the exclusivity agreements coin-operated machine distributors had with arcades. -
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Kee Games releases "Tank"
Kee Games released Tank, its first title. Again, the setup was simple as players controlled a tank and attempted to shoot another tank amidst a maze of obstructive blocks and mines. Tank was the first arcade game to use ROMmicrochips whihc improved it's graphic sygnificantly compared to pong. -
"Gun Fight" becomes the first game to use a microprocessor.
It was also the first release of Midway, the video game division of pinball manufacturer Bally. Gun Fight was set in the old west and two cowboys moved across the screen trying to dodge each other's bullets by hiding behind a cactus. -
Taito Introduced "Space Invaders"
One special innovation that Space Invaders featured, as have nearly all subsequent arcade releases, was the High Score. When a player accumulated more points than anyone previously, their score would be shown at the top of the Space Invaders screen until it was beaten. -
Atari's "lunar Lander" game utilizes vector graphics
The object of the game was to successfully land a spacecraft on the surface of the moon. Various on-screen gauges displayed such necessary data as fuel consumption and altitude. Lunar Lander was abruptly pulled from the production line in November 1979 so that Atari could devote all of its resources to a new game it felt could be potentially explosive -
3D Sprite based games are out in favour of polygon-based games
By the end of the 1980s games developers had begun to leave the 3D sprite based stabdard abd have begun to venture into the newer world of polygon. At this time Atari released STUN runner, this was a polygon-based racing game which boasted much better graphics than previous games. -
Namco releases Alpine Racer.
Namco released a new racing game with a 50-inch projection television display. Alpine Racer put players on an incredibly realistic ski slope by utilizing a 32-bit processor. Namco fitted Alpine Racer with unique handle controls to provide players with a wholly original game experience. -
The era of the arcade is at an end.
The performance of console are beginning to match tha of arcade machines and they become more impractical to produce than the consoles.