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1972 - Magnavox Odyssey
World's first game console
Predates the Atari Pong home consoles
Prototype known as the “Brown Box” is now at the Smithsonian
340,000 units sold -
1972 - Pong
A coin-op arcade game by Atari Inc
Based on table tennis
First game to gain widespread popularity - launched the industry boom -
1974 - Gran Track 10
A single-player racing arcade game by Atari
Player races against the game clock, accumulating points
Early diode-based ROM was used
Controls, steering wheel, shifter, accelerator, and brake pedals were all firsts for arcade games -
1974 - Maze Wars
One of the first FPS
Players wander in a maze
Used tile-based movement
Other players are eyeballs that can be shot or harmed
Players gain points for shooting other players and lose them for being shot -
1975-77 Magnavox Odyssey
Played cartridges
Keyboard; used for educational games, selecting options, or programming
First game was an instant classic: Quest for the Rings!
Excellent speech synthesis unit
Master Strategy Series – a fusion of board and video games -
1976 - Coleco Telstar
By Coleco - AY-3-8500 chip
Pong variants on a domestic television receiver and available to any manufacturer
Battery-powered and external components were required -
1976 - APF TV Fun
Pong clone manufactured by APF formally a electronics developer
Four built-in games (Tennis, Hockey, Single Handball, and Squash)
Had a speaker and two controller knobs
Powered by AC adapter or batteries -
1976-1983 Second Generation
By the mid-1970s cartridges moved to CPU-based consoles
Games now consisting of microprocessor-based code; games burned onto ROM chips mounted inside plastic cartridge casings that could be plugged into slots on the console
Consumers could acquire large libraries of game cartridges -
1976 - Fairchild Channel F
The world's second cartridge-based video game console, after the Magnavox Odyssey
Sold for $169.95
Originally called Video Entertainment System (VES), but when Atari released VCS, it was renamed -
1977 - Atari 2600
Popularized game cartridges - popular in the 1980s
Originally Atari VCS; later changed to "Atari 2600" in 1982, after the release of Atari 5200
Two joysticks, two paddle controllers, and a cartridge game - initially Combat later Pac-Man -
1977 - Chuck E Cheese’s
First family entertainment centers aimed at young children
Pizza restaurant with arcade games, amusement rides, an animatronics show, climbing equipment, tubes, and slides
Helped improve the image of video games -
1978 - Space Invaders
Created in Japan - later licensed in US
Shooting game - players defeat waves of aliens with a laser and earn points
So successful it caused a temporary shortage of coins in Japan -
1979 - Asteroids
Popular and influential game - 70,000 sold by Atari
Vector display and 2D view
Control a spaceship in an asteroid field traversed by flying saucers
Object - shoot asteroids and saucers while not colliding or being hit by counter-fire -
1980 - Pac Man
Namco - considered among the most famous arcade games of all time
Became a social phenomenon that sold related merchandise and inspired an animated television series and a top-ten hit single -
1981 - Donkey Kong
By Nintendo - platform
Move the character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles
Rescue a damsel in distress from a giant ape - Donkey Kong -
1982 - Tron
Game was based on the Disney movie
A computer hacker is trapped inside a digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial-type games -
1983 - Mario Brothers
By Nintendo – platform arcade
Full color
Mario, a Italian-American plumber, and his brother Luigi must defeat creatures from the sewers below New York -
1984 – Tetris
Tile-matching from the Soviet Union
Name is from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- four segments
Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue had Tetris in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time“ -
1986 - The Legend of Zelda
Fantasy action-adventure created in Japan and published by Nintendo
Link, a playable character, must rescue Princess Zelda
As of December 2011, sold 67.93 million copies -
1987 - Final Fantasy
Science fantasy RPGs
Franchise includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise - more than 100 million units sold
Known for innovation, visuals, full-motion videos, photo-realistic character models, and orchestrated music
