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The first game
Edward U. Condon designs a computer that plays Nim. It wins 90% of the games. -
An amusement device.
Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann file a patent for a " cathode ray tube amusement device."It challenges people to fire a gun at a target. -
Chess-playing computer
Claude Shannon lays out the basic guidelines for programming a chess-playing computer. -
Gambler`s Game
Programmers at New Mexico's Los Alamos laboratories, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, develop the first blackjack program on an IBM-701 computer. -
More Advanced Chess CPU
Alex Bernstein writes the first complete computer chess program on an IBM-704 computer—a program advanced enough to evaluate four half-moves ahead. -
Popular game across the country
MIT`s Steve Russell creates "Spacewar!" and it spreads quickly to universities and research facilities across the country. -
Sports Game
A day after Dartmouth defeats Princeton 28–14 in football to win the Ivy League championship, a Dartmouth student programs the first computer football game. Earlier that year, John Kemeny and Keith Bellairs had created the first computer game in BASIC. -
The first arcade game
Nolan Bushnell creates "Computer Space", the first coin arcade-style game. -
Maze Wars
Two decades before Doom, Maze Wars introduces the first-person shooter by taking players into a labyrinth of passages made from wire-frame graphics. -
Space Invaders
aito's Space Invaders descends on Japan, causing a shortage of 100-yen coins. Within a year, 60,000 Space Invaders machines in the United States tempt Americans to spend millions of quarters driving back the seemingly unstoppable ranks of attacking aliens. -
First ever 3-D game
"Battlezone" is the first 3-D game ever created. IT is set in a virtual battlefield and was later enhanced by the US government for training exercises. -
Tetris
Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov creates Tetris, a simple but addictive puzzle game. The game leaks out from behind the Iron Curtain, and four years later, Nintendo bundles it with every new Game Boy. -
RPG games
Shigeru Miyamoto creates "Legend of Zelda" and SSI wins the video game license for "Dungeons and Dragons" and Sierra"s "Leisure Suit Larry". -
Relaxing video game
Microsoft bundles a video game version of the classic card game solitaire with Windows 3.0. Millions of users who would not normally pick up a game console find they enjoy playing computer games. Solitaire becomes one of the most popular electronic games ever and provides a gaming model for quick, easy-to-play, casual games like Bejeweled. -
First 64-bit console
Atari releases the Jaguar, attempting to be the first 64-bit console on the market. The product actually runs on two 32-bit processors. -
Best player in the world
Machine triumphs over man as IBM's supercomputer chess program Deep Blue defeats world champion Gary Kasparov in a match. -
Not enough for demand
Sony`s Playstation 2 launches in the U.S for 299.99 and is sold out by early morning. Since the demand is so high and only 500,000 units are available, it is very difficult to buy a unit this first shipment. -
Future of handheld games
Nintendo maintains its dominance of the handheld market with the Nintendo DS, an easy-to-use, portable gaming system packed with two processors, two screens, multiplayer capabilities, and a stylus for the touchscreen. Great games like Super Mario Kart DS helped too. -
Rock Band
Grab your guitar, microphone, bass, or drums, and start playing Rock Band. That's what millions of would-be musicians did with Harmonix's hit title -
Minecraft
The indie game movement comes of age with the tremendous popularity of Minecraft, the addictive brick-building game from Swedish developer Markus Persson. -
Fantasy World
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim showcases the beauty, majesty, and massiveness of video games as players explore a seemingly endless, beautifully rendered fantasy world -
Dramatic Stories
Gone Home, The Last of Us, and Papers, Please usher in a new wave of mature video game stories that confront players with tough emotional choices in ethically-complex worlds.
