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First Video Game Invented
Physicist Willy Higinbotham invents the first "video game" at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. His game, a table tennis-like game, was played on an oscilloscope. -
First Video Game Arcade
Computer Space becomes first video arcade game ever released. 1500 games are distributed. Public consensus is that it is too difficult to play. -
First Few Home Video Game Systems
Magnavox's Odyssey, the first home video game system, is showcased at a convention in Burlingame, CA, and is released to the public later that year. Bushnell and Dabney found Atari. They name the company after a term from the Japanese game "Go". "Atari" is equivalent to "check" in a chess game. Al Alcorn is hired by Atari to program video games. The first game created by Atari is Pong. Ping-Pong, the original name, is already copyrighted, so the makers name it Pong after the sound of a ball hi -
First 3D Game Ever Created
3D Monster Maze was the first ever game released on a commercial games machine that was in 3D. It was developed by Malcolm Evans in 1981 for the Sinclair ZX81 platform. The game awarded points for each step the player took without getting caught by the Tyrannosaurus Rex that hunted them in the 16 by 16 cell, randomly generated maze. -
First Online Game
‘SuperSet software’, a small company founded in 1981 in Utah, were responsible for the first ever game featuring networked game play. The text-based game, Snipes, was played between multiple people on multiple IBM personal computer systems in 1983. It was done to test and demonstrate the capabilities of the new IBM machine and the system, though crude, was the beginning of the online gaming we experience today. -
First 8 Bit Game System
The “bit” of a machine basically refers to the speed of the microprocessor inside it. An 8 bit processor can access 8 bits of data in a single operation, whilst a 16 bit processor can access 16 bits of data and so on. The advancement in “bits” of video game systems meant that graphics and game play quickly improved. Strictly speaking, the ‘Nintendo Entertainment System’ was the first successful 8 bit machine, selling nearly 62 million units to date and being Nintendo’s top selling system. Howeve -
First Game to Feature Blood and Gore
Chiller was the first video game to ever feature blood or gore. Released in 1986 on arcade machines, it featured a light gun with the player taking control of a character and shooting everything on screen (including ghosts, zombies and humans). Some of the graphics represented flesh being ripped off in chunks as well as dismemberment. It was considered so bad, at the time, that it is the only game ever to be permanently banned in the UK. -
First 16-bit Game System
The ‘TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem’ was released in Japan in 1978 under the “awesome” name ‘PC Engine’. It was made by NEC and was the first ever system to feature an optional CD module, or in short, play games from CDs. This meant more storage, cheaper costs and better sound for the TurboGrafx games. Also, interestingly, the console holds the Guinness world record for being the smallest games console ever made at just 14 cm x 14 cm x 3.8 cm. To date, 10 million units have been sold.
