History of Computer Games

Ping Pong (1958)

Dec 31, 1958

William Higinbotham created the first video game ever in 1958. His game was called "Ping Pong" or "Tennis For Two" It was created and played on a Brookhaven National Laboratory oscilloscope.

Tennis For Two (1958)

Dec 31, 1958

In 1958 "Ping Pong" Tennis was created. It was played on an Oscilloscope screen which was made by William Higinbotham.

SpaceWar! (1961)

Feb 14, 1961

In 1962, Steve Russell invented SpaceWar!. Spacewar! was the first game intended for use by a computer. Russell used an MIT PDP-1 mainframe computer to design his game.

Chase (1967)

Mar 10, 1967

In 1967, Ralph Baer wrote the first video game played on a television set, a game called Chase. Ralph Baer was then part of Sanders Associates, a military electronics firm.

Computer Space (1971)

Nov 14, 1971

In 1971, Nolan Bushnell together with Ted Dabney, created the first arcade game. It was called Computer Space, based on Steve Russell's earlier game of Spacewar!.

Odyssey Complex (1972)

May 13, 1972

This was the first comercially available gome video game for TV. It was called Odyssey - Complex, it had many components and was quite expensive.

Pong (1972)

Dec 31, 1972

Nolan Bushnell forms Atari to develop games, and produces Pong, a simple tennis game for arcade consoles.

Atari (1972)

Dec 31, 1972

In 1972, Nolan Bushnell forms Atari to develop games, It then produced Pong, a Tennis game played on Arcades.

Japanese Game Called "Go" (1974)

Jul 25, 1974

Nintendo, a Japanese toy manufacturer produce an electronic version of the game "Go"

Home Version Of Pong (1974)

Dec 17, 1974

Atari produce a home version of Pong

Space Invaders (1978)

Dec 31, 1978

Space Invaders was released in 1978 by Tatio. Two micro computers were released for commercial sale, The Commadore PET and the Atari.

Pacman (1980)

May 22, 1980

Pacman was released in 1980, in Japan. It was played on a home micro-computer.

Mario (1983)

May 22, 1983

Nintendo release their first computer in 1983, and along with that, they release 'Mario'

Sega Genesis (1989)

Jan 9, 1989

Sega releases the Console: Sega Genesis.

Game Boy (1989)

Jun 14, 1989

The first hand-held machine called a 'Nintendo Game Boy' - Tetris was produced for the Game Boy which was produced in Russia.

Sonic (1991)

Dec 31, 1991

In 1991, Sonic was Produced for the Sega Genesis.

The Playstation (1994)

Dec 3, 1994

Sony released the Playstation in 1994 in Japan.

Nintendo 64 (1996)

Nov 25, 1996

In 1996, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 (N64).

Dreamcast (1999)

Oct 31, 1999

Dreamcast, a 128 bit processor was produced and released in the UK.

Playstation 2 (2001)

Jan 23, 2001

In 2001, the Playstation 2 (PS2) was released.

The Xbox (2001)

Oct 13, 2001

Microsoft release the Xbox. The game 'Halo' is released at Launch which boosts their sales.

Nintendo GameCube (2001)

Nov 18, 2001

in 2001, Nintendo releases the Nintendo Gamecube.

Playstation 3 (2006)

Nov 11, 2006

The Playstation 3 (PS3) was released on Nov 11th 2006. The new technology this console had caused problems in manufacturing, Later on, in Early December, Sony announced that there were no more production issues.

Xbox 360 (2006)

Dec 2, 2006

In 2006, the Xbox 360 was released, it was released one year before it's rival (Playstation) and sales have still continued to stay high even after releases like the Nintendo Wii and the Playstation 3.

Nintendo Wii (2006)

Dec 8, 2006

Nintendo released the Nintendo Wii in 2006.