-
Tennis for Two
Tennis for Two is the first video game, created in 1958 by William Higinbotham. The game simulates a game of tennis, and players can use knobs to adjust the angle of their shot and a button to hit the ball over the net. The game was displayed on an oscilloscope and was on display at Brookhaven National Library's annual public exhibition. Tennis for Two is considered the first video game because it was the first to be created for entertainment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two -
Pong
Pong is similar to Tennis for Two, but has several significant differences. Pong featured sounds when the ball hit the edges of the screen or the "paddles", and over time the ball's speed increased, making the game more challenging. Female Pong players were better at the game than men because of their dexterity, and it became socially acceptable for women to invite men over to play Pong. Pong also only required one hand to play, so it was a fun social game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong -
Asteroids
Asteroids was released by Atari, a popular game company in the 70s and 80s, and it was based off of the game developed by Steve "Slug" Russell. In the game, the player is a spaceship that has to shoot and blow up asteroids and flying saucers heading towards it without getting blown up by the asteroids or the flying saucers, who will shoot back at the spaceship. Asteroids was a major hit of the 70s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_(video_game) -
Pac-Man
Pac-Man is a Japanese game that was released in the U.S. in October, 1980. Originally called Puck-Man, developers were worried gamers would change the first letter of his name to something less pleasant, so they called him Pac-Man. Pac-Man is the first video game to have a character and to sell merchandise. Pac-Man has spawned several TV shows, and a hit single called "Pac-Man Fever" as well as a follow-up game, Ms. Pac-Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man -
Galaga
Galaga is a shoot-'em-up game developed by the Japanese company Namco and first released in the U.S. in December of 1981. In the game, the player is a spaceship that has to move at the bottom of the screen to shoot aliens at the top of the screen. Galaga is famous for being the first game to include a high score, making the game addictive to players who wanted to beat the high score. Namco also created Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaga -
Frogger
Frogger was released in the U.S. by the video game company Sega. In the game, the player controls frogs who have to get from one end of the screen to the other while avoiding cars on roads and a river full of other hazards. Frogger is considered one of many major hit video games of the eighties and is still popular today. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger -
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
The popularity of Steven Spielberg's film, E.T., led Atari to attempt to develop a video game based on the movie in time to be released for Christmas. However, Atari only had 5 and a half weeks to develop the game, and the game ended up being one of the biggest commercial failures in video game history, leading to the "death" of the Atari company. Due to its failure, millions of cartridges of the game were buried in the New Mexico desert. http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/1727100/edit -
Pitfall!
Pitfall! was one of Atari's successful games from the eighties. The game was released by Activision and is one of the eighties major hit video games. Pitfall! is a side-scrolling action game, where the player controls a character (Pitfall Harry) who has to navigate through a jungle and avoid hazards such as pitfalls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitfall! -
Universal Studios vs. Nintendo
Universal Studios sued Nintendo over the video game Donkey Kong, claiming it infringed on their copyright for the 1933 movie, King Kong. Nintendo ended up winning the case because Universal brought the case to court knowing the King Kong was in the public domain, and Universal only sued Nintendo because they wanted the money they would get if they won the case. Nintendo was awarded $1.8 million in damages, and Donkey Kong is still here today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeKYPic50h4 -
Tetris
Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov designed and programmed the game Tetris, which he based off of a traditional Russian game called pentominoes. Tetris was the first entertainment software to be exported from the Soviet Union to the U.S., however, the Soviet Union stole Pajitnov's rights to Tetris and sold them around the world to game industries. Pajitnov didn't get the rights back for ten years. Today Pajitnov makes Tetris for Microsoft in the U.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris -
Super Mario Bros.
After Nintendo's success with Donkey Kong, they released a game that focused on Donkey Kong's hero. Super Mario Bros. made Donkey Kong's protagonist into Mario, a plumber who eats mushrooms, hits bricks, and searches castles to save a princess from Bowser. The multiplayer-version of the game introduced Mario's brother, Luigi. Super Mario Bros. is still spawning games that are as popular today as Super Mario Bros. was in the eighties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros. -
SimCity
SimCity was a city-building simulation game, and the first game in the SimCity series. Different from The Sims, which was released in 2000, SimCity lets players create a city and control the tax rate in the city, so the player can make money to build different structures that may be subject to natural disasters or gang violence, like in a real city. SimCity was released for computers and was very popular, spawning more Sim-based games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_(1989_video_game) -
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog is a game released by Sega. Sega wanted a game that would feature a character that would be the company's mascot, and so Sonic was created. Sonic collects rings for health and Sonic's actions of jumping and attacking are controlled with a single button. Sonic was popular because the gameplay was extremely fast-paced. Sonic is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(1991_video_game) -
Video Game Ratings
With the increase in video game quality in the 90's, the U.S. government became concerned about violence and sexual themes making young people more violent. Senator Joe Lieberman advocated for video game ratings that would warn consumers of content in video games, and the Entertainment Software Rating Board began creating video game content ratings in 1992. E for Everyone, T for Teens, and M for Mature are a few ratings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board -
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat was released by Midway as the first in the Mortal Kombat series of games. The game is a fighting game, and like a similar game, Street Fighter, came under fire for its violent content, which includes characters being able to commit "fatalities", with realistic violence and gore. Despite the controversial violence in the game, Mortal Kombat was extremely popular and even spawned a successful film adaptation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Kombat_(1992_video_game) -
Myst
Myst is a game developed by brothers Robyn and Rand Miller and released for the Mac OS. The game is an adventure puzzle video game, and has several endings depending on the actions of the player. It was a surprise hit, and was the most popular PC game before the release of The Sims in 2002. Myst was instrumental in driving adoption of CD-ROM format for games. A release of updated versions of Myst is scheduled in honor of the game's 25th anniversary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst -
Doom
Doom is considered to be the first first-person shooter video game, and it was the first game to be distributed via shareware. Doom was responsible for making shareware and first-person shooter games popular. Doom was and still is controversial due to the demonic enemies in the game and the high level of violence, blood, and gore in the game, and because of this, Doom was one of the first video games to receive an M rating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(1993_video_game) -
Tomb Raider
The Tomb Raider game follows the adventures of Lara Croft, an English archaeologist in search of ancient treasure. Tomb Raider is famous for featuring the first female protagonist in a video game (it took until 1996 here, people) and Tomb Raider is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Tomb Raider has several sequels. A Tomb Raider movie is currently playing in theaters, with Alicia Vikander starring as Lara Croft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_Raider_(1996_video_game) -
Xbox
The Xbox is a game console released by the company Microsoft. Microsoft developed the Xbox as competition to the Playstation, developed by Sony. The Xbox has since seen several updates, including the Xbox 360, the Xbox One, and the Xbox One X (my brother owns all of these consoles except the original Xbox). The Xbox is famous for being more than a game console, allowing users to connect to the Internet and other media like apps and streaming services. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox -
O'Bannon and Keller vs. Electronic Arts
Former college athletes Ed O'Bannon and Sam Keller sued EA and the Collegiate Licensing Company claiming that they weren't paid royalties for their likenesses being used in the video games NCAA Basketball and Football. They ended up settling out of court for an undisclosed amount of money in 2013, and EA announced it would not longer sell NCAA Football 2014. http://mentalfloss.com/article/55078/11-times-video-games-led-lawsuits
