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Machine to play game of Nim
Patent-machine to play NimFor the Westinghouse display at the World's Fair, Edward Condon designs a computer that plays the traditional game Nim in which players try to avoid picking u the last matchstick. -
Claude Shannon
Raw copy of articleClaude Shannon an American Mathmatician and electronic engineer published an article on "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess." later on that he year hima nd Alan Turing created chess programs for computers -
Black Jack
Programmers at New Mexico's Los Alamos laboratories, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, develop the first blackjack program on an IBM-701 computer. -
Bernstein Chess Program
Alex Bernstein writes the first complete computer chess program on an IBM-704 computer—a program advanced enough to evaluate four half-moves ahead.
Here IBM programmer Alex Bernstein playing his chess program at the console of the 704 mainframe. Bernstein told the computer what move to make by flipping the switches on the front panel. The program took about eight minutes to calculate each move. -
Inspiration for PONG
Willy Higinbotham creates a tennis game on an oscilloscope and analog computer for public demonstration at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958. Although dismantled two years later and largely forgotten, it anticipated later video games such as Pong. -
First Known Baseball Simulation
Oldest Known computer baseball simulationComputer programmer John Burgeson stays home sick from work at IBM and begins developing a computer baseball simulation. A month later (in January 1961), aided by his brother Paul, John runs this first-known baseball computer program on an IBM 1620 computer. -
Birth of BASIC
birth of BASICEveryone is a programmer. That's the creed of Dartmouth's John Kemeny who creates the computer time-share system and BASIC programming language at Dartmouth. Both make it easy for students to write computer games. Soon, countless games are being created. -
Games on TV
While waiting for a colleague at a New York City bus station, Ralph Baer conceives the idea of playing a video game on television. On September 1, he writes down his ideas that become the basis of his development of television video games. -
Magnavox Odyssey
Magnavox Promotion commercialThe Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. It was first demonstrated in April 1972[1] and released in August of that year, predating the Atari Pong home consoles by three years. -
101 Basic Computer Games
A year after launching the first general computer magazine, Creative Computing, David Ahl publishes 101 BASIC Computer Games, allowing gamers to become an ancient Sumerian king in HMRABI, find the creatures hiding in a grid in MUGWMP, and command the North versus the South in CIVILW. -
ATARI
Atari 2600 commercials (collection)Atari releases the Video Computer System, more commonly known as Atari 2600. Featuring a joystick, interchangeable cartridges, games in color, and switches for selecting games and setting difficulty levels, it makes millions of Americans home video game players. -
Space Invaders
Relaesed in arcades by Taito in Japan in 1978. Within a year over 60,000 games released in the United States. -
Pac Man
History of Pac ManA missing slice of pizza inspires Namco’s Toru Iwatani to create Pac-Man, which goes on sale in July 1980. That year a version of Pac-Man for Atari 2600 becomes the first arcade hit to appear on a home console. Two years later, Ms. Pac-Man strikes a blow for gender equality by becoming the best-selling arcade game of all time. -
Nintendo
The Nintendo Gaming system was released in the United States on October 18, 1985 in the New York area. It's main selling point was the accesories it came with the gun for Duck Hunt and R.O.B. Robot Operating Buddy for Gyromite. -
Madden Footbal
Intro to first ever Madden footballJohn Madden Football is released this is the first of the many succesful Madden football games. The first one did not have any real NFL teams due to NFL licenses. -
Gameboy
Nintendo's Game Boy popularizes handheld gaming. Game Boy is not the first handheld system with interchangeable cartridges. It was first released in Japan in April of 89 than US in July of 89 and than Europe in September of 90. -
Rating System for video games
Concern about bloodshed in games such as Mortal Kombat prompts United States Senate hearings on video game violence. The controversy riles the industry and prompts the creation of a video game rating system. This was introduced by Sega they had three different ratings: GA-General Audiences, MA-13-Mature Audiences, and MA-17-Not appropriate for minors. -
Sony Playstation
Sony gets into the video game actio and release their own console system- the Sony Playsation this is the first in a long line of Sony gaming systems. -
Lara Croft
Lara Croft debuts as the star of Eidos's adventure game Tomb Raider. Players love her, but critics charge that she's an example of sexism in video games. The central character in Tomb Raider is the British archaeologist Lara Croft, and it includes comic books, novels and ultimately a movie. -
Xbox
Original commercialMicrosoft enters the video game market with Xbox and hit games like Halo: Combat Evolved. The Xbox was the first console offered by an American company since Atari Jaguar which ended sales in 1998. -
Xbox live
Xbox live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system in November 2002. -
Nintendo Wii
Nintendo Wii gets gamers off the couch and moving with innovative, motion-sensitive remotes. Not only does Nintendo make gaming more active, it also appeals to millions of people who never before liked video games. The Wii introduced the Wii Remote controller, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and which detects movement in three dimensions. -
Minecraft
The indie game movement comes of age with the tremendous popularity of Minecraft, the addictive brick-building game from Swedish developer Markus Persson. The creative and building aspects of Minecraft enable players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering, crafting, and combat. -
Call-of-Duty
Call-of-Duty: Ghost becomes the number one game in America. The original was released in 2003 and up to this date there are 10 games in this series. -
Video Game Industry
The experts expect sales for the total worldwide gaming market to be $91.95 billion in 2015. A long way from where it started.
