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Spacewar! is the first video game created,
Spacewar!, created in 1962 by Steve Russell and expanded by other colleagues, was the first video game ever created. Thus, this video game marks the beginning of all video game history. -
More games, such as Pong, Maze War, and Breakout are released
Pong, Maze War, and Breakout become popular games at arcades, which were all the rage at the time. This shifts video games into more commercial uses, with Pong being one of the first commercially successful games. -
Pac-Man, Rogue, and Zork are released, creating new entire genres of video games
Graphics for video games are beginning to be filled with more colour compared to the black and white Pong. Pac-Man became a staple arcade game in video game history, while Rogue and Zork brought the creation of whole genres, specifically roguelikes, rogue, and interactive fiction/choose-your-own-adventure. -
Video Game Crash of 1983
The oversaturation of the video game market, many video games having poor quality by being too confusing, and the fad of arcades lead to the Video Game Crash of 1983. Said crash brought the video game industry dangerously close to ending in the West, until the video game market is rekindled with the release of the NES made by Nintendo. -
NES is released along with Super Mario Bros.; the home console gains popularity
With the release of the home console NES, the era of the once popular arcades would come to a close. Super Mario Bros. breaks sales records and was uncontested for a long time. Popular games that are now classics today were released for the NES in the late 1980s, such as The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Metroid. The JRPG Final Fantasy's first game was released in 1987, and Dungeon Master for the west, both further pushing the popularity of RPGs. -
New generation consoles are released for the 1990s
The Playstation and Sega Saturn are released in 1994, while The Nintendo 64 is released in 1996. Playstation and Sega Saturn shift from the cartridge based gaming to compact CDs, yet Nintendo 64 continues to use cartridges to store games. Unfortunately, the Sega Saturn was deemed a commercial failure, and the Dreamcast coming out in 1999 would be Sega's last console. -
Video games make a shift to 3D graphics (1996 - 2000)
Super Mario 64 was released, making use of 3D graphics to create a platformer and was hugely successful. More and more games are making use of 3D graphics in video games, as seen with FPS games such as GoldenEye 007 and Quake. -
Wii gets released; is a pioneer for motion based gaming
The Wii was released in 2006, and came with the title Wii Sports, becoming a pioneer for motion based gaming on home consoles. Wii Sports became a smash hit and was widely popular, and other video game giants such as Microsoft and Sony created their own motion based gaming devices such as the Kinect for Xbox and the Playstation Move for well, Playstation. Present day VR headsets could also be tied back to the wii. -
The growth of mobile gaming (2009 - present)
There are uncertainties as to whether mobile gaming can be considered "true" to video games, as in the present day, many of these games contain microtransactions or business models that can be pay to win rather than pay to play. However, mobile gaming has without a doubt skyrocketed in popularity in the present and is a major platform for many games to be played on. The release of widely successful games on mobile devices such as Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Clash of Clans increased popularity. -
Minecraft, a simplistic yet replayable game is released
From the idea of one man called "Notch" (Markus Persson), the limitless sandbox game Minecraft is released. While graphics are not it's strongest point, infinite worlds and random generation gave endless possibilities for gameplay. This indie game was originally made by one person, but eventually worked on as a team and has now sold over 200 million copies on many consoles and PCs as of 2020. Even being near a decade old, Minecraft is still the same game it always was and loved by many.
