Timeline of Video Games

1960's

• 1961--MIT students made up the game Spacewar
  
• 1966--Ralph Baer created the video game called Chase
  
• 1967--Bill Harrison created the light gun and developed video games with Bill Rusch


• 1968--Protype was completed for games like table tennis and and target shooting games


• 1969--Ken Thompson produced a game called Space Travel

1970's

• Many areas came out this decade for video games, such as handhelds, computers, and arcade machines


• 1971--Galaxy Game, this was based on Spacewar. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created the acrade version of Spacewar and called it Computer Space.


• 1972--Atari was founded. First video game with sucess was Atari Pong.


• 1978--Golden Age: Release of Space Invaders by Taito, Atari released Asteroids


• 1979--Color arcade games came alive with Pacman

1980's

• 1980--Mattel introduced Intellvision, brought the "8-Bit Era"
• 1980--Defender was the game that established the scrolling shooter
• 1980--Battlezone used wireframe vector graphics
• 1980--Zork was released as the first game for the adventure genre
• 1980--Nintendo began to make handheld games
• 1981--3D Monster Maze was the first 3D game for the home computer
• 1982--Dungeons and Dragons came upon the scene and added weapons and monsters
• 1982--Pole Position brought the "rear-view racer format"
• 1982--ColecoVision sales took off
• 1982--Gaming computers came about like Commodore 64, Apple II, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum
• 1982--Journey Escape was released for the Atari 2600 console, and featured the band Journey
• 1983--Dragon's Lair was the first game to introduce full motion video
• 1983--Snipes was created by SuperSet Software to test the new IBM PC. Snipes was the inspiration for Novell Netware
• 1984--Sierra's King's Quest featured third person perspective
• 1985--Beginning of the Third Generation. Nintendo came out with the Super Mario Brothers
• 1986--Dragon Quest Series made a debut which was a role-playing game
• 1986--Final Fantasy Series, Legend of Zelda
• 1987--Final Fantasy Series, Metal Gear
• 1987--Maniac Mansion allowed the point-click interface
• 1988--Nintendo published it's first magazine; Nintendo Power
• 1989--Capcom released Sweet Home

1990's

• 1990--Shareware came out with Apogee and Epic Megagames
• 1990--Maxis came out with the "Sims"
• 1992--Release of the game, Dune II, real-time strategy
• 1992--Alone in the Dark was one of the games to come out of the survival horror genre
• 1993--Simulation games came along like Myst
• 1993--Atari released Atari Jaguar
• 1994--Sega released Sega Saturn
• 1995--Sony came onto the scene with Playstation
• 1996--Quake became the first online game to have first- person shooters
• 1996--Nintendo came out with Nintendo 64
• 1997--Nintendo 64's Golden Eye 007 brought together headshots and first person shooter
• 1997--Final Fantasy VII made Playstation the most popular console for videogames
• 1998--The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was Nintendo's first 3D game
• 1998--Nintendo game out with the handheld; Game Boy Color
• 1998--Konami brought Dance Dance Revolution from the UK
• 1999--Counter-Strike was the most popular first person shooter game which in turn created Half-Life

2000's

• 2000--Sony came out with the Playstation 2
• 2000--Nintendo brought out the their first disc-based console with the GameCube
• 2000--Online games became more popular with World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI
• 2000--Online gambling has made mark with casual gaming with Bejewled and Diner Dash
• 2001--Microsoft introduces themselves to the scene of gaming and came out with the Xbox
• 2004--Sony produced Playstation Portable
• 2005--Microsoft came out with Xbox 360
• 2006--Sony then came out with Playstation 3
• 2007--Nintendo had a new revolution console, the Wii
• 2008--Harmonix produced Rock Band
• 2008--Wii has become the new genre with Wii Fit
• 2001--Nintendo came out with the Game Boy Advance
• 2004--Red Octane surprised consumers with the Guitar Hero