Believe it or not, video games have been around for six decades. And as technology has improved, so have the games. Some milestones:
1. Tennis for Two, 1958. Created in a lab by a nuclear physicist, and played on an oscilloscope, Tennis for Two is considered by many to be the first video game.
2. Spacewar, 1962. Developed by MIT computer programmers, Spacewar proved so popular on college campuses it was turned into the first stand-alone arcade game by Nolan Bushnell a decade later.
3. Pong, 1972. Based on his success with Spacewar, Nolan Bushnell forged ahead with a simpler arcade game called Pong, which was inspired by a home video game called Ping Pong. Countless knockoffs ensued, and the video game industry was born.
4. Space Invaders, 1978. The Japanese import was so popular, it pushed video games out of arcades and into pizzerias and grocery stores.
5. Pac-Man, 1980. Originally titled Puck-Man, the Puck was changed to Pac for obvious reasons, and millions of quarters later Pac-Man reigns as the most successful arcade game of all time.
6. Ultima, 1980. Dungeons and Dragons comes to video games in this role-playing game written by a Texas teen that defined the genre for decades to come, including one of the first massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG), Ultima Online in 1997.
7. Donkey Kong, 1981. The birth of two video game legends: Mario, referred to as 'jumpman,' and Nintendo.
8. Super Mario Bros., 1986. As a pack-in game in the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Mario Bros. moved millions of systems in the United States alone, and saved a depressed video game industry.
9. Tetris, 1987. An insidiously addictive puzzle game that made video game junkies out of nongamers.
10. John Madden Football, 1988. And thus, the best-selling video game franchise is born ... on the Commodore 64.
11. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, 1992. Street Fighter II was far better than its predecessor, and is credited with making the 2D fighting genre popular for years to come.
12. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, 1992. The Zelda RPG (role-playing game) series comes to the Super Nintendo System, and is considered by many to be the greatest game of all time.
13. Castle Wolfenstein 3D, 1992. Without it, there would be no Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, GoldenEye, Halo, and Bioshock.
14. Grand Theft Auto, 1997. The controversial and popular series began life as a controversial PC game before being ported to the PlayStation a year later.
15. The Sims, 2000. Millions of real people loved playing god to simulated people, and made The Sims the best-selling computer game of all time.
16. World of Warcraft, 2004. World of Warcraft was not the first MMORPG, but it's the best and by far the most popular. It even spawned an Emmy-winning South Park episode.
17. Guitar Hero, 2005; Wii Sports, 2006. The nontraditional methods of video game play offered by Guitar Hero (a guitar controller) and Wii Sports (motion-based controllers) reached out to nongamers in a way nothing has before.
18. What's Next?...........
Image Source : Google
No comments:
Post a Comment