Computer Games - PC games have always been commonly referred to as computer games since they are played on personal

computers.

Video games – While PC games are played on computers, video games are played on consoles, an independent setup of hardware.

First Video Games

1. 1952 | OXO or Tic-Tac-Toe – created by British Professor Alexander Shafto “Sandy Douglas”.

a.
2. 1958 | Tennis for Two – created by William Higginbotham

a.
3. 1961 | Spacewar! – Created by Steve Russell
a. It is the first video game that could be played on multiple computer installations.

b.
Dawn of Home Consoles

1. 1966 – Ralph Baer, Father of Video Games

2. 1970 – Ralph Baer developed “Brown Fox” which evolved into “Magnavox Odyssey” which was sold in 1972
3. 1972 – Nolan Bushnell and Teb Dabney founded Atari
4. 1972 - Attari’s Pong was inspired by one of 28 games of Odyssey was released
5. 1975 – Atari released home version of Pong

a.
6. 1976 – Magnavox sued Atari for Copyright Infringement
7. 1977 – Magnavox wins and Atari paid license fee of 700,000USD
8. 1977 – Atari Released the “Atari 2600”

a.
9. 1978 – Space Invaders was released
10. 1979 – Activision, First Third-Party game dev
11. 1980 – Pacman introduced in the US
12. 1981 – Donkey Kong, released in July
13. 1982 – Microsoft Flight Simulator Ver. 1 released
14. 1983 – NA video game industry crash because of overhyped low quality games. Most infamous is E.T.
 a.
b. Video Game Crash Factors:
i. High Priced Games
ii. Overreliance on Arcade Games
iii. Consumer Backlash
iv. Media Coverage
15. 1985 – Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), called Famicom in Japan came to US

a.
16. 1960 – Service Games or Super Electric Game Machine (SEGA) founded in June 3, 1960
17. 1989 – Released Genesis console in NA as a successor to its 1986 SEGA Master System

a.
18. 1991 – SEGA’s Sonic the Hedgehog compete with Nintendo’s Mario

a.
19. 1991 – Nintendo released Super NES in NA

a.
20. 1991 – Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, successor to SF became highest selling game in SNES
21. 1992 – Mortal Combat, developed by Midway released
22.
23. 1993 – Due to EXTREME violence and gore, Video Game Rating Council (VGRC) was established
24. 1994 – VGRC was replaced by Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
25. 1994 – Sony developed PS1 in Japan on December 3, 1994

a.
26. 1995 – SEGA released Sega Saturn

a.
27. 1996 – Nintendo 64 (N64) was released as a successor to the SNES

a.
28. 1999 – Sega Dreamcast was released on September 9, 1999 as the last console of SEGA. The Dreamcast was ahead of its time for its
capability for online gaming

a.
29. 2000 – Sony released Playstation 2 (PS2) on March 4, 2000. Sold 155M copies, production run until January 2013. Supported various
media formats such as DVD, CD, CD-R/CD-RW. Supported Backwards Compatibility allowing it to play PS1 Game.

a.
30. 2001 – Nintendo GameCube was released. It used optical disks instead of ROM Cartridges

a.
31. 2001 – Microsoft Xbox was released by Microsoft on November 15, 2001. Xbox have built-in hard drive, ethernet port for online gaming,
and customized OS based on Windows

a.
32. 2005 – Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005 in US. Memory can be expanded via external hard drives. Xbox Live Service is a
main selling point because of its features especially the Achievement system. Xbox Live Vision Camera and Kinect, a motion-sensing
input device
 a.
33. 2006 – Playstation 3 (PS3) was released on November 11, 2006 in Japan and November 17, 2006 in US. It has PlayStation Network
which offered services similar to Xbox Live Service. It also has the Playstation Move, a motion-sensing controller system.

a.
34. 2006 – Nintendo Wii was released by Nintendo in 2006. Known for its motion sensing controller, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk

a.

35. 2012 – Nintendo Wii U is the successor to the Nintendo Wii. Released in 2012. It was a commercial failure.

a.
36. 2013 – Playstation 4 was released in 2013. Improved hardware.

a.
37. 2013 – Xbox One was released in 2013. Still support Kinect.

a.
38. 2017 – Nintendo Switch was released. 4K-ready console Xbox One X in late 2017
39. 2020 – Xbox Series X and Series S for Microsoft. Playstation 5 for Sony.