1970s

Andy Davidson born

Worms creator

Bank Switching

Bank switching allows systems with limited address space to access more memory by swapping different memory regions into the same address range.

Data Compression

Compression techniques allowed game developers to fit larger games into limited ROM and RAM by encoding data more efficiently, from simple RLE to sophisticated algorithms.

Double Buffering

Double buffering uses two screen areas—drawing to one while displaying the other—eliminating the visual tearing that occurs when updating the screen mid-display.

Double Buffering

Double buffering drew to an off-screen buffer while displaying another, eliminating visual tearing and enabling smooth animation even on slow hardware.

Educational Software

Educational software encompassed everything from typing tutors to language learning programs, promising that computers could transform education.

Game Design

Game design encompasses the rules, systems, and experiences that make games engaging, evolving from intuitive craft to studied discipline with established principles and vocabulary.

John Carmack born

The engine architect

LJN

The Acclaim-owned toy company notorious for producing consistently poor licensed NES games, whose rainbow logo became a warning sign for quality-conscious gamers.

Nicola Salmoria born

MAME's founder

Nintendo R&D1

Nintendo Research & Development 1 created the Game Boy, *Metroid*, and pioneered handheld gaming under the legendary Gunpei Yokoi.

Object Pooling

Object pooling pre-allocates and reuses game objects instead of creating and destroying them, avoiding memory fragmentation and allocation overhead.

Online Multiplayer

Online multiplayer evolved from university networks through dial-up modems to broadband, fundamentally changing how and what we play.

PAL vs NTSC

The video standard differences that caused European gamers to experience games 17% slower than intended, with wrong-pitched music and bordered screens.

Soviet Computing

The parallel computing culture that developed in the USSR, featuring cloned Western designs, original architectures like the BK-0010, and unique software including the original Tetris.

Tim Follin born

The virtuoso of limited hardware

Tim Sweeney born

From ZZT to Unreal

1971

6 events

Arcade Games

Coin-operated arcade games shaped video game design through quarter-munching difficulty, social play, and hardware beyond home capabilities.

Arcade Hardware

Arcade hardware evolved from discrete logic through custom boards to standardised platforms, always pushing graphical boundaries ahead of home systems.

Educational Gaming

Educational games sought to make learning engaging, from *The Oregon Trail* to *Reader Rabbit* to modern attempts at gamified education.

Martin Hollis born

GoldenEye's architect

The Oregon Trail

The 1971 educational game that taught American children about westward expansion while killing their virtual families with disease.

World

Intel releases the 4004 microprocessor

The first commercially available microprocessor launches, putting a complete CPU on a single chip and making personal computing possible.

1972

8 events

Atari

Atari created the video game industry with Pong, dominated it with the 2600, and nearly destroyed it through hubris and shovelware.

Jeroen Tel born

The Dutch master of SID

Jesper Kyd born

Scene to AAA composer

Michel Ancel born

Creator of Rayman

Paddle Controller

The rotary controller that defined early gaming from Pong to Breakout, offering precise single-axis movement.

Pixel Art

Pixel art places individual pixels deliberately to create images within severe resolution and colour constraints, a necessity become art form.

Pong

Two paddles, one ball, endless quarters—Atari's Pong proved video games could be a business and launched an industry.

Tomohiro Nishikado born

Creator of Space Invaders

1973

4 events

FM Synthesis

FM synthesis creates complex timbres by modulating one oscillator's frequency with another, powering the Yamaha sound chips in computers and consoles.

Hudson Soft

Hudson Soft created Bomberman, co-developed the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 with NEC, and pioneered multiplayer gaming with their iconic bomb-laying franchise.

MECC

Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium created *The Oregon Trail* and pioneered educational software that taught generations of American students.

World

OPEC oil embargo triggers energy crisis

Arab oil producers embargo Western nations, quadrupling oil prices and triggering a global recession that reshapes the world economy.

1974

5 events

Irem

Irem developed influential arcade games including Moon Patrol's parallax scrolling and R-Type's demanding shoot-em-up design, establishing techniques that defined their genres.

Racing Games

Racing games evolved from text-based simulations to photorealistic experiences, spanning arcade fun to hardcore simulation.

Turn-Based Combat

Turn-based combat gives players time to think, transforming RPG battles into puzzles where party composition, ability selection, and resource management matter more than reflexes.

Williams Electronics

Williams Electronics defined arcade gaming's golden age with Defender, Robotron 2084, and Joust, pushing technical boundaries while creating intensely challenging gameplay experiences.

Zilog

Zilog created the Z80 processor that powered the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and countless arcade machines—enabling a generation of European home computing.

1975

8 events

6502: The People's Processor

The MOS 6502 powered the Apple II, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and NES—making home computing affordable and defining a generation of programmers.

Collision Detection

Collision detection determined when game objects touched, using techniques from simple bounding boxes to pixel-perfect checks, each trading accuracy for performance.

Enix

Enix published Dragon Quest, Japan's most beloved RPG series, establishing the template for Japanese role-playing games before merging with rival Square in 2003.

Lookup Tables

Lookup tables pre-calculated expensive operations like trigonometry and multiplication, storing results for instant retrieval on processors too slow for real-time maths.

Microsoft

Microsoft's journey in gaming spans from MS-DOS enabling early PC games to Xbox becoming a major console platform, acquiring studios like Bethesda and Activision.

Self-Modifying Code

Self-modifying code changed its own instructions at runtime, enabling impossible optimisations on 8-bit systems by treating code as data.

User Groups

Local computer clubs that provided community, technical support, software sharing, and social connection before the internet - the original computing communities.

World

Fall of Saigon ends Vietnam War

North Vietnamese forces capture Saigon, ending two decades of American involvement in Vietnam and reshaping US foreign policy.

1976

5 events

Breakout

Atari's influential 1976 arcade game that spawned an entire genre and was famously prototyped by Steve Wozniak.

Colossal Cave Adventure

The 1976 text adventure that invented an entire genre, combining cave exploration with fantasy elements to create interactive fiction.

Data East

Data East developed diverse arcade games from BurgerTime's food-based platforming to Bad Dudes' action brawling, creating memorable experiences across multiple genres.

Steering Wheel Controller

The specialised input device that brought realistic driving control from arcades to living rooms, evolving from simple spinners to force feedback systems.

Z80: Zilog's Legendary Processor

The Zilog Z80 powered the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, and countless arcade machines—becoming the CPU of choice for European home computing.

1977

16 events

Apple II

Steve Wozniak's Apple II brought personal computing to homes and schools, establishing Apple and proving computers could be consumer products.

Atari 2600

The Atari VCS brought arcade gaming home, establishing the cartridge-based console market before hubris brought it crashing down.

Audio Programming

Audio programming on vintage hardware demanded intimate knowledge of sound chips, precise timing, and clever techniques to achieve musical results.

Brazil Gaming

The unique Brazilian gaming ecosystem created by the 1977-1992 import ban, featuring domestic clones, Tectoy's Master System dominance, and a distinct gaming culture.

Character Graphics

Character graphics used redefined text characters as game graphics, enabling colourful displays with minimal memory on systems designed primarily for text.

Flight Stick

The specialised joystick for flight and space combat games, evolving from simple sticks to full HOTAS cockpit setups.

Hardware Scrolling

Hardware scroll registers let the display shift smoothly pixel-by-pixel without copying memory—essential for fast, smooth side-scrolling games.

Raster Effects

Raster effects change graphics parameters during screen drawing, creating colour bars, split screens, and effects beyond normal hardware limits.

Raster Interrupts

Raster interrupts trigger code at exact screen positions, enabling split-screen effects, colour bars, and multiplexed sprites that defined 8-bit graphics.

Sprites

Sprites are hardware-supported graphical objects that move independently of the background, fundamental to 2D game graphics across platforms.

Toru Iwatani born

Creator of Pac-Man

TRS-80

The TRS-80 brought personal computing to Radio Shack stores across America, becoming an unexpected bestseller and establishing the home computer market.

Type-in Programs

Programs published in magazines for readers to manually type into their computers, teaching programming through hands-on experience while providing free software before cover tapes.

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics drew games using lines rather than pixels, creating distinctive glowing visuals in arcade classics like Asteroids, Tempest, and Star Wars before raster displays dominated.

VSync

VSync synchronised game updates with the monitor's vertical refresh, preventing screen tearing and providing consistent timing for game logic.

World

Star Wars released

George Lucas's space opera transforms cinema, creates the modern blockbuster, and inspires a generation of game developers.

1978

22 events

Acorn Computers

Acorn Computers built the BBC Micro, won hearts in British schools, and spawned ARM—the processor architecture now in billions of devices.

Arcade to Console

Arcade-to-console conversion defined gaming for decades, as players sought home versions of coin-op experiences—often with compromises, occasionally with enhancements.

Attract Mode

Attract mode displayed automated gameplay demonstrations on idle arcade machines, enticing players to insert coins through flashy visuals, high score tables, and gameplay previews.

AY-3-8910: The Sound of the 80s

General Instrument's AY-3-8910 brought three-voice synthesis to home computers and arcades—powering the 128K Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, and countless coin-ops.

AY-3-8912

A pin-reduced variant of the AY-3-8910 with identical sound capabilities, commonly found in the ZX Spectrum 128K and other space-constrained designs.

Dan Bunten born

Multiplayer pioneer

Dave Theurer born

Atari arcade designer

Ed Logg born

Atari's prolific designer

Enemy Design

Enemy design creates opponents that challenge, teach, and engage players through behaviour patterns, visual communication, and balanced difficulty.

Epyx

Epyx created the Games series (Summer, Winter, California) and innovative action titles, pioneering sports compilations and establishing the joystick-waggling gameplay that defined an era.

Frame Animation

Frame animation creates movement by displaying sequences of pre-drawn sprite images, with quality determined by frame count, timing, and artistic principles borrowed from traditional animation.

Hitboxes

Hitboxes define the invisible collision boundaries around game objects, determining when attacks connect, pickups are collected, and characters collide with the world.

Melbourne House

Melbourne House published some of the 8-bit era's most acclaimed games, from Way of the Exploding Fist to The Hobbit.

MMORPG History

The evolution of massively multiplayer online role-playing games from text-based MUDs through graphical worlds like Ultima Online and EverQuest to the phenomenon of World of Warcraft.

Motorola 6809

The 1978 Motorola processor widely considered the best 8-bit CPU ever designed, featuring clean orthogonal architecture, 16-bit operations, and position-independent code support.

MUD History

Multi-User Dungeons pioneered online multiplayer gaming, creating persistent worlds, social dynamics, and design patterns MMORPGs would later adopt.

SNK

SNK created the Neo Geo arcade/home platform and dominated fighting games with Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting, and The King of Fighters, rivalling Capcom's Street Fighter dominance.

Space Invaders

Taito's 1978 arcade phenomenon created the shooter genre, caused a coin shortage in Japan, and proved games could be cultural events.

Sprite Animation

Frame-by-frame sprite animation creates the illusion of movement by cycling through carefully designed images at controlled intervals.

Sunsoft

Sunsoft developed technically impressive NES games with distinctive music, including acclaimed Batman and Blaster Master titles that pushed Nintendo's hardware to its limits.

Tiger Electronics

The American company that dominated the budget LCD handheld market with hundreds of licensed games, and pioneered touch-screen handhelds with the failed Game.com.

Trackball

The arcade input device that enabled precise analogue control for games like Centipede and Marble Madness.

1979

16 events

68000: The 16-Bit Powerhouse

The Motorola 68000 powered the Amiga, Atari ST, Sega Mega Drive, and arcade machines—bringing workstation-class architecture to home computers.

Activision

Founded by rebellious Atari programmers who wanted credit for their work, Activision invented third-party publishing and proved developers mattered.

Asteroids

Asteroids combined vector graphics, momentum-based physics, and endless challenge into one of gaming's most influential and enduring arcade experiences.

Atari 8-bit Family

Atari's home computers offered superior graphics and sound to their contemporaries, yet never matched the company's console success.

Atari vs Activision

The 1979-1982 legal battle that established third-party game development as legitimate, when four Atari programmers founded Activision and survived the lawsuit that could have killed independent publishing.

Branching Narrative

Branching narrative lets player decisions shape story outcomes, from minor dialogue variations to completely different endings, creating personalised experiences at massive development cost.

Capcom

Japanese developer Capcom created Street Fighter, Mega Man, Resident Evil, and countless arcade classics, shaping gaming for decades.

Chris Crawford born

Game design theorist

Disk Protection

Disk protection techniques prevented casual copying of floppy disks through intentional errors, non-standard formatting, and hardware tricks.

Galaxian

Namco's 1979 space shooter that evolved Space Invaders with diving enemies, individual AI, and RGB colour graphics - the true ancestor of Galaga.

How a Cassette Becomes a Game

Cassettes were slow, cheap, and everywhere. Here’s how data marched from tape to RAM, one bit at a time.

Infocom

Infocom perfected the text adventure, creating Zork, Hitchhiker's Guide, and dozens of games that proved words could be as immersive as graphics.

Richard Garriott born

Lord British, Ultima creator

Sierra On-Line

Ken and Roberta Williams built Sierra from their kitchen table into the dominant force in graphic adventure games, creating King's Quest, Space Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry.