History of the emergence, formation, development of computer video games (26 photos). The first video games. How it was The very first games on PC

Computer gaming emerged as a new industry in 1972, but the first PC games date back much earlier. Today, the world of the game has managed to conquer the whole world, and will soon become the most profitable business, if this has not already happened. It all started when a group of like-minded engineers decided to quit their jobs for the sake of one dream. Their leader Nolan Bushnell, who was then 28 years old, decides to open his own business at the same time. His initial capital at that time was $500. He gives the company the name Atari. Nolan's first move was to hire a developer, Al Alcorn, and offer him $1,000 a month and a share of the company. Al accepted the offer. The trial project of the company, which consisted of three people, was the game “Pong”. At first, this game was an ordinary slot machine, but it literally managed to conquer the United States in a matter of months. Without thinking twice, the partners decide to transform it into a home game, and this becomes their next success.

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The essence of the game is very simple and not interesting today - two sticks from different sides of the screen must hit a square (ball). Four years later, Nolan decides to sell the company to Atari for $26 million. At the same time, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak joined the development of already popular gaming games, gaining popularity thanks to the game Arcanoid. Since not everyone could buy a PC in those years, there was only one way out - game consoles with high power.

But in fact, the first computer game was not Pong. The first PC games appeared around 1952. Douglas, while a student at Cambridge, created the world's first game. It was programmed on an EDSAC computer. But around 1958, the first video was created - a game by William Hijinbasam called “Tennis for Two”. In 1962, Steve Russell created the game SpaceWar. Back then it was only available to some programmers. Its essence is that two small spaceships shot down each other. It is considered the first, since it was intended specifically for playing on a PC. When creating it, a general purpose computer was used. Five years later, Ralph Baer wrote Pursuit, the first video game that could be played on a TV. In 1971, Bushnell and Dabney created the first maze game, the Space gallery, which was based on Spacewar. But the next game created was “Pong”, which was mentioned at the beginning.

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Ordinary British teenagers, whose parents forbade them from buying consoles, decided to create their own game for the PC. For studying, parents bought computers for the boys, because in the early 80s a line of relatively cheap PCs appeared.

The Oliver Twins, then 12 years old, decided to create a game that would be different from the classic arcade games. Another important point was that there was no time limit for playing on a PC, unlike slot machines, where the game lasted several minutes. So the Olivers first began programming their computers and in 1982 (at the age of 13) their first game, “Road Runner,” was released.

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The text of this program was published in one of the magazines, and each of its readers could start the game on their PC. This meant one thing to the twins - they were heroes. The essence of the game is that a car moving down the screen along a winding track had to overcome obstacles highlighted in one color. For this game, the guys received their first income from the magazine’s publishers, even if it was symbolic at that time.

But with the second game, the twins acted differently - they took part in a children's television show. They managed to win first place, and with it a cash reward. All this led to the fact that a simple hobby began to develop into the work of a lifetime. A lot of games were written right in the brothers' room. Sometimes the boys worked at night, because school was not canceled. The twins' games were distributed throughout the country and were sold in the largest stores.

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After leaving school, the pay for the twins' jobs was still low. It was at this time that the boys met the Darling brothers. The Darling brothers are the same young guys who write games for a very nominal price, but who no longer like it. As a result, the Darlings open their own business and begin selling games by sending them by mail. The games were transferred to cassettes, covers were printed, and the result was a million game cassettes sold. But in 1986, the boys founded the Code Masters company. Their first fair brought a meeting with the Oliver twins, who showed like-minded people all their written games. When the Darlings replied: “Such a game will bring you 10,000 pounds,” the twins’ joy knew no bounds. As a result, after a month of sleepless nights, the game “Super Robin Hood” appeared. 100,000 tapes were sold and earnings amounted to £10,000. This gave the brothers a huge impetus to write new games. Some of them were written for Code Masters, and this union of PC gaming history is rightfully called one of the most successful. The twins created about half of all Code Masters games.

East is a delicate matter

But it wasn't just British teenagers who were creating PC games. At the same time, the gaming industry was also developing in the east. Her era in Japan began with Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda. Their father was the genius of the 80s Shigeru Miyamoto, who works for Nintendo.

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One fine day, Miyamoto realized the power of the game - it can awaken different feelings in a person. Therefore, he put all his memories from childhood into his games. Initially, Miyamoto worked for the company as an artist and did not even suspect that one day he would draw games on a PC. As a truly creative person, he hated the computer.

His whole life changed with the offer of cooperation. An order was received from Africa for 2000 cars with the game "Radar Scope", but the USA was not interested in it, so they asked to replace it with another one. Since no replacement was found and there was not a single developer available, the job went to the young Miyamoto. His idea was based on creating a game like a movie, with a plot. This is how his first game, Donkey Kong, appeared. The plot of the game is about a gorilla who escapes from his cage to kidnap a girl. But a man with a hammer in his hands must catch up with her, turning away from the barrels. It all ends with the gorilla falling into a hole.

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It is worth noting that Miyamoto always tried to bring his characters to life, so he tried to emphasize any details, such as hair developing when falling, etc. But the technology of that time did not allow this to be done and the author decided to simply give his hero a red cap. This is how the Donkey Kong game was born, which Miyamoto sent to Seattle.

The Americans, having watched the game, were delighted, but decided to try it out. The game was installed in a local bar, and a day later they saw a box overflowing with money. In the first year alone, the company generated $100,000,000 in revenue from the game.

At the same time, in 1985, a new game console “NES” (Nintendo Entertainment System) from Nintendo entered the US market. Thanks to Miyamoto, gaming moved to a new level, and the first step was his masterpiece - “Super Mario Bros.” Mario, a plumber from Italy, became Jump Man. He is capable of miracles of strength, he can jump high, but at the same time he can drown or break. He lived in a world full of sewer pipes, rock ledges, and cartoon monsters. This game, like its two subsequent sequels, won the love of children and adults all over the world. Well, who didn’t play Mario at that time? In 1987, “NES is the most popular toy in the world. Children in America loved and knew Mario more than the hero Mickey Mouse.


After this, the inventor releases another masterpiece - the game “The Legend of Zelda”. This game allowed you to roam freely and explore the whole world. It all starts with a field, in the middle of which stands a small and defenseless child. He is unarmed. First the player must give it a name, then understand what to do next - and this is complete freedom of action for the player. In a couple of years, more than 30 million consoles were sold. This brought Nintendo to first place in the production of games on the PC, and to confirm its title, it decided to release a game for people of any age - “Game Boy”. This leads to the emergence of a tandem between Nintendo and Tetris in the late 80s.

Development continues

Henk Rogers, a Dutch game publisher and developer, was importing new games to Japan. In 1988, he met Tetris in Las Vegas. His job was that whatever he found interesting at the exhibitions, he brought to Japan. First he played Tetris and left, but not for long. After a while he returned to play some more. The game attracted and beckoned him like a magnet. The game was invented in 1984 by Muscovite Alexei Pajitnov, who at that time lived in Seattle. Alexey was involved in voice recognition programs and the development of artificial intelligence, so Tetris was originally invented as a certain test for new computers. Alyosha's hobbies were puzzles and mathematical entertainment. “Tetris” is based on the puzzle from ancient Rome “Pentamino”, which consists of 12 figures of different shapes, consisting of 5 squares. But in the simplified version there are 4 squares, hence the name - Tetris (four in Greek). But the genius was that the game was timed, the filled lines disappeared, so the game could simply be played endlessly. The only thing that complicated the process was the speed at which the figures fell, which fell faster and faster throughout the game. The player did not have time to think quickly, began to get confused and lose. After getting acquainted with the game by Henk Rogers, Robert Stein, who works as a software importer from Hungary, learns about Tetris. Stein visits Moscow and meets Alexey. They agree on a license to release the game, and Pajitnov gives Stein Tetris as a gift. But they did not become partners. After Pajitnov and Henk meet, the rights to the game go to Rogers. As a result, Tetris becomes a favorite game, and Hank Rogers releases it for the Nintendo game console. This made it possible to release more than 32 million Tetris battle gems. Pajitnov, of course, did not earn anything from the game, because at that time he was a Soviet citizen, but he still immigrated to the United States. In 1996, the agreement between Nintendo and Pajitnov expired, which gave him the right to obtain copyrights. Today Alexey and Henk are selling Tetris on the new generation of machines.

A little history

The first games on PC were simple; since 1987, the world of computer games was just beginning to develop:

  • 1987– Battle Tech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception, Pirates, Defender of the Crown.
  • 1988- Life&Death, Megatraveller, Mean Streets.
  • 1989- Death Track, Mech Warrior, Street Rod.
  • 1990- Railroad Tycoon, Sim City, King's Bounty, Covert Action, Jones in the Fast Lane, Secret of Monkey Island, Ironman's Super Offroad.
  • 1991– Civilization, Elite, Floor 13, Castles, Lemmings, 4D Boxing, Warlords, Gobliiins.
  • 1992- Mad TV, Dune 2, Star Control 2, L.A. Law, Shadow President, Maelstrom, Stunt Island, Alone in the Dark.
  • 1993- Master of Orion, Sim City 2000, Syndicate, Merchant Prince, Dino Park, Tycoon, Rags to Riches, Unnatural Selection, Fields of Glory, El Fish, Frontier.
  • 1994- Theme Park, Reunion, Master of Magic, Settlers/Serf City, Horde, UFO: Enemy Unknown Quarantine, Transport Tycoon, Pizza Tycoon, Micro Machines.
  • 1995- Civilization 2, Command & Conquer, Heroes of Might&Magic, Mechwarrior 2, First Encounters, Lemmings 3D, Capitalism, Motor City.
  • 1996– Creatures, Emperor of the Fading Suns, Heroes of Might&Magic 2, Master of Orion 2, Syndicate Wars.
  • 1997- Carmageddon, Imperium Galactica, Grand Theft Auto, Magic the Gathering, Sid Meier's Gettysburg, Pax Imperia, X-Com 3: Apocalypse.

The most interesting ideas in the development of computer games appeared before 1993. Every year something new, unique and exciting appeared. 1993 marked the beginning of cloning and duplication of previous games. The main game of 1994 was “UFO”, since it managed to combine all the best from previous games, and the two-year-old game “Laser Squad” was taken as a basis.

Without original and original ideas, the existence of any type of art is called into question. Today, thousands of PC games enter the market every year, but we are not spoiled with masterpieces that would delight us with their originality.

In this article I will tell you, as you understand from the title, the history of the emergence, formation, and development of computer video games from and to, from 1947, when a patent for the use of a cathode ray tube was registered, to the present. Let's capture the history of the creation of the first most popular gaming consoles, the first mega-games of all times. Young people aged 25-35 will be especially interested in plunging into such a recent childhood. And if you want to get a sea of ​​positivity from your favorite games along with this article, you can click.

1947 - The first patent was filed for the use of a cathode ray tube (oscilloscope, the first type of computer display) for gaming purposes. The patent was filed by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Astle Ray Mann on January 25, 1947, and received on December 14, 1948. The patent described the idea of ​​a controller controlling the position of luminous dots on a screen.

1948 - A computer chess algorithm was created. The authors of the algorithm are Alan Turing and his colleague D. G. Champernow. (An algorithm is not quite a program code, but just a logical verbal description of actions, divided into separate lines).

1952 - The first logic computer game “OXO” was created - a computer implementation of “tic-tac-toe” (a field of three by three cells, the user made his move, after which the computer made a counter move). The game was created by A.S. Douglas during his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge (UK). Douglas wrote his dissertation on the topic of human-computer interaction, and used the game as a visual illustration. The game existed in a single copy on a large computer - the EDSAC mainframe.

1958 - The first tennis simulator was created. The creator is William Higinbotham, one of the scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory (New York, USA). The game was called "Tennis for Two". In this game, two people controlled moving platforms to hit a ball. The computer did not participate in the game, but only displayed the results of the players’ actions on an oscilloscope in real time. This game existed in one single copy.

1962 - In April 1962, DEC began selling the relatively small PDP-1 computers. The basic package of these computers included the game “SpaceWar!” as a test program. Thus "SpaceWar!" became the first game to be released into circulation.

1966 - Ralph Baer, ​​having learned that his idea of ​​interactive television, voiced in 1951, was already being implemented in the form of computer games, began developing new game prototypes. He created 7 experimental games.

1968 - Ralph Baer develops his experimental console called “Box Brown”. It was possible to play all the games he invented. There were also simple arcade games - “Chase Game”: two squares chasing each other on the screen; and a completely new type of “Target Shooting games”: you had to shoot at the screen with a light gun.

1970 - The computer mouse is invented. Douglas Engelbart received a patent for “a system for indicating X-Y positions on a monitor.” This system looked like a square wooden mouse with large wheels. But the mouse began to be used in computer games much later.

1977 - The Atari 2600 game console goes on sale. It was thanks to this console that the popularization of computer and video games moved to a completely new level. The Atari 2600 was sold from 1977 to 1983, and during this time more than 40,000,000 copies of this console were sold!

On July 5, the first home computer, the Apple II, goes on sale. Along with the computer intended for the masses, computer games are also spreading significantly.

1981 - IBM begins selling its first personal computer.

1982 - The Internet (global network) was created. More precisely, a unified network data transfer protocol has been created - TCP/IP. This standardization made it possible to unite disparate local networks into a single global network - the Internet. (The very idea of ​​a single TCP/IP protocol appeared back in 1974).

1983 - The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console was created. (In the USSR this prefix is ​​known as “Dendy”). In Japan, and then throughout the rest of the world, a new console boom began. Following the NES, other third-generation consoles began to appear.

1985 - the legendary game “Super Mario Bros.” was created. The game was released on the NES console, created by Shigeru Miyamoto. The main character of the game, Mario, becomes the official symbol of Nintendo. Although Mario as a character had previously appeared in two more games (Donkey Kong 1981, Mario Bros. 1983), real fame came to him only in the third game Super Mario Bros. Games about the plumber Mario have become the most popular game series over time.

1985 - The game “Battle City” (better known as “Tanks”) was created.

1989 - The GameBoy pocket game console from Nintendo is released. One of the most famous games on this console is Tetris. It was thanks to GameBoy that the Russian game Tetris gained worldwide fame and fame. “GameBoy” sold a huge number of copies around the world – more than 120,000,000 copies of the console were sold.

1994 - Sony releases its first, but very successful gaming console, PlayStation. It became the best console of the 5th generation. Games for this console were distributed on CDs. Most games on the PlayStation had 3D graphics. Console sales exceeded 102,000,000 units.
The strategy “Warcraft: Orcs and Humans” from the company “Blizzard” has been created. The Warcraft series of games has become a leader in the real-time strategy genre over time.

1995 - The first specialized exhibition of the computer video game industry was held - Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

1998 - The game “Half-Life” is released. Despite the fact that the game was made in the 3D-Action genre, it had a full-fledged plot that developed as the game progressed. The game was filled to the brim with plot events and colorful secondary characters. Before the advent of Half-Life, the plot existed only in quest and role-playing games, where it was most often presented in the form of text. With the advent of Half-Life, games have become much closer in content to movies. This game created a precedent, after which more and more large games began to be created with a plot.


The strategy game StarCraft from Blizzard has been created. The game was made so well that it continues to be played to this day. StarCraft has hosted many global e-sports competitions.
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The game "Grand Theft Auto" (GTA) is released. The game created an entire living city with a top view, where people walked peacefully and traffic flowed through the streets. The player had complete freedom of action, but the main story missions were related to stealing cars and working for bandits, because of this, the game received angry criticism from society.


The game “Unreal” is released in the 3D-Action genre. A little later, in 1999, the game “Unreal Tournament” was released, focused on multiplayer battles between players.

2000 - The PlayStation 2 console is released. The console has the ability to play online and connect to the Internet. To date, this console remains the most popular in the world. “PlayStation 2” sold 140,000,000 copies worldwide.

2005 - The new 7th generation console, Xbox 360, was released.

2007 - The most popular Russian-language game “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” is released from the Ukrainian company "GSC Game World". The game tells about the life of adventurers in the Chernobyl radioactive zone. The game has an open world and many factions fighting among themselves.
Revival of the classics

2008 - The role-playing game “Fallout 3” is released. The great role-playing game series is being reincarnated, but now in three-dimensional form. (After this resounding success, developers from other companies are starting to revive many old forgotten game series and characters).

Also coming out this year is Grand Theft Auto IV. The imitation of a game city reaches a new qualitative level.

Of course, several volumes can be written about the modern gaming industry - this is the emergence of the latest games, and the creation of XBOX-One, and PS4, and much, much more. But these are modern realities, and what I wanted to talk about, to reveal the history of all this, it seems, I brought to you.

Hello friends. Today there will be an interesting fact about the first computer game in the world. Who invented it and what it was.

If you like our articles, then subscribe to updates on social networks and stay up to date with all the interesting facts.

What was the first computer game

Let's begin. The very first computer game in the world was called Spacewar, and it consisted of two spaceships fighting a duel. It is worth clarifying right away that we are talking about a game that has become widespread.

It was created by two programmers (Steve Russell and Martin Graetz), who knew each other since university days and were both fond of science fiction.

In what year was the first computer game released?

In January 1962, a simple program was written that was intended for the newest and fastest computer of that time, the PDP-1. It performed 100 thousand operations per minute and had 9 kilobytes of RAM. Of course, when compared with a modern computer, which performs up to two billion operations, this is not enough, but still it was 1962.

The location of the fighting was shown on the round cathode display. This is the night sky of Cambridge and rivals could fight using a keyboard or a gaming joystick.

The game involved opponents moving their shuttles and shooting at each other. Ammunition and fuel could run out, and to avoid being hit you had to make a so-called hyperjump, after which you could appear anywhere on the playing field or next to the central star.

It was the first commercial game that didn't have many fans. But in 1971, its arcade version was released. And a few months earlier, they installed a slot machine in the Stanford student council, with another modification of Spacewar - Galaxy Game.

Unfortunately, the creators did not earn much money from this game, but it was still popular for 6 years and they managed to recoup the $60,000 invested in it.

Initially, the computer was conceived as an electronic computing machine. Only later did people think about equipping the car with additional functions. And, since humanity cannot do without games, software developers, among others, began to make attempts to create computer games.

History of computer games

The first attempt to turn smart technology into a gaming device was made in 1952. The breakthrough was one of the simplest board games - "", with the smallest possible field of 3 x 3 cells. It may seem funny now, but at the time it was a revolutionary innovation.

After 6 years, programmers pleased users with a new prototype. It was the video game “Tennis for Two”. The virtual tennis player had to be controlled not step by step, as in previous analogues, but in real time. Despite the simplicity of the functionality, this game became another breakthrough in the emerging world of gamers.

However, the real virtual explosion occurred in 1962. DEC developed a game controller and, together with the PDP-1 computer, began distributing the previously unparalleled game SpaceWar as a test program! It was the first computer game to become truly popular.

However, computers at that time continued to be bulky. It was still oh, so far away from affordable personalization... Almost 10 years passed before compact boards based on transistor circuits appeared. Thanks to this invention, the game moved from a computer to a coin-operated arcade machine under the name Computer Space. And in May 1972, Magnavox Odissey was introduced - the first game console for television.

From that moment on, the computer gaming world began to advance by leaps and bounds. Development proceeded in four main directions:

  • computers directly;
  • television game consoles;
  • electronic slot machines;
  • pocket electronic games.

In 1979, the American company Milton Bradley released the first pocket game console, which included 12 games at once. In 1980, Japanese Nintendo, having modernized games on a calculator, mass-produced simple monochrome consoles with a series of Game&Watch games. In the Soviet Union, these consoles became the prototype for the Elektronika company’s products—the games “Secrets of the Ocean” and “Well, Just Wait!”, which literally everyone was captivated by.

The next stage was the appearance of the Tetris game in 1989. Officially, the authorship of the “cubes” belongs to the Nintendo corporation, although debate continues over who the true creator is.

Features of computer games

As technology developed, the virtual world was filled with sound, graphics were improved, and video was added. Today, anyone can download games to their computer for every taste:

  • shooting games, fights;
  • racing, sports games, simulators;
  • arcade, strategy, adventure;
  • logical, educational, educational games.

You can choose a game for an adult, a teenager, or a child who has barely learned to sit. There are both pros and cons to this.

On the one hand, play is necessary for humans. This is a way of understanding the world, psychological release. The ability to create your own game world is a way to express your aspirations and fears, complexes and ideas about a “perfect” world in the virtual space. Computer games are an opportunity to throw out aggression and get the necessary dose of adrenaline.

Educational and developmental games are favorable for children and are often used by conscious parents, educators and teachers. Both downloaded games and an Internet connection help remove physical boundaries and freely explore the space of the planet. Today, educational and educational games for adults are becoming more common. They are used by the military and businessmen, becoming an effective tool for improving personnel skills.

On the other hand, psychologists and teachers say that it is observed everywhere, especially in adolescents. As they say, “too much is good and not good either.” Often, immersion in the virtual world becomes an obstacle to real life - communication, personality development. If a child’s passion for computers can be controlled by parents, then for an adult, dependence on the “constructed world” can become a real problem. Here, the result of passion depends only on a person’s ability to manage his consciousness, to control his behavior through volitional effort.

And yet the process of development of computer games is unstoppable. They are becoming more diverse and exciting. Personal games have been replaced by browser games, where you can communicate online and jointly solve virtual, but important tasks. Such games, in addition to entertainment, provide an opportunity to master and develop communication and socialization skills, and broaden their horizons. The world of computer games still provides more positive effects than negative ones. It is only important to choose the right games for yourself and correctly dose the amount of time spent in front of the monitor.

Computer games originated in the distant past; their history goes back more than 50 years. The first games appeared not as entertainment, but more for scientific purposes, because the first computers were huge, expensive, and mainly appeared in educational and scientific institutions. Computer games went to the masses with the advent of consoles and the first PCs, when they became more accessible to most people. Only after the popularization of computer games did they become commercial. And now companies make fortunes from developing games.

Let us trace the history of the development of computer games in more detail and note significant games that to some extent influenced the development of the gaming industry. The world first saw the first semblance of a computer game in 1942. This event happened thanks to two people, Thomas Goldsmith the Younger and Eastle Ray Menn, who created a rocket simulator. Since that time, the era of computers and video games began.

The main stage of development of the first computer games occurred in the 50s - 60s. last century. These games were not developed for entertainment, but as scientific research. The game OXO (analogous to Tic Tac Toe) was the honor of A. S. Douglas's doctoral dissertation. But despite this, games have become very popular among students and visitors to educational institutions. For example, such a game is Tennis for Two (analogous to Ping Pong for 2 players), created in 1958 by William Higinbotham. Games of those times were developed specifically for each computer and were little like modern ones, because text terminals and vector graphic displays were used as screens.

The next period is 1961 - 1970. notable for the fact that the SpaceWar game was created for PDP-1 computers and the first prototype of a computer mouse. It was created by Douglas Engelbart and called it this: a system for indicating X-Y positions on a monitor. This made a big step in the development of computers, and as a result, the evolution of computer games followed.

1971 – 1980 – in this decade, humanity has made a huge step in the development of computers and, on top of everything else, people have realized that game development is a huge source of income. At this time, personal computers and game consoles appeared, a prototype of a local network and the Internet appeared. Players can now play in groups by joining groups using the network. Main events:

  • 1971 - the first commercial game Galaxy (modified by SpaceWar) appears, as well as Computer Space (another modification of SpaceWar) - the first computer game released to the general public in 1,500 arcade machines.
  • 1972 - Atari is founded, releasing the world's first arcade game Pong, which enjoyed great success. In the same year, the world saw the first game console - Odyssey from Magnavox.
  • 1973 - The world's first first-person shooter Mazewar appears, with the ability to play over the network.
  • 1975 - The adventure genre is born thanks to the game Colossal Cave Adventure.
  • 1976 - The game Death Race based on the film Death Race 2000 causes outrage among people due to its cruelty, so it is banned in many places.
  • 1977 - With the advent of the Apple II, the first graphic games are released.
  • 1979 - The first multiplayer game of the MUD (Multi User Dungeon) type is created, where players walked around, explored the world and communicated through the first analogues of chat. Such games are becoming very popular.
  • 1980 - the game Pac-Man appears, which later entered the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular game in the world. The RPG genre Rogue is created, which gives birth to a new type of games: rogue-like games. Roguelikes (from Rogue) are text-based games where the world, character, artifacts, and enemies are represented by symbols.
In the period from 1981 to 1990, consoles experienced a crisis, because... personal computers are becoming available due to low prices. Text and character graphics games are gradually dying. They are being replaced by games with more complex graphics as the first graphics cards appear, thereby relieving the processor of graphics processing. For the first time, games appear in series that later become famous, for example, Metroid, Adventure Island, Space Quest, etc... Significant dates:
  • 1983 - the beginning of the era of 8-bit consoles. Some experts also consider this year to be the beginning of the modern era of electronic entertainment. Such well-known consoles as Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, PC Engine, Atari 7800 appeared. A large number of two-dimensional games with a side view appeared. For the first time, the Final Fantasy game appeared, the sequel of which is still played today.
  • 1984 - the first space simulator with trading elements appears - the game Elite. The game King's Quest is also being released - the world's first animated quest.
  • 1985 - the famous game Tetris, created by Alexey Pajitnov, is released. The Commodore company creates the Amiga personal computer. This year the world meets the Mario brothers (Super Mario Bros).
  • 1986 - The release of Dragon Quest gave birth to the JRPG genre. The company Ubisoft Entertainment (its original name was Ubi Soft) was founded.
  • 1987 - the appearance of such cult arcade fighting games as Street Fighter and Double Dragon. The Amiga 500 personal computer appears. Graphics with 256 colors appear on the PC, thanks to the development of the VGA standard.
  • 1988 - Game Developers Conference - the world's first conference for game developers, held in San Jose.
  • 1989 - Intel 486 processors appeared, thanks to which personal computers transitioned to a graphical interface. Such well-known games are released as SimCity, Prince of Persia, Solitaire Solitaire, which began to be present in all versions of Windows, starting with the third. Nintendo's first handheld console with Game Boy cartridges appears.
1991 – 2003 – this decade saw a revolution in computer games, thanks to the development of computer technology. Now it is possible to create worlds with three-dimensional graphics using complex multimedia tools. ID Software released the legendary game Doom, which remains popular even now. This game became unique, it was not like all previous games: a new first-person player control system, a three-dimensional world, network play (in a team it’s every man for himself). Later, the equally famous game Quake was developed on the Doom engine. At this time, gaming clans began to be created for the first time, and such a concept as e-sports arose. At this time, the game Half Life appeared - the first multiplayer game that allowed the creation of mods - modifications. Players could now themselves change the surrounding game world and the hero himself. The gaming industry is beginning to generate huge income, which has begun to be compared with the income of the film industry. Main dates:
  • 1991 – famous games are released: Lemmings and Sonic the Hedgehog. The blue hedgehog later becomes the symbol of Sega.
  • 1992 - the bloody fighter Mortal Kombat appears for the first time, which spawned a whole series of not only games, but films and cartoons. Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is born, the world's first 3D first-person role-playing game. Alone in the Dark marked the beginning of the survival horror game genre. Dune II became the template for real-time strategy games.
  • 1993 - Id Software releases the cult game Doom - the world's first 3D shooter. The concept of turn-based combat in the game X-COM: UFO Defense, which was released this year, is not outdated to this day. Atari Corp. Released the first 64-bit Jaguar console.
  • 1995 – the release of the first parts of the famous games Need for Speed ​​and Heroes of Might and Magic. BioWare founded. The first exhibition of the computer and video game industry - Ei Media and Business Summit - took place.
  • 1996 - 3dfx Interactive releases the world's first graphics adapter (Voodoo I) with support for 3D acceleration, which revolutionized the gaming industry. In the same year, the Quake game was released with a completely three-dimensional world. The release of the first parts of the popular games Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Diablo. The world's first MMORPG appears - Meridian 59.
  • 1998 - the release of the famous game Half-life, on the engine of which many more games were developed. The Unreal game marked the development of the popular Unreal Engine. The game StarCraft from Blizzard is released, championships for which are still held. Aliens Online was the origin of the MMOFPS genre. The cult game Vangers from the Russian company K-D LAB is released, attracting the attention of the West.
  • 1999 - Intel releases the Pentium III processor with the ability to handle 3D graphics and streaming media. Unreal Tournament is coming out - a new hit in the gaming market and one of the first e-sports shooters.
  • 2000 - elements of artificial intelligence appear in game engines.
  • 2003 - the first World Cup in electronic sports took place with the participation of about 150 thousand players from all over the world.
Since the onset of 2004, the world has overcome another step in the development of computer and video games. This time can be considered the beginning of the emergence of modern games. Thanks to the widespread use of the Internet, a huge number of MMORPGs and MMOFPS are appearing. This year marks the release of Far Cry, the first game to support 64-bit systems. The most popular (even today) portable console, Nintendo DS, goes on sale.

In subsequent years until today, there has been a huge number of releases of computer and video games of various genres and for all platforms. The development of computer technology also does not stand still.

What trend in the development of games can be predicted for the future, knowing how things are with the gaming and computer industries? Reduction or complete disappearance of games on PC platforms due to piracy. More and more games are being released as video games, and in America, on June 17, 2010, a service such as OnLive was launched. With its advent, users will no longer need to have powerful personal computers at home. It is only necessary to have high-speed Internet, because... it will transmit processed graphics from a remote server to which the user will connect to play. What I also want to say is that developers and publishers have begun to forget and want to extract as much money from players’ wallets as possible by making paid additions to games. Price reductions for the provision of gaming services are not expected in the near future.

This is how computer and video games developed rapidly, and the trend of their evolution does not stop. Perhaps in the near future we will be able to completely immerse ourselves in a game world that will be more than realistic.

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