Timeline of arcade video game history
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| Part of a series on: |
| History of video games |
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Contents |
Pre-golden age (1971-1977)
- 1971
- The Galaxy Game, the earliest known coin-operated arcade video game, makes its debut on the campus of Stanford University.
- Computer Space, the first commercially sold arcade video game, and the first commercially sold video game of any kind, is released by Nutting Associates.
- 1972
- Atari Inc. launches Pong, the first commercially successful video game. It is also the first arcade sports video game.
- 1973
- Taito releases Astro Race, an early racing video game, controlled using a four-way joystick controller.[1]
- 1974
- Taito releases Basketball, an early example of sprite graphics, used to represent player characters and baskets.[2]
- Taito releases Speed Racewhich introduces scrolling sprite graphics,[3] and features a racing wheel controller.[4] Midway releases it as Racer in the United States.[3]
- 1975
- Taito releases Interceptor,[5] an early first-person shooter and combat flight simulator, controlled using an eight-way joystick to aim a crosshair at enemy sprites that scale in size depending on their distance to the player.[6]
- Taito releases Western Gun, an early two-player, run & gun, dual-stick, multi-directional shooter, and the first game to depict a gun.[7] It is also the first to depict fragments of story as well as characters through its visual presentation.[8]
- Midway MFG. releases Gun Fight, an adaptation of Taito's Western Gun and the first arcade video game to use a microprocessor, which the original incarnation did not use, allowing for improved graphics and smoother animation.[8]
- 1976
- Sega releases Moto-Cross, an early motorbike racing game, which introduces a pseudo-3D forward-scrolling third-person perspective.[9] It also introduces haptic feedback, causing the handlebars to vibrate during collisions.[10] Sega-Gremlin re-brands it as Fonz.[11]
- Sega releases Road Race, an early forward-scrolling first-person racing game.[12]
- Atari Inc. releases Night Driver, another early example of a first-person perspective racing video game.
- Atari releases Breakout, which inspires a number of Breakout clones.
- 1977
- Cinematronics releases Space Wars, the first vector graphics arcade game.
Golden age (1978-1986)
- 1978
- Taito releases Space Invaders, the first blockbuster arcade video game,[13] responsible for starting the golden age of video arcade games. It also sets the template for the shoot 'em up genre,[14] and influences nearly every shooter game released since then.[15]
- Sega releases Secret Base,[16] which allows two-player cooperative gameplay.[17]
- 1979
- Atari releases Asteroids, a major hit in the United States and Atari's best selling game of all time.[18]
- Nintendo releases Sheriff, a run & gun multi-directional shooter with dual-stick controls (one joystick for movement and other for aiming) and many enemies shooting many bullets, influencing dual-stick shooters like Robotron 2084 and Geometry Wars.[20]
- Nintendo releases Radar Scope, which introduces a three-dimensional third-person perspective, imitated years later by shooters such as Konami's Juno First and Activision's Beamrider.[20]
- 1980
- Namco releases Pac-Man, its biggest-selling game. One of the most influential games, it had the first gaming mascot character, established the maze chase genre, opened gaming to female audiences,[21] and introduced power-ups[22] and cutscenes.[23]
- Namco releases King & Balloon,[24] which is the first game to feature synthesized voices. It is also an early example of dual-core processing, using two Z80 microprocessors, the second to drive a DAC for speech.[25]
- Namco releases Rally-X, the first game to feature background music,[26] multi-directional scrolling,[27] and a radar to show the car's location on the map.[28]
- DECO releases DECO Cassette System, the first standardized arcade platform, for which many games were made.
- Williams Electronics release Defender, a more challenging shoot-em-up space game with control configuration of five buttons and a joystick.
- 1981
- Nintendo releases Donkey Kong, which was one of the first platform games. It was also the game that introduced Mario (named simply "Jumpman" at the time) to the video game world.[29]
- Sega releases Eliminator, a space combat multi-directional shooter notable for being the only four-player vector game created.[30] It featured a colour vector display as well as both cooperative and competitive multiplayer.[31]
- Konami releases Scramble, the first side-scrolling shooter with forced scrolling and multiple distinct levels,[32].
- Konami releases Frogger, a popular arcade action game.</ref>
- Namco releases Bosconian, introducing a free-roaming style of gameplay where the player's ship freely moves across open space that scrolls in all directions and a radar that tracks player & enemy positions on the map.[33]
- 1982
- Moon Patrol was created by Irem and released in the U.S. by Williams. It is the first game to use parallax scrolling.[34]
- Namco releases Pole Position, one of the most popular racing games of all time.[35]
- Sega releases Star Trek, a space combat sim featuring five different controls, six different enemies, and 40 different simulation levels. One of the most elaborate vector games ever released.[36]
- Konami releases Time Pilot, which features a time travel theme and a free-roaming style of gameplay where the player's plane could freely move across open air space that scrolls indefinitely in all directions.[37][38]
- Atari released Quantum, an early arcade game to use a 16-bit 68000 CPU, for more detailed and smoother graphics.[39]
- 1983
- I, Robot, the first commercially produced 3D-polygonal game is released.
- Bally Midway releases Journey, the first game with digitized sprites.
- Dragon's Lair, the first video game to use cel-animated video instead of computer generated graphics.
- Libble Rabble, is released by Namco.[40] This is Namco's first game to have a 16-bit processor.
- Atari brings Star Wars to the arcades in the form of a 3D vector graphics simulation of the movie's attack on the Death Star sequence and featuring digitized samples of voices from the movie.
- 1984
- 16-bit processors are increasingly used in arcade machines, resulting in much more detailed and faster graphics.
- Marble Madness and Paperboy are released by Atari Games.
- 1985
- Gauntlet is released by Atari Games
- Gradius (Nemesis in some countries) is released by Konami. Also released by Konami the same year is Yie Ar Kung-Fu, which was the basis for modern fighting games.
- Space Harrier is released by Sega
- Vs. Super Mario Bros., the arcade version of Super Mario Bros. originally on the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom in Japan), is released into arcades.
- Tehkan World Cup, the father of soccer games with an above view of the field, is released by Tehkan,[41] who also release its stablemate, Gridiron Fight.
- 1986
- Sega releases Out Run.
Post-golden age (1987-present)
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This article is outdated. (November 2010) |
- 1987
- Namco releases Yōkai Dōchūki (known outside of Asia as Shadowland).
- Technos Japan releases Double Dragon. It became a huge hit, paving the way for beat 'em up games.
- 1988
- NARC, by Williams is released and is the first commercially released game to use a 32-bit processor.
- Reikai Doushi by Home Data is released. It is the first digitized fighting game and the first claymation fighting game.
- Namco releases Assault, which was the first game to make use of massive sprite rotation as well as sprite scaling. It also released Splatterhouse, which was the first game to get a parental advisory disclaimer.
- Namco introduces the Namco System 21 "Polygonizer", the first arcade system board designed for 3D polygonal graphics. The first game to use it is the early 3D racing video game Winning Run.
- Hard Drivin', by Atari Games is released and is the second arcade driving game to have 3D polygon graphics.
- Tetris makes the jump from home to arcade as an Atari coin-op.
- 1989
- Exterminator, the first game with fully digitized graphics, is released. It will have the highest quality digitized graphics until the release of Mortal Kombat II.
- S.T.U.N. Runner is released by Atari Games and is known for early use of high-speed 3-D Polygonal Graphics.
- 1991
- Capcom releases Street Fighter II, revolutionizing competitive play in the arcade setting and setting the template for fighting games.
- 1992
- Midway Games releases Mortal Kombat, which features blood and fatalities.
- 1993
- Mortal Kombat II is released, featuring high quality digitized graphics, and the most advanced sound system in arcades at the time, the DCS sound system which allowed for MP3 style compression to all sounds.
- Sega releases Virtua Fighter, the first 3D fighting game.
- Sega releases Daytona USA, the most successful arcade game to date.
- 1994
- Killer Instinct is released, the first arcade game with a hard disk, up to that point the game with the highest quality graphics pre-rendered by a rendering program, featuring to this day the highest quality use of the movie background technique.
- 1996
- SNK releases Metal Slug, a run and gun game widely known for its sense of humor, fluid hand-drawn animation, and fast paced two-player action.
- 1998
- Konami releases Dance Dance Revolution, an arcade game with four arrow pads that the players used to "dance." This game would create many sequels and spin-offs.
- 1999
- Rush 2049 is released, the last arcade game to bear the Atari Games logo. Atari Games in Milpitas is renamed Midway Games West, and closes its coin-op product development division.
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