Timeline of Computer Games by Miles Park

1958: Tennis for Two

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:20:14 UTC

In the 1950s, computer games were just science experiments that scientists like to run to test the power of the latest computers. In 1958, William Higinbotham, a scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, created Tennis for Two for a science exhibition using an analog computer for the code, and an oscilloscope to show the graphics. The exhibition was a hit and started video games as we know them today.

1976: Colossal Cave Adventure

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:27:32 UTC

When computers became more widespread in the 70s, arcade games started popping up using vector graphics. Developer Will Crowther used his passion for Dungeons and Dragons, combined with his experience with computer programming to make Colossal Cave Adventure, a text-only game that players could input words to control the main character's actions.

1980: Mystery House

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:29:18 UTC

Inspired by the board game Clue, Mystery House was developed in 1980 by Ken Williams, and written, designed, and illustrated by Roberta Williams, who is the first female game developer. The game's notable for being the first computer game that displayed graphics on the screen.

1985: Elite

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:30:38 UTC

In the 80s, computer games were made more widespread with the Commodore 64, which is the highest selling computer model of all time. With this popularity came more people making games, and with more games comes more innovation, Elite was one of those games. The game was one of the first computer games to use 3D graphics, and the very open game design makes it technically an early open world game

1981-1999: Ultima

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:31:57 UTC

Made by Richard Garriott, Ultima is one of the first RPG games ever, and an inspiration for many games of the genre to come, like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and more. The series added many features standard in most RPGs today, like party-based combat, tiled graphics, and a morality system that judges the player based on their actions.

1993: Doom

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:33:57 UTC

Before Doom, there was not really any FPS games, and the games that there were, were not good at all. That was changed with Id Software's Wolfenstien 3D, which gave FPS games good graphics and smooth gameplay. Doom gave the game a hell-infused skin, and so many people downloaded it when it first released, it crashed the university of Wisconsin's entire network.

2004: World of Warcraft

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:35:35 UTC

Before World of Warcraft, MMORPGs were either really crappy, like Ultima Online, or very niche, like Phantasy Star Online, WOW changed that. It added many staples to the MMORPG genre, like quests, levelling, and a points system. This culminated in 12 million players at one point, which is the most amount of people playing an MMO game ever.

1998: Half-Life

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:39:35 UTC

In the late 90s, Valve, a game company, was tired that all of the FPS games since Doom were just, in their eyes, virtual shooting galleries. They wanted to show that FPS games could be used to tell a story, so they hired sci fi writer Mark Laidlaw to create a story for them, which led to Half-Life

2013: The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:41:14 UTC

Released in 2013, Skyrim was a massive innovation to the open world genre, as there were few games like it at the time, with it's open ended world making it a fantasy-themed fully realized Elite. It has sold over 60 million copies, and has inspired games like Breath of the Wild, and Red Dead Redemption 2

2000: The Sims

259792s — 2024-09-20 16:42:59 UTC

When the Sims came out, nothing else was like it. There were a lot of simulation games, but they were always large scale, controlling cities, theme parks, and civilizations. The Sims was the first game to let you get control a person's life. Made by Will Wright, he got the idea for the game when his house caught on fire, and he had to buy each part separately, making him think of a dollhouse, which inspired him to think of a dollhouse-like life game, which led to the highest selling PC game of the 2000s