This document provides a brief history of early video games and PC gaming from 1947 to 2007. It summarizes key milestones such as the earliest chess programs in 1947, the first digital computer game in 1951, Spacewar in 1961 being the first influential video game, the first interactive baseball game in 1971, MUDs in 1978 being the earliest virtual worlds, and PC gaming taking off in the 1970s-80s with the rise of the Apple II, Commodore, and IBM PC. Major companies like Sierra, Electronic Arts, Blizzard, and Zynga are also summarized.

1. Level 4
David Mullich
Survey of the Videogame Industry
The Los Angeles Film School

3.  Colleague Dietrich Prinz
writes the limited chess
program for Manchester
University's Ferranti Mark I
 Only capable of computing
"mate-in-two" problems
Alan Turing, “Father of
Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence”
1947: Alan Turing Develops
Chess Theoretical Program

4. 1951: NIMROD
 First instance of a digital
computer designed
specifically to play a
game (Nim)
 Created by Ferranti and
weighed over a ton
 Duplicate displayed at
the New York World's
Fair

5. 1951: OXO / Noughts and
Crosses
(Tic-Tac-Toe)
 First computer game
to use a digital
graphical display
 Created by Alexander
S. Douglas for the
world's first stored-
program computer,
EDSAC

6. 1958: Tennis For Two
 The first video game
ever made!
 Created by American
physicist William
Higginbotham on a
Donner Model 30
analog computer

7. 1961: SpaceWar!
 The first video game
you’d actually want to
play (that is, the first
influential video
game).
 Programmed by a
group of students at
MIT, including Steve
Russell, on the PDP-1
Play SpaceWar!

9. 1971: First Interactive Baseball
Game
 Don Daglow writes
computer baseball on a
DEC PDP-10 mainframe at
Pomona College
 Daglow and programmer
Eddie Dombrower later
create Earl Weaver
Baseball, published by
Electronic Arts in 1987
Don Daglow

10. 1971: Star Trek
 Best-known and most
widely played of the
1970s Star Trek titles
 Programmed
(probably by Mike
Mayfield) on a Sigma
7 minicomputer at
University of
California.
Play Star Trek Game

11. 1972: Hunt The Wumpus
 First text adventure
 Written by Gregory Yorb in
BASIC for the PDP-10
 Written in reaction to
existing hide-and-seek
games such as Hurkle,
Mugwump, and Snark
Play Hunt The Wumpus

12. 1974: Airflight
 Developed by Brand
Fortner and others as an
educational flight
simulator
 Popular game on the
PLATO system despite
mediocre graphics
 Inspiration for what
became the Microsoft
Flight Simulator

13. 1975: Adventure
 The first modern text
adventure game
 Originally called
ADVENT and later
Colossal Cave
 Programmed in
Fortran on the PDP-
10 by William
CrowtherPlay Colossal Cave Adventure

14. 1975: Dungeon
 First role-playing
video game
 Created by Daglow on
a PDP-10 at
Claremont Graduate
University
 Unlicensed
implementation of
Dungeons & Dragons
Don Daglow

15. 1978: Multi-User Dungeon
 The first MUD and oldest
Virtual World in existence
 Created by Roy Trubshaw
and Richard Bartle at
Essex University on a
PDP-10
 Began the heritage that
culminates with today's
MMORPGsRichard Bartle

16. 1979: Zork
 Dave Lebling, Marc Blank,
Tim Anderson, and Bruce
Daniels begin writing Zork
for a PDP-10 in 1977
 Team recognized game's
potential on personal
computers and founded
text adventure publisher
Infocom in 1979

18. PC Gaming
G4 Icons – PC Gaming (21:41)

19. 1970s: Home Computer
Hobbyists
 Earliest home computers
were sold as kits and had
no operating systems
 Hobbyists gathered to
discuss home computing
 First meeting of the
Homebrew Computer
Club in Silicon Valley in
1975 inspires Steve
Wozniak to design the
Apple I
1975: Altair 8800

20. 1970s: Home Computer
Hobbyists
 Games were distributed
through hobbyists groups
and magazines such as
Creative Computing and
Dr Dobb’s Journal of
Computer Orthodontia
 These publications
provided game code that
could be typed into a
computer and played

21. 1975: Microchess
 Written by Peter R.
Jennings for the KIM-1
 Jennings founded
Personal Software to
publish to the growing
microcomputer market
 First computer game to
sell 10,000 units, almost
exclusively on cassette
tape

22. 1977: “Trinity” of First
Successful PCs
 Apple II, designed by
Steve Jobs and Steve
Wozniak
 Commodore PET,
designed by Chuck
Peddle
 TRS-80, sold by
Radio Shack

23. 1979: Sierra On-line
 Founded by Ken and Roberta
Williams as On-Line Systems
 Best known for King’s Quest
graphic adventure games,
designed by Roberta, which
were ground-breaking for its
color graphics and third-person
perspective
 Eventually purchased by
Vivendi and Activision Blizzard
King’s Quest 1 Walkthrough.

24. 1980: IBM PC
 IBM markets low-cost
computer in response to the
Apple II’s success
 PC-DOS operating system
created by Bill Gate’s
Microsoft
 IBM’s agreement allows
Microsoft to sell the OS, under
the name MS-DOS, to other
PC makers
 Within a decade, PC “clones”
dominate the home computer
market

25. 1982: Electronic Arts
 Founded by Trip Hawkins
 Hawkins established the
Producer model of publishing,
based on record producers
 Hawkins left EA in 1991 to
form 3DO and later, Digital
Chocolate and If You Can
 Currently the third-largest
gaming company by revenue,
after Activision-Blizzard and
Nintendo

26. 1983: Origin Systems
 Founded by brothers Richard and
Robert Garriott
 Best known for Ultima role-playing
games designed by Richard under
the name Lord British
 Other well-known Origin designers
included Chris Roberts (Wing
Commander) and Warren Spector
(System Shock and Deus Ex)
Ultima 4 Walkthrough
Wing Commander 1 Walkthrough

27. 1984: Commodore 64
 Most popular home
computer of its day and the
best-selling computer model
of all time internationally
 Advanced graphic and
sound capabilities for its
time, and utilized the same
joystick ports as the Atari
2600
 Motto: Computers for the
masses, not the classes
 Inspired a whole new
generation of video game
programmers

28. 1985: Atari ST and Commodore
Amiga 64
 16/32-bit computer based
on the Motorolla 68000
CPU with 512K of RAM, a
graphical user interface
and 3-1/2” microfloppy
disks
 The Apple Macintosh also
arrived at this time but
never gained traction as a
gaming system

30.  Created by Ron Gilbert
and Gary Winnick for
Apple II and Commodore
64
 First game to use the
SCUMM graphical game
engine, an improvement
on contemporary text
parser-based graphical
adventure games
1987: Maniac Mansion
(Lucasfilm Games)
Maniac Mansion Walkthrough

31. 1989: Prince of Persia
(Broderbund)
 Created by Jordan
Mechner for the
Apple II
 Platform Game that
represented a great
leap forward in the
quality of animation
seen in video games
Prince of Persia Walkthrough
Prince of Persia 2 Design Doc
Prince of Persia Tech Doc

32. 1991: Blizzard Entertainment
 Founded by Michael Morhaime,
Allen Adham and Frank Pearce as
Silicon & Synapse
 Its first breakthough hit was
Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994
 Known for the Warcraft, Diablo and
Starcraft series
 First acquired by Davidson &
Associates and later by Vivendi,
which merged with Activision in
2008
Michael Monhaime
Diablo Walkthrough

33. 1991: Civilization (MicroProse)
 One of the most
popular strategy games
of all time
 Lead to several
sequels, most recently
Civilization V
 Designed by Sid Meier
and Bruce Shelley
Sid Meier

34. 1991: Neverwinter Knights (Strategic
Simulations)
 First multiplayer online
role-playing game to
display graphics
 Ran from 1991 to 1997
on AOL
 Licensed Dungeons &
Dragons product
 Developed by Don
Daglow’s Stormfront
Studios

35. 1992: Dune II (Virgin Interactive)
 Established the real-time
strategy game format that
laid the foundation for
Command & Conquer,
Warcraft and Starcraft
 Based on David Lynch’s
1984 movie Dune
 Designed by Brett Sperry,
Joseph Bostic and Aaron E.
Powell of Westwood Studios
Dune II Walkthrough

36. 1992: Doom (id Software)
 First-person shooter
widely regarded as one
of the most influential
titles in gaming history
 Controversial for its
graphic violence
 Designed by Tom Hall,
Sandy Peterson, John
Romero, Shawn Green
John Romero
Doom Walkthrough

37. 1993: Myst (Broderbund)
 Graphic adventure game
that became the best-
selling PC game until The
Sims in 2002
 Helped drive the adoption
of CD-ROM format
 Designed and directed by
brothers Robyn and Rand
Miller of Cyan
Myst Walkthrough

38. 1996: Valve Software
 Founded by Gabe
Newell and Mike
Harrington
 Known for Half-Life,
Counter-Strike and Left
4 Dead series
 Created Steam software
distribution platform
Half-Life Walkthrough

39. 1997: Grand Theft Auto
 Developed by DMA Design
(now RockStar North) and
published by BMG Interactive
 First of the enormously
successful (and violent) open
world action-adventure series
 Originally released on
Windows in October 1997
and then on PlayStation in
December

41. 1998: Snake on Nokia Mobile
Phones
 Snake was a casual video
games that originated in
arcades during the late
1970s
 Snake became the standard
pre-loaded game on Nokia
mobile phones in 1998
 Soon every major phone
brand offered “time killer
games” that could be played
for very short moments

42. 1999: EverQuest
 Developed by Sony's 989 Studios
and its early-1999 spin-off Verant
Interactive, and published by Sony
Online Entertainment (SOE)
 Designed by Brad McQuaid, Steve
Clover, and Bill Trost
 Infamous for its addictive qualities.
Many players refer to it as
"EverCrack". There has been one
well-publicized suicide of an
EverQuest user that resulted in his
mother founding Online Gamers
Anonymous.
Everquest Walkthrough

43. 2000: PopCap Games
 Advent of Flash created a
boom in web-based casual
games
 Flagship title Bejeweled
has sold more than 50
million units
 Founded by John Vechey,
Brian Fiete and Jason
Kapaika
 Now owned by Electronic
Arts

44. 2000: The Sims
(Electronic Arts)
 Landmark game allowing
players to build a virtual world
from the ground up
 It became the best-selling
game in PC history, displacing
Myst
 Attracted casual gamers and
female gamers (who made up
60% of its players
 Designed by Will Wright
(creator of SimCity) of Maxis

45. 2004: World of Warcraft (Blizzard)
 Legitimized the entire
genre of massively
multiplayer online
games
 Perfected the rules and
experience of MMOs
 Designed by Rob
Pardo, Jeff Kaplan, Tom
Chilton

46. 2007: Zynga
 Known for its line of Facebook
social games, especially
Farmville (2009)
 Founded by Marc Pinkus and
others. Don Mattrick is current
CEO
 Approached $1B in revenue in
2011, surpassing market value of
Electronic Arts
 Began trading on NASDAQ in
2011. Stock market price has
since plummeted

47. 2007: iPhone (Apple)
 Fundamentally changed
the mobile phone industry
by being designed to
handle other tasks, such
as gaming, beyond
communications
 App Store becomes digital
distribution store for iOS
games