by Steven Kent
Namco begins making video games.
Strapped for cash, Nolan Bushnell approaches venture capitalist Don Valentine for funding.
Midway Games imports a Taito game called Gunfight, the first game to use a microprocessor.
1976
The Connecticut Leather Company, now known as Coleco, releases Telstar, a television tennis game.
Fairchild Camera & Instrument releases Channel F, the first programmable home game to use cartridges.
Exidy Games releases Death Race, a game in which players drive over stick figures. Protests about the game are featured on 60 Minutes.
Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million.
1977
Atari opens the first Pizza Time Theatre.
Atari releases the Video Computer System, also known as the 2600.
Mattel introduces a line of LED-based handheld video games.
Shigeru Miyamoto joins Nintendo.
Bally releases the Bally Professional Arcade home console.
Nintendo releases its first home video game in Japan.
1978
Bushnell is forced out of Atari and buys the rights to Pizza Time Theatre.
Ray Kassar becomes the CEO of Atari.
Nintendo releases Othello, its first arcade game.
Atari releases Football and Midway releases Space Invaders. Both games attract record business.
Magnavox releases the Odyssey2.
Cinematronics releases Space Wars, an arcade adaptation of the Spacewars game created at MIT.
1979
Capcom is founded in Japan.
Atari releases Lunar Lander, its first vector-graphics game. Later that year, Atari releases Asteroids, the company’s all-time bestselling game.
Atari game designer Warren Robinett introduces concept of “Easter Eggs” to video games by hiding a room with his name in a 2600 game called Adventure.
Mattel Electronics introduces the Intellivision game console.
Milton Bradley releases Microvision, the first handheld programmable game system.
1980
Atari releases Space Invaders for the Video Computer System. The practice of selling home versions of arcade hits is started.
Renegade programmers fleeing from Atari create Activision, the first third-party game publisher.
Namco releases Pac-Man, the most popular arcade game of all time. Over 300,000 units are sold worldwide.
Minoru Arakawa opens Nintendo of America.
Williams releases Defender.
1981
Nintendo releases the arcade game Donkey Kong.
Atari releases Pac-Man for the Video Computer System.
Atari releases Tempest.
U.S. arcades revenues reach $5 billion as Americans spend more than 75,000 man-hours playing video games.
Arnie Katz, Bill Kunkel, and Joyce Worley begin publishing Electronic Games, the first magazine about video games.
1982
Coleco releases Colecovision.
Atari wins lawsuit accusing Magnavox of infringing on its Pac-Man license with K.C. Munchkin.
Atari releases E.T. for the Video Computer System.
Activision releases Pitfall for the Video Computer System.
Atari releases the 5200 game console.
General Consumer Electronics releases the Vectrex.
Midway releases Ms. Pac-Man, the biggest arcade game in American history.
When Warner Communications announces that Atari sales have not met predictions, Warner stock drops 32 percent.
1983
Nolan Bushnell opens an arcade company called Sente Games.
Yu Suzuki joins Sega.
Sega releases its first home console in Japan—SG-1000.
Cinematronics releases Dragon’s Lair, the first arcade game to feature laser-disc technology.
Former Philip Morris executive James Morgan replaces Ray Kassar as head of Atari.
1984
Nintendo releases the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan.
David Rosen and Isao Okawa purchase Sega Enterprises back from Gulf & Western for $38 million.
Coleco begins marketing the Adam Computer.
Hisao Oguchi and Yuji Naka join Sega.
Warner Communications sells Atari Corporation to Commodore Computers founder Jack Tramiel but retains the arcade division as Atari Games.
1985
Nintendo test-markets the Famicom in New York as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
Russian mathematician Alex Pajitnov designs Tetris.
1986
Nintendo of America releases NES nationwide.
Sega releases its Sega Master System.
Atari releases the 7800 game console.
1987
Nintendo publishes The Legend of Zelda.
NEC releases the 16-bit/8-bit hybrid PC-Engine game console in Japan.
Sega unveils 16-bit Mega Drive game console.
1988
Square Soft publishes Final Fantasy.
Atari Games releases unlicensed games for the NES under its new Tengen label.
Tonka acquires the U.S. distribution rights to the Sega Master System.
Coleco files for bankruptcy.
1989
NEC brings PC Engine to the United States and releases it as TurboGrafx.
Sega releases Mega Drive in the United States as Genesis.
Nintendo releases Game Boy worldwide.
1990
Nintendo and Atari go to court over the rights to Tetris.
Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros. 3—the most successful non-bundled
game cartridge of all time.
SNK brings 24-bit NeoGeo game console to the United States.
1991
Nintendo of America releases Super NES.
Sega recreates itself with a new mascot—Sonic The Hedgehog.
Galoob Toys releases the Game Genie.
Capcom releases the arcade game Street Fighter II giving arcades a needed boost.
1992
With Genesis outselling Super NES, Sega effectively takes control of the U.S. console market.
Sega ships Sega CD peripheral for Genesis game console.
1993
Panasonic begins marketing the 32-bit 3DO Multiplayer.
Atari launches the 64-bit Jaguar.
Broderbund publishes Myst for Macintosh Computers.
Id Software publishes Doom for PCs.
Virgin Interactive Entertainment publishes The 7th Guest on PC CD-ROM.
Senators Joseph Lieberman (D. of Connecticut) and Herb Kohl (D. of Wisconsin) launch Senate
hearings on video game violence.
1994
The Interactive Digital Software Association is created in response to Senate hearings.
Nintendo releases Donkey Kong Country and retakes control of the U.S. console market.
Sega releases 32X, a peripheral that increases the power of the Genesis.
Sega releases Saturn in Japan.
Sony releases PlayStation in Japan.
1995
Sega releases Saturn in the United States.
Sony releases PlayStation in the United States.
Nintendo releases Virtual Boy in the United States.
Nintendo unveils the 64-bit Nintendo 64 game console in Japan.
1996
Nintendo sells its billionth cartridge worldwide.
Jack Tramiel sells Atari Corporation to disk drive manufacturer JTS.
Nintendo releases Nintendo 64 in the United States.
Nintendo discontinues Virtual Boy.
Sony unveils Crash Bandicoot.
1997
Sega discontinues Saturn.
Bandai releases Tamagotchi.
Tiger releases game.com handheld system.
Gumpei Yokoi, the creator of the Game Boy, dies in car accident.
DreamWorks, Universal, and Sega team up to form a new line of super arcades called GameWorks.
Nintendo releases
Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64.
Square Soft publishes Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation.
1998
Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64.
Pokemon, a line of Game Boy role-playing games that have ignited a craze in Japan, comes to American and starts a similar craze.
1999
JTS files for bankruptcy and sells Atari properties to Hasbro Interactive.
SNK Corporation brings the NeoGeo Pocket Color handheld game system to the United States.
Sega releases Dreamcast game console in the United States.
2000
Toshiba and Samsung announce plans to sell Nuon-equipped DVD players.
Sony releases PlayStation 2 in Japan.
Microsoft unveils plans for Xbox video game console at the Game Developers Conference.
Sega launches SegaNet Internet service for Dreamcast.
Sony launches PlayStation 2 in the United States.
SNK discontinues NeoGeo Pocket Color sales in the United States.
2001
Sega discontinues Dreamcast.
Sega chairman Isao Okawa dies.
Nintendo releases Game Boy Advance in Japan (March) and the United States (June).
Nintendo releases GameCube in the United States.
Microsoft releases Xbox worldwide.
The World Before Pong
You can’t say that video games grew out of pinball, but you can assume that video games wouldn’t have happened without it. It’s like bicycles and automobiles. One industry leads to the other and then they exist side by side. But you had to have bicycles to one day have motor cars.
—Steven Baxter, former producer, The CNN Computer Connection
The Beginnings of Pinball
New technologies do not simply spring out of thin air. They need to be associated with familiar industries or ideas. People may have jokingly referred to the first automobiles as “horseless carriages,” but the name also helped define them. The name changed them from nebulous, unexplainable machines to an extension of an already accepted mode of transportation.
Although video games are a relatively new phenomena, they benefited from a close relationship with the well-established amusement industry. The amusement industry, in turn, has long suffered from a lack of legitimacy. As it turned out, however, legitimacy would never be much of an issue for video games.
The beginnings of pinball can be traced back to Bagatelle, a form of billiards in which players used a cue to shoot balls up a sloped table. The goal of the game was to get the balls into one of nine cups placed along the face of the table. Abraham Lincoln was said to have played Bagatelle.*
No surviving records explain why the cue sticks in Bagatelle were replaced with a device called a “plunger,” but for some reason the evolution took place and the game transformed into a new sport called “pinball” before the turn of the century.
If one event paved the way for today’s computer and video game industry, it was David Gottlieb’s Baffle Ball. The founder of D. Gottlieb and Company, David Gottlieb was a short, stocky man with a full head of brown hair and an ever-present cigar in his mouth. A showman and an inventor, he once made a living by taking carnival games to oil workers in remote Midwestern oil fields. He understood the balance of chance and skill that made games fun and had a talent for refining ideas to make them more fun. In 1931, Gottlieb created a game called Baffle Ball.
Baffle Ball used no electricity and bore little resemblance to modern pinball games. It was built in a countertop cabinet and had only one moving part—the plunger. Players used the plunger to launch balls onto a plane set at a 7-degree slope and studded with pins circling eight holes or “scoring pockets.” Each scoring pocket had a certain point value attached to it. For a penny, players could launch seven balls.
Baffle Ball did not have flippers, bumpers, or a scoring device. Players kept track of scores in their heads. Once they launched the ball, they could control its course only by nudging the entire Baffle Ball cabinet, a technique later known as “tilting.” Sometimes they tilted so forcibly that the entire Baffle Ball cabinet could slide several inches during a single game.
At first Baffle Ball sales grew gradually, but within months, Gottlieb’s game became a major success. By the time the game reached peak popularity, Gottlieb shipped as many as 400 cabinets a day.
Gottlieb, the first person to successfully mass produce pinball cabinets in a factory, became the “Henry Ford of pinball.” His competitors worked out of their garages and couldn’t compete.
Imitators popped up immediately, more or less. I mean everybody got involved in the business, and, like I said, there were a lot of people building them in their garages.
Gottlieb machines were a little more expensive. I think it was $16.50 for the machine, and that was $1.00 or $1.50 more than the competitors. But my grandfather used a better quality of walnut; I think the pins were a higher quality metal. He wanted it to be the Cadillac of pinball machines.
—Michael Gottlieb, grandson of David Gottlieb
Once Gottlieb proved money was to be made, imitators followed. David Rockola created several successful pin games* before establishing his company as one of the most famous names in jukeboxes. Ray Moloney’s first pinball machine, Ballyhoo, sold so well that he changed the name of his company from Lion Manufacturing to Bally.
Gottlieb’s chief competitor was Stanford-educated Harry Williams. Having studied engineering, Williams brought a deeper understanding of mechanical workings to the industry. He entered the business as a West Coast distributor selling other companies’ amusement machines but discovered he could purchase used pinball games and refurbish them with playfields of his own design for much less than it cost to buy new ones.
In 1932, Williams decided to make pinball more challenging by limiting the amount of “body English” players could use. He designed a table with a device that contained a metal ball on a pedestal in its base. If players nudged the machine enough to knock the ball off the pedestal, the game ended. He originally called his device “Stool Pigeon,” but when a customer complained that the machine had “tilted,” Williams decided to call it a “tilt” mechanism. He tested this innovation in a game called Advance.
Williams later refined the “tilt” mechanism by replacing the ball and platform design with a pendulum device, which has been present in nearly every pinball game made since.
In 1933, Williams built Contact—the first “electric” pinball machine. The name Contact referred to its electrically powered scoring pockets (called “contact holes”), which knocked the ball back into the playfield to continue scoring points. Like the “tilt” mechanism, electric scoring pockets became a standard for pinball that is still used today.
Previous to Contact, the skill for the player was to send the ball up on the playfield, have it roll around, and hope that his aim was such that the ball would somehow magically weave its way around through the pins that were nailed into the playfield.
With the contact hole, you still needed to have some precision to get the ball into the cup, but getting the ball into the cup gave you something back. There was a sound, there was motion. Part of the fascination people have with pinball comes from those opportunities where the game takes over and does things.
—Roger C. Sharpe, author, Pinball!*
Pay-Outs
Though he was well aware of Harry Williams’s innovations, a different development frightened David Gottlieb more. Slot-machine manufacturers began making pinball-like machines called “pay-outs,” which combined pinball and gambling.
Gottlieb saw these machines as a threat to the entire industry. Pay-out machines first appeared in the crime-conscious 1930s, and Gottlieb suspected that politicians would outlaw the new machines and anything associated with them.
Yes, there was a certain amount of skill involved, but basically the law looked at it as a gambling device. Pay-outs started out legally in many states and eventua
lly ended up being operated mostly illegally in places where the police would look the other way, such as New Orleans. They were nickel games, by the way. They paid off in nickels. So it was a little gamble, but nevertheless it was gambling.