History of Computer Games

"If I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first." - Steve Russell nickname "Slug"
1961
       First Computer Game was developed; "SpaceWar!" was invented by Steve Russell on MIT's PDP-1 mainframe computer. A team of programmers worked roughly 200 hours to finish the first version of "spacewar!" It was played on a cathode ray tube (CRT) type display with a keyboard for input. The PDP-1's operating system was the first to allow for more than one user to share the computer at once. This was great for spacewar because it was a two player game in which space ships would fire torpedoes at each other.

1968
       Engelbard publicly demonstrated a networked computer system and by 1969 the first network packet was sent over the ARPANET from UCLA to Standford.

1973
       First typewritten copies of Dungeons and Dragons appear. Still influences RPG's today. Will Crowther creates a game called Adventure and Don Woods later updates it and it becomes the first widely used computer adventure game.

1978
       Roy Trubshaw writes the very first MUD (multi-user dungeon).

1979
       Roy and Richard, at Essex University in the UK, are able to connect to ARPANET in the USA to conduct an international, multiplayer game.

1980
       Kelton Flinn and John Taylor create Dungeons of Kesmai for Z-80 computers running CPM. The game uses ASCII graphics, supports 6 players, and is a little more action-oriented than the early MUDs.

1981
       The term "internet" is defined. Time magazine calls 1982 "The Year of the Computer."

1984s
       CompuServe hosts Islands of Kesmai on its network $12 per hour to play it! The game lasts, in various iterations, right up to the turn of the century.

1989s
       James Aspnes writes TinyMUD, a simple compact multiplayer adventure game and invites fellow CMU graduate students to play on it.

1991
       Stormfront Studios' Neverwinter Nights, a game based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons which launches on America Online.

1992
       Wolfenstein 3D was created by id Software and became a huge hit on the PC.

1993
       Doom was released and became one of the most well known PC games ever.

1994
       After 4 years as a dial-up game in the UK, Avalon MUD starts offering a pay-to-play service over the Internet.

1996
       Id Software releases Quake, the game is truly three dimensional and special attention is given to multiplayer features. The first version of the Quake add-on, Team Fortress becomes available and within a year over 40 percent of the servers running Quake was dedicated to Team Fortress.

1998
       NCsoft releases Lineage which grows to become one of the world's most popular MMORPGs, with over 4 million subscribers.

1999
       Sony launches EverQuest a fully three-dimensional MMORPG. The game is a huge success, and in the following years it sees many expansions and attracts more than half a million subscribers. Beta 1 of Counter-Strike, another modification for Half-Life, was released. The free mod goes on to set records for the largest service footprint of any game on the Internet, with 35,000 servers generating over 4.5 billion player minutes per month. Quake 3 Arena appears on store shelves.

2002
       Battlefield 1942 was the first of a very successful series of multiplayer war-themed shooters. Playstation 2, Xbox, and GameCube all introduce some kind of online capabilities for their consoles.

2003
       Project Entropia, a MMORPG developed in Sweden, launches with a secondary market revenue model, where game currency can be bought and sold with real currency.

2004
       Halo 2 arrives and quadruple usage of the Xbox Live. Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, which includes a remade retail version of Counter-Strike, was released. World of Warcraft is released in North America and doubles server capacity within two weeks and there was still great demand.

2005
       Battlefield 2 released in June. To this day one of the most played online first person shooter games.Age of Empires 3 was release with much enthusiasm but great disappointment as the successor to AOE 2. F.E.A.R, Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2 were all released this year.

2006
       A weak year in the video game industry, very few big name titles were released. Battlefield 2142 which was supposed to be the successor to Battlefield 2 was in comparison a flop. Although on an up note an update to the popular half-life series was released, Half-life 2: episode one.

2007
       One of the biggest updates to the C&C series, Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars was release. The highly anticipated game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out as a big hit, even today.

2008
       Call of Duty 5: World at War the latest in the COD series is like its predecessor a bit hit. Probably one of the most popular games in recent history, Left 4 dead was released.