Nothing happened
in isolation.
A computer leads to a game. A game needs a new technique. A tool lets someone else begin. Follow those connections through time.
Browse the full chronologyHow did games find their sound?
Follow the instruments inside the computer, the people writing for them, and the tools that put music on the screen.
- 1982
SID: The Sound of the C64
The C64’s SID puts three synthesiser voices, envelopes and a filter on one chip.
- 1985
Commando
Rob Hubbard’s C64 music shows what a composer could make of that hardware.
- 1987
SoundTracker
On the Amiga, SoundTracker arranges sampled instruments in columns of notes.
- 1990
ProTracker
ProTracker continues the tracker approach through shared tools and module files.
What changes when the enemies move?
Compare three arcade games through a design choice: the way an opponent moves, and what that asks of the player.
Who gets to make a game?
A built-in language, an adventure writer and a games BASIC offer different answers. Follow the tools as well as the finished games.
- 1980
Sinclair BASIC
A language in the computer’s ROM makes entering and changing a program part of everyday use.
- 1983
The Quill
The Quill lets authors build text adventures without writing the machine-code engine.
- 1985
Graphic Adventure Creator
Graphic Adventure Creator brings pictures and an adventure editor together.
- 1990
AMOS
AMOS gives Amiga programmers a BASIC with graphics, sound and animation facilities.
Find your decade.
1,493 events: 1,449 from the Vault and 44 world events. Choose a decade to explore.
1810s
People and events recorded in this decade
1 event · 1 Vault · 0 world1850s
People and events recorded in this decade
1 event · 1 Vault · 0 world1860s
Milton Bradley
1 event · 1 Vault · 0 world1880s
Nintendo
1 event · 1 Vault · 0 world1900s
People and events recorded in this decade
1 event · 1 Vault · 0 world1910s
Rotoscoping · Tandy Corporation
4 events · 4 Vault · 0 world1920s
Motorola
8 events · 8 Vault · 0 world1930s
Light Gun · Ricoh
14 events · 12 Vault · 2 world1940s
Williams Electronics · Sony · EMAP
28 events · 24 Vault · 4 world1950s
D-sub connectors · Taito · Commodore
45 events · 42 Vault · 3 world1960s
Sega · The Game Loop · BASIC Programming Culture
79 events · 76 Vault · 3 world1970s
LJN · Arcade Game · Arcade Hardware
102 events · 97 Vault · 5 world1980s
Acorn Atom · Acornsoft · Adventure
602 events · 592 Vault · 10 world1990s
576 KByte · Adventure Game Deaths · AMOS
368 events · 363 Vault · 5 world2000s
Deus Ex · Deus Ex Machina · Episodic Gaming
145 events · 140 Vault · 5 world2010s
Amnesia: The Dark Descent · Datastorm · Fallout: New Vegas
71 events · 67 Vault · 4 world2020s
Hades · Inscryption
22 events · 19 Vault · 3 world
What’s in the chronology?
Dates recorded in Vault articles, alongside our world-event entries. We include subject beginnings, births, deaths and company endings; an article can appear more than once. Unknown dates stay out. This is a route through the collection, not a complete history of computing.
The stories above use reviewed articles. The full chronology also labels entries that have not yet been fact-checked; follow each article for its sources and review status.
Explore the Vault by subject