Code Like It's 198x

The 1950s.

See what appeared alongside what you already know. Follow an event into the Vault, or narrow the decade to a subject.

45 events · 42 Vault · 3 world

45 events

1950

1 event
  • People

    Chris Crawford born

    Wargamer, Atari designer and the industry's loudest advocate of games as art

1951

2 events

1952

5 events
  • People

    Bob Wakelin born

    The airbrush behind Ocean's covers

  • Hardware

    D-sub connectors

    The family of connectors behind games, printers and serial links

  • TechnologyWorld context

    OXO: the first graphical video game

    Alexander Douglas creates OXO (noughts and crosses) for his Cambridge PhD thesis, the earliest known game with a visual display.

  • People

    Shigeru Miyamoto born

    The staff artist who made Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda

  • People

    Voja Antonić born

    Galaksija designer

1953

6 events
  • People

    Geoff Crammond born

    The physicist who put real cars into home computers

  • People

    Henk Rogers born

    The Tetris publisher who walked into Elorg uninvited

  • People

    Roberta Williams born

    The designer who put pictures into adventure games and founded Sierra with Ken Williams

  • People

    Steve Turner born

    Avalon, Quazatron, and the company that became Graftgold

  • Companies & Studios

    Taito

    From vodka and jukeboxes to Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble

  • People

    Trip Hawkins born

    Founder of Electronic Arts and The 3DO Company

1954

6 events
  • Companies & Studios

    Commodore

    Computers for the masses, not the classes

  • People

    David Crane born

    The designer of Pitfall! and Ghostbusters

  • TechnologyWorld context

    First fully transistorised computer built

    The TRADIC, built by Bell Labs for the US Air Force, becomes the first computer to use transistors instead of vacuum tubes throughout.

  • People

    Marc Blank born

    Zork co-author, Infocom founder and designer of Deadline

  • People

    Sid Meier born

    MicroProse's designer, and the name on Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon and Civilization

  • People

    Yuji Horii born

    The freelance writer who designed Dragon Quest

1955

8 events

1957

8 events
  • People

    Bob Yannes born

    The synthesiser player who designed the SID

  • People

    Chris Anderson born

    Editor of Personal Computer Games, first editor of ZZAP!64 and founder of Future Publishing

  • People

    David Whittaker born

    The composer behind Lazy Jones, Glider Rider and Shadow of the Beast

  • Companies & Studios

    Galoob

    The toy company that sold the Game Genie and beat Nintendo in court

  • People

    Hip Tanaka born

    Nintendo's sound engineer, from Donkey Kong's footsteps to Metroid and the Game Boy Camera

  • People

    Howard Scott Warshaw born

    Yars' Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T., all in 1982

  • People

    Sophie Wilson born

    BASIC interpreters, the BBC Micro and the ARM instruction set

  • People

    Steve Meretzky born

    Infocom's tester turned implementor, from Floyd to the Babel fish

1958

4 events
  • Companies & Studios

    Midway

    From bingo-pinball to Pac-Man and Mortal Kombat

  • TechnologyWorld context

    The integrated circuit is invented

    Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments creates the first integrated circuit, putting multiple transistors on a single chip and launching the microelectronics revolution.

  • People

    The Stamper Brothers born

    Tim and Chris Stamper: Ultimate, then Rare

  • People

    Yu Suzuki born

    Sega's arcade director, from Hang-On to Shenmue

1959

5 events