The 1970s.
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102 events · 97 Vault · 5 world
102 events
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1970
5 events- People
John Carmack born
The programmer behind Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake
- Companies & Studios
LJN
The toy company that became a Nintendo licensee
- People
Masahiro Sakurai born
Kirby's creator and the director of Super Smash Bros.
- People
Tim Follin born
The schoolboy who made the Spectrum's beeper play chords
- People
Tim Sweeney born
From ZZT to Unreal
1971
7 events- Genres
Arcade Game
Not where it was played — how it played
- Hardware
Arcade Hardware
From one board per game to one board for every game
- People
Mad Max born
Jochen Hippel, The Exceptions' musician and Thalion's composer
- People
Martin Hollis born
The director of GoldenEye 007
- Companies & Studios
Sunsoft
Sun Electronics' games brand, from Kangaroo to Blaster Master, Batman and Gimmick!
- Classic Games
The Oregon Trail
You have died of dysentery
- TechnologyWorld context
Intel releases the 4004 microprocessor
The first commercially available microprocessor launches, putting a complete CPU on a single chip and making personal computing possible.
1972
10 events- Culture & Community
Arcade Culture
Ten pence a go, and everyone watching
- Companies & Studios
Atari
From Pong and the VCS to two rival Ataris
- Genres
Horror Games
Haunted houses, film certificates and a monster you cannot fight
- People
Jeroen Tel born
The Dutch composer of Maniacs of Noise, from Cybernoid to Turbo Out Run
- People
Jesper Kyd born
From Silents music disks to Hitman and Assassin's Creed
- People
Michel Ancel born
Creator of Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil
- Hardware
Paddle Controller
A knob, a potentiometer and a button
- Classic Games
Pong
Atari's first game, and the one everyone copied
- Genres
Sports Games
From two paddles to a licensed league
- Communities
The Rise of Esports
From a Spacewar! night at Stanford to prize pools in the millions
1973
10 events- People
Chris Metzen born
The animator who wrote Blizzard's worlds
- Companies & Studios
DISMAC
The calculator company that sold Brazil its first personal computer
- Companies & Studios
Hudson Soft
The Sapporo radio shop that made Bomberman and the PC Engine
- People
Matt Furniss born
Krisalis's composer, and the sound of Western Sega games
- Genres
Maze Game
One screen, four ghosts and a great many imitators
- Companies & Studios
MECC
Minnesota's school computing service, and the home of The Oregon Trail
- Culture & Community
Online Multiplayer
Playing together, apart
- Companies & Studios
Sinclair Research
The Cambridge company that built the ZX line, and often shipped it late
- Distribution
Type-In Listings
Programs printed on paper, for readers to type in themselves
- EconomicsWorld context
OPEC oil embargo triggers energy crisis
Arab oil producers embargo Western nations, quadrupling oil prices and triggering a global recession that reshapes the world economy.
1974
6 events- Magazines
Creative Computing
From a classroom newsletter to a monthly for the personal computer
- Companies & Studios
Irem
The Japanese arcade company behind Moon Patrol, Kung-Fu Master and R-Type
- Genres
Racing Game
From Gran Trak 10 to Gran Turismo: the clock, the road and the car
- People
Skaven born
Peter Hajba: Future Crew's musician and artist, later at Remedy
- Hardware
Steering Wheel Controller
From Gran Trak 10 to the living room
- Companies & Studios
Zilog
The Z80 company
1975
11 events- Culture & Community
Arcade to Console
Selling the games from the arcade for play at home
- Magazines
BYTE
Hardware, software and something to do with both
- Companies & Studios
Enix
The publisher that found its developers through a contest
- Technologies
How a Cassette Becomes a Game
From magnetic stripes to moving sprites
- People
Keita Takahashi born
The sculptor who made Katamari Damacy
- Companies & Studios
Microsoft
The BASIC in the ROM, then DOS, Windows and Xbox
- Hardware
MOS 6502
The $25 processor in the Apple II, the Atari 2600, the BBC Micro and the NES
- Genres
Text Adventure
Worlds built from words
- Culture & Community
User Groups
Pre-internet communities
- Genres
Western RPG
Computer role-playing games from Dungeons & Dragons to Baldur's Gate
- PoliticsWorld context
Fall of Saigon ends Vietnam War
North Vietnamese forces capture Saigon, ending two decades of American involvement in Vietnam and reshaping US foreign policy.
1976
7 events- Classic Games
Breakout
Atari's 1976 game against a wall of bricks, and the four days Steve Wozniak spent building it
- Classic Games
Colossal Cave Adventure
The caver's game that started the text adventure
- Companies & Studios
Data East
The Tokyo arcade company behind BurgerTime, Karate Champ and the RoboCop coin-op, which lost its famous karate lawsuit on appeal
- Genres
Portable Gaming
Games that fit in a pocket, and the batteries that ran them
- People
Purple Motion born
Jonne Valtonen: Future Crew's musician, later an orchestral arranger and composer
- Distribution
Software Piracy
Copying culture
- Hardware
Zilog Z80
The 8-bit processor inside the Spectrum, the CPC and the MSX
1977
12 events- Systems
Apple II
The computer that launched an industry
- Systems
Atari 2600
The Video Computer System, and 128 bytes of RAM
- Culture & Community
Brazil Gaming
Home-built computers, Nintendo-compatible consoles and a Master System that would not retire
- Culture & Community
Brazil's Market Reserve
Why a Brazilian computer cost more, and why that was the point
- Systems
Commodore PET
A computer, screen and cassette recorder in one cabinet
- Companies & Studios
Melbourne House
The Australian publisher that reached Britain as a book house first, and documented three Sinclair ROMs before it sold a hit game
- Distribution
Public Domain Software
Free programs, and the libraries that copied them
- Techniques
Raster Effects
Changing the picture while it is being drawn
- Systems
TRS-80
Radio Shack's surprise success
- Technologies
Vector Graphics
Lines of light, and lines of maths
- Classic Games
Zork
The MIT mainframe adventure that became Infocom's trilogy
- Culture & CommunityWorld context
Star Wars released
George Lucas's space opera transforms cinema, creates the modern blockbuster, and inspires a generation of game developers.
1978
12 events- Companies & Studios
Acorn Computers
The Cambridge company that built the BBC Micro and designed the ARM
- Books
BASIC Computer Games
David Ahl's 101 games, from DEC's timesharing terminals to the home computer
- Communities
BBS Scene
Dial-up communities before the internet
- Companies & Studios
Epyx
From Temple of Apshai to Summer Games, and the handheld that became the Lynx
- Phenomena
Golden Age of Arcade
1978-1983
- Systems
MK14
A computer kit with a keypad, an LED display and 256 bytes
- Genres
MMORPGs
From MUD to World of Warcraft
- Genres
MUDs
Text adventures with other people in them
- Genres
Shoot 'em Up
From marching invaders to screens full of bullets
- Companies & Studios
SNK
From Vanguard and Ikari Warriors to the Neo Geo
- Classic Games
Space Invaders
The game that shot back
- Hardware
Trackball
A ball on two rollers
1979
22 events- Companies & Studios
Activision
The Atari designers who started the third-party cartridge business
- Classic Games
Asteroids
Atari's rock-splitting vector game
- Systems
Atari 8-bit Family
The 400, 800, and XL/XE computers
- Culture & Community
Atari vs Activision
The trade-secrets suit against the first third-party cartridge maker
- Companies & Studios
Audiogenic
From a Reading tape duplicator to Britain's cricket specialists
- Hardware
AY-3-8910
General Instrument's three-voice sound generator
- Hardware
AY-3-8912
The sound chip that gave the Spectrum 128 three voices
- Companies & Studios
Capcom
The Osaka coin-op maker behind 1942, Ghosts 'n Goblins and Street Fighter II
- Magazines
COMPUTE!
From a PET newsletter in Greensboro to America's biggest type-in magazine
- Classic Games
Galaxian
The aliens that left formation
- Companies & Studios
Infocom
The MIT company that sold Zork, and bet on a database
- Systems
Intellivision
Mattel's console, sold as the smarter alternative to the Atari 2600
- People
Markus Persson born
Minecraft's creator
- Hardware
MC6847 VDG
Motorola's video display generator
- Magazines
MICRO-80
An Adelaide monthly for the TRS-80 and its clones, from December 1979
- Hardware
Motorola 68000
Thirty-two-bit registers on a sixteen-bit bus
- Hardware
Motorola 6809
Motorola's 8-bit processor with 16-bit habits
- Culture & Community
PAL vs NTSC
Why European games ran slower
- Companies & Studios
Strategic Simulations
SSI gave the computer the opponent’s chair
- Companies & Studios
Tiger Electronics
Licensed LCD games, Tigervision cartridges and the Game.com
- Tools
Z-Machine
Infocom's imaginary computer
- TechnologyWorld context
Sony Walkman launches
The portable cassette player creates a new category of personal electronics and demonstrates the appeal of technology you carry with you.