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A.S. Douglas creates Noughts and Crosses. It runs on a computer called the: "Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator"
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Tennis for Two - Physicist Willy Higinbotham invents the first "video game" at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.
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Steve Russell creates Spacewar, the first interactive computer game. It runs on a Digital PDP-1 mainframe computer.
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Ralph Baer receives support from his company to explore his idea of creating games for a TV.
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Baer and team are successful in creating two TV games. They are also able to manipulate a toy gun so that it detects spots of light on a TV screen.
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Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (future founders of Atari) attempted to create an arcade version of Spacewar, calling it Computer Space.
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Computer Space becomes the first video arcade game released. 1500 games are distributed. Public consensus is that it is too difficult to play.
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The first home video game system released.
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Bushnell and Dabney start up Atari. They name the company after a term from the Japanese game "Go".
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Al Alcorn is hired by Atari to program video games. The first game Pong is released.
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Atari produced 150,000 units of Pong.
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Gunfight is the first game to use a microprocessor instead of hardwired solid-state circuits.
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Nolan Bushnell sells Atari to Warner Communications for $28 million. He stays as CEO.
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Coleco releases its first home video-game console.
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Atari introduces its first cartridge-based home video system called "the Video Computer System" which later becomes known as the Atari 2600. It retailed for $249.95
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Atari gets commisioned to work on a combat simulator for the U.S.Department of Defense.
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Midway (Taito in Japan) introduces Space Invaders into arcades. It is so popular in Japan that it causes a national coin shortage.
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Debuts as a console with a keyboard.
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Introduced as the controller for Atari's new arcade game "Football".
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Japanese company Namco, along with America's Midway, bring the game Puck-Man to the U.S, but later rename it to Pac-Man for fear of the games name being altered to something offensive. It is the first gamet o have an animated character with its own name.
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Battlezone is the first 3d game ever created, it is set in a virtual battlefield used by the U.S. Government for training.
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Mattel's Intelivision has better graphics than Atari but has a higher retail price of £299.
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Nintendo introduces the Famicom in Japan, later known as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo offers Atari the rights to distribute the product in the U.S. but plans fail and Americans do not see the NES until 1985.
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The first 64-bit console on the market. The product actually runs two 32-bit processors.
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Resulting from the Senate investigation, the ESRB is created. Ratings are now given to video games and are marked on packaging to indicate the suggested age and content.
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According to the book "Game Over", by David Scheff, the first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986.
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The cartridge for the N64 was a key factor in Nintendo's being unable to retain its dominant position in the gaming market.
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First video game with a female lead character released.
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Tiger introduces a multipurpose handheld to compete with the Game Boy. It features an address book, calculator, stylus for touchscreen and it also connects to a PC Modem for email access.
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Sega Dreamcast operates on Microsoft Windows CE and has a built-in 56kbps modem. It would later fail because of ease of piracy.
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It is the first console to use DVD technology, it sells out the morning it is released.
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The Sims is released, and quickly becomesa hit. It eventually surpasses Myst as the best-selling PC game ever.
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Microsoft Xbox was the first console created by Microsoft.
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The Gameboy advance is released in 2001.
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Loved for its untamed quality, the game also sparks controversy. Player options include killing people, picking up prostitutes and stealing cars and money.
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The Nintendo DS is released as a dual-screen console with its bottom screen being touch screen, supplied with a stylus.
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The Sony PSP, a hand-held version of the Playstation, is released.
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The successor the Microsoft Xbox is released.
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The successor to the Playstation 2 is released.
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The Nintendo Wii is released, this is fhe first console to not try and out-do the graphics of previous consoles and has a "Wii Remote" to control the games using motion.
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