The videogame revolution
Video games came of age in the ‘80s — and defined the players who themselves came of age wearing neon, watching Miami Vice, cringing at their younger siblings’ Mini Pops albums and (for a mercifully brief period of time) sporting rat-tails. The first honest-to-God computer game launched at the 1940 World’s Fair, according to the National Museum of Play, but it wasn’t until Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn got together in 1972 to create Pong, the first modern arcade game and a breakout hit. (The history of Pong is a bit more controversial than that — true game nerds will want to check out Wired’s How Pong and the Odyssey Console Launched the Videogame Era.)
Bushnell and Alcorn founded the company that became known as Atari, turning video games into a popular sensation and planting the seeds of what was a nearly USD 100 bn industry last year. Video games crept into living rooms around the world with the Atari 2600 (pictured above), which launched in 1977. Space Invaders crashed into arcades in 1978, and Intellivision challenged Atari with better graphics the next year.
But it wasn’t until 1980 that a missing slice of pizza inspired Namco’s Toru Iwatani to create Pac-Man, which was a smash-hit in arcades and, a few short months later, became the first arcade game to cross over to a home console when it made its debut on the Atari 2600. Donkey Kong, Tetris, Tron, Castle Wolfenstein, Q*bert and F-15 Strike Eagle followed, and video games became key sales drivers for 1980s personal computers including the Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 68 and TRS-80 Color Computer.
Recommended reading: Tap herefor a brief history of gaming, courtesy TechCrunch or here to read about coming of age with video games. Or go read about a new non-profit that’s looking to “preserve the hidden history of video games” at Polygon or Engadget.
Our favourite video game movie of all time Lara Croft or Wing Commander or Resident Evil. It’s War Games, the 1983 classic starring a young Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, wherein Broderick’s character nearly triggers global thermonuclear warfare IRL when he kicks off a computer game on early dial-up. Watch the Shall we play a game? scene (runtime: 2:37)
Random factoid: A young Steve Jobs was an early Atari employee. He tricked Steve Wozniak, with whom he would later found Apple Computer, into making the prototype for Breakout “in four sleepless nights on Atari’s factory floor.”
The ultimate Google Easter egg: Search for “Atari Breakout” and then click on “Images” to play a game of Breakout with the search results.
Lite nostalgia fix: Play classic 1980s arcade and home video games here. (Be patient: it’s a bit wonky, but has the widest selection, from Donkey Kong and Pac-Man to Zaxxon.) A handful of other links that run better, but have been re-rendered for modern screen resolutions. You’ll want to run the links in Chrome on a Mac — most require Flash.
- Space Invaders (1978)
- Asteroids (1979)
- Battlezone (1980)
- Donkey Kong (1983)
- The Oregon Trail (1990 edition)
Nostalgia fix for committed gamers: Go download Pac-Man (the original, for iOS or Android), the amazing Pac-Man 256 (iOS or Android) or Wolfenstein 3D (iOS, but a bit long in the tooth — it’s the 2014 edition).
Nostalgia fix for superfans: Discover the “8-bit wonderland” that is Nintendo Classic, a micro-sized version of the original console that comes pre-loaded with 30 games including Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda and Pac-Man. Learn more on Nintendo’s website or go order one now on Amazon — it’s finally in stock.
Nostalgia fix for apprentice geeks: Go play classic MS DOS games (including Pac-Man) on the Internet Archive; others are available for download. MacGames.net has resources for those of you looking for early Apple II or Mac games.
Nostalgia fix for hardcore geeks: Go buy an original console on Ebay and coax it back to life. Check out listings for Coleco and Atari 2600 systems.