SPACE-AGE PINBALL was how TIME described Pong, one of the first Atari video games, soon after the game was introduced more than thirty years ago. Modern video games, a $12 billion industry in 2004, left the arcade behind with their realistic graphics and sound. And the next generation of gaming consoles, Microsoft's Xbox 360, promises yet another gaming transformation. Here's a look back at our coverage of video games:
Atari sold some 8,500 games to U.S. amusement parlors and other businesses last year, in addition to a substantial overseas trade. Pong is played on a standard television to which a simple circuit board has been added.
From Space-Age Pinball
Apr. 1, 1974
Game players have accomplices, but they do not have sympathizers. It may be for this reason that they are so likely to form warm little subcultures, or termite nests, within the larger society, complete with their own lingo, legends, heroes, magazines, newspapers and meetings of the clan.
From Games People Play: 1977
Dec. 26, 1977
Once every year or so a new game jumps into the public's lap and licks its face, and proves so endearing that money in unbelievable abundance falls on the heads of its fortunate makers.
From Beating the Game Game
Jan. 18, 1982
The first episode, Zork I, is the bestselling piece of recreational computer software on the market, with sales of 250,000 copies. It is currently outpacing the home versions of such arcade hits as Zaxxon and Frogger.
From Putting Fiction on a Floppy
By By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Dec. 5, 1983
Few companies have risen so fast or crashed so rapidly as Atari, the onetime king of video games. From 1977 to 1982, annual sales zoomed from $200 million to $2 billion. But last year Atari lost $536 million in just the first nine months.
From The Zinger of Silicon Valley
Feb. 6, 1984
At the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, the purveyor of the world's most successful electronic-game system unveiled its long-awaited successor: a gray plastic book-size box called the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
From Hold On to Your Joysticks
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Jun. 10, 1991
Suddenly a new medium -- and a new market opportunity -- has opened up in the place where Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the information highway intersect. Games are part of a rapidly evolving world of interactive amusements so new that nobody knows what to call them: Multimedia? Interactive motion pictures? The New Hollywood?
From The Amazing Video Game Boom
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Sep. 27, 1993
The folks at Sony--the company that brought you the Trinitron television and the Walkman, and will soon launch the PlayStation game player--are newcomers to the $5 billion U.S. video-game business. But it didn't take them long to get into the mtv-blaring, schoolyard-taunting, testosterone-burning spirit of the thing.
From Mortal Kombat
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt and David S. Jackson
May. 22, 1995
The video-game industry ... has been waiting nearly three years for this game. It stars a familiar character--a stumpy, mustachioed plumber named Mario--but it runs on a new machine so powerful, so blisteringly fast, so graphically rich that it could be single-handedly running out of lives.
From Super Mario's Dazzling Comeback
By Michael Krantz
May. 20, 1996
As violent video games have evolved, the targets have gone from monsters to people. In the racing game Carmageddon, the player tries to run down pedestrians, including old ladies with walkers.
From Are Video Games Really So Bad?
By Joshua Quittner
May. 10, 1999
Can Xbox match GameCube for visuals? You bet. If anything, it's even more cinematically realistic and detail obsessed. Just take a walk through the space station in Halo, an action game based on Larry Niven's classic sci-fi novel Ringworld, and you'll notice fingerprint marks on triple-glazed windows.
From The Battle Of Seattle
By Chris Taylor
May. 21, 2001
The GameCube ($200) and the Xbox ($300) will both be arriving in retail stores this week. If you are of a certain age and inclination, you're probably wondering: Which one should I buy? And what about Sony's PlayStation2, which came out last year?
From The Box Meets The Cube
By Josh Quittner
Nov. 19, 2001
As goes talent, so follows buzz. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which won Best Game of the Year at last month's Game Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., got more adulation from critics and Star Wars junkies than any of the Lucas movie prequels.
From You Ought to Be in Pixels
By Chris Taylor
Apr. 12, 2004
Right now video games are the world's largest cult phenomenon. Those who play them (fully half of all Americans ages 6 and up) love them, and those who don't play them regard them with virulent distaste.... Take a look at three new video games that expand our notions of what a video game can do.
From The Art of the Virtual
By Lev Grossman
Nov. 8, 2004
Gamemakers ... already invest, on average, $15 million to develop a game. But which offerings are truly worth your time and money?
From Best Video Games 2004
By Chris Taylor
Nov. 29, 2004
The video-game industry is heading for another record year, with sales of $12 billion in the U.S., up 7% over 2003, including consoles and PC titles. And thanks to hot new games like Halo 2 for the Xbox, the industry is light-years ahead of the toy business when it comes to buzz.
From Zapped!
By Daren Fonda
Dec. 6, 2004
As video games have become a regular part of kids' daily lives--a recent survey by Michigan State University found that eighth-grade boys play them on average 23 hr. a week and girls 12 hr.--many people agree that the games' increasingly realistic depictions of violence and sex need to be examined.
From Video Vigilantes
By Anita Hamilton
Jan. 10, 2005
Let’s face it, a lot of the software released these days in the name of electronic amusement isn’t worth the effort it takes to lie on your couch and mash a button. But there’s that rare sweet spot where graphics, game play and storytelling come together to make a game work.
From 5 Video Games Worth Sore Thumbs
By Lev Grossman
Mar. 28, 2005
This isn't just a story about Microsoft. It's also a story about a sea change in American culture, which has embraced video games, formerly a despised hobby, as a vital force in pop culture. Gates and his team have spent the past 3 1/2 years working in obsessive secrecy to build the greatest piece of game-playing hardware the world has yet seen.
From Out of the X Box
By Lev Grossman
May 23, 2005
Video Game Console Timeline
Yet after a massive voluntary recall of laptop batteries, Stringer turned opportunist, using the smoking cells as cover to clear out the vestiges of Sony's change-resistant culture. In Stringervision, the new Sony is led by software and linked horizontally across its vast product line. No more will the folks in the camera group not know what the TV-set guys are doing, he vows.
From How Sony Got Game?
By Daren Fonda
Nov. 19, 2006
As similar as they are in movie playback, the two platforms are very different in other areas. The PS3 thinks locally Ñ it handles content best when it's on its hard drive, or on a disc in its drive, or on a memory card or USB keychain that's plugged in directly. The Xbox 360 is all about the network.
From Sony PlayStation 3 vs Microsoft Xbox 360 with HD DVD Player
By Wilson Rothman
Nov. 20, 2006
Unlike with normal video games, where you interact with just a computer, MMOGs allow millions of people to play with each other in sprawling online virtual worlds. Most MMOGs target people like me who, as kids, took 20-sided dice and J.R.R.Tolkien a little too seriously, and none do it better than World of Warcraft.
From Confessions of a 30-Year-Old Gamer
By Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates
Jan. 12, 2007
Not only have some gamers started turning the Wii and other similar active gaming consoles into a new form of exercise, but medical researchers are touting their health potential for more than just weight loss.
From Is the Wii Really Good for Your Health?
By Tracy Samantha Schmidt
Feb. 01, 2007
Zwinktopia's design is simplistic and really easy to learn how to use. Teens can choose from hundreds of outfits, hairstyles, even pets, and then head to the mall for even more choices in the Surf Shop, the Castle (for medieval attire), or the University Club (for preppies). Once you've perfected your look, you can start earning points (for buying even more clothes) by hitting the arcade or heading over to Kingpin Korner.
From A Virtual World for the Younger Set
By Anita Hamilton
May. 01, 2007
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