Pony Canyon: How PONYCA Grew from Japanese Computer Games to Ultima and AD&D
Pony Canyon is far better known for music, film, anime, and home video than for video games. Its name appears […]
Game Developers, Publishers
Video Game History
Explore the history of video games and the industry that created them. This section covers individual games, developers, development studios, publishers, gaming publications, companies, technologies, and other people and organizations that shaped the growth of interactive entertainment.
Development Studios, Publishers
Origin Systems: How Ultima, Wing Commander, and “We Create Worlds” Changed PC Gaming
In February 2004, employees at Origin Systems gathered for an all-company meeting in Austin, Texas. Packing boxes were already stacked […]
Publishers
Tactical Studies Rules: From Dungeons & Dragons to Pool of Radiance
In 1973, a small game company formed in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, with little indication that its work would eventually reshape […]
Development Studios, Publishers
Seiji Toda: From Ultima and Bandit to the Beginnings of Gran Turismo
On December 16, 1994, Sony Computer Entertainment released Motor Toon Grand Prix for the original PlayStation. Its colorful cars and […]
Game Developers, Publishers
Electronic Arts: How the Software Artists Became a Video Game Empire
In the spring of 1982, Trip Hawkins walked away from one of the most promising companies in Silicon Valley because […]
Game Histories
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragons of Flame: How U.S. Gold Brought Dragonlance to Computer Screens
By the end of the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons was no longer confined to books, dice, character sheets, and tabletop […]
Game Histories
Phantasie: How Doug Wood and SSI Reimagined the Computer RPG
In 1985, computer role-playing games were already beginning to develop recognizable traditions. Wizardry had sent parties of adventurers into first-person […]
Game Histories
Questron: How an Ultima-Inspired RPG Helped Turn SSI Toward Fantasy
In 1984, Strategic Simulations, Inc. was still a company whose identity had been built largely around computer wargames. Its catalog […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Rick Wilson: The Writer Behind SSI’s Manuals, Gold Box Games, and Neverwinter Nights
In the credits of some of Strategic Simulations, Inc.’s most important games, Richard “Rick” Wilson rarely appears beside the programmers […]
Game Histories
Shadow Sorcerer: How SSI Turned Dragonlance into a Real-Time AD&D Experiment
In most role-playing games, the heroes are the people who matter. Villagers can be rescued, kingdoms can be threatened, and […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
George MacDonald: The Game Designer Behind Champions, Pool of Radiance, and Star Control 3
Long before computer role-playing games could reproduce sprawling fantasy worlds with voiced characters, cinematic dialogue, and thousands of lines of […]
Publishers
U.S. Gold: How American Games Built a British Publishing Giant
In the early 1980s, buying an American computer game in Britain could be an expensive proposition. Software that sold for […]
Gaming Events
1987 Summer CES: How Nintendo, Sega, and Atari Showed Video Games Were Back
By the spring of 1987, the American video game business had spent several years trying to escape its own funeral. […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Laurence H. Miller: From Games Workshop to Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of Flame
The name Laurence H. Miller appears quietly across several corners of British gaming history. It can be found in science-fiction […]
Game Histories
Wizard’s Crown: How SSI Blended Wargaming and RPGs Before the Gold Box Era
By the middle of the 1980s, Strategic Simulations, Inc. had already built a reputation around games that asked players to […]
Game Histories
Dungeons & Dragons: How the 1974 Tabletop Game Helped Build the Computer RPG
In January 1974, a small company in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, began marketing a strange new game through the mail. There […]
Gaming Publications
CRASH Magazine: How a Mail-Order Catalogue Changed British Video Game Journalism
Before CRASH became one of the defining British video game magazines of the 1980s, it was a mail-order business operating […]
Development Studios
Westone Bit Entertainment: How the Wonder Boy Studio Grew from Escape and Disappeared
For nearly three decades, Westone Bit Entertainment occupied an unusual place in Japanese video game history. The company was never […]
Game Histories
Wonder Boy in Monster Land: How Wizardry Turned Sega’s Platformer Into an Arcade RPG
In 1986, Wonder Boy was built around movement. The player ran across beaches, forests, caves, and other obstacle courses while […]
Development Studios
Escape: From Wonder Boy to Westone and the Rise of Monster World
Before Westone became one of the names most closely connected to Sega’s Wonder Boy and Monster World games, there was […]
Game Histories
Star Soldier: How Hudson Soft Built the Shooter Behind the 1986 Famicom Caravan
On June 13, 1986, Hudson Soft released Star Soldier for Nintendo’s Family Computer in Japan. At first glance, it was […]
Gaming Publications
GAME Watch: How Impress Built a Japanese Gaming News Institution
On December 11, 2000, Japanese readers opening a new website called GAME Watch found themselves looking at something that reflected […]
Development Studios, Publishers
Hudson Soft: From a Sapporo Radio Shop to Bomberman and the PC Engine
Long before Hudson Soft helped create one of Japan’s most important game consoles, turned a company employee into a national […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Ryuichi Nishizawa: The Game Designer Behind Wonder Boy, Monster World, and Westone
Ryuichi Nishizawa entered the video game industry before there was much of an industry to enter. He was still a […]
Game Developers, Publishers
SEGA Enterprises: How Service Games, Arcades, Sonic, and Dreamcast Built a Video Game Giant
Long before Sonic the Hedgehog raced across television screens and long before the Sega Genesis challenged Nintendo for control of […]
Game Histories
Adventure Island IV: How Hudson Made the Famicom’s Final Game
On June 24, 1994, Hudson Soft released Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima IV, better known outside Japan as Adventure Island […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Shinichi Sakamoto: The Programmer and Composer Behind Wonder Boy in Monster Land
When Shinichi Sakamoto entered the Japanese video game industry in 1982, the job of a game composer was not yet […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Yoko Shimomura: The Composer Behind Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy XV
For millions of players, Yoko Shimomura’s music arrived long before they knew her name. It might have been the character […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Darlene Lacey: The Game Designer Behind Dragon’s Lair, DuckTales, and Disney’s Early Video Games
Some of the most recognizable games of the 1980s have names attached to them that almost disappeared from popular memory. […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Bobby Schweizer: The Game Scholar Behind Newsgames, Video Game Cities, and Theme Park History
Video game history is often told through machines, companies, famous designers, and bestselling games. Historians trace the rise of Atari, […]