Game Histories

By the end of the 1980s, Dungeons & Dragons was no longer confined to books, dice, character sheets, and tabletop […]

In 1985, computer role-playing games were already beginning to develop recognizable traditions. Wizardry had sent parties of adventurers into first-person […]

In 1984, Strategic Simulations, Inc. was still a company whose identity had been built largely around computer wargames. Its catalog […]

In most role-playing games, the heroes are the people who matter. Villagers can be rescued, kingdoms can be threatened, and […]

By the middle of the 1980s, Strategic Simulations, Inc. had already built a reputation around games that asked players to […]

In January 1974, a small company in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, began marketing a strange new game through the mail. There […]

In 1986, Wonder Boy was built around movement. The player ran across beaches, forests, caves, and other obstacle courses while […]

On June 13, 1986, Hudson Soft released Star Soldier for Nintendo’s Family Computer in Japan. At first glance, it was […]

On June 24, 1994, Hudson Soft released Takahashi Meijin no Bōken Jima IV, better known outside Japan as Adventure Island […]

When Legend of Mana begins, the player is given something unusual for a role-playing game. There is no great kingdom […]

By the middle of the 1990s, Mario had already raced go-karts, prescribed medicine, painted pictures, taught typing, and appeared in […]

Long before DuckTales, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, and the string of Disney games that helped define Capcom’s reputation on […]

In 2002, a fourteen-year-old boy with enormous shoes stepped onto a stained-glass platform beneath images of Disney princesses. Within a […]

When Final Fantasy XV finally reached players on November 29, 2016, it arrived carrying a history almost as complicated as […]

For three years in the 2000s, millions of Disney fans could walk down Main Street, visit Fantasyland, battle pirates, trade […]

When Nintendo Entertainment System owners opened Disney’s Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers in 1990, the game presented a wonderfully small […]

In November 2011, Xbox 360 owners were offered a strange kind of vacation. There were no airline tickets, hotel reservations, […]

Before Sonic the Hedgehog raced across television screens and transformed Sega into one of Nintendo’s fiercest competitors, another character carried […]

When Hook appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, it seemed to belong to one of the most familiar […]

In 1984, a sleeping factory worker named Wally Week found himself trapped inside a nightmare where roast chickens attacked, hands […]

By the time RoboCop finally reached American Nintendo Entertainment System owners near the end of 1989, the idea of turning […]

Long before Mario ran beneath a blue sky toward a flagpole, Nintendo placed him underground. The world of Mario Bros. […]

By the end of the 1980s, Ocean Software had become one of the British video game industry’s most recognizable specialists […]

When Total Recall arrived in theaters in the summer of 1990, Arnold Schwarzenegger was already one of the most recognizable […]

In the spring of 1986, Sega released an arcade game that looked very different from many of the machines surrounding […]

In the summer of 1989, Nintendo Entertainment System owners were being asked to survive a stretch of water unlike anything […]

When Nintendo returned to Hyrule after the success of The Legend of Zelda, it did something that would be almost […]

By the summer of 1989, four mutated turtles named after Renaissance artists were rapidly becoming some of the most recognizable […]

When American players opened Super Mario Bros. 2 in 1988, almost everything familiar about Mario seemed to have changed. Instead […]

On July 13, 1987, Konami released a new game for the MSX2 home computer in Japan. Its cover promised soldiers, […]