Kimiya Sasaki: The Programmer Behind Abadox, Cadash, and Taito’s Console Classics
For many of the people who built video games during the 1980s and early 1990s, history survives not in interviews, […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
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.
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Hidenobu Takahashi: The Game Arts Developer Who Helped Shape Grandia
Hidenobu Takahashi is one of those game developers whose influence becomes much clearer when the credits are followed across an […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Atsushi Okazaki: From Abadox Director to Bottom Up Producer
Some video game developers become historical figures through interviews, photographs, convention appearances, and decades of public discussion about their work. […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Kōichi Dekune: The I.T.L. Programmer and Sound Developer Behind Abadox and Don Doko Don
For many of the people who built video games during the late 1980s, the surviving historical record can be frustratingly […]
Publishers
MCA’s Video Game History: From Atari and LJN to Crash Bandicoot and Spyro
Long before Universal Interactive Studios helped bring Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon to the PlayStation generation, the entertainment empire […]
Game Histories
GoldenEye 007: How Rare Turned James Bond into a Nintendo 64 Legend
When GoldenEye 007 arrived on the Nintendo 64 in 1997, almost everything about it seemed to work against success. The […]
Game Histories
Donkey Kong Country: How Rare Reinvented Donkey Kong and Changed the Super Nintendo
In the summer of 1994, Nintendo showed an audience of journalists, retailers, and game-industry figures something that looked almost impossible […]
Game Histories
Killer Instinct: How Rare, Nintendo, and Midway Built an Arcade Fighting Phenomenon
By 1994, the fighting game had become one of the defining genres of the arcade. Capcom’s Street Fighter II had […]
Game Histories
Banjo-Kazooie: How Rare Turned Project Dream into a Nintendo 64 Classic
When Banjo-Kazooie reached the Nintendo 64 in 1998, its premise seemed almost deliberately strange. The hero was a good-natured honey […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Gregg Mayles: How Rare’s Designer Shaped Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, and Sea of Thieves
For more than three decades, Gregg Mayles occupied an unusual place in video game history. He did not simply spend […]
Development Studios
Rare: How Ultimate Play the Game Became a Nintendo Legend and Microsoft Studio
Few video game companies have lived as many different lives as Rare. Before Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye 007, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect […]
Publishers
LJN: How a Toy Company Became the Rainbow Logo of Nintendo History
For a generation of Nintendo players, LJN is remembered before anything else by a rainbow. The curved bands of red, […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Steve Patrick: From Rare and Killer Instinct to Eighth Wonder
For a developer who worked on some of the most recognizable games of Rare’s rise, Steve Patrick remains surprisingly difficult […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Tim Stamper: How the Rare Co-Founder Helped Shape Video Game History
Long before Rare became one of the most celebrated game developers in the world, and before Donkey Kong Country, GoldenEye […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Kevin Bayliss: The Rare Artist Who Redesigned Donkey Kong and Created Diddy Kong
When Kevin Bayliss first walked into the rural English farmhouse where Rare was making video games in the late 1980s, […]
Gaming Publications
GamePro: How a Video Game Magazine Helped Define a Generation
For millions of young players growing up during the 1990s, discovering a new video game did not begin with a […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
David Wise: The Rare Composer Behind Donkey Kong Country’s Legendary Sound
For millions of players, the memory of a Rare game begins with a picture. A snow-covered slope in Slalom. A […]
Gaming Events
Winter CES 1989: Nintendo, Tengen, U-Force, Power Glove, and the Future of Video Games
In January 1989, tens of thousands of electronics dealers, manufacturers, journalists, buyers, and sales representatives poured into Las Vegas for […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Paul Moriarity: The Life and Career of a Taito America Video Game Executive
Paul R. Moriarity spent more than four decades in gaming, but much of his career unfolded behind the machines and […]
Gaming Publications
The Milwaukee Journal: How Edward Semrad Helped Pioneer Video Game Journalism
Long before video games became a routine subject for newspapers, television networks, and websites, American players often had to search […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Scott Tsumura: The Irem Producer Who Bridged Japanese and American Gaming
Scott Tsumura spent much of his career behind the names that appeared more prominently on arcade cabinets, cartridges, and corporate […]
Development Studios, Publishers
Irem: How Moon Patrol, Kung-Fu Master, and R-Type Built an Arcade Legend
In the summer of 1987, Japanese arcade trade magazine Game Machine carried a full-page advertisement for a new science-fiction shooter […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Mamoru Shigeta: From Irem Director to Sega Executive Producer
Video game history often remembers the people closest to the screen. Programmers, artists, composers, and directors leave behind games that […]
Game Histories
Wrecking Crew: How Nintendo Turned an Arcade Demolition Game into an NES Puzzle Classic
Long before Mario became permanently associated with the Mushroom Kingdom, Nintendo could still send him almost anywhere. He had already […]
Game Histories
Wild Gunman: How Nintendo Turned a 1974 Film Arcade Attraction into an NES Classic
For many players, Wild Gunman belongs to the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is remembered as one of the early games […]
Game Histories
Tecmo Bowl: How Tecmo Turned Arcade Football Into an NES Classic
For generations of players, Tecmo Bowl is remembered as a Nintendo game. It is the football cartridge where Bo Jackson […]
Game Histories
Excitebike (1984): How Nintendo’s Motocross Game Helped Build Super Mario Bros.
Before Mario ran across the Mushroom Kingdom, Nintendo sent a red motocross rider flying across dirt ramps. Excitebike can look […]
Game Histories
Atari Football: How Atari Turned X’s and O’s Into a Trackball Arcade Classic
By the late 1970s, video games had already learned how to simulate tennis, racing, gunfights, tanks, and space combat. American […]
Game Histories
Kung Fu: How Spartan X Helped Create the Beat ’Em Up and Reach the NES
For someone encountering Kung Fu on the Nintendo Entertainment System for the first time, there is not much mystery about […]
Game Histories
Baseball (1983): How Nintendo Turned Nine Innings into an Early Famicom Classic
When Nintendo released the Family Computer in Japan during the summer of 1983, the company still had to answer a […]