John Madden Football: How an Apple II Experiment Launched the Madden Dynasty
Long before Madden became an annual ritual for football fans, the series began with a much more difficult question: could […]
Game Histories
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 Histories
Tapper: How Bally Midway Turned Bartending Into an Arcade Classic
Walk into the right American bar in the opening months of 1984 and one of the strangest arcade cabinets of […]
Game Histories
Tennis (1984): How Nintendo Brought the Sport to the Famicom and NES
In January 1984, Nintendo released a tennis game with one of the simplest titles imaginable. There was no famous athlete […]
Game Histories
The Legend of Zelda: How Nintendo Built Hyrule and Changed Adventure Games Forever
There is almost nothing on the first screen to explain what the player is supposed to do. A small boy […]
Game Histories
Ninja Gaiden: How Tecmo Turned Two Ninja Games into an NES Legend
When Ninja Gaiden reached players at the end of the 1980s, it seemed to fit naturally into an era fascinated […]
Game Histories
Super Mario Bros. (1985): How Nintendo Built the Game That Redefined Platformers
By the time Super Mario Bros. appeared in 1985, Mario was no longer a completely new character. Players had first […]
Game Histories
Sokoban: How Hiroyuki Imabayashi Created the Box-Pushing Puzzle Classic
Few video games have rules as easy to explain as Sokoban. A worker stands inside a warehouse filled with boxes. […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Hiroto Nakamura: From Thinking Rabbit and 8 Eyes to Giraffe Soft
Some video game developers become public personalities. Their careers are preserved through interviews, convention appearances, memoirs, photographs, and decades of […]
Game Histories
Fighting Road: How a Forgotten 1988 Famicom Fighter Anticipated the Super Meter
Three years before Street Fighter II transformed fighting games into one of the defining genres of the 1990s, a young […]
Game Histories
Castlevania: How Konami Turned Classic Horror Into an NES Landmark
Before Castlevania became the name of a sprawling series of games, animated adaptations, soundtracks, and generations of vampire hunters, it […]
Game Histories
Batman: How Sunsoft Turned the Dark Knight into an NES Classic
By the beginning of 1989, Batman was about to become far more than a comic book character. Warner Bros. was […]
Gaming Publications
VideoGames & Computer Entertainment: How VG&CE Chronicled a Changing Video Game Industry
When the first issue of VideoGames & Computer Entertainment reached readers in December 1988, the American video game business looked […]
Game Histories
Mega Man 2: How Capcom Turned the Blue Bomber Into a Franchise
When Rockman 2: Dr. Wily no Nazo reached the Famicom in Japan in December 1988, Capcom did not yet know […]
Game Histories
DuckTales: How Capcom Turned Scrooge McDuck into an NES Classic
By 1989, DuckTales was already one of Disney’s most recognizable television properties. Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby, Launchpad McQuack, […]
Gaming Publications
Nintendo Power: How Nintendo’s Magazine Taught a Generation How to Play
For millions of American children growing up during the Nintendo Entertainment System era, getting stuck in a video game once […]
Game Developers, Publishers
Thinking Rabbit: How Sokoban Launched a Japanese Game Studio
Thinking Rabbit was never one of the largest companies in the Japanese video game industry. It did not have the […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Hiroyuki Imabayashi: How the Creator of Sokoban Built Thinking Rabbit
There are video games whose influence can be measured by sequels, sales, or the size of the company that produced […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Kenzou Kumei: The Mandolin Virtuoso Behind 8 Eyes
For most players who encountered Kenzou Kumei, his name appeared for only a few seconds. At the end of 8 […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Kanji Inomata: The Thinking Rabbit Developer Behind 8 Eyes, Fighting Road, and UWC
Some video game developers leave behind interviews, photographs, convention appearances, and decades of public commentary about their work. Kanji Inomata […]
Development Studios, Publishers
SETA Corporation: How Super Real Mahjong, Aleck 64, and Aruze Shaped a Japanese Game Company
For players who grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, or Nintendo 64, SETA could be an easy […]
Gaming Publications
Electronic Gaming Monthly: How EGM Shaped Video Game Journalism
Before game trailers appeared instantly on YouTube, before social media accounts leaked announcements from press conferences, and before a player […]
Game Histories
Street Fighter II: How Capcom Changed Fighting Games Forever
In 1991, an arcade cabinet could still become a gathering place. Players might crowd around a new machine to watch […]
Game Histories
Capcom Arcade Stadium: How Capcom Preserved Its Coin-Op History
By the time Capcom announced Capcom Arcade Stadium in December 2020, the company had spent decades returning to the arcade […]
Game Histories
Bionic Commando: How Capcom Turned a Grappling Arcade Experiment into an NES Classic
In an era when platform games taught players to run toward a gap and press the jump button, Bionic Commando […]
Game Histories
Capcom Arcade Cabinet: How Capcom Turned Its Arcade Past into a 30th Anniversary Collection
In February 2013, Capcom asked players to look backward before the company celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Instead of beginning with […]
Gaming Publications
Famitsu: How Famicom Tsūshin Became Japan’s Defining Video Game Magazine
In the summer of 1986, Japan hardly seemed to need another video game magazine. Nintendo’s Family Computer had already transformed […]
Gaming Publications
Next Generation: How a Gaming Magazine Treated Video Games Like an Industry
When the first issue of Next Generation reached American newsstands in January 1995, the video game business was standing at […]
Game Histories
JJ: How Square Built a Forgotten 3-D Famicom Sequel Before Final Fantasy
Eleven days before Square released Final Fantasy for the Famicom, the company put another game on Japanese store shelves. It […]
Gaming Publications
Computer Entertainer: How a Mail-Order Newsletter Preserved the Lost Years of American Video Games
At the beginning of 1982, a customer receiving a piece of mail from Video Take-Out was not opening what most […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Rob Holmes: From Activision to Acclaim and the Business of Video Games
Rob Holmes entered the reborn American console industry with a return ticket in his pocket. When Holmes joined Gregory Fischbach […]