As evidenced in recent years by the likes of outstanding authors like Brett Weiss and Patrick Hickey Jr., the time for writing video game history at a high level has truly arrived. Yet as more books come out, it’s becoming a bit too obvious to merely say that. While gaming may now be more profitable […]
Category Archives: Video Game History
A little history lesson in Super Scope
The gamers who grew up with the NES remembers the good ol’ days of playing Duck Hunt just for the fun of shooting ducks, getting laughed by the dog, and sometimes, shooting that annoying dog (guilty of doing the last one. He did get on my nerves) with the NES Zapper gun. That light gun peripheral […]
Space – The Final Frontier
by Benjamin Fitzgerald Next year represents a huge milestone for Star Trek fans, as September 8th, 2016 will mark the 50th anniversary of Star Trek’s original television debut. Star Trek has always had a relatively small fanbase, but it has been significant enough to warrant 29 seasons of five separate television shows, comprising a whopping […]
This Day in Gaming History – The GameCube is Released in North America (November 18, 2001)
By Marshall Garvey So, did you feel old at all yesterday when my colleague Terry Randolph observed the ninth anniversary of the PS3’s release? Well, get ready to scramble to the mirror to check for a gray hair or two: On this day, 14 years ago, the Nintendo GameCube was released to the public here […]
This Day in Gaming History – Playstation 3 Releases (Nov. 17, 2006)
2001-2006 was a very interesting era for gaming. It was a generation painted in the mindset of the East (Sony, PlayStation 2) versus West (Microsoft, Xbox), beginning of of the end of Sega’s console development, as the Dreamcast was discontinued. Nintendo’s console, the Gamecube, sold quietly in the background and had a consistently strong line […]
This Day in Gaming History – The Nintendo Entertainment System is released in the U.S. (October 18, 1985)
By Marshall Garvey When the video game industry crashed in 1983, the medium’s once seemingly endless potential seemed more than completely destroyed. If anything, video games looked instead like another ephemeral cultural fad whose time had come and gone. Hula hoops, disco, the pet rock…as weird as it may seem now, Atari console and arcade […]
This Day in Gaming History – The Sega Dreamcast is Released in the U.S. (September 9, 1999)
By Marshall Garvey and Sean Willis Marshall: Oh, Sega. What happened? These past 14 years trying to leg it out as a third party developer have been pretty rough, to put it nicely. The financial struggles, the layoffs, not having a booth at E3 this year, the disaster of Sonic Boom…and it’s not like you […]
This Day In Gaming History – Metal Gear is Born – July 7, 1987
A red exclamation point flashes above my head, the timer starts ticking down as I run for cover, there are guards with fully automatic guns everywhere, and I’m a Snake. If you haven’t guessed by now I’m talking about Metal Gear. Today marks the twenty-eighth anniversary for Hideo Kojima’s epic saga. This game series is […]
This Day in Gaming History: June 10th, 1992 – Street Fighter II is Released for the Super Famicom in Japan
By Michael Mygind Heralded as the definitive fighting game, Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, not only set the standard for the genre, but reinvigorated the competitive nature of video games. On this day in gaming history, the arcade blockbuster featuring eight diverse fighters, hit the home console with its release of Street Fighter II […]
1998: The Greatest Year in Gaming History
By Marshall Garvey Being an unabashed history geek, one of my most distinct (re: pathetic) habits is to chronicle the most superlative years of a given field. It’s a habit some might find downright anal and, perhaps, kind of pointless. After all, many believe history is better learned by de-emphasizing year and date memorization. But […]