From Pong to Half-Life: A Journey Through the Evolution of Video Games (1970-2000)

In this article, we will talk about the first games of their genre that appeared from 1970-2000.

First arcades

Pong (1972)

Primitive arcade table tennis simulator. The first game created by Atari and also one of the most popular video games of the time. Here, two players, using the rotation of the handles, controlled the rackets, trying not to miss the ball. There was also a single-player mode. There were versions of the game for a set-top box and as a slot machine.

Space Race (1973)

This is the second game developed by Atari after Pong. For two or one player. It was necessary to fly on rockets, dodging obstacles. Who did not have time to evade - lost. It was produced in the form of a set-top box and a slot machine.

The first racing simulators

Speed Freak (1979)

One of the first first-person racing games, and the world's first vector racing game. The goal is to reach the finish line without crashing into obstacles and oncoming traffic, without flying off the road.

Pac-Man (1980)

In terms of the degree and duration of influence on mass culture, this game can be compared with a megaton explosion in the middle of a metropolis. The player had to control the ever-hungry creature, crawling into the dungeons, teeming with unfriendly fauna. There are 255 levels in the game in total, and useful boosts are sometimes thrown at the main character, increasing speed and even making him temporarily invulnerable to ghosts. Now there are different variants of this game, and all of them are interesting.

First platformers

Donkey Kong (1981)

One of the early representatives of the platformer genre. A character in a cap named Mario had to save a certain girl named Pauline from the aggressive gorilla Donkey Kong. Mario would later become one of the most popular video game characters, if not the most popular. And he started as a wrestler with monkeys.

Duck Hunt (1984)

Another iconic game. Duck Hunt arcade machines and the Nintendo Entertainment System (produced before 1995) were equipped with light pen pistols. On the screen, ducks flew up from the thickets, which had to be shot with a minimum number of misses. And the dog happily grabbed the prey. If desired, it was possible to switch to the skeet shooting mode. In terms of sales, the game ranks second on the NES platform with 28 million copies.

First fighting games

Street Fighter (1987)

And this game spawned an entire era of fighting games - games in which you had to fight hand-to-hand with each other or with enemies. Combo attacks and six-button character control appeared here. In Street Fighter, it was necessary to win fights, each round lasted 30 seconds (if none of the fighters had time to be knocked out by that time, the one who had more health won).

First 3D games

Doom (1993)

Once upon a time, it was not necessary to explain to anyone what Doom was. Everyone knew about this game. Doom set the standard for first-person shooters for many years. The plot is primitive and is not revealed in the game itself. In fact, you play as some kind of commando on Mars, who shoots with particular cruelty hordes of monsters that came to the planet in connection with an unsuccessful teleportation experiment that opened a portal to hell.

Tekken (1994)

A bright representative of Japanese fighting games, with a specific character design. However, unlike other fighting games, in Tekken, players could control each arm and leg of the fighter separately. It is curious that the game was originally created as an internal project of Namco, designed to test 3D animation. But in the end, it turned into a full-fledged hand-to-hand combat simulator.

The first shooter on its own engine

Half-Life (1998)

Another landmark first-person shooter game. In the course of an unsuccessful scientific experiment at the top-secret research complex Black Mesa, aggressive aliens enter our world. You are the scientist Gordon Freeman, an employee of the complex, and you begin to fight the creatures in the hope of correcting the situation.

These games have not only driven progress in computing power and graphics subsystems but also left a profound impact on mass culture and entertainment.