The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon and Beyond—The Story Behind the Craze That Touched Our Lives and Changed the World Read online

  Praise for The Ultimate History of Video Games

  “This book is extraordinary, with enough quotes, anecdotes, and detail that it reads more like a fast-moving novel than a literary tome.”

  —Peter Moore, CEO of Sega

  “In the game industry, like in movies, an incredible amount happens behind the scenes. This book tells it all.”

  —Mark Cerny, creator of Marble Madness and cocreator of Crash Bandicoot

  “From the advent of coin-op video games, through its transition to the consumer video games industry, The Ultimate History of Video Games tells it as it is. An enjoyably informative bird’s-eye view of this entertainment medium.”

  —Joel Hochberg, president of Rare, Inc.

  “The Ultimate History of Video Games is the definitive history of computer and video games. Steven Kent takes readers from the arcade to the boardroom and introduces them to the men and women who have transformed gaming from a garage hobby into the current multibillion dollar industry of technology entertainment for the new millennium.”

  —Arthur Pober, president of the Entertainment Software Rating Board

  “A great history of the video game industry! Steve Kent reports the inside story!”

  —Howard Lincoln, former chairman of Nintendo of America, CEO of the Seattle Mariners

  “A must read for newcomers and veterans alike.”

  —Michael Katz, former president of Sega, Atari, and Epyx

  “Steven Kent’s passion for the video game industry illuminates every page. Despite all my video game industry contacts over the years, I learned something new in every chapter.”

  —Richard Doherty, director of the Envisioneering Group

  “Apart from the fact that Steve Kent is one of the big authorities on this thing we call the video game, he can also make history fun.”

  —Eddie Adlum, publisher of RePlay Magazine

  “I certainly wasn’t prepared for the engrossing, almost novel-like work that I discovered when I read The Ultimate History of Video Games. It was quite a pleasant surprise.”

  —GameSpy

  “The book reads like a text version of one of those mammoth Ken Burns documentaries, but without all the weird and pretentious poetry. The book leaves very few historical stones unturned.”

  —Happy Puppy

  “Highly recommended for any coin-op hobbyist’s library.”

  —Tim Ferrante, GameRoom Magazine

  “You’d be hard pressed to find a better book about the history of video games. In fact, you can’t. It really is quite an engaging read. And you’ll find yourself rereading sections for years to come.”

  —Syzygy Magazine

  “Steve Kent has created a more compelling version of gaming history, one that relies heavily on anecdotes from the heavyweights of the gaming industry.”

  —Game Informer

  “A thing of precious value. Kent’s supremely exhaustive research ensures that nuggets of insight into what went on behind the scenes leap from nearly every page. Read this book now or forever be an unenlightened gamehead.”

  —Edge Magazine

  “There have been a lot of books written about the video game business. None of them seem to get it. When people ask me about the video game business, I tell them to read The Ultimate History of Video Games.”

  —Ed Rotberg, creator of Battlezone

  “A fantastic account of the history of video games. Reads like a novel!”

  —Lenny Herman, author of Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Video Games

  “Incredible insight into the creation of some of the biggest video games. Having been in this business for fourteen years, I was amazed by the amount of information and only wish the book could have been longer.”

  —Ed Boon, creator of Mortal Kombat

  “I found this book fascinating to read. Besides reliving the stories about the people and the games, it goes into the inside stories and politics of the video games industry.”

  —Ed Logg, creator of Asteroids, Centipede, and Gauntlet

  “A nostalgic, sweeping trip down memory brick road, The Ultimate History of Video Games is great for people who want to learn more about the early days of video games.”

  —Tendo Box

  To Professor Alf Pratte, that rare individual

  who understands the full responsibilities of journalism and teaching.

  Contents

  Foreword by Peter Molyneux

  Acknowledgments

  Timeline

  Chapter 1 The World Before Pong

  Chapter 2 Forgotten Fathers

  Chapter 3 Father of the Industry

  Chapter 4 And Then There Was Pong

  Chapter 5 The King and Court

  Chapter 6 The Jackals

  Chapter 7 “Could You Repeat That Two More Times?”

  Chapter 8 Strange Bedfellows

  Chapter 9 The Return of Bushnell

  Chapter 10 The Golden Age (Part 1: 1979–1980)

  Chapter 11 The Golden Age (Part 2: 1981–1983)

  Chapter 12 The Battle for the Home

  Chapter 13 A Case of Two Gorillas

  Chapter 14 The Fall

  Chapter 15 The Aftermath

  Chapter 16 Album Covers

  Chapter 17 We Tried to Keep from Laughing

  Chapter 18 The Seeds of Competition

  Chapter 19 The Birth of Sega

  Chapter 20 The New Empire

  Chapter 21 The Legal Game

  Chapter 22 The Year of Hardware

  Chapter 23 Run for the Money

  Chapter 24 The War

  Chapter 25 Moral Kombat

  Chapter 26 The “Next” Generation (Part 1)

  Chapter 27 The “Next” Generation (Part 2)

  Chapter 28 The Mainstream and All Its Perils

  Chapter 29 And the Cycle Continues

  Chapter 30 Three Horses and a Pony

  Source Notes

  Foreword

  When Steven Kent asked me to write the foreword to this book, I was deeply honored and rather pleased. I then started to wonder what I would write! These feelings made me realize that what is so useful about this book is that is chronicles the beginnings of a new entertainment medium. Our industry’s greatest problem has been one of identity—where, culturally, do video games fit? They don’t fit into films, they don’t fit into books, they don’t fit into any existing pigeonhole. Twelve years ago, when I produced my first game, my greatest challenge was to try to get someone interested in it. After talking with Steven, I believe he has found a similar problem with placing this book. Thankfully, he persevered as I did.

  However, now that we have this book, at last we have a faithful record on the cultural history of what I am sure will one day be one of the most important entertainment mediums in the world. It is shocking to me to open the first page and read through the first chapter and look back through the years of my life. Each chapter unveils a new episode in the history of computer games that coincides with my own history. What this highlights for me is that young people today think of computer games as a natural pastime, which was not always the case. They can’t imagine a world without computer games, and what Steven’s book does (and it is the first to do this) is set out the history of computer games that is both compelling and compulsive. I endorse and encourage you to read this excellent book.

  —Peter Molyneux

  Acknowledgments
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br />   In 1972, my physical education teacher took the class to a bowling alley in Kalihi, on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. As we walked past the familiar line of electromechanical games (Night Bomber was my favorite at the time), I noticed a game that seemed to be running on a television set or possibly a computer. My teacher sent the other kids off to bowl while he and I dropped a quarter into the machine and batted a square ball back and forth with rectangular paddles. Obviously, the game was Pong. One hour later, as the rest of the class finished bowling, I had a new addiction that has now lasted for nearly thirty years.

  Four years later, I found myself playing Midway’s Gunfight with a friend named Ed when two of the best-looking girls from my high school class came up to talk with us. (As anyone who knew me in high school will tell you, that was not a common occurrence.) I really wanted to talk to them. Ed really wanted me to talk to them, too; but every time I looked away from the game, he shot me. In the end, Gunfight won out, and I had proven my absolute nerddom.

  Researching this book gave me the opportunity to interview Dave Nutting, the man who modified Gunfight for the U.S. market, and Al Alcorn, the engineer who built the first Pong machine. In fact, writing this book has given me the chance to meet most of the people who entertained me, addicted me, and caused me to spend an evening with Ed when I might have had more fun with Lisa. What I found out about these people was that the vast majority of them are kind, smart, and generous. With the exceptions of three people—Sam Tramiel, Ken Kutaragi, and Hiroshi Yamauchi—all of the people I asked for interviews granted them and put up with the endless hours of repetitive questions. In fact, such busy and important men as Ralph Baer, Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn, Masaya Nakamura, Minoru Arakawa, Howard Lincoln, Tom Zito, and several others granted me multiple interviews.

  In the end, much of this book was cobbled together from information that I gathered from more than 500 interviews. While I would like to thank the people who generously donated their time for these interviews, many of which were several hours long, I feel it is equally important to thank the many people who helped me arrange everything. For every interview that went into this book, there was an average of two PR/communications people working to put everything together.

  While writing this book, I found myself using a few published sources as well. One was KLOV, the Killer List of Videogames, which is located at www.klov.com. The people who created this amazing site do not receive advertising revenues and are not employed by the video game industry. They simply maintain this immense site out of love for the games.

  I also relied heavily upon Phoenix: The Fall and Rise of Videogames, a brilliant book written by Leonard Herman. As I was finishing this book, a friend suggested that I call it “A Comprehensive History of Video Games.” I could not do that. Lenny had already written the comprehensive book.

  And while I am at it, on many occasions I also referred back to Game Over, by David Sheff. While both Nintendo of America and Nintendo Co., Ltd., in Japan, have been very generous with me, I have never interviewed Hiroshi Yamauchi. I learned about him by reading the works of Mr. Sheff.

  I also wish to thank the many people who helped me get this manuscript knocked into shape. I am quite grateful to Lynelle Klein, who transcribed most of my interviews.

  Also, I need to acknowledge the people who took time out of their busy schedules to help me check facts. Amazingly, Al Alcorn and Steve Bristow were kind enough to read the chapters about Atari for me; John Romero helped with the modern PC stuff; Richard Brudvik-Lindner helped with the Genesis years; and many others chipped in.

  One thing I have learned while working on this project is that the gaming community is filled with people who know an awful lot about history and will do anything they can to preserve it. A number of people worked very hard to help me comb out errors that had crept into my text. When they first approached me to offer this help, I greeted them suspiciously. As we worked together, however, I realized that these folks did not want credit. They simply wanted to see history preserved correctly.

  But they deserve credit. First and foremost, I wish to thank a gentleman at Colorado State who prefers to be known as “Zube.” Meticulous and with far too much time on his hands, this fellow combed through my text and found pages of minutia and larger errors, all wanting correction. There were moments when I cursed Zube; but now I wish to thank him.

  Then there was Tim Ferrante of Gameroom Magazine. One night, as I prepared to send my manuscript to Prima, Tim and I did a page-by-page search through the book. After three hours, I complained that I was tired, but he kept going. Only later did I realize that while I was in Seattle, where it was only 1:00 A.M., he was on the East Coast, and it was 4:00 A.M. for him.

  I also owe debts of gratitude to Curt Vendel, Ken Gagne, and Lenny Herman, a true guardian of video game history. And all the way through this process, I frequently relied on help from my good friend, Jeremy Horwitz—once the world’s best-connected video game player, now on his way to a fine career in law.

  I also want to thank Eddie Adlum, Ingrid Milkes, Key Snodgress, and the rest of the staff of RePlay Magazine—the real experts on the coin-op industry—for taking the time to teach me about the workings of the arcade industry and for lending me valuable photographs to enhance my book.

  Finally, I absolutely need to thank Steve Martin, David Richardson, and Andrew Vallas at Prima. These are the guys who shine up my work, and I am most grateful.

  Timeline

  1889

  Fusajiro Yamauchi establishes the Marufuku Company to manufacture and distribute Hanafuda, Japanese playing cards.

  1932

  The Connecticut Leather Company is established by a Russian immigrant named Maurice Greenberg to distribute leather products to shoemakers.

  1951

  Yamauchi changes the name of Marufuku Co. Ltd. to Nintendo, a term meaning “leave luck to heaven.”!

  United States passes new laws regulating slot machines. Marty Bromley, who manages game rooms at military bases in Hawaii, buys machines and opens Service Games (SEGA).

  David Rosen, returning from service in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, opens portrait painting business in Japan.

  1954

  David Rosen starts Rosen Enterprises and begins shipping photo booths to Japan.

  1956

  Rosen imports $200,000 worth of coin-operated electromechanical games to Japan and starts the country’s coin-op business.

  1958

  Physicist Willy Higinbotham of the Brookhaven National Laboratories in New York invents an interactive table-tennis–like game that is displayed on an oscilloscope.

  1961

  MIT student Steve Russell creates Spacewar, the first interactive computer game.

  1962

  Nolan Bushnell enters engineering school at the University of Utah.

  1964

  Rosen Enterprises, Japan’s largest amusement company, merges with Service Games, which now has jukeboxes in over 6,000 locations, to form Sega Enterprises.

  1965

  Nolan Bushnell gets a summer job at a Salt Lake City carnival where he is in charge of the games midway.

  1966

  Ralph Baer begins researching interactive television games at Sanders Associates.

  Sega releases Periscope, a game that becomes such a hit in Japan that U.S. and European companies begin importing it. This is Japan’s first amusement game export. Because of the high cost of shipping, U.S. arcade owners charge players $0.25 per play, setting what will eventually become the standard price for playing arcade games.

  1968

  Ralph Baer patents his interactive television game.

  1969

  Gulf & Western purchases Sega.

  Nolan Bushnell graduates from the University of Utah and accepts a job in California.

  1970

  Magnavox licenses Ralph Baer’s television game from Sanders Associates.

  1970

  Bushnell begins work on an arcade version
of Spacewar called Computer Space.

  1971

  Nutting Associates purchases Computer Space from Nolan Bushnell and hires him to help manufacture it.

  Nutting begins shipping Computer Space, the first arcade video game machine.

  1972

  Magnavox begins demonstrating Odyssey in private showings. Bushnell attends a demonstration of the console on May 24, in Burlingame, California.

  Bushnell Leaves Nutting and starts Syzygy with partner Ted Dabney. Finding that the name Syzygy is already taken, they rename their company Atari.

  Atari engineer Al Alcorn creates Pong.

  Magnavox releases Odyssey.

  Magnavox sues Atari on grounds that Pong infringes on Ralph Baer’s patents. Nolan Bushnell decides to settle out of court.

  1973

  Taito, Williams, and Midway enter the video game business.

  1975

  Atari creates prototypical Home Pong unit and sells idea to Sears Roebuck.