History of Retro Games – Retro Computer and Video Games Timeline from the 1970s to 1990s

1970s

Pong, PDP, Adventure, Star Trek, Spacewar

Despite what many people believe, Pong wasn’t the first video game, or even the first arcade video game, but it certainly made a huge impact.

Before Pong there was Spacewar – a two-player space-shooter as the name suggests.

Before Spacewar there were a naughts and crosses/tic-tac-toe game called OXO and Tennis for Two (yes, even the gameplay of Pong wasn’t the first incarnation).

Spacewar wasn’t just a video game, though, it was a viral phenomenon. It spread from the MIT DEC PDP-1 in 1962 to everywhere nerds had the hardware and programming know-how.

In this inventive time period there were Sci-Fi strategy games, such as Star Trek, the first text adventures, computer chess, and even the first dungeon crawlers.

Hardware was either massive and mortgage-sized, or based on discrete logic.

What we were waiting for is the availability of affordable microprocessors …

1975

Altair 8800

The Altair wasn’t the only kit computer available to regular people, but outside of Wargames fans, it is the one most people think of first, due to promotion from the now-famous Popular Electronics magazine cover. In addition, it was probably the best-supported for games at the time, especially in the form of type-in listings for the BASIC implementation from a little brand new company called Micro-Soft. In fact one of the first things this new BASIC executed was a version of Lunar Lander.

MITS built the Altair around the Intel 8080. This was an expensive but respectable choice, and offered the hardware the ability to address a full 64KB of RAM.

Byte magazine published a version of Spacewar to type in and play … if you had an oscilloscope at least. With a connected terminal, you could play classic games such as Colossal Cave Adventure, Star Trek, and Zork.

1975

IMSAI 8080

While the Altair came first, I would say the IMSAI has as much of a special place in the hearts of the computer nerds of a certain generation.

Above I mention WarGames, and that is because the IMSAI 8080 featured as the iconic computer used by Matthew Broderick playing the main protagonist, David Lightman.

As well as WarGames, it was also featured in Ready Player One.

For most people, the IMSAI was the first real clone computer, as it was based off the Altair 8800.

Mine isn’t an original – it is a wonderful kit replica from The High Nibble.

1977

Atari VCS

The Atari, with their Video Computer System, sold over 30 million consoles, and essentially founded the home video games industry.

While the Fairchild Channel F was the first system to use swappable game cartridges, it is Atari who ran with the idea and made it a success. They also tanked the USA home console market in 1983, which didn’t recover until the NES arrived a few years later.

Unlike the Altair, the Atari used a cost-reduced version of the already aggressively priced MOS 6502, the 6507. This meant in todays eyes it was extremely limited for the eye-watering price ($855 in 2021 USD), but for the day the machine was obviously deemed affordable enough to make it a household-name success.

As the name suggests, this was a Video system, and while the graphical and sound output was primitive, for a little while it was sufficiently advanced to thrill gamers of all ages.

1977

Commodore PET

The PET was Commodore’s first mass-market computer, and their first major product to use their newly purchased microprocessor technology, the MOS 6502.

As mentioned with the Atari VCS, the 6502 was aggressively priced (a fraction of competitor’s prices), and was heavily inspired by the Motorola 6800 that Chuck Peddle and the rest of the MOS design team had worked on previously. Despite this price advantage, the PET was still an expensive business machine, though it did find its niche in education outside of the Apple II stronghold in the USA.

While the PET did not have any customizable bitmap graphics, many great games were produced using the built-in “PETSCII” characterset.

My PET is another amazing kit, the original MiniPET from The Future Was 8 Bit. A new 80-column version is now available.

1977

Apple II

The two Steves (Woz and Jobs) really kicked off the home computer market. Their Apple kit was a big success with the “Homebrew” hobbyists, and their pre-built Apple II was even more of a win.

Like the PET, the Apple II went with the inexpensive but wonderful 6502 microprocessor. Unlike the PET, the Apple II was a consumer-friendly device (despite being remarkably more expensive than the PET!).

One of the major selling points of the Apple II over the PET was its ability to produce color bitmap graphics, on a regular TV no less! This meant the home computer games market was suddenly popular and hugely profitable, compounding the companies success.

Woz created a genius hardware design, but his obsession around reducing chip count doesn’t seem to have resulted in cost reduction, and ultimately causes hassles for programmers.

My Apple II is the IIc model which was intended to be luggable, therefore had the C moniker which stood for Compact. This meant it had no expansion slots, but it does have an internal 5 1/4″ floppy drive and most of the most popular upgrades included as standard. As well as my original IIc, I converted a non-working IIc into my Apple Pi emulation machine.

1979

Atari 8-Bit Family

Atari, while dominating the home console market, had another success on their hands with their home computers, at least until the Commodore 64 came along.

Again, this machine featured the MOS 6502, but also a handful of innovative co-processor chips. In many ways the Atari was a more advanced machine than the C64, but for various reasons the Commodore machine won the hearts and minds of computer geeks in the end.

My collection includes the 800XL and a 65XE, the latter just because I love the aesthetics that match it’s younger sibling, the ST.

1980

Vic 20

Between the PET and the Commodore 64 was the Vic 20. Although largely overshadowed by the success of the 64, it was the first computer to reach one million in unit sales.

The Vic 20 was based on a MicroPET design by Robert Yannes at MOS. His design was the foundation of Jack Tramiel’s vision of a colorful, compact, low-priced, friendly, machine for novices, to compete with market successes from Apple and Tandy.

Despite the price target, it came with a real keyboard, and had many professional accessories such as monitor, printer, and the first modem to reach one million sales. As well as having tape and disk storage, as with the Atari, the Vic accepted ROM-based cartridges to get around the Vic’s RAM deficient brains.

1981

IBM PC

Considering the absolute dominance of the IBM PC compatible, and the here today gone tomorrow vanishing-act of almost every other machine on this list, it’s surprising how late IBM was to the party.

Many speculate that it was the sheer size and success of IBM that caused them to miss the microcomputer market initially, and then have to play catch-up. This delay then rush to market, along with a need for a ready-made repair and service network, meant they picked mostly off-the-shelf parts … opening up the system for “compatibles”. While IBM was a powerhouse of sales and marketing, there is no denying the role clones and the licensing of Microsoft DOS played in taking the premium IBM PC into the budget-conscious homes and small offices.

IBM engineers considered the Motorola 68000 for their design, but went with the 8-bit 8088 from Intel, partly because Motorola wasn’t going to be ready in time, and partly because IBM had experience with that architecture.

As we all know, IBM had a huge hit on their hands, so much so that “PC” has become the generic term for a desktop computer. That said, it was a while before the PC was truly competitive in the games arena – due to high price and limited graphics and sound – allowing other products to gain healthy marketshare.

1982

BBC Micro

Fearing the UK would be left behind in the computer revolution, the government and the British Broadcasting Corporation hatched a plan to expand computer literacy across the United Kingdom.

After pitches from a variety of companies, Acorn won the bid and the outcome was the BBC Micro.

Yet again, a MOS 6502, but the rugged tank-style construction hides some terrifically advanced innards. It was very expensive compared to the competition partly because it was built to resist the use and abuse it would face from thousands of school children, plus the technical rigors of broadcast television.

A triumph of British over-engineering, despite having no built-in sprite or scrolling capabilities, it went on to sell over 1.5 million units, along with the 250,000 units of the cost-reduced baby brother Beeb, the Electron, released in 1983.

1982

Commodore 64

Unlike the BBC, the C64 was perfectly placed to win the hearts and minds of the home and small office.

The MOS 6502 was combined with SID, the best sound chip of the era, plus hardware sprites and scrolling, and a limited but useful color palette.

Weaknesses such as super-slow (and expensive) disk drives were largely mitigated by the huge third party manufacturer and developer support, meaning the C64 was one of the best-selling computers of all time (as many as 17 million units sold), and lasted up to the mid 1990s, and still has a massive fanbase today.

1982

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

The “Speccy” is a rare machine on this list, having a Zilog Z80 processor, and none of the additional hardware you would think necessary to make a successful games machine. Fortunately for Sinclair, their made-to-a-budget machine hit the sweet spot of having just enough capability at a very attractive price.

Sinclair had learned from their earlier ZX80 and ZX81, launching first a 16kb Spectrum then really hitting their stride with the 48kb version.

While the Spectrum loses every battle in terms of graphics, sound, and even keyboard, despite (or maybe because) all of that, it has a huge and treasured place in the history of home computing, selling 5 million units by 1992, despite never taking a significant hold in North America.

1983

MSX

The MSX made barely any impact in North America, even less than the Speccy, but in Japan, former Soviet Union, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands, Finland, UAE and Spain, it was a big deal.

Nobody knows for sure how many MSX were sold, due to there being a number of manufacturers, though sales estimates just in Japan are between 5 and 9 million, and up to another 2-4 million in the rest of the world. An MSX even went into space!

A lot like the IBM PC ecosystem, rather than be the product of one company, it was a standard based broadly on the Spectravideo SV-328, and running the z80 microprocessor. After the first release, the MSX had several iterations. Very similar hardware is found in the Sega SG-1000, the Memotech MTX and the ColecoVision, so there is an active conversion scene even to this day.

MSX 1 was delivered in 1983, followed by MSX2 two years later, and the MSX2+ in 1988. While it was developed further, the market just wasn’t there and so it fell into niche obscurity before fading away entirely in the early 1990s.

My Tosh is the MSX 1 model most often found in the UK. I also have an MSX2, the FS-A1 but that machine is a work-in-progress!

1984

Amstrad CPC

Before Amstrad purchased Sinclair, and before their successful Word Processors and IBM PC compatibles, there was the Amstrad CPC.

Despite arriving late to the party, and going the unusual route for the time of being an all-in-one bundle of keyboard, storage device and monitor, the Amstrad CPC was a success, selling over 2 million units.

While the Amstrad CPC line used the Z80 as in the Spectrum, it had more RAM than the Speccy, better color, and the AY-3-8912 sound chip used in many arcade systems and computers.

1985

Nintendo NES

In the USA, the games market bubble had popped. Retailers were wary, and consumers were burned by disappointing shovel ware games exploiting the initial Atari gold rush. It took Nintendo with their Nintendo Entertainment System to turn the tide, and that tide turned into a flood.

The NES arrived two years after the Nintendo Famicom launch, and by that time 2.5m units had already been sold. Estimates place total combined NES and Famicom sales unit sales above 62 million worldwide, with the original Japanese Famicom brand still being sold right into the early 2000s.

Inside the NES you will find a Ricoh chip that is MOS 6502 compatible, other than the exclusion of the 6502 binary-coded decimal features, and the addition of sound, DMA and gamepad input. Ricoh also provided the graphics, offering up to 64 hardware sprites and 256×240 screen resolution in 25 colors (more via raster timing tricks) via the PPU (Picture Processing Unit). More hardware capabilities were available via the cartridges, while obviously increasing the cost of games.

1989

Nintendo Game Boy

Really, due to the release of the Gameboy coming in 1989/1990, it should appear in the next section, but hardware-wise it is very much aligned with the 8-bit era.

Powering the Gameboy is a Z80 variant, sometimes referred to as the DMG chip (DMG standing for Dot Matrix Graphics, due to the Gameboy sporting a 160×144 grayscale LCD).

Although woefully underpowered for the time in terms of performance, this meant it was cheaper, more reliable, and had amazing battery life versus the competition. Possibly partially due to the well-known Z80 instruction set, the games were plentiful and remarkable.

During the roughly 14 year lifespan, the series of Gameboy models sold over 119 million units.

1985

Atari ST

The Atari ST was first sub-$1,000 16-bit consumer computer to market, using the 6-year-old Motorola 68000 and the first color mass-market graphical user interface, GEM.

Strangely, in another parallel universe, the first could have been the Sinclair QL in 1984, except they went with the 8-Bit variant of the 68000, and released a buggy, deficient machine, then got swallowed by Amstrad.

Although many retrospectives point out Atari’s own bungled launch, and the bad reputation of Atari and the Tramiel family at the time, due to the first-mover advantage and competitive price, the Atari ST line was quite successful in the home and business across many niche markets, selling over 2.2 million units. In fact, the ST is often referred to as the “Jackintosh” because of comparisons to the far more expensive and less capable contemporary Apple Mac splashily launched a year earlier.

1986

Commodore Amiga

Initially intended to launch in 1985, various issues meant it only really became available almost a year later in 1986.

By that time the ST coming earlier and cheaper had found a foothold, and the Amiga was playing catch-up. Initial software releases were direct ports from ST titles, and did not take advantage of the Amigas additional graphics and sound capabilities. Hardly surprising then that budget-conscious families would choose the less expensive ST.

Eventually, in 1987, Commodore released the Amiga 500 to match the 520 ST form-factor, and aggressively dropped the price of the Amiga, which lead to them winning first the software industry loyalty, and then the home market. The Amiga lead the home computer gaming world until the rise of the VGA+Soundblaster equipped PC lead to Commodore’s bankruptcy in 1994.

1986

Apple IIgs

Apple might have been pushing their new baby Macintosh hard, but the Apple II line was paying all their bills and by 1986 they realized they needed something to keep that gravy train alive. Enter the 8/16-bit, colour, graphical user interface, multimedia capable IIGS.

While the 6502-variant microprocessor was half as fast as the Amiga and ST variants, the rest of the features were pretty competitive for the time. If only Apple had not killed off the planned 8mhz + model.

1987

Acorn Archimedes

The Archimedes (Archie to his friends) arrived late, but with some features that made it stand out, especially in education and research.

At launch, the 32-bit Acorn Archimedes (also initially called the BBC Archimedes) was touted as the fastest microcomputer in the world.

Rather than use a 68000, or even an Intel processor, Acorn had developed their own silicon, the Acorn RISC Machine, relatives of which are now found in over 160 billion devices, from your smartphone through to the fastest super computer in the world.

1989

Sega Mega Drive

Sega’s third console, after their 8-bit Master System, first launched in 1988 but only found wide release in 1989. In the USA it was renamed Genesis.

It featured both a Motorola 68000 and a Z80. Part of the sound capability is provided by a Yamaha chip related to the AY-3-8910 found in the Amstrad, Spectrum 128+2 and the Atari ST.

For the first time, home consumers really did have a 2D sprite and scrolling experience comparable to the arcades.

Combined it is believed the Mega Drive line sold over 32 million units around the world.