steve sparks

Arcade · History

Where it all fits

The games in the Arcade come from somewhere. Here's a short history of computing and computer games, from the transistor in the 1940s to today's AI, with a few moments of my own along the way. Play the ones that are here, and follow the sources for the rest.

Gaming history My story

Then and now

Text adventures

Colossal Cave, Zork and the Infocom games: explore a world by typing commands.

Here today: Adventure House

Text games

Star Trek, Lunar Lander, Hangman and Blackjack, typed in from listings and played on teletypes and terminals.

Here today: Super Star Trek · Lunar Lander · Hangman · Blackjack

Chatbots and AI

Shannon's chess paper, ELIZA, PARRY and WarGames' self-taught machine.

Here today: ELIZA · Shannon's bits to Claude's tokens · AI resources

Arcade and consoles

Pong, Breakout, the Atari 2600, the Game Boy and the Nintendo handhelds.

Here today: Breakout · Lunar Lander · Pong

Board, puzzle and sim games

OXO, tic-tac-toe, Tetris, SimCity and SimTower.

Here today: Tic-Tac-Toe · 2048

BBSs and online worlds

The ARPANET, FidoNet bulletin boards, Ultima Online, Diablo on Battle.net, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2.

Here today: This site, my modern bulletin board · My Ultima Online story

Home and pocket computers

BASIC, the TRS-80, the Color Computer, the Microcomputer Trainer, palmtops and the first MacBook Air.

Here today: BASIC · Microcomputer Trainer

1940s–60s

Mainframes and labs

Games were experiments, written by researchers on machines that filled rooms.

  1. 1947

    The transistor

    In December 1947 John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, in William Shockley's group at Bell Labs, built the first transistor. A year later, also at Bell Labs, Claude Shannon published "A Mathematical Theory of Communication," the founding paper of information theory. Together they are the ground everything on this page stands on, today's AI included.

    From Shannon to Claude

    Sources: CHM, 1947 · CHM, Silicon Engine timeline · Shannon (1948) · BSTJ contributors (1948) · IEEE Milestone

  2. 1950

    Shannon teaches a computer chess, on paper

    Claude Shannon's "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess" set out how a machine could choose moves: score positions with an evaluation function and search ahead through the possibilities. It was a design for a computer he assumed, not a program that had been run. The same idea, minimax search, runs the Tic-Tac-Toe opponent on this site.

    From Shannon to ClaudePlay Tic-Tac-Toe →

    Sources: Shannon (1950)

  3. 1952

    Noughts and crosses on EDSAC

    A. S. Douglas, a PhD student at Cambridge, wrote a tic-tac-toe program for the EDSAC. The board showed on a tiny dot-matrix screen and moves went in through a telephone dial. It is one of the earliest computer games, now known as OXO.

    Play Tic-Tac-Toe →

    Sources: CHM, 1952 · Campbell-Kelly, EDSAC guide · University of Cambridge

  4. 1961

    A computer counts cards

    Edward O. Thorp, then at MIT, published "A Favorable Strategy for Twenty-One," working out a blackjack strategy with computer help. The paper was communicated to the journal by Claude Shannon.

    Play Blackjack →

    Sources: Thorp, PNAS (1961)

  5. 1962

    Spacewar!

    Steve Russell and friends at MIT wrote a two-player space duel for the DEC PDP-1. It wasn't the first computer game, but it spread widely, passed from lab to lab.

    Sources: CHM, Spacewar! · The Strong, Spacewar! · CHM, 1952

  6. 1964

    BASIC

    John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz's BASIC first ran at Dartmouth on May 1, 1964, built so that any student could program. Through time-sharing and then home computers, it became the language of countless early games, typed in from books of listings.

    Try BASIC →

    Sources: Dartmouth · CHM, May 1, 1964 · Ahl, BASIC Computer Games

  7. 1965

    Moore's law

    In April 1965 Gordon Moore, then at Fairchild, predicted that the number of components on a chip would keep doubling at a steady pace. It held for decades, and that compounding is what turned room-sized computers into game consoles, phones and the hardware that trains today's AI.

    Sources: Moore (1965) · CHM, 1965

  8. 1966

    ELIZA and the DOCTOR

    Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA, written at MIT, matched keywords against a script. Its DOCTOR script played a psychotherapist so convincingly that people became emotionally involved with it, which troubled Weizenbaum. A printout of the original code was found in Weizenbaum's papers at MIT in 2021.

    Talk to ELIZA →

    Sources: Weizenbaum, CACM (1966) · Weizenbaum (1976) · Lane et al. (2025)

  9. 1969

    The first lunar landing game

    Months after Apollo 11, high-school student Jim Storer wrote a text game on a PDP-8: each turn you chose how much fuel to burn, and the program reported altitude and speed. David Ahl converted it to BASIC, and in its many versions it became, in Ahl's words, "by far and away the single most popular computer game."

    Play Lunar Lander →

    Sources: Storer's archive · Ahl, BASIC Computer Games

1970s

Minicomputers, networks and arcades

Games left the lab: onto time-sharing terminals, across the ARPANET and into bars.

  1. 1968–71

    Intel and the microprocessor

    Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce founded Intel in July 1968. In November 1971 Intel released the 4004, which Intel calls the first commercially available microprocessor: a whole processor on one chip, the start of the home computers and consoles that followed.

    Sources: Intel, founding · CHM, 1971 · Intel, 4004

  2. 1974

    The Motorola 6800

    Motorola introduced its 8-bit 6800 microprocessor in 1974. Its successor, the 6809, became the chip inside the TRS-80 Color Computer.

    Sources: Motorola · CHM, 1971 · Ritter and Boney, BYTE (1979) · Tandy, Technical Reference

  3. 1970s–80sMy story

    My father's path

    My father worked for Motorola on the 6800 and 68000 in the 1970s, then with Gordon Moore at Intel in the 1980s, and later went back to Motorola. My first computer, the TRS-80 Color Computer, ran on a Motorola 6809, so my connection to it was personal.

  4. 1971–74

    Star Trek, then Super Star Trek

    By his own account, Mike Mayfield wrote Star Trek in BASIC as a high-school senior in 1971; his HP version was finished in October 1972. Bob Leedom's 1974 revision added the three-letter commands and named quadrants, and David Ahl published it in 1978 as Super Star Trek.

    Play Super Star Trek →

    Sources: Mayfield (2000) · Ahl, BASIC Computer Games · The 1978 listing · Ahl, 101 BASIC Computer Games

  5. 1972

    Magnavox Odyssey and Pong

    Ralph Baer's Odyssey reached stores in September 1972, the first home video game console. That November, Atari's Pong, built by Allan Alcorn, became the first video game to win wide public attention. A test machine in a California tavern was reported broken; its coin box was simply full of quarters.

    Play Pong →

    Sources: Smithsonian · The Strong, Pong · CHM, Pong · IEEE Spectrum (2022)

  6. 1972

    PARRY meets the DOCTOR

    On September 18, 1972, PARRY, a program at Stanford simulating a paranoid patient, was connected over the ARPANET to a DOCTOR program at BBN. Vint Cerf published their conversation as RFC 439: two chatbots talking, decades before today's.

    Read it on the ELIZA page →

    Sources: RFC 439 · Colby et al. (1971)

  7. 1975–77

    Colossal Cave Adventure

    Will Crowther, a BBN programmer and caver, wrote Adventure in FORTRAN, modeled on part of Kentucky's Mammoth Cave. Don Woods expanded it in 1977. It laid the foundation for the text adventure, the tradition Adventure House comes from.

    Play Adventure House →

    Sources: Jerz, DHQ (2007) · The Strong, Colossal Cave

  8. 1976

    Breakout

    Atari's Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow imagined Pong for one player, knocking out a wall of bricks. Steve Wozniak designed a prototype with very few chips for Steve Jobs; Atari rebuilt it for production. It was one of the year's best-selling arcade games.

    Play Breakout →

    Sources: IEEE Spectrum (1982) · IEEE Spectrum (2022) · The Strong, Breakout

  9. 1977

    Zork at MIT

    Inspired by Adventure, four members of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science wrote Zork on a PDP-10, with a parser that understood whole sentences. In 1979 Marc Blank and Dave Lebling founded Infocom, which brought Zork to home computers.

    Sources: Lebling et al., IEEE Computer (1979) · CHM, Infocom

  10. 1979

    The Motorola 68000

    A 32-bit design in a 16-bit world. It went on to power the Macintosh, the Amiga, the Atari ST and the Sega Genesis.

    Sources: CHM oral history (68000) · Apple, Inside Macintosh · Amiga Hardware Reference Manual · Atari 520ST brochure · Sega, Genesis Technical Overview

  11. 1979

    Atari's Lunar Lander

    Atari's first vector-graphics arcade game zoomed in as you neared the surface. Atari followed it within months with Asteroids, another vector game and a far bigger hit.

    Play Lunar Lander →

    Sources: Atari flyer (1979) · CHM, Lunar Lander ad · The Strong, Asteroids

1977–1980s

Home computers

Computers came home, with BASIC built in and games you typed in from books.

  1. 1977My story

    The Atari 2600

    Atari's Video Computer System, later called the 2600, launched in 1977 with swappable game cartridges. I had one from release; the Arcade's cartridges are a nod to it.

    Sources: CHM, 1977 · CHM, Atari · The Strong, Atari 2600

  2. 1977

    The TRS-80

    Radio Shack announced the TRS-80 on August 3, 1977, with BASIC built in, and sold it in its stores across the country. Demand far outran what Tandy had planned for.

    Sources: CHM, Radio Shack collection · CHM, 1977

  3. 1978

    BASIC Computer Games

    David Ahl's book collected games in Microsoft BASIC to type in yourself: Super Star Trek, Lunar Lander, Hangman, Blackjack, Tic-Tac-Toe and dozens more. Ahl pictured it as opening "the temple doors" and letting everyone "take its source into their own homes."

    Play Super Star Trek →Play Hangman →

    Sources: Ahl, BASIC Computer Games

  4. 1980

    Zork I comes home, and the Color Computer

    Infocom split Zork into parts and compiled it for a virtual machine, the Z-machine, so it could run on home computers; Zork I came out in 1980. The same year, Tandy introduced the TRS-80 Color Computer, built on Motorola's 6809 with Microsoft Color BASIC in ROM.

    Sources: Blank and Galley (1980) · CHM, Infocom · Radio Shack, RSC-4 catalog · Tandy, Color BASIC

  5. 1982My story

    Where I came in

    I started coding on a TRS-80 Color Computer, in BASIC.

    Try BASIC →

  6. 1983

    WarGames

    In the film, a teenager reaches a military computer that nearly starts a war. It is stopped by playing tic-tac-toe against itself: every game is a draw, and it concludes that "the only winning move is not to play."

    Play Tic-Tac-Toe →

    Sources: AFI Catalog

  7. 1985

    The Microcomputer Trainer

    Radio Shack's Science Fair kit was a 4-bit computer you programmed in machine code on a hex keypad, with LEDs, a one-digit display and a speaker.

    Try the Trainer →

    Sources: Radio Shack catalog (1985) · Radio Shack, Trainer manual

  8. 1989My story

    SimCity

    Will Wright's SimCity, from Maxis, set no goal to win: you built a city and kept it running. It was one of the games that drew me in.

    Sources: Maxis, SimCity manual · The Strong, SimCity

  9. 1989My story

    Game Boy and Tetris

    Nintendo's Game Boy reached North America in 1989, with Tetris in the box. I got one at release.

    Sources: Nintendo, Company History · The Strong, Tetris · NPR (2024)

  10. Late 1980sMy story

    Bulletin boards

    I ran BBSs on FidoNet, on software I wrote in Turbo Pascal and 8086 assembly.

1990s

Sims, palmtops and online worlds

Games became systems to run and places people lived in together, and computers started fitting in a pocket.

  1. 1994My story

    SimTower

    Yoot Saito's SimTower, published by Maxis in North America, had you build and run a skyscraper, elevators and all. Another game that drew me in.

    Sources: Maxis, SimTower box · Maxis, SimTower manual

  2. 1994My story

    The HP 200LX

    HP's palmtop ran MS-DOS with Lotus 1-2-3 and a set of organizer apps built in, on two AA batteries. One of my favorite machines.

    Sources: HP, Quick Start Guide · HP, User's Guide

  3. 1996My story

    Nokia 9000 Communicator

    A phone that opened like a clamshell to a keyboard and screen, with email, fax and web browsing. I had one.

    Sources: Nokia, User's Manual · Vapriikki museum

  4. 1996–2000My story

    Diablo and Diablo II

    Blizzard's Diablo arrived at the end of 1996, and Diablo II in June 2000: dungeon crawls in detailed isometric graphics that looked 3D, with online play through Battle.net. I played both on release.

    Sources: Blizzard (2006) · Blizzard (2000)

  5. 1997

    Ultima Online

    Origin Systems, owned by Electronic Arts since 1992, launched Ultima Online on September 24, 1997. In EA's words it was "the first game of its kind to gain a dedicated widespread audience." Its first expansion, The Second Age, followed in 1998, and the game is still running.

    Sources: EA (2012) · UPI (1992) · EA annual report (1995) · Origin (1998) · uo.com

  6. 1997My story

    I worked on Ultima Online

    I was a contractor at Origin on Ultima Online and The Second Age.

    Read more

    Starting in 1997 I spent about two years as a contractor at Origin Systems, then part of Electronic Arts, on Ultima Online and Ultima Online: The Second Age, two of the first massively multiplayer online games. At Origin I worked with Richard Garriott and many longtime Origin developers. A longtime lead developer built the first version of the account management tool; I worked alongside him and designed and built all of the reporting for account management in SQL. When he left Origin to start his own company, I carried the tool and the reporting forward until I rolled off to other consulting work. Sitting near the artists, developers and producers gave me a close-up view of how a game like that gets made. It was good to be included, and to play a small part in launching something so important in video game history.

  7. Late 1990sMy story

    Toshiba Libretto

    A full Windows laptop about the size of a VHS tape. I carried one in the late 1990s.

    Sources: Toshiba (1997) · Windows Magazine (1997)

2000s–2010s

Games and gadgets

Online worlds, handhelds and phones I have enjoyed.

  1. 2004My story

    World of Warcraft

    Blizzard launched World of Warcraft in North America on November 23, 2004, and by Blizzard's count it became the most popular online game of its kind. It's one I've enjoyed playing.

    Sources: Blizzard (2004) · Blizzard (2008)

  2. 2004My story

    Nintendo DS

    Nintendo's two-screen handheld, with a touch screen, launched in North America on November 21, 2004. Another one I got at release.

    Sources: Nintendo financial statements (2005) · Nintendo of America (2004)

  3. 2007My story

    Before the iPhone

    Apple released the first iPhone in the US on June 29, 2007. Before that I carried a string of Windows CE devices and other smartphones.

    Sources: Apple (2007)

  4. 2008My story

    The first MacBook Air

    Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air in January 2008, pulling it out of an office envelope. I had the first version; it felt like the start of a new era for laptops.

    Sources: Apple (2008) · Macworld (2008) · Business Insider (2024)

  5. 2012My story

    Guild Wars 2

    ArenaNet launched Guild Wars 2 on August 28, 2012, with no monthly fee and what its publisher called dynamic events. Another one I've enjoyed playing.

    Sources: NCsoft (2012)

  6. 2017My story

    Nintendo Switch

    The Switch launched on March 3, 2017: a home console you can pick up and carry. I had one on launch day.

    Sources: Nintendo annual report (2017) · Nintendo, Company History

Now

Today

  1. Today

    From ELIZA to Claude

    The line runs from Shannon and the transistor, through Moore's law and the games on this page, to today's AI. As AI transforms software development and computing, the same topics keep coming up in my conversations: where language models came from, what they can do, and the books and tools worth knowing. This site is where I share them, along with the games that started it all for me.

    AI, from the Parts Up (the book)From Shannon's bits to Claude's tokensAI resourcesMy reading listThe Arcade

Dates and facts are checked against the sources listed with each entry. Where accounts disagree, such as the details of Breakout's prototype, the disputed parts are left out. Entries marked "My story" are my own recollections.

Sources

Research papers

  1. 3C. E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” Bell System Technical Journal 27, no. 3 (July 1948): 379–423; 27, no. 4 (October 1948): 623–656, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.
  2. 6Claude E. Shannon, “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess,” The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 41, no. 314 (March 1950): 256–275, https://doi.org/10.1080/14786445008521796.
  3. 10Edward Thorp, “A Favorable Strategy for Twenty-One,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 47, no. 1 (January 1961): 110–112, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.47.1.110. Cited at page 110.
  4. 16Gordon E. Moore, “Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits,” Electronics 38, no. 8 (April 19, 1965): 114–117; reprinted in Proceedings of the IEEE 86, no. 1 (January 1998): 82–85, https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.1998.658762.
  5. 18Joseph Weizenbaum, “ELIZA—A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man and Machine,” Communications of the ACM 9, no. 1 (January 1966): 36–45, https://doi.org/10.1145/365153.365168.
  6. 20Rupert Lane, Anthony Hay, Arthur Schwarz, David M. Berry, and Jeff Shrager, “ELIZA Reanimated: The world's first chatbot restored on the world's first time sharing system” (preprint, arXiv, January 12, 2025), https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.06707.
  7. 36Kenneth Mark Colby, Sylvia Weber, and Franklin Dennis Hilf, “Artificial Paranoia,” Artificial Intelligence 2, no. 1 (1971): 1–25, https://doi.org/10.1016/0004-3702(71)90002-6.
  8. 37Dennis G. Jerz, “Somewhere Nearby is Colossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original ‘Adventure’ in Code and in Kentucky,” Digital Humanities Quarterly 1, no. 2 (2007), https://dhq.digitalhumanities.org/vol/1/2/000009/000009.html.
  9. 41P. David Lebling, Marc S. Blank, and Timothy A. Anderson, “Zork: A Computerized Fantasy Simulation Game,” Computer (IEEE) 12, no. 4 (April 1979): 51–59, https://doi.org/10.1109/MC.1979.1658697.

Books

  1. 15David H. Ahl, ed., BASIC Computer Games: Microcomputer Edition (Morristown, NJ: Creative Computing; trade edition New York: Workman Publishing, 1978). Cited at page 106; pages 157–158; vii; ix.
  2. 19Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1976). Cited at pages 6–7.
  3. 30David H. Ahl, ed., 101 BASIC Computer Games (Maynard, MA: Digital Equipment Corporation, 1973).

Oral histories, museums and archives

  1. 1Computer History Museum, “1947: Invention of the Point-Contact Transistor,” The Silicon Engine, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/invention-of-the-point-contact-transistor/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  2. 2Computer History Museum, “Timeline,” The Silicon Engine: A Timeline of Semiconductors in Computers, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/semiconductor/timeline.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  3. 4Bell System Technical Journal, “Contributors to this Issue,” Bell System Technical Journal 27, no. 3 (July 1948): 591–592, https://archive.org/details/bstj27-3-591.
  4. 5IEEE History Center, “Milestones:Development of Information Theory, 1939-1967,” Engineering and Technology History Wiki, May 17, 2016, https://ethw.org/Milestones:Development_of_Information_Theory,_1939-1967 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  5. 7Computer History Museum, “1952: Alexander Douglas writes OXO for EDSAC,” Timeline of Computer History, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1952/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  6. 8Martin Campbell-Kelly, Tutorial Guide to the EDSAC Simulator (University of Warwick / The National Museum of Computing, 2021), https://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/Software/EdsacTG.pdf (accessed October 26, 2026).
  7. 11Computer History Museum, “Spacewar!” PDP-1 Restoration Project, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/spacewar/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  8. 12The Strong National Museum of Play, “Spacewar!” World Video Game Hall of Fame, August 20, 2021, https://www.museumofplay.org/games/spacewar/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  9. 14Computer History Museum, “May 1, 1964: Dartmouth Professors Launch ‘Timesharing’ System,” This Day in History, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/tdih/may/1/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  10. 17Computer History Museum, “1965: ‘Moore's Law’ Predicts the Future of Integrated Circuits,” The Silicon Engine, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/moores-law-predicts-the-future-of-integrated-circuits/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  11. 21Jim Storer, “Jim Storer - Lunar Landing Game Related Documents,” Jim Storer, Brandeis University, n.d., https://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~storer/LunarLander/LunarLander.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  12. 23Computer History Museum, “1971: Microprocessor Integrates CPU Function onto a Single Chip,” The Silicon Engine, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/siliconengine/microprocessor-integrates-cpu-function-onto-a-single-chip/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  13. 28Mike Mayfield (email to Maury Markowitz), “Star Trek,” Games of Fame, December 3, 2000, https://gamesoffame.wordpress.com/star-trek/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  14. 31Drew Robarge, “The Magnavox Odyssey predicted the future of video games,” National Museum of American History, Stories, September 19, 2022, https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/magnavox-odyssey-predicted-future-video-games (accessed October 26, 2026).
  15. 32The Strong National Museum of Play, “Pong,” World Video Game Hall of Fame, August 20, 2021, https://www.museumofplay.org/games/pong/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  16. 33Dag Spicer, “50 Years of Fun With Pong,” CHM Blog, November 30, 2022, https://computerhistory.org/blog/50-years-of-fun-with-pong/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  17. 38The Strong National Museum of Play, “Colossal Cave Adventure,” World Video Game Hall of Fame, n.d., https://www.museumofplay.org/games/colossal-cave-adventure/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  18. 40Jon-Paul Dyson, “Steve Jobs, Breakout Pioneer,” The Strong blog, October 7, 2011, https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/steve-jobs-breakout-pioneer/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  19. 42Computer History Museum, “Stick to What You Know: Infocom and the Perils of Expansion,” Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing (online exhibit), Computer Games, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/196 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  20. 43Jack Browne, Murray Goldman, Thomas Gunter, Van Shahan, and Bill Walker; moderated by Dave House, “Oral History Panel on the Development and Promotion of the Motorola 68000,” Mountain View, CA: Computer History Museum (CHM ref. X4145.2007, catalog 102658164), July 23, 2007, https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2012/04/102658164-05-01-acc.pdf (accessed October 26, 2026).
  21. 49Computer History Museum, “Lunar Lander advertisement (object 500004914),” Revolution online exhibit, Minicomputers: DEC's Minis Get Bigger, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/minicomputers/11/366/1962 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  22. 50The Strong National Museum of Play, “Asteroids,” World Video Game Hall of Fame, n.d., https://www.museumofplay.org/games/asteroids/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  23. 51Computer History Museum, “Timeline of Computer History: 1977,” n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1977/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  24. 52Computer History Museum, “Atari's Roller-Coaster Ride,” Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing (online exhibit), Computer Games, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/185 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  25. 53The Strong National Museum of Play, “Atari 2600 Game System,” National Toy Hall of Fame, August 20, 2021, https://www.museumofplay.org/toys/atari-2600-game-system/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  26. 54Computer History Museum, “Radio Shack collection,” Computer History Museum catalog, no. 102724780, n.d., https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102724780/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  27. 58American Film Institute, “WarGames (1983),” AFI Catalog of Feature Films, n.d., https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/67139 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  28. 62The Strong National Museum of Play, “SimCity,” World Video Game Hall of Fame (inducted 2024), March 13, 2024, https://www.museumofplay.org/games/simcity/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  29. 64The Strong National Museum of Play, “Tetris,” World Video Game Hall of Fame (inducted 2015), August 20, 2021, https://www.museumofplay.org/games/tetris/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  30. 71Museum Centre Vapriikki (via Inventing Europe), “Nokia Communicator, 1996,” Inventing Europe: European Digital Museum for Science & Technology, n.d., https://www.inventingeurope.eu/media/the-arab-spring-and-the-social-media-revolution&object (accessed October 26, 2026).

Program listings, manuals and films

  1. 29Mike Mayfield, Bob Leedom, and John Gorders, “SUPER STARTREK (BASIC listing, REM header lines 10–210),” BASIC Computer Games: Microcomputer Edition, ed. David H. Ahl, May 16, 1978, https://github.com/coding-horror/basic-computer-games/tree/main/84_Super_Star_Trek (accessed October 26, 2026).

Companies and institutions

  1. 9University of Cambridge, “Cambridge is a major player in the £1bn UK computer gaming industry,” University of Cambridge News, n.d., https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/cambridge-is-a-major-player-in-the-ps1bn-uk-computer-gaming-industry (accessed October 26, 2026).
  2. 13Dartmouth College, “BASIC Begins at Dartmouth,” BASIC at 50, 2014, https://www.dartmouth.edu/basicfifty/basic.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  3. 22Intel Corporation, “Intel's Founding,” Intel Virtual Vault, n.d., https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/virtual-vault/articles/intels-founding.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  4. 24Intel Corporation, “Intel 4004,” Intel Newsroom (press kit), November 15, 2021, https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/newsroom/resources/intel-4004.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  5. 25Motorola Solutions, “Timeline (Company history),” n.d., https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_us/about/company-overview/history/timeline.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  6. 27Tandy Corporation, TRS-80 Color Computer Technical Reference Manual (Fort Worth, TX: Tandy Corporation (Radio Shack), 1981), https://archive.org/details/Color_Computer_Technical_Reference_Manual_1981_Tandy (accessed October 26, 2026). Cited at page 16.
  7. 44Apple Computer, Inc., Inside Macintosh, Volume I (Cupertino, CA: Apple Computer, 1984), https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_applemacIn84_27699101 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  8. 45Commodore-Amiga, Inc., Amiga Hardware Reference Manual (West Chester, PA: Commodore-Amiga, 1985), https://archive.org/details/Amiga_Hardware_Reference_Manual_1985_Commodore (accessed October 26, 2026).
  9. 46Atari Corp., Atari 520ST sales brochure (Sunnyvale, CA: Atari Corp., 1985), https://archive.org/details/atari-520-st-sales-brochure (accessed October 26, 2026).
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  16. 61Maxis, SimCity: The City Simulator (MS-DOS manual) (Orinda, CA: Maxis, 1991), https://archive.org/details/terrrain-editor-manual (accessed October 26, 2026).
  17. 63Nintendo Co., Ltd., “Company History,” Nintendo corporate website, n.d., https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/en/history/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  18. 66Maxis, Inc., SimTower: The Vertical Empire (Macintosh CD jewel-case back insert) (Orinda, CA: Maxis, 1995), https://archive.org/details/SimTowerMacOS (accessed October 26, 2026).
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  20. 68Hewlett-Packard Company, HP 200LX Quick Start Guide (Hewlett-Packard, August 1994), https://archive.org/details/hp_200LX-quick_start_guide (accessed October 26, 2026).
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  22. 70Nokia Mobile Phones, Nokia 9000i Communicator User's Manual, Issue 2 EN (9357109) (Nokia Mobile Phones, 1998), https://archive.org/details/manual_9000_UG_NOKIA_EN (accessed October 26, 2026).
  23. 72Blizzard Entertainment, “Diablo and Battle.net: Ten-Year Anniversaries,” Blizzard Entertainment (blizzard.com press releases), December 2006, https://web.archive.org/web/2007/http://www.blizzard.com/press/10-years-diablo.shtml (accessed October 26, 2026).
  24. 73Blizzard Entertainment, “Diablo II Shatters Sales Records Worldwide with 1 Million Copies Sold in Two Weeks,” Blizzard Entertainment (press release), July 17, 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20000831132725/http://www.blizzard.com:80/press/000717.shtml (accessed October 26, 2026).
  25. 74Electronic Arts and Mythic, “EA Celebrates 15 Years of Ultima Online,” Ultima Online (uo.com), 'Press Around the Anniversary', September 28, 2012, https://uo.com/?p=1469 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  26. 77ORIGIN Systems, “ORIGIN Announces Special ‘Thank You’ Offer for Ultima Online: The Second Age,” owo.com (Origin's Ultima Online site), 1998, https://web.archive.org/web/19981203022408/http://www.owo.com:80/t2a/introduction.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  27. 78Broadsword / Ultima Online team, “Ultima Online (home page),” uo.com, October 2026, https://uo.com/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  28. 79Toshiba America Information Systems, Computer Systems Division, “Toshiba Creates New Portable Computing Category with 1.85-pound Windows 95 Mini-Notebook, the Libretto 50CT,” Toshiba America (press release, reproduced at penbasedcomputing.com), June 2, 1997, https://www.penbasedcomputing.com/?p=3868 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  29. 81Blizzard Entertainment, “World of Warcraft Shatters Day-One Sales Records,” Blizzard Entertainment (press release), December 1, 2004, https://web.archive.org/web/20041204223348/http://www.blizzard.com:80/press/041201.shtml (accessed October 26, 2026).
  30. 82Blizzard Entertainment, “World of Warcraft Reaches New Milestone: 10 Million Subscribers,” Blizzard Entertainment (press release), January 22, 2008, https://web.archive.org/web/20080124020443/http://www.blizzard.com:80/press/080122.shtml (accessed October 26, 2026).
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Government and standards

  1. 35V. Cerf, PARRY Encounters the DOCTOR (Network Working Group, January 21, 1973), https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC0439.
  2. 76Electronic Arts Inc., Form 10-K405, Annual Report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1995 (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR), accession 0000912057-95-004984, June 29, 1995), https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/712515/0000912057-95-004984.txt (accessed October 26, 2026).

Press

  1. 26Terry Ritter and Joel Boney, “A Microprocessor for the Revolution: The 6809, Part 1: Design Philosophy,” BYTE 4, no. 1 (January 1979): 14ff., https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1979-01.
  2. 34Allison Marsh, “Pong Was Boring—And People Loved It,” IEEE Spectrum (Past Forward), October 30, 2022, https://spectrum.ieee.org/pong-video-game (accessed October 26, 2026).
  3. 39Tekla S. Perry, “Atari Breakout: The Best Video Game of All Time?” IEEE Spectrum, December 1, 1982, https://spectrum.ieee.org/atari-breakout (accessed October 26, 2026).
  4. 55Marc S. Blank and S. W. Galley, “How to Fit a Large Program into a Small Machine,” Creative Computing 6, no. 7 (July 1980): 80ff., https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1980-07.
  5. 65Lars Hoel, “In 1989, a big gray brick with a tiny monochrome screen became gaming's new smash hit,” NPR, Moments in History, July 31, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/07/31/nx-s1-4877124/nintendo-game-boy-gaming-hit-in-america-1989 (accessed October 26, 2026).
  6. 75United Press International, “Electronic Arts to buy Origin Systems,” UPI Archives, September 10, 1992, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/09/10/Electronic-Arts-to-buy-Origin-Systems/3828716097600/ (accessed October 26, 2026).
  7. 80Jim Forbes, “Libretto Redefines Ultra-Portable,” Windows Magazine (WinLab Reviews), October 1997, https://kaisernet.org/library/1997/1001/winla101.htm (accessed October 26, 2026).
  8. 87Peter Cohen, “Apple introduces MacBook Air,” Macworld, January 15, 2008, https://www.macworld.com/article/1131583/macbookair.html (accessed October 26, 2026).
  9. 88Sarah Jackson, “Tim Cook explains why Steve Jobs pulling the first MacBook Air out of an envelope was 'a huge moment' for Apple,” Business Insider (via Yahoo Tech), June 13, 2024, https://tech.yahoo.com/computing/articles/tim-cook-explains-why-steve-190459149.html (accessed October 26, 2026).