Kotaku: History

Piracy is the Only Thing Keeping Many Old Video Games Alive

Luke Plunkett — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:00:00 EST

Pirating new video games is a crime. But there's long been a rather grey area around the piracy of old games. And when I say old, I don't mean 2008 old. I mean 1988 old. More »

Historic Register Adds Landfill Where Atari Dumped the Worst Console Game Ever

Owen Good — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:00:00 EST

Alamagordo, New Mexico. Fifty miles southeast of Roswell, the most famous UFO site in the nation. Also the scene of the most infamous landfill in video game history. More »

Innovation Has Never Been the Cornerstone of the Video Game Industry

Scott Patterson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:00:00 EST

As expected, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a huge seller and is breaking all kinds of sales records. It's been parodied on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and is being blamed for the loss of the Louisville Cardinals this past weekend. More »

The History of Call of Duty in 45 Minutes

Brian Crecente — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST

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As with Battlefield, Call of Duty has a long history of games. The first in the series came out back in 2003. More »

The History of Battlefield in 45 minutes

Brian Crecente — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EDT

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Lest we forget, Battlefield 3 is the latest iteration of a more than decade-long stories series, a franchise that did much to change the way we played shooters. More »

The History of Video Game Consoles (Brought to you by TGS)

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 04:30:00 EDT

Tucked away in a deserted corner of the Tokyo Game Show was this enormous timeline, charting the history of both video game hardware and of TGS. More »

The Gears of War Timeline Leads Right Up to Midnight Monday

Mike Fahey — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:20:00 EDT

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Need a refresher course on Gears of War history on the eve of the release of the third installment? Epic Games has posted a handy timeline that takes you from the Pendulum Wars to when you slip that puppy in your Xbox 360 next week. More »

The Evolution of Video Game Controllers in Pretty Poster Form

Joel Johnson — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:40:00 EDT

Brooklyn-based Pop Chart Lab's latest poster is another attempt to show the lineage of video game controllers, from the twin sticks of Spacewar! to the lonely, somewhat sui generis Wii U tablet sitting lonely at the bottom. A signed and numbered print will run you just 24 clams. More »

It's Not Looking Good for the Videogame History Museum

Owen Good — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EDT

Collectors, archivists, whatever you wish to call them, Joe Santulli, Sean Kelly and John Hardie have a collection of video gaming history numbering greater than 30,000 pieces, and are trying to establish a West Coast operation to house all of it, and from which a touring show will originate. They're serious men with a serious goal, and seriously in need of cash. More »

Increasingly Cool Russian President Suggests Warcraft Ripoff To Teach Russian History

Brian Crecente — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:20:00 EDT

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First Russian President Dimitri Medvedev joined Twitter. Next he visited Twitter and Apple HQs. Now he's suggesting that someone make a World of Warcraft knock-off to teach about his country's history. More »

Thank You, Star Wars, For All These Awesome Games

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

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May 4 is Star Wars Day, in honour of, well, the fact "May the 4th" sounds a bit like "May the force...". Silly, I know, but it also gives us a chance to look back on the amazing video games the sci-fi franchise has given us over the years. And by years, I should really say decades. More »

A Tribute to the Glory of Wood-Panelled Video Game Consoles

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Like many other non-Americans, I'm not the greatest fan of American cars. Yet there's one style that I will always remember fondly, and that's the wood-panelled stationwagon. More »

The Father Of Video Games Fled The Nazis, Fought Them Then Took All Their Guns

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Ralph Baer is widely acknowledged to be the "father of video games", thanks to his work in the 1960's pioneering the device that would become the Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first ever video game console. More »

Ten Years of Red Faction Coalesce in Armageddon

Mike Fahey — Mon, 02 May 2011 15:20:00 EDT

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Ten years ago the original Red Faction gave PlayStation 2, PC, and Mac gamers their first taste of the future of humanity on Mars. Developer Volition explains how the three games before led up to next month's Red Faction: Armageddon. More »

Classy Documentary Charts the Early History of Video Games

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 02 May 2011 05:30:00 EDT

Playing the Revolution is an upcoming documentary series by Italian outfit Junk Food, which chronicles "the Spacewar! milestone to the rise of the 16-bit era". More »

This Place Was Like A Breeding Program For Awesome Games And Famous Developers

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Aside from perhaps Nintendo, there are few video game studios that have ever been home to so many of the industry's best and brightest as Looking Glass managed. More »

Old Games Never Die (They Just Sit In Storage)

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:30:00 EST

Old books are kept in a library. Old movies are kept in archives. But where are old video games kept? More »

Is The PC Key To Preserving Our Console Gaming History?

Mike Fahey — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:20:00 EST

In today's Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Pixiebutt salutes Sega for making its classic console titles available on Steam, and dreams of a day when other present and former gaming hardware companies follow suit. More »

One Man's Endless Love Affair With Pokémon

Mike Fahey — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:20:00 EST

Today on Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Komrade Kayce isn't ashamed to explore his deep and lasting love for everyone's favorite pocket monsters. More »

Pac-Man's Creator Now Wants To Make Pac-Man Sing, Dishes Pac-Man Trivia

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 03:30:00 EST

The man who created Pac-Man three decades ago says he has a vision for the next version of the venerable dot eater. He wants Pac-Man to sing a song. More »

Will Video Games Age Gracefully?

Mike Fahey — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:20:00 EST

Commenter EcksJay22 wonders if video games will hold up as well as the classic films of yesteryear in today's Speak-Up on Kotaku. More »

How You Can Help Build A World-Class Video Game Museum

Mike Fahey — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:20:00 EST

The staff at the Museum of Digital Art and Entertainment have the knowledge, passion, and the gaming artifacts to create a world-class video game museum in the San Francisco Bay area. Now they just need a place to put it. More »

You Decide Which Video Games Are Displayed At The Smithsonian

Mike Fahey — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:00:00 EST

Which video games deserve to be honored for their art? Heavy Rain or Final Fantasy? Grim Fandango or Fallout? In the Smithsonian's upcoming "The Art of Video Games" exhibition, gamers decide which titles make the cut. More »

The Origins Of Nintendo's Game & Watch

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:30:00 EST

Nintendo may have been around for over 100 years, but the Nintendo we know today does video games. And it first hit the handheld gaming big time with its line of Game & Watch units. Here's how they got their start! More »

Follicle Follies, From The Atari Age Until Now

Mike Fahey — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 10:30:00 EST

There are approximately 100,000 hair follicles on the human head. Over the past three decades, video game developers have valiantly attempted to render them all. We've charted those attempts in one massively hairy infographic. More »

Five Years of Archiving Video Games' Retro, Silly Past In Print

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:00:00 EST

Video gaming's greatest (and goofiest) moments in print will be forever preserved online, thanks to the efforts of a man and his scanner, Benj Edwards and an Epson Perfection 2480 Photo. More »

Are Games Art? Well, They Now Belong In A Museum ...

Owen Good — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:00:00 EST

More than 300 exhibits comprise Computerspielemuseum, The Computer Game Museum, which opened Friday in Berlin. New consoles join old friends like Pong, plus what looks like a 1980s Imagic game manipulated by a giant joystick. More images inside. More »

This Is One Elegant Video Game Museum

Mike Fahey — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:20:00 EST

A joystick sits in repose at the newly-opened Computer Game Museum in Berlin, Germany, where computers and consoles from 1971 on up are displayed geometrically for the viewing public. Find out more at the museum's official website. More »

Bring Back World War II

Mike Fahey — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 11:20:00 EST

Commenter Bipolar.Bear.Disorder is missing the good old days of World War II in today's installment of Speak-Up On Kotaku. More »

A Brief History Of The First-Person Shooter

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:00:00 EST

First-person games may be the at the top of gaming's food chain in 2011, but it wasn't always this way. Join us, then, on a guided tour of the genre's history, from dark, wireframe beginnings to Call of Duty. More »

In Video Games, What's Worth A Wiki Entry?

Owen Good — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:00:00 EST

The amount of video-games related content on Wikipedia is staggering; I can't recall the last time I entered a title into its search and could not find a complete entry. As Wired writes, however, not everything passes moderation. Should it? More »

The History Of 2010's Games

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 04:00:00 EST

Boy, video games sure covered a lot of historical ground in 2010, with titles set everywhere from "a long time ago" to the dark, distant future of 2552. More »

Getting One Of The World's First Video Games Back In Action

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:30:00 EST

In 1958, Tennis For Two went on exhibition at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. With controllers and an analog display, it's regarded as one of the first ever true video games. More »

Gamers, Be Proud Of Your Pre-Historic Heritage

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EST

I'm a gamer. And if you're reading this site, you're probably one, too. Gamers like, well, games, and our games of choice now are video games. But gamers, as a breed, are nothing new. Recent archaeological findings continue to support just that. More »

A Behavioral Analysis of the Pac-Man Ghosts

Owen Good — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 19:00:00 EST

There a well known, long-established patterns for beating Pac-Man's mazes, up until the ninth Key, as Buckner & Garcia sang. Still, Pac's adversaries exhibit behavior that, if not exactly tactical, is still complex. More »

Four Score And Seven Games Ago

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST

Well, they both grew up in log cabins...as seen on Threadless, via Gamefreaks. More »

The PS2's Champion Isn't So Sure About The PS3

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:00:00 EST

It was under the leadership of Phil Harrison that Sony conquered Europe with the PS2, which set that console on its path to the history books. So what does Harrison, now long departed from Sony, think of the PS3's chances? More »

Black Ops? More Like Black Oops!

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:30:00 EST

Here we were, pointing out everything Call of Duty: Black Ops got wrong (and right!) with its use of history, when one of the more obvious flaws was staring us all right in the face. More »

Sorting Fact From Fiction In Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:40:00 EST

For a game based on a historical period and littered with historical figures, the latest Call of Duty game sure does take a lot of liberties with, well, history. So let's try and sort the fact from the fiction. More »

Black Ops And The History Of Violence

Mark Serrels — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 04:30:00 EST

The Call of Duty series' military advisor may spend most of his time informing developers on how to best portray acts of violence, but that doesn't mean he always agrees with what ends up in the games. More »