Video Game Firsts

This thread is devoted to games, systems, etc. that did something first in the video game industry. If I made any mistakes please correct me.

First Video Game/First Sports Game - Tennis for Two(Willy Higinbotham, 1958)

This was on display in the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a nuclear research facility in New York.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/cva/v1...ntedgames5.jpg

First Controversial Game - Death Race(Exidy, Arcade, 1976)

In this driving game you ran over creatures. Many thought the game was about running over people and I believe it was banned for a while.

First Game With Continuous Background Music - New York New York(Gottlieb, Arcade, 1980)

This wasn't the first game to have music. Several games before it had little tunes thrown in. It was most likely the first to have continuous music in the background while playing, although it was quite simplistic. It was also one the first games with speech.
http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/arcade3/03/90.htm

Stern's Berzerk, Taito's Stratovox and Nichibutsu's Crazy Climber date from the same year as New York New York and they also had speech.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...wStratovox.png
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...zy_Climber.png
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...B/xBerzerk.png

First RPG - Akalabeth(Richard Garriott, Apple II, 1979)

This is the direct ancestor of Ultima.
http://www.sircabirus.com/ultimaexpl.../akalabeth.gif

First Action/RPG - Temple of Apshai(Automated Simulations, Commodore PET, 1979)

Around the same time as Akalabeth was Temple of Apshai. While they are both copyrighted 1979, Temple's box says 1980 on it making it most likely the younger of the two. Either way, Temple began the ARPG genre.

First Monkey-themed Game - Monkey Magic(Nintendo, Arcade, 1979)

Everyone loves monkeys. This Break-out-ish game was the first to have a monkey theme. http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=fl...thumbs&id=3421

First Game Based on an Anime - Lupin III(Taito, Arcade, 1980)
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...wLupin_III.png

First 3D Image Video Game Released - Sub Roc-3D(Sega/Matsushita, Arcade, 1982)

Even older than the Vectrex 3D Imager is this arcade game.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...cSubRoc-3D.jpg

First Controller with a D-pad - Mattel Intellivision controller(1979)

Sure, it's the shittiest d-pad ever made but it was first.
http://www.tomheroes.com/Video%20Gam...ion_system.JPG

First Arcade Video Game/First Real Video Game to Appear in a Movie - Computer Space(Nutting Associates, Arcade, 1971)

Bushnell's Computer Space appeared in the movie Soylent Green.
http://www.hero.ac.uk/images/upload/10342.jpg

First Commercially Successful Video Game - Pong(Atari, Arcade, 1972)

First Game Consisting of Mini-games - Lazy Jones(Terminal Software, Spectrum/C64, 1984)

With all the Wario Ware love going on, I figured this is worth mentioning. It's nowhere near as good as Wario Ware but it was very cool back then.
http://lemon64.ayleen.nl/games/scree...y_jones_03.gif

First Racing Game - Space Race(Atari, Arcade, 1973)

In this game, two spaceships raced each other while dodging Asteroids. Taito released it in Japan as Astro Race.

The first car racing game was either Atari's Gran Trak or Taito's Speed Race; both are arcade games from 1974.

First Polygonal Game - I, Robot(Atari, Arcade, 1983)

This was way ahead of its time. Unless you count vector games, it's the first game to use polygons.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/.../wI,_Robot.png

First Laser Disc-based FMV Game - Astron Belt(Sega, Arcade, 1982)

Leland's Dragon's Lair is often labeled the first LD game but this game is older, although it wasn't released in North America until after Dragon's Lair.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...stron_Belt.jpg

First Shooter/First Mainframe Computer Game - Space War(Steve Russell, PDP1, 1962)

http://histoire.info.online.fr/images/jeu-pdp1.jpeg

First First-Person Perspective Game - Night Driver(Atari, Arcade, 1976)

Midway's first-person racing game 280 Zzzap dates from the same year but it seems more likely from everything I have read that Night Driver came first.
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...ght_Driver.png

First Fighting Game

Like with many genres, what the first game is depends on how one defines the genre. It's the reason I left a few genres out of this thread.

Anyway, these are the earliest games that have two characters fighting each other.

Knights in Armor(Project Support Engineering, Arcade, 1976)
http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=fl...thumbs&id=1725

Heavyweight Champ(Sega, Arcade, 1976)

Knights is a jousting duel and Heavyweight is a boxing game.

The first martial arts themed one on one fighting game released was Ultravision Karate(Ultravision, 2600, 1982). http://www.atariage.com/screenshot_p...reLabelID=1151

Also from 1982 is Atari's Black Belt for the 5200 but it's an unreleased prototype.
http://www.atarihq.com/museum/5200/g...ckbelt03sm.gif

First Console/First Gun Game - Odyssey(Magnavox, 1972)

This was the first game console and also home to the first gun games and first home sports game.
http://www.videotopia.com/odyssey.jpg

First Programmable Console - Channel F(Fairchild, 1976)

Unlike the Odyssey which had all its games built into the machine, the Channel F had software separate from hardware. It was the first console as we know them.
http://pelikonepeijoonit.net/kuvat/channelf.jpg

First Game with Ninjas in it - Sasuke vs Commander(SNK, Arcade, 1980)

http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/..._Commander.png

First Game Based on a Musican/Band - Journey Escape(Data Age, 2600, 1982)

http://www.journey-tribute.com/journ...edia/atari.jpg

First Game with Battery Back-up Save - Legend of Zelda(Nintendo, NES, 1986)

First "Dot Gobbler" Maze Game

Pac-Man popularized this genre but it wasn't the first. Head On and Crash! look very similar but I don't know which was the original.

Head On(Sega/Gremlin, Arcade, 1979)
http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/...H/vHead_On.png

Crash!(Exidy, Arcade, 1979)
http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?...C&game_id=7421

First Console Add-on - Supercharger(Starpath, 2600, 1982)

Long before the TurboGrafx CD and the 32X was the Supercharger, a cassette-based add-on for the 2600.
http://videogames.org/html/2600Stuff...percharger.gif

First Programmable Portable - Microvision(Milton Bradley, 1979)

A decade before Game Boy there was Microvision.
http://www.olufs.com/jens/microvision.jpg

First Text Adventure - Adventure AKA Colossal Caves(Will Crowther, 1972)

First Graphic Adventure - Mystery House(Sierra, Apple II, 1980)

First Game Based on a Licensed Property - Star Trek(For-Play, Arcade, 1972)

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=fl...thumbs&id=2479

Your thoughts, questions, corrections, additions, etc?

What about Ninja Gaiden and it's first use of cinema scenes?

The Legend of Zelda was also the first game to have one of those numbers you call when you need help, in America at least. Whats with the Japanese thinking Americans are simple-minded?

I'm not sure what the first game with cinemas was but I'm sure it's older than Ninja Gaiden.

Pac-Man was the first with intermissions, which could be considered primitive cinemas.

First 3D Pro Wrestling Game - Toukon Retsuden (Tomy-published, Yukes-developed, 1995)

OMG! I haven't played Astron Belt in ages!!

I can't tell you how much I miss it. :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeremy

First 3D Pro Wrestling Game - Toukon Retsuden (Tomy-published, Yukes-developed, 1995)

Nobody gives a shit about that crap.

720 was the first skateboarding game.
Btw, that Death Race pic isn't showing up, you're getting one of those "don't direct link this" pics.

Maybe, Skate Rock is from the same year as 720.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

Maybe, Skate Rock is from the same year as 720.

Yup, same year:
http://planettonyhawk.com/timeline/1986/
But on the front page they have a little paragraph about how 720 was the one that started it all.

Oh yeah, was Robotron the first game to use dual controllers to control a character in a single player game?