Timeline task

1947
The first ever recorded video game was created in 1947 by Thomas Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann which was playable on a device named "Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device". The player would use knobs to control the tiny light. As every game during this period wasn't electronic this very simple game completely changed society as it enabled many other games to be developed later on.

1972
Between 1947 and 1972 few video games were released that had an impact on the development of video games, until Pong released. Although the simplicity of the game is fairly similar to the first ever video game something was different. Instead of just 1 colour being shown on the screen at a time, there was 2 which later encouraged other games to begin using colours. Pong has been extremely popular and to this day it can still be found on phones and computers, which emphasises how much it has impacted society because although there is much more complicated and interesting games, some still choose to play Pong. 

1980
Along with Pong another fairly old video game is still being played on phones and computers, and it is Pac-Man. The aim of the game is to collect all of the small white dots without being caught by any of the 4 ghosts. As Pac-Man was originally a arcade game this means that it had a 'high score' system, which I think is the main reason for its success early on, because many people would come back to either beat the high score or try to which encouraged many games after Pac-Man to use this system, and many games to the present day do this. As well as the high score something else which was very different was included, and that is the multiple colours on screen at once. This was rarely ever seen on video games because it was quite complex however as technology developed games did too, which influenced some interesting and creative games. 

1985
Another video game that has been and still is an extremely popular game is Super Mario Bros, which influenced and popularised side-scrolling video games to the present day. Previous to this a lot of games were mainly on the same screen throughout the whole game, whereas Super Mario Bros changed this and made the environments change on every level, which later encouraged many more Mario games including Super Mario Bros 2 and 3 in the next year, because of how different and popular it was. Different use of colours on video games became much more popular and frequent throughout every game because of advances is technology. The high score system was also included in this game which encouraged more people to play as it made players competitive. This game also has a lot of different things going on at once such as items, coins and enemies that you need to get which later influenced games to become more complex.

1987 
As the years went on a lot of different types of games were starting to be developed, such as Street Fighter. The aim of the game was to simply fight your opponent and advance through each level. In game each different character was programmed and designed to have a different fighting style which made it differ from other games as it was more complex. Also the use of health bar and timer was popularised and it still used to the present day. The art style in the game was much different to others as it was more detailed  and less pixelated. Street Fighter later influenced other fighting games that are continuously being developed and made more creative. 

1991
As well as fighting games being developed, many puzzle games were too. The game Lemmings led to many sequels, remakes and spin-offs, and also inspired similar games and  brought a more fun side to puzzle games. The aim of the game was to simply guide a group of Lemmings through obstacles, however a certain amount of Lemmings must be saved to advance to the next level, which gets more difficult. The art style for this game was very different compared to previous games and as a lot of things were happening at once which you had to be aware of it made the game a lot more complex and interesting.

1995
Instead of playing as a character in a video game, Simcity 2000 introduced city-building simulation into video games. The aim of the game was to build and maintain a city and prevent it from going bankrupt of getting completely destroyed by a disaster. As Simcity 2000 was a continuous game it means there was a lot of growth and a lot of things that can be changed or improved as the city develops, because of this it makes the game a lot more addictive as players would want to keep improving their city until they're happy with the final result. This impacted the video game community because a lot more city-building simulation games were made because of the popularity, aswell as the development of other Sims games.


1997
First-person shooters are believed to be inspired by the game Duke Nukem 3D, because of this feature it is considered to be one of the most important video games of all time and has influenced many modern video games, for example, Call of Duty. 

2000
The game "The Sims" is a strategic life-simulation game which enables you to basically create a new life on a video game. The aim of the game is to survive, and build your family, home, and skills as the characters life progresses, you also control the Sim and choose what it interacts with which can ultimately change how the game is going. It uses a combination of 3D and 2D graphics techniques which make the game stand out because of its unique style. This game is extremely popular because of how unique it is and the amount of things you can create, which has encouraged more Sims games, such as Sims 2 and Sims 3 along with many expansions of the game, as well as spin-offs. It also popularised life-simulation games.

2003
The game Call of Duty is a first-person shooter game, which has many other Call of Duty games in the series, mainly inspired by World War II. The game can either be played on story mode or online with other players around the world depending on the players preference. However, online is extremely popular and hundreds of thousands still play it daily. Call of Duty influenced many different spin-offs of the game and is well known throughout the world. The aim of the game is to advance through the story mode by doing warfare inspired missions. There is also a compass included on the game which would help you navigate whilst playing, I think this influenced mini maps in later games.

2005

The game Guitar Hero is a music rhythm game which was considered one of the most influential games because of the creativity, as not many games have been made like this. The aim of the game is to complete each song either using a console controller or a guitar controller which can usually be purchased with the game. I believe that because of the guitar controller it influenced many other games to create objects that can be used as a controller in the game, this makes the game seem more realistic and as if they are actually playing the guitar. Later in the series other instruments were released, such as drums and a microphone.

2013
The game Grand Theft Auto V is a open world action-adventure video game. The aim of the game is to follow the lives of 3 protagonist and doing missions to advance through the game. This game is very complex compared to many other open world games, as it is based in a city that means that there would be a lot of people, and in most games the people in the city would be programmed to walk from point A to B and then repeat. However, in GTA V each random person has been programmed to do something that is completely realistic to how people would actually react to something in real life. The size of the map is extremely big meaning there is a lot of places to explore and each different part is unique so you never see the same thing twice. I think this game will later influence open world games and eventually video games will become even more complex.