Gaming

April 25, 1980: Activision Formed

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0425, activision, alan miller, alignleft, Bob Whitehead, david crane, Fantastic Four, Google, Jim Levy, larry kaplan, stitcher, sun microsystems, third party software, tv ad campaign 0 Comments April 25, 2025

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Activision is Founded — April 25, 1980: Activision Fantastic Four comes together

1980 – Activision was technically founded in 1979, but it wasn’t until April 25 that the “Fantastic Four” joined up as the first third-party software company for video games. David Crane and Alan Miller left Atari August 1979 to start programming under the Activision name. Larry Kaplan and Bob Whitehead stayed behind until April 25th when Activision came out. Richard Muchmore was the venture capitalist and Jim Levy rounded the group as Activision’s CEO.

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Sun Microsystems announces project JXTA
XP x64 OS
Yahoo begins the national TV ad campaign

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

March 4, 2000: Sony Playstation 2 Released

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0304, aggregator, core memory, cray 1, ferrite cores, historical events, IBM, iTunes, japan march, magnetic core memory, million, million dollars, Nintendo Game Cube, patent issue, playstation, playstation 2, RSS, sony, sony playstation, stitcher, supercomputer, twitter, wang, wang laboratories, world wide web 0 Comments March 4, 2025

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2000 – The Playstation 2 was released in Japan to rival Sega’s Dreamcast system and Nintendo Game Cube. The Playstation 2 had an “Emotion Engine” processor at 294 MHz (later 299 MHz with 128 bit capabilities), 32 MB RAMBUS memory, Graphics synth at 147 MHz, USB 1.1, Ethernet connection and 2 memory card slots which could accept up to 8 MB cards.

The Sony Playstation 2 didn’t hit the US market until October, 2000. Some say PS2 caused Dreamcast to falter and eventually close down. Many believed this was because the PS2 was backwards compatible with games from the original Playstation.

Sony’s game console sat unopposed for 6 months after Dreamcast stopped production. That is, until Nintendo released the Game Cube and Microsoft released XBox.

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The first Cray-1 Supercomputer is shipped
The World Wide Web goes online (in primitave form)
Sony releases the Playstation 2 in Japan

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

January 27, 2006: Western Union discontinued Telegram and Commercial Messaging services

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0127, aggregator, day in tech history, e mail, Geek, iTunes, january 27, kevin mitnik, Lucida Sans Unicode, Magnavox, magnavox odyssey, magnovox, Podcast, primitive system, processors, release date, RSS, Technology, technology history, Telegraphy, twitter, Verdana, Video game console, video game system, Western Union, white house 0 Comments January 27, 2025

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2006– Founded in 1851, Western Union was responsible for getting the important messages from point A to B. Whether through telegram or commercial messaging, Western Union was synonymous with the service. But on January 27, 2006, that all ended. As Western Union wrote:

“Effective 2006-01-27, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative.”

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MIT vs. David LaMaccia
Kevin Mitnik cracks the WELL
White House e-mail outage

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

January 6, 2001: Microsoft XBox Unveiled

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0106, 6 years, aggregator, apple, Apple II, apple iie, Atari Jaguar, commodore, cycle 1, day in tech history, Geek, Geomatics, global positioning system, Google, GPS, gps system, graphics processor, jack tramiel, january 6, Liskula Cohen, Podcast, system dates, technology history, United States, XBox Media Center, XBox video game system 0 Comments January 6, 2025

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2001– It was CES where Microsoft unveiled the XBox video game system. The system had a 733 MHz processor, hard drive and 250MHz graphics processor. The console didn’t release until November 15, 2001.

XBox was the first American gaming system since the Atari Jaguar, which folded in 1996.

XBox live was added to the unit in 2002, but it was the ability to mod the XBox so people could turn their consoles into a XMBC (XBox Media Center).

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Jack Tramiel steps down as president of Commodore
Apple introduces the Lisa and Apple IIe
Liskula Cohen sues Google over Blogger remarks

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

October 18, 1931: Passing of Thomas Alva Edison

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 1018, aggregator, apple performa, case design, day in tech history, duck hunt, favorite game, floppy drive, games, light gun, money, NES, nes system, nintendo entertainment system, performa 6360, pin case, Podcast, predecessor, riding my bike, several points, super mario brothers, technology history, thomas edisons, vidalinux, worldwide release 0 Comments October 18, 2024

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A lot happened on this day that Thomas Edison was responsible for. In 1878, Edison brought electricity into the home. 1879 Edison manufacturers the first incandescent light bulb, which was tested on October 22nd. Two major leaps in the technology ago.

But it was on October 18, 1931, Edison died of complications to diabetes in New Jersey. His last breath was captured in a test tube, which is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI.

1985– The Nintendo Entertainment System, along with the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) and the Zapper light gun are released in New York. Eighteen games were available, two of which came bundled with the system: Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers.

The NES was a step up to it’s predecessor – the Famicon Disk system (which looks like a Steampunk version of the NES). Differences included 60-pin cartridges (famicon had 72-pin), case design and extra peripherals, like a 3.5 inch floppy drive.

Nintendo Favicon Family Computer with HVC-022 floppy disk drive

I remember riding my bike to the bank (there was no on-line banking in 85) – which actually was 35 miles away from my house – to get the money and buy this system. It was well worth it. My favorite game to date is still Tetris.

The NES system cost $125. Worldwide release would be in Feb 1986.Now You’re Playing With Power!

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Several points in Thomas Edisons’ history
Apple Performa 6360
VidaLinux

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

September 2, 1995: Sega Saturn Launched

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0902, aggregator, arpanet, auction, ebay, europe, game system, hitachi, hitachi sh, human kidney, interface message processor, japan, loading system, risc, saturn, sega saturn, stitcher, video game 0 Comments September 2, 2024

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1995 – Sega launches the Saturn video game console in the US. The 32-bit Cartridge loading system contained the 2 x Hitachi SH-2 32-bit RISC (28.6 MHz). It was launched in Japan and Europe earlier in the year, but didn’t hit the US until this date.

You could get the system with Virtua Fighter for $399. Below is the teaser commercial for the game system.

Other items in Day in Tech History:

Ultima I released
The first Interface Message Processor is connected to the ARPANET
eBay stops an auction of a human kidney
Both the VHS (1983) and the CD-Video (1987) were introduced

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

July 25, 2005: Violent Video Games Bill Goes into Law

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0725, adult, aggregator, assets, cdma, day in tech history, district judge, Duck Dodgers, free speech, game groups, games, Geek, history, illinois governer, lte, Nortel, Podcast, restriction, rod blagojevich, RSS, selling games, signs, Sinclair Radionics, stitcher, technology history, twitter, video game, violent video games 0 Comments July 25, 2024

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The sale of Video Games began to really heat up in 2005 as Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich signs a bill into law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors. You could be fined up to $1,000 for selling games with adult ratings. Immediately, video game groups sued, claiming the law is a restriction on free speech.The law would be deemed unconstitutional and repealed by US District Judge Matthew Kennelly.

Ericsson purchases Nortel‘s CDMA and LTE assets
Sinclair Radionics is founded
Duck Dodgers and the 24 1/2 Century is first aired

Day in Tech History/ Gaming

May 8, 2006: E3 – Playstation 3 Announced

Jeffrey Powers @geekazine 0508, apple, Bluetooth, building, building computers, Computer hardware, Google, HDMI, kaypro, Linear, linear systems, mobile solution, Playstation 3, powerbook 2400c, predecessors, press conference, sony computer entertainment, stitcher, Video game console 0 Comments May 7, 2024

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2006– At a press conference before E3, Sony announced the Playstation 3 gaming console. This would be for a November 17 release and would feature items like Bluetooth wireless controllers, Wi-Fi and HDMI video output, and more. The system also will contain a Blu-ray disc system and pre-installed HDD.

JavE 6.0 is released
Citirix XenServer 5.5 released
Apple introduces the Powerbook 2400c

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