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The Early Days of Computer Gaming
An overview of early computer games from the 1950s to the 1970s, from laboratory demonstrations and mainframe pastimes to the first coin-operated machines.
Software and Applications
Graphics and Games
Pictures, animation, games and virtual worlds made by computers.
A Look at the History of Virtual Reality
A broad timeline of virtual reality, from early display experiments and research labs to consumer products, and why interest rose and fell in repeated waves.
The Development of the First Computer-Based Virtual Reality (VR) System
Follows virtual reality from 1960s head-mounted display experiments through flight simulators to modern headsets, and explains why no one system is the first.
The Development of the First Virtual Reality (VR) Computer
Explains why no single machine can be called the first VR computer, and describes the flight-training and laboratory systems that pointed toward immersive simulation.
The Early Days of Computer Animation: A Computing Pioneer
Profiles the artists and researchers behind early computer animation, from John Whitney and Bell Labs to university labs, and why no single person deserves the title.
The Early Days of Computer Gaming: A Look Back
A look back at the 1970s and early 1980s arcade and home console boom, and how video games reached ordinary people years before home computers.
The Early Days of Computer Graphics: A Computing Pioneer
How screens and light pens in the 1950s and 1960s let people draw and manipulate images on computers, with shared credit among several early projects.
The Early Days of Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI): A Computing Pioneer
Traces computer-generated imagery from research images to film and television effects in the 1970s to 1990s, as a story of several studios and labs.
The History of Computer Animation
A broad timeline of computer animation, from experimental films of the 1960s through the 1970s and 1980s to the arrival of feature-length computer-animated movies.
The History of Computer Graphics
The technical history of drawing images with a computer, from early vector displays to raster images, shading, texture mapping, ray tracing and 3D rendering.
Related topics
More in software and applications
Engineering Software Computers as tools for design, simulation and making things. Business Software How firms came to track customers, money and marketing with computers. Learning and Language Computers used for teaching and translating. Sound and Speech Computers making music and understanding spoken words. Programming Languages How people came to write instructions for machines, and why so many languages exist. Video Game History Themes in the history of games: consoles, home coders, genres and sound.