How Video-Game Graphics Have Evolved From 1951–2019

Video-game graphics are progressing faster than we’ve ever seen — ray tracing, better models, shaders, textures, and faster hardware is making our games almost appear lifelike. But, they had there ups and lows.

Bertie The Brain — 1950

This behemoth was officially the first videogame ever and it isn’t your average computer, it was the size of two rooms. The user would play a game of Tic Tac Toe against an “AI”.

Computer Space — 1971

This was a huge step in gaming because it was the first time a game featured sprites, in this case, rocket ships. It was also the first arcade game!

Pong — 1972

The original computer game. Not much, besides a score, arena, two players and a ball. But, dare I say, it’s simplicity makes it hold up today.

Gotcha — 1973

Made by Atari, Gotcha wasn’t a smash hit but was the first color videogame ever.

Speed Race — 1974

This was the first arcade game to feature a microprocessor, which made the game much smoother and allowed it to have better animations.

Spasim— 1974

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gePNN8BYqo

This was a lesser-known, yet still very groundbreaking game. It was the first 3D game, although never quite received the recognition it deserves. It definitely wasn't the fastest game though, as you’ll see by the gameplay.

The link may not be embedded as a video, sorry :(

Space Invaders — 1978

The game that set the bar for all games after it, and the original shooter, Space Invaders. The game had surprisingly good graphics and grossed 3.8 billion dollars. It’s credited for starting the ‘golden age of arcade video-games’

Tempest — 1981

A huge step for graphics, because Tempest(by Atari) featured the first color vector graphics.

Frogger — 1981

A hugely popular game(sold over 20 million copies) by Konami, and one that shows how far graphics had come since just a few years prior.

Journey — 1983

Journey was a game by Bally Midway which had the first ever digitized sprites.

Wolfenstein 3d-1992

This was a HUGE step for graphics, and one of the biggest on this list, because it was the first game to be widely recognized as 3D.

Severance: Blade of Darkness — 2001

This was one of the very first games to feature dynamic shading and lighting and did it surprisingly well for 2001(although the game was not well optimized).

Q2VKPT — 2019

A huge jump from 2001, but since then, most of the changes have been improvements to 3d graphics, but nothing revolutionary. Here, we have the first ray traced game, see here to learn about what ray tracing is. It may not seem impressive, but the technology is. Battlefield 5 gameplay, on the other hand, is, so I’d recommend checking that out for some shockingly good graphics.