The Early Days

1958-
The Silent Era
The very first video games, alas, had no sound component whatsoever. In 1958, William Higinbotham, an engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a US nuclear research facility, fashioned a crude tennis-type game on an oscilloscope. (Many experts consider this the first "hack" of a computer system.) Five years later, Spacewar--MIT student Steve Russell's protogame--featured two dueling spaceships controlled by toggle switches. It was created on the hulking PDP-1 computer, a $120,000 mainframe the size of a Buick. Both games, however, were silent.

The Odyssey.

1972
Magnavox Odyssey Released
The first home video console, the Magnavox Odyssey, is released in the US. The fully analog system is fully silent as well.

1972
Pong Heard Around the World
Nolan Bushnell test-markets his protovideo game, Pong, at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California. The arcade video game as we know it is born. The sonar-blip sound that's generated as a digital ball is batted back and forth is the first true video game sound effect. It proves to be oddly compelling and kind of hypnotic.

Space Channel 5, your father is Simon.

1974
Simon Says
Milton Bradley releases Simon, one of the most popular handheld games ever. Simon plays patterns using four separate tones and four different-colored lights. You repeat the patterns, and then a new note is added every go-around. In that sense, Simon was the first game to incorporate music as a game element--in a very Zen, free-jazz kind of way.

1975
Shots Heard Around the World
Midway Games imports Gunfight from the Japanese company Taito. Gunfight is the first game to use a microprocessor (instead of hardwired circuits). A one-channel amplifier provides mono gunshot sounds.

When wood paneling was in.

1977
Atari Comes Home
The Atari Video Computer System (VCS) hits shelves in time for the Christmas holiday season. Nine game cartridges are available upon the system's release, and the sounds of a generation are born. Scratchy and primitive sound effects on the VCS (later known as the 2600) are still unlike anything to ever come out of a TV set. Highlights: the rumbling tanks of Combat, the bleep-bloop-bleep rhythm of Breakout, and the ominous silence of Adventure.

combat.mp3

breakout.mp3

1978
Space Invasion
Midway imports Space Invaders from Taito. A great example of simple, effective sound design, Space Invaders owes a large part of its appeal to its menacing, paranoia-inducing soundtrack. Not music per se, the thumping audio track actually accelerates in tempo as the enemy invaders draw nearer (and move faster). The effect: sweat, panic, and increased blood pressure in a generation of gamers.

1978
Odyssey2 Gives Voice to the People
The Magnavox Odyssey2 used programmable 2K ROM game cartridges so that each game could be designed with unique sound and music. Previously, games were limited to the palette of sounds hardwired into the specs of the console itself. The Odyssey also came with a speech synthesis unit (released as an add-on) for phonetic speech capability and improved music and sound effects.

1979
Never Tell Me the Odds!
Atari's Asteroids hits arcades, and like Space Invaders, it employs a thumping, repetitive rhythm that speeds up as gameplay intensifies. The piercing laser shots, exploding asteroids, and high-pitched squall of enemy UFOs add to the sonic tension. Another great, early sound design.

asteroids.mp3

1979
Baseball Gets a Word In
The first talking game to appear in the home console arena, Major League Baseball for the Intellivision system featured a computer-generated voice with a woefully limited vocabulary: "strike," "ball," "out," and so forth. Talking commentary would go on to become a de rigueur element of sports games.