Video games controversial since 1940s

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 15, 2006 by Brian D. Crecente

By Brian D. Crecente

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

The release of "Bully," a new video game from the creators of "Grand Theft Auto" scheduled out in October, has once again created controversy in the gamer world.

The game, which some have deemed a Columbine simulator, is not by any means the first game to rally video game critics against violence in this media form.

Here is a look at some high and low points in video game history:

1947: The first video game, a missile firing simulator, is created.

1971: Computer Space, the first arcade game, is created.

1975: The home version of Pong is released, becoming the first popular video game for the home.

1976: Death Race, based on the film Death Race 2000, is released. The game, which has players running over stick figures for points, sparks national outrage. The National Safety Council calls it sick and morbid.

1977: Atari releases the Video Computer System, later renamed the Atari 2600.

1982: Publisher Mystique releases Custer's Revenge for the Atari 2600. The plot of the low-resolution video game involves the rape of an American Indian woman by Gen. George Armstrong Custer.

1983: The video game crash of 1983 resulted in the bankruptcy of a number of game companies.

1985: Nintendo Entertainment System launches, spurring a video game console revival.

1989: Nintendo releases the Game Boy handheld console.

1992: Gratuitously violent arcade game Mortal Kombat is released. Sen. Joe Lieberman speaks out against the game during a Senate investigation into video game violence. The violence of the game helps lead to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board to rate video games.

1993: Doom, which defined the first-person shooter genre, is released.

1994: The ESRB is established by the Interactive Digital Software Association to apply and enforce ratings on games.

1995: Sony releases the Playstation in the United States.

1995: Then-Vice President Al Gore encouraged David Walsh to set up a watchdog group to monitor video games and their suitability for children. The National Institute on Media and the Family was formed a year later.

1998: The original Grand Theft Auto, with robberies, assassination and vehicular homicide, is released.

1999: Commentators accuse first-person shooter Doom as partially to blame for the Columbine High School shootings.

2000: Sony releases the Playstation 2 in the United States.

2001: Nintendo releases the GameCube. Microsoft releases the Xbox.

2002: Sega stops making consoles and become a third-party developer for other consoles.

2003: Sens. Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl commend the ESRB. Lieberman says the ESRB system is the "best rating system in the entertainment media."

June 2005: A hacker discovers a hidden sex minigame in the computer version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The Hot Coffee mod released for the game spurs the ESRB to order a recall and re- rating of the game.

July 2005: Sen. Hillary Clinton likens violent video games to tobacco or alcohol and says the current industry-enforced system isn't working.

October 2005: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs legislation to outlaw the sale to teenagers of electronic games featuring reckless mayhem and explicit sex.

November 2005: Sens. Clinton, Lieberman and Evan Bayh introduce the Family Entertainment Protection Act, which calls for legal enforcement of the ESRB ratings with fines and community service. It also calls for an FTC investigation into the ESRB.

December 2005: The National PTA distances itself from the National Institute on Media and the Family's 10th Annual MediaWise Video and Computer Game Report Card. The report card calls the ESRB's rating system ineffective. The National PTA says it works with the ESRB to "provide information about the rating system to assist parents and children so they can make an informed decision in purchase and game play."

March 2006: The ESRB launches the Video Game Voters Network to oppose efforts to regulate the content of video games.

June 2006: Congressional hearings are held on violent and explicit video games.