First videogame to log high scores (2024)

FAQs

What is the first game to record high scores? ›

The first video game to use the term "high score" was Midway's Sea Wolf (1976). The game saved the highest score achieved on the cabinet, but could be reset by a player at any time by pressing a button on the machine.

Released in 1976, Sea Wolf was an arcade game that simulated a submarine naval battle. Players viewed the action through a periscope mounted on the machine and fired torpedoes at enemy targets. The high-score appeared on the bottom of the screen, below the current player's score.

Star Fire is remembered as the first game to allow players to enter their initials next to their high scores.

Possibly the first video game created simply for entertainment was 1958's Tennis for Two, featuring moving graphics on an oscilloscope.

Minecraft is also considered the best-selling video game in history and has a live-action film set for theatrical release in 2025. Here are the best-selling video games of all time.

Galaga is another arcade favorite that hit the scene in 1981. One man earned the high score on this popular cabinet during the peak of the pandemic ennui in early 2020. Jordan Domingon achieved a score of 20,980,450 after fourteen solid hours of gameplay. After all, he had nothing better to do!

Although the exact years differ, most sources agree the period lasted from about the late 1970s to early 1980s. Technology journalist Jason Whittaker, in The Cyberspace Handbook, places the beginning of the golden age in 1978, with the release of Space Invaders.

The Royal Game of Ur is the oldest playable boardgame in the world, originating around 4,600 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The game's rules were written on a cuneiform tablet by a Babylonian astronomer in 177 BC.

1998 is our one-seed, widely regarded as the best year in video games. It's hard to compete with the combined might of Half-Life, Resident Evil 2, Ocarina of Time, StarCraft, Fallout 2, Banjo Kazooie, Metal Gear Solid, and Baldur's Gate.

The arcade industry entered a "Golden Age" in 1978 with the release of Taito's Space Invaders, which introduced many novel gameplay features - including a scoreboard.

What was the name of the first game console that allowed you to play a game on your television? ›

In 1972 Magnavox released the world's first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey.

The game with the most playable characters overall is Fire Pro Wrestling Returns (Spike, 2005), which has 327 individual personas for gamers to control.

Early history (1948–1970)

Spacewar! is credited as the first widely available and influential computer game. As early as 1950, computer scientists were using electronic machines to construct relatively simple game systems, such as Bertie the Brain in 1950 to play tic tac toe, or Nimrod in 1951 for playing Nim.

For video games, that person was Ralph Baer. Long considered the Father of the Video Game, Baer's curiosity and persistence in the 1960s made possible the development and commercialization of the interactive video games and modern consoles we know and love today.

AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne was an association football match played on 31 October 2002 between two teams in Toamasina, Madagascar. It holds the world record for the highest scoreline in any association football match, recognised by The Guinness Book of Records.

Wilt Chamberlain broke the record for highest points ever scored in one game in 1962 with an impressive 100 points with the Philadelphia Warriors.

1. PUBG. PUBG is the most popular online game in 2022, with a huge fan following. Inspired by armor and H1Z1, PUBG has swept the internet and now has more than 100 million players.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.