This Day in Video Game History: November 13

This Day in Video Game History

1974

Atari released the Touch Me puzzle game to arcades. The arcade unit was unique in that it had no video screen. Instead, it featured four colored buttons, which players had to select in increasingly complex sequences identical to that shown to them. The game would be the inspiration behind the 1977 handheld sensation Simon. Atari itself released a handheld version of Touch Me, but it was never a commercial success.

1982

Fifteen year-old Scott Safran of Cherry Hill, New Jersey scored a record-setting 41,336,440 points on Atari’s Asteroids after playing for 53 hours and 4 minutes at the All-American Billiard Company in Newton, Pennsylvania.

1996

Author Tom Clancy and the Virtus Corporation founded video game developer Red Storm Entertainment to develop games based on Tom Clancy’s novels. The company’s first game will be the 1997 title, the Tom Clancy’s Politika strategy game.

2000

Infogrames the Driver 2 driving game for the PlayStation in the U.S. ESRB: T (Teen)

Midway released Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 for the Nintendo 64 in the U.S. (ESRB: T)

2001

EA released the first-person shooter James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire for PlayStation 2 in the North America. It was the fourth Bond game to be developed with no basis on either the books or films of the Bond franchise. (ESRB: T)

LucasArts released the Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds real-time strategy game for personal computers in the U.S. While many fans criticized the game for having little connection to the Star Wars story continuum, it was generally wel-received. (ESRB: T)

Ubisoft released the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon tactical shooting game for personal computers. Unlike other Tom Clancy titles, Ghost Recon wasn’t based on any of Clancy’s novels. (ESRB: M)

2002

Activision released Minority Report: Everybody Runs, based on the film Minority Report, for the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox in the U.S. (ESRB: T)

Ubisoft Entertainment released the The Sum of All Fears tactical shooter, based on the film of the same name, for the Game Boy Advance in the U.S. ESRB: (T) Teen

2003

Sega released the game anthology Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube in Europe. The compilation include: Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Sonic 3D Blast, both the Japanese and U.S. versions of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic Spinball. (ESRB: E)

Sony reduced the price of the PlayStation 2 video game console in Japan to ¥19,800 (roughly $180).

Ubisoft released the _Uru: Ages Beyond Mys_t puzzle game for Windows in Germany. (PEGI: 3+)

2006

News breaks that game retailers GameStop and its EB Games would only be receiving enough PlayStation 3 units to fulfill sixty percent of the pre-orders that it had taken, and in the sixty percent of orders that the stores will be able to fill, many customers will have to settle for models with smaller hard drives .

Namco released Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire mech game for the PlayStation 3 in North America. (ESRB: T)

Nintendo released the Yoshi’s Island DS platform game for the Nintendo DS in North America. (ESRB: E)

Sony Online Entertainment released the EverQuest II: Echoes of Faydwer expansion for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) EverQuest II for Windows. The expansion added new Heritage quests, raised the maximum guild level to sixty, raised the potential achievement points maximum to 100, and introduced several new races to the game, including: clockworks, bugbears, and kobolds. (ESRB: T)

Tecmo released the Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 sports game for the Xbox 360 in North America. (ESRB: M)

2007

EA Games released the science-fiction-themed first-person shooter Crysis for Windows in North America. (ESRB: M)

Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached eight million users worldwide and confirmed that Xbox games would be released as downloads for the Xbox 360 after the December console update. Microsoft also announced that, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the launch of its Xbox Live service, the company would give away Carcassonne free as a download on November 15.

The “What They Like” website is launched. The website provides parents with a guide to the age appropriateness of video game titles. Amazon.com, in partnership with the What They Like, would display data from the site alongside its regular video game listings.