In 1976 Atari released their official game of 'Pong' and took huge steps for their company by also releasing 'Atari Pong Doubles' and 'Atari Super Pong'. The aim of pong is to defeat your opponent in a simulated table tennis game by getting the highest score. The game was named 'Pong' because the name 'Ping Pong' was already taken.
In 1978 'Space Invaders' was released by Taito, a video gaming company in Japan. The game was originally made on an arcade machine but was later released on the Atari 2600 which quadrupled the sales and made 'Space Invaders' a lot more popular than it already was. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to defeat waves of aliens with the laser cannon and score as many points as possible.
In 1980 Namco release PAC-man. This is still being made in present day with improved graphics and added features to the game. This has been one of the highest grossing games of all time making over $2.5 billion in just quarters (25 cents) the 1990's. PAC-man is one of the longest running video games of all game franchises and is a part of history in New York's museum of modern art.
In 1981 Notable released 'Donkey Kong' and 'Frogger'. Donkey Kong is an early example of a platform game where you would jump over obstacles and dodge objects that would fly at you. Frogger was released by Konami a couple of months later, in Frogger you would have to dodge varieties of objects ranging from cars to crocodiles. The aim of the game is to get past all of these obstructions to get to the frog homes at the top of the screen.
In 1985 Super Mario was released and sold 1 million copies before the years end. This has been the highest selling game up to 2008 and sold over 40 million copies. The aim of Super Mario is to play as Mario himself and travel around getting through levels to rescue the 'Princess Toadstool'. This game is still one of the highest selling games present day and games are still being made to link with Mario. The Mario series are also still being carried on.
In 1986 'The Legend Of Zelda' was released. When playing the game you would see Link from a top down perspective and you must navigate him through the overworld and several dungeons, defeating enemies and solving puzzles along the way.
In 1989 Gameboy was released. Bundled with Tetris this was an instant hit selling 118 million worldwide. The Gameboy is an 8 - bit handheld video game device and was the first released by Nintendo. The 118 million sales happened within a matter of weeks making it one of the fastest selling handheld devices ever. Super Mario was released with the Gameboy and was loved by the people who bought it because they could now play their favourite game wherever they went.
In 1991 Sega released 'Sonic The Hedgehog'. The aim of the game is to carry on Sonic's efforts to stop Dr. Robotnik and release the animals he has trapped. You also have to collect six magic emeralds called the 'Chaos Emeralds'.
In 1992 Mortal Kombat was released for most consoles out at the time. This was a huge step for gaming as everybody at the time was amazed at how 'real' the game looked. The game also went through a lot of rough times as many people wanted the game banned because of how violent the game was. The decision was overturned because of how many sales the game actually got which totaled at 2.5 million withing the first few weeks. 
In 1994 The 'PlayStation' was released by Sony. This was a 32-bit video game console and was the first one of its kind. This heavy influenced the market as the games went from cartridges to discs. The PlayStation was the first computer entertainment platform to ship 100 million units which it reached that just over 9 years after the launch. The last PlayStation units were sold on Christmas of 2004 before it was finally discontinued. 
In 1997 Grand Theft Auto was released by DMA Design (Now known as Rockstar). The game allows you to play as a criminal and free roam around the city, there are various missions that your character can do also. As of the units sold, the game just hit 125 million units sold just after December 2012.
In 2000 Sony releases the 'PlayStation 2'. Sony sold 138 million units of this console making it the best selling console to date. Various versions of this console was released to make the console look more sleek and frankly to get more sales even though it already how an incredible amount.
In 2003 'Call of Duty' was released by Activision but was published by Infinity Ward. Call of Duty is a first person shooter based on Quake 3 Arena (ID tech 3) and is still available to buy now on PC via Steam. The game started on PC but then went to all of the new consoles which at the time were 'Xbox' and 'PlayStation 2'. ]
In 2005 Microsoft released their second console the 'Xbox 360'. This console came with the release of Guitar Hero. Guitar hero is a game where you have a guitar as a controller and you use the different colored buttons on the guitar to hit the notes on different songs. The Xbox 360 was also very new to the game development as all of these new high graphic games came out and how differently they were played to any other game that was out already. The Xbox also came with a feature called (Xbox Live) where if you had a membership, you could play online with your friends or with people around the world which took a huge impact as everyone wanted to be able to do this. As of June 30. 2013, 78.2 million units had been sold. 
In 2007 Halo 3 was released by Bungie. Halo 3 is a first person shooter made exclusively for the Xbox 360 and consists of huge battles between the 26th century humanity and an alien species named 'The Covenant'. On the day before it's official release 4.2 million units were in stores. Halo 3 grossed $300 million in the first week of release and more than one million people played on Xbox Live within the first 24 hours of the game being released. To date Halo 3 has sold in excess of 11.5 million copies making it the 5th best selling Xbox 360 game of all time. It also is the best selling first person shooter game of all time behind Call Of Duty.
In 2008 Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto 4. This game was huge when it was first released because of how different it was and how long people actually waited for it to come out. The game is set in a completely different fictional universe than other GTA titles. This game was set in Liberty City based heavily on modern day New York. The game had a huge graphical improvement to it than the other titles and had completely different gameplay. The game broke industry records selling a total of around 3.6 million units on it's first day of release and grossing more than $500 million on the first week in revenue, selling an estimated 6 million units worldwide. As of 2012 the game sold over 25 million copies. Grand Theft Auto 4 won numerous awards and was widely regarded by critics for the best game of this generation and even one of the best games of all time. The aim of the story was to play a character named Niko Bellic who was in the war in eastern Europe who comes to the United States in search of someone important. This isn't just what happens as he gets entangled in a world of gangs, crime and corruption along the way.
In 2012 Fifa 13 was released by EA. The Fifa franchise has been going on a long time but Fifa 13 sure impressed it's users with what the game had to offer. First of all the in game feature called Ultimate Team hasn't been popular since it was made it 2009, but when this game arrived EA doubled their profits just from this in game feature. Ultimate Team is a mode where you can create your own team with whichever players you want from around the world by collecting Fifa coins to buy them from the online market. EA added an addition to this called 'Fifa Packs'. This gave you the option to get players from these random packs of around 8 players. Obviously the better the player the more Fifa coins they are worth. To buy these 'Packs' you could either buy them with Fifa coins which you could acquire by winning matches with your team or selling other players, or you could buy them with Fifa Points. To get these points you had to pay real money to get these points to open the packs. This mode became so popular so quickly and still is the same now. This game also had a new engine for it making the player movements almost realistic and making the game all around just feel more realistic. Finally in 2013 huge changes have been made to gaming which people would never imagine would happen. The Nintendo 3DS now allows you to see 3D images without wearing glasses. Games have became almost realistic with the current releases of Grand Theft Auto 5 and Battlefield 4. The graphics on these games are absolutely incredible and they make the games look like you are standing right there in real life. I am amazed at how Battlefield 4 looks and how it plays. This game has to be one of the best games ever, the graphics are almost too realistic, online interaction is interpreted into the game where you can make buildings crash to the ground by blowing them up from the bottom just like in real life. EA and DICE have gone to great lengths with this game, you can even turn light switches on and off! Another game that is one of the best has to be Grand Theft Auto 5, this game took Rockstar 5 years to make and all of the waiting has paid off and the game has shown why it took 5 years to make. This game has been said that it is the best game ever made, the graphics are sharp and realistic, the AI do things as normal humans would do, for example if you drove past a construction site in any of the other GTA's you would see people dressed as construction workers just walking back and too, where as in GTA 5 they would actually be doing a job and building something like walls or cutting wood down. This year has been a great year for games and it is unimaginable what games will be like in the next couple of years with the releases of the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
