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Great Scott!
As David Bowie once belted out with his sweet golden pipes, time changes us. We like to pretend were still youngsters, but then were confronted with annoying facts that bring us back to reality. For example, we were just laughing about the Janet Jackson Super Bowl mishap, in which Justin Timberlake accidently exposed part of her too-hot-for-TV body. That just happened recently, right? Nope, that was an entire decade ago.
In fact, if you pay close attention to anniversaries, youll realize that events that seem to have just occured yesterday actually took place many years ago. Starting with the year 1983, we went year by year to find milestones that will make you feel ancient if you were alive when they came to pass. We begin the get off my lawn! old man-ification with
31 years ago... Luigi first appeared
Last year was the official Year of Luigi, but many remember the green one as Marios new brother when he debuted in Mario Bros. If you still regard that arcade release as a Donkey Kong sequel, consider yourself aged.
That same year: Return of the Jedi concluded the Star Wars trilogy.
30 years ago... Tetris was created
Tetris feels like such a constant in gaming that its hard to imagine a time when it didnt exist, but the puzzle game first came to PCs in 1984. It was developed in some place called The Soviet Union, which was a country or something once upon a time.
That same year: Katy Perry was born.
29 years ago... the NES was released in the US
The video game business was seemingly dead in the United States when the Nintendo Entertainment System first went on sale in America after its initial success in Japan. But with Super Mario Bros. leading the charge, the NES basically saved gaming in the west, with the word Nintendo becoming synonymous with gaming.
That same year: The CD format debuted.
28 years ago... Ubisoft sold its first game
Currently Ubisoft is one of the biggest publishers on the planet, but at the start it was just a simple French PC game developer. Ubis big boss, Yves Guillemot, founded the company all those years ago, even though most of the gaming world has only been aware of him (and mispronouncing his name) for the last decade or so.
That same year: Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.
27 years ago... Mega Man, Metal Gear and Final Fantasy were new
Its stunning to think that the same year could see the start of three franchises that would come to define gaming. For gamers of a certain age, these were just part of the NES deep collection of games, not the start of franchises that would see dozens of releases and spin-offs over the years.
That same year: The first Simpsons cartoon aired on TV.
26 years ago... John Madden headlined his first video game
Today Madden just means digital football, but there was a time when John Madden was merely a famous coach and commentator that knew nothing about the medium of video games. His debut title didnt even have NFL teams, which feels even weirder because the series has been the only home to NFL gaming for the last nine years.
That same year: Rick Astley unintentionally Rick Rolls people for the first time with the video for Never Gonna Give You Up.
25 years ago... the Game Boy launched
Remember the first time you switched on your Game Boy and were absorbed by Tetris Russian charms? Or when your mom first stole your system so she could play Tetris herself? It was a long time ago, but we we still have 25 reasons we love Game Boy today.
That same year: Taylor Swift was born.
24 years ago... Neo Geo became a home console
SNK had quickly established itself as a force in the arcades, and it was ready to expand into homes with the pricey console version of its arcade tech. Originally priced at $650, the machine was recently repurposed as a $200 handheld, the Neo Geo X.
That same year: Nelson Mandela was freed from prison.
23 years ago... Sonic arrived on Genesis
Thanks to Sonic, Sega had finally become a true rival of Nintendo when the hedgehog took gamers by storm in 1991. School playgrounds were filled with children arguing Sonic vs. Mario, mostly because opinionated kids didnt have Internet forums at the time.
That same year: Nirvanas Nevermind released.
