I took a deep breath and flipped the notebook open.
On the inside of its front cover, my father had created some sort of elaborate timeline—or as he’d labeled it, a “Chronology.” This densely packed list of names and dates filled up every centimeter of the cover’s white card-stock backing, and it looked as if my father had created it over a period of months or years, using a variety of pens, pencils, and markers. (No crayons, thankfully.) He’d also circled some of the entries before connecting them to other entries elsewhere on the timeline, using an overlapping web of lines and arrows that made the whole thing look more like an elaborate flowchart than a timeline:
CHRONOLOGY
1962—Space War—First videogame (after OXO and Tennis for Two)
1966—Star Trek premiers on NBC TV (airs from 9/8/66–6/3/69)
1968—2001: A Space Odyssey
1971—Computer Space—First coin-op arcade game—port of Spacewar
1972—Star Trek Text Game—BASIC program for early home computers
1975—Interceptor—Taito—combat flight sim with 1st person perspective
1975—Panther—First tank sim? PLATO network
1976—Starship 1—earliest FPS space combat videogame—Trek inspired
1977—Star Wars is released on 5/25/77. Highest grossing movie in history. First wave of brainwashing in prep for invaders arrival?
1977—Close Encounters released. Use to program the populace not to fear their impending arrival?
1977—Atari 2600 video computer system released, placing a combat training simulator in millions of homes! Ships with the game COMBAT!
1977—Starhawk. First of many videogames inspired by Star Wars
1977—Ender’s Game short story. First instance of videogames as training simulators in SF? Published same year as Star Wars—coincidence?
1978—Space Invaders—inspired by Star Wars—first blockbuster game
1979—Tail Gunner, Asteroids, Galaxian, and Star Fire all released.
1979—Star Raiders—released for Atari 400/800—ported to other systems.
1980—Empire Strikes Back released in movie theaters.
1980—Battlezone by Atari—first realistic tank simulator game
1981—March—US Army contracts Atari to convert Battlezone into “Bradley Trainer,” a tank training simulator. Army claims only one prototype was ever made, but control yoke design used in many future games including Star Wars and PHA?TON!
1981—July—First Polybius sightings at MGP in Beaverton. Mid-July.
1982—E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial—out-grosses Star Wars.
1982—The Thing, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
1983—Return of the Jedi!
1983—Starmaster—space combat simulator for the Atari 2600
1983—Star Wars: The Arcade Game by Atari & Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator by Sega—cabinets simulate cockpit
1984—Elite—released on 9/20/84—game inspires Star Raiders
1984—2010: The Year We Make Contact—sequel to 2001
1984—The Last Starfighter released on 7/13! Videogame tie-in canceled?
1985—Explorers, Enemy Mine
1985—Ender’s Game (novel) published—same premise as ’77 short story
1986—Iron Eagle, Aliens, Flight of the Navigator, Invaders from Mars
1987—The Hidden, Predator
1988—Alien Nation, They Live
1989—The Abyss!
1989— PHA?TON cabinet sighted at MGP on 8/8/89. Never seen again.
1989—MechWarrior released—another training sim for military use?
1990—Wing Commander—released by Origin Systems—training sim?
1991—Wing Commander II
1993—Star Wars Rebel Assault, X-Wing, Privateer, Doom
1993—The X-Files—fictional alien cover-up created to conceal real one?
1994—Star Wars: TIE Fighter, Wing Commander 3, Doom II
1994—The Puppet Masters, Stargate,
1995—Absolute Zero, Shockwave, Wing Commander IV
1996—Marine Doom—Doom II modified for use by the USMC
1996—Star Trek: First Contact, Independence Day
1997—Men in Black, Starship Troopers, Contact
1997—Independence Day videogame tie-in released—Playstation and PC
1997—X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter
1998—Dark City, The Faculty, Lost in Space
1998—Wing Commander Secret Ops, Star Wars Trilogy Arcade
1999—Star Wars: Episode I
1999—Galaxy Quest
The release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 seemed to be the timeline’s focal point. My father had circled that entry several times and drawn a series of arrows linking it to at least a dozen other items further down the timeline—including a bunch of videogames that the Star Wars franchise had helped inspire, like Space Invaders, Star Hawk, Elite, and Wing Commander.