WorldHistory.com has a timeline chronicling the history of video games, with an emphasis on the actions and evolutions of the companies making up the industry. It spans back from 1860, but it lists everthing pre-1950 as "Before the video game era" and of course it doesn't really get going in full force until the 1970s. Those early entries are still pretty fascinating, though. While most gamers know that Nintendo was created in the late 1800s, it was news to me that SEGA (or, as it was originally known, Standard Games) was founded in 1940. It was formed in Honolulu, Hawaii by three Americans, who later moved it to Tokyo, renamed it Service Games, and then abbreviated that to SEGA. It was scooped up by a Japanese conglomerate in 1984 after the big video game market crash. Crazy!

So for those of you with an interest in gaming history, this is a pretty cool read. There are plenty of fascinating facts to learn!