From Geek to Chic in 33 Years

1972 It begins: Pong is invented

1978 Space Invaders blips its way into arcades everywhere

1977 The Atari 2600 game system sells millions of units and brings arcade action home

1980 Pac-Man released

1982 First hit song based on a video game, Pac-Man Fever: "I got a pocket full of quarters ..."

1981 First all-video game magazine: Electronic Games

1982 Video games first appear on the cover of TIME

1982 Tron, the first movie about video games, tanks at the box office

1983 E.T. becomes a video game --and flops

1983 A-list athletes star in games like Julius Erving & Larry...