Glossary of video game history terms

A label telling buyers which age group a game is considered suitable for, and why: violence, language, sexual content or gambling themes. In North America the ratings on retail packaging come from an industry body created in 1994 after political pressure, and retailers rather than the government enforce them.

See also Platform holder, Loot box, Localization

The freestanding housing that held a coin-operated game: a screen, controls, a coin mechanism and hardware built for that one title. Because machine and game shipped together, designers could use custom controls, from steering wheels to periscopes and light guns, that no home system of the period could match.

See also Coin-op, Attract mode, Port

The looping demonstration an idle arcade machine plays to draw in a passerby: a title screen, snatches of automated play, the high score table and an invitation to insert a coin. It was a sales pitch rather than a screen saver, and home games kept the convention long afterward.

See also Arcade cabinet, Coin-op

Technology that adds computer-generated images to a view of the real world instead of replacing it. In games it usually means a phone or a headset placing characters or objects in the room or the street in front of you, using the camera, satellite positioning and motion sensors to hold them roughly in place.

See also Virtual reality, Simulator sickness

The ability of a new console to run games made for the machine it replaces, either because it contains the older hardware, because software imitates it, or because the games are rebuilt for the new system. It protects the money buyers already spent on a library and makes an upgrade much easier to sell.

See also Console generation, Emulation, Cartridge

A seasonal purchase that unlocks a ladder of rewards, usually cosmetic, which players earn by playing over several weeks. It replaced one-off item sales with a recurring fee and a standing reason to come back, and it became the common way free games earn money without selling competitive advantage.

See also Free-to-play, Microtransaction, Downloadable content

An online format in which a large group of players, often around a hundred, is dropped into a single map with nothing, scavenges for weapons and fights until one player or squad is left. A shrinking safe zone pushes everyone together and keeps matches short. The shape grew out of player-made modifications before becoming a genre of its own.

See also First-person shooter, Free-to-play, Modding

The habit of describing console eras by a number of bits, as in 8-bit or 16-bit. The figure originally described how much data a processor handled at once, which loosely tracked what a machine could display and animate. Marketing turned it into a slogan, and it stopped meaning much once hardware grew more complicated.

See also Console generation, Sprite

A plastic case holding memory chips that plugs directly into a console and carries one game. Cartridges load almost instantly and are difficult to copy, but they cost more to manufacture and hold far less than a disc. Their arrival in the mid-1970s created the business of selling games separately from the machine.

See also ROM, Optical disc, Licensing program

Playing a game that actually runs on a distant computer in a data center, which streams video to your screen and receives your button presses in return. It removes the need for powerful hardware at home, but every input travels both ways, so the experience depends heavily on the quality of the connection.

See also Latency, Subscription service, Digital distribution

Short for coin-operated, the trade term for amusement machines that charge for each play. The business began with pinball and mechanical novelties well before video screens existed, and it shaped early design: a session had to end quickly, difficulty had to climb sharply, and every machine had to earn back the floor space it occupied.

See also Arcade cabinet, Attract mode

A loose grouping of home systems that competed with each other over roughly the same years before being replaced, usually after five to seven years, by more capable hardware. The boundaries are informal and often argued over, but the idea helps in comparing machines that faced the same audience, prices and technical limits.

See also Bit generations, Backward compatibility, Platform holder

Letting players on different systems share the same online match or world, so that someone on a console can play alongside someone on a computer or a phone. It requires the companies involved to agree, since each runs its own network, and it became common only once free online games made divided audiences a business problem.

See also Matchmaking, Platform holder, Free-to-play

Extended mandatory overtime near the end of a project, often many weeks of long days and lost weekends. Long treated as a normal cost of shipping a game, it has been linked to burnout and to people leaving the field entirely, and reporting on it has made working hours a central issue in game industry labor organizing.

See also Independent development, Game engine

A free, limited slice of a game handed out so people can try it before buying: a few levels, a time limit or a single mode. Demos arrived on magazine cover discs and download services, faded when storefronts made refunds easy, and returned in the form of timed trials and free weekends.

See also Shareware, Digital distribution, Early access

Selling games as downloads rather than as boxes on a shelf. It took manufacturing, shipping and retail space out of the equation, letting small teams reach buyers directly and letting publishers keep old titles on sale indefinitely. It also tied ownership to an account with a storefront rather than to an object you can hold.

See also Early access, Subscription service, Platform holder

Extra material added to a game after release and delivered over the internet: new missions, maps, characters, costumes, or a full expansion the size of a small game. It can extend a well-made game for years, and it draws criticism when material that feels central is held back and sold separately.

See also Microtransaction, Digital distribution, Battle pass

Selling an unfinished game while development continues, so that buyers play and give feedback as it is built. It can fund a small studio without a publisher and produce a better-tested result, but the buyer carries the risk that the finished version never arrives, or arrives as something quite different.

See also Digital distribution, Demo, Independent development

Software that imitates the hardware of an older machine closely enough that its original games will run on a modern computer, phone or console. It is the main reason games from dead formats are still playable, and it raises legal questions, since running a game means having a copy of software that someone usually still owns.

See also Preservation, ROM, Port

Organized competitive play staged for an audience, with teams, leagues, salaries, coaches and prize money. It grew out of arcade high-score rivalry and local tournaments, then scaled up when broadband and live streaming let large audiences watch matches as they happened. Fighting games, strategy games and team shooters have all supported professional scenes.

See also Matchmaking, Speedrunning, Latency

A game seen through the eyes of the character, in which most of the play involves moving through space while aiming and firing. The form was established on personal computers in the early 1990s, and later console versions had to work out how to aim accurately with a gamepad rather than a mouse.

See also Polygon, Modding, Battle royale

How many complete images a game draws each second. Higher numbers make motion look smoother and controls feel more responsive, because the picture reflects your input sooner. Every game trades detail against speed, which is why one machine can run a simple game very smoothly and a demanding one unevenly.

See also Polygon, Texture mapping, Latency

A game that costs nothing to install and earns money afterward, usually by selling cosmetic items, convenience or seasonal reward tracks. It reaches an enormous audience because price is no barrier, and its designs are argued about because the same systems that fund the game also shape how it is played.

See also Microtransaction, Battle pass, Loot box

The reusable foundation a game is built on, handling the work every game needs: drawing the scene, playing sound, detecting collisions, running physics and managing files. Studios once wrote their own for each project; most now license an existing engine, which lets a small team start with capabilities that once demanded a large one.

See also Procedural generation, Port, Independent development

Making games outside a large publisher, usually with a small team, a small budget and full control over the result. Digital storefronts made it viable by removing the need for retail shelf space, and independent releases have driven much of the medium's formal experimentation since the late 2000s.

See also Digital distribution, Early access, Game engine

The delay between an action and its effect, usually measured as the time information takes to reach a distant server and come back. High latency makes an online game feel rubbery and unfair, because players are seeing slightly different versions of the same moment. A great deal of online design exists purely to hide it.

See also Matchmaking, Cloud gaming, Frame rate

The rules a hardware maker sets for anyone who wants to publish on its machine: approval of the content, technical certification, manufacturing arranged through the platform owner, and a fee on every copy. Introduced to stop the flood of poor cartridges that helped wreck the American market in 1983, it still shapes console publishing.

See also Platform holder, Cartridge, Age rating

Adapting a game for another country: translating text and dialogue, re-recording voices, redrawing on-screen writing, adjusting references that would not land, and meeting local rating or legal requirements. Done well it is invisible. Done badly it produces the stilted lines that older imported games are still remembered for.

See also Port, Age rating

A purchasable container whose contents are randomized, so the buyer pays for a chance at a desirable item rather than for the item itself. The resemblance to gambling has drawn regulatory attention in several countries, and publishing the odds of each outcome is now common practice where it is not required outright.

See also Microtransaction, Free-to-play, Age rating

A game in which thousands of people play together in one continuously running world, hosted by the publisher and paid for by subscription or item sales. Characters, possessions and reputations carry over between sessions and persist whether or not a given player is logged in, which makes the social side as important as the play.

See also Persistent world, Subscription service, Matchmaking

The system that puts strangers into a game together, choosing opponents and teammates by estimated skill, connection quality, region and how long everyone has been waiting. Good matchmaking keeps games close and quick to join. Poor matchmaking produces one-sided matches and long queues, and it is a constant subject of complaint.

See also Latency, Esports, Cross-platform play

A small purchase made inside a game, typically for a costume, a character, extra currency or a shortcut. Individually trivial in price, these purchases add up to a large share of industry revenue, and they changed how games are designed, since a game that sells items has a reason to keep players coming back.

See also Free-to-play, Loot box, Downloadable content

Changing a game after release using tools or file formats its makers left open: new levels, new artwork, rebalanced rules, or entire new games built on the original. Several major genres and studios began as modifications of existing games, which is why some developers deliberately ship editing tools alongside the game itself.

See also Game engine, First-person shooter, Preservation

A plastic disc read by a laser, the standard way of delivering games from the 1990s onward. Discs held far more than cartridges and cost much less to press, which made recorded music, spoken dialogue and filmed sequences practical, at the price of loading times and much easier copying.

See also Cartridge, Solid-state storage, Console generation

An online setting that keeps running and keeps changing while you are away, rather than resetting for each session. Buildings you put up, items you stored and the standing you earned are all still there when you return, and so are the consequences of whatever other players did overnight.

See also Massively multiplayer online game, Subscription service

The company that owns a system on which games are sold, such as a console maker or the operator of a storefront. It decides what may be published, sets technical standards, takes a share of every sale and runs the online service, which makes it both a partner and a gatekeeper for every publisher on the platform.

See also Licensing program, Digital distribution, Cross-platform play

A flat shape, usually a triangle, used as the building block of three-dimensional graphics. Objects are assembled from many of them, and the machine works out how each one should look from the player's viewpoint. Counting polygons was once the standard shorthand for how powerful a system was.

See also Texture mapping, Frame rate, Sprite

A version of a game rebuilt to run on hardware it was not written for, such as an arcade game brought to a home console. Early ports were often near rewrites, and the compromises they made in graphics, sound and control were a large part of how home systems were judged against the machines in the arcade.

See also Arcade cabinet, Emulation, Localization

The work of keeping games playable and documented as the machines they ran on fail and the companies that made them close. It covers collecting hardware and media, copying software before it decays, recording testimony from the people involved, and arguing for the legal right to keep working copies in libraries and museums.

See also Emulation, ROM, Digital distribution

Building content from rules and mathematics while the game runs, instead of storing all of it in advance. Early machines used it to fit vast worlds into tiny memory, and modern games use it to produce landscapes, dungeons or items that differ on every playthrough, at some cost in handcrafted detail.

See also Game engine, Modding

Read-only memory: a chip holding data that cannot be changed once it is written, which is how a cartridge stores a game. The word is now also used for a copied file containing that data, the form in which old games are run under emulation and, in most cases, passed around without permission.

See also Cartridge, Emulation, Preservation

A distribution method in which the first part of a game was given away and copied freely by anyone, with the rest sold directly to whoever wanted to continue. It let studios with no retail deal reach a large audience through bulletin boards, mailed disks and magazine cover mounts, and it funded several landmark releases of the early 1990s.

See also Demo, Digital distribution, Modding

Nausea, sweating, headache or disorientation caused by a mismatch between what the eyes report and what the inner ear feels, common when a headset moves your view while your body stays still. Low frame rates, tracking delay and artificial movement all make it worse, which is why comfort constrains what virtual reality games can do.

See also Virtual reality, Frame rate, Latency

Storage built from memory chips with no moving parts, which reads data far faster than a spinning disc. In consoles it largely removed loading screens and changed level design, since a game no longer has to hide its loading behind corridors, elevators and slow doors while the next area is fetched.

See also Optical disc, Cartridge, Console generation

Playing a game from start to finish as fast as possible under agreed rules, often exploiting bugs and shortcuts its makers never intended. Communities verify runs on video, maintain leaderboards and dissect routes in fine detail, and large charity marathons have made the practice one of the most visible forms of expert play.

See also Esports, Emulation, Modding

A small picture that hardware can move around the screen independently of the background, used for characters, enemies and bullets in two-dimensional games. Early systems could handle only a few at a time and would flicker when asked for more, a limitation visible in many games of the cartridge era.

See also Polygon, Bit generations, Frame rate

A recurring fee that buys access rather than ownership: an online multiplayer network, a persistent world, or a rotating library of games playable for as long as the subscription lasts. It gives publishers predictable revenue and gives players a low entry price, with the catch that titles can leave the library.

See also Cloud gaming, Digital distribution, Massively multiplayer online game

Wrapping a flat image around a three-dimensional shape so that a plain assembly of polygons looks like brick, skin or rusted metal. It made early 3D worlds convincing without adding geometry, and much of the visual advance of the 1990s came from hardware that could apply and smooth textures quickly.

See also Polygon, Frame rate, Game engine

A headset that fills your field of view with a computer-generated scene and updates it as you move your head, so the space appears to surround you rather than sit on a screen. Attempts reached arcades and homes in the 1990s and worked poorly; cheap phone screens and better motion sensing made workable consumer versions possible after 2010.

See also Augmented reality, Simulator sickness, Frame rate