[History and Theory of New Media] Video Games and Their Influences through Various Media

I've created a rough timeline which traces the evolution of modern video games, starting with their early influences - board games, tabletop role-playing games, and "Choose Your Own Adventure" novels. These then turned into interactive fiction in text-based adventure games such as Zork and Colossal Cave Adventure. From there, early games such as Pong were added to arcades, then home entertainment systems, and then handheld consoles. Computer based games then included new technologies such as massive multiplayer online (MMO) games with the advent of the internet, and Steam and GOG.com emerged as digital marketplaces.

You can find the timeline here.