The second console generation (ca 1976–1983) was when video games became more than a short-lived fad and began to find their own voice and identity. It was a chaotic, creative era with a simple charm, when developers stumbled upon breakthroughs that still shape the medium today. Games generally had blocky, abstract graphics and hard, simple sound. With arcade game design at the forefront, most games were addictive and easy to play, yet brutally difficult. The most popular games were converted to the Atari 2600, the biggest console, and it was here that the first seeds of a distinct console market with its own type of games — separate from computer and arcade games — were sown.

Home computers like the Commodore 64, Apple II and Atari 8-bit laid the foundation for PC gaming, with digital interpretations of pen & paper role-playing games, early procedurally generated worlds, and simple experiments with 3D. In this quiz we will take a deep dive into this messy and creative chapter in video game history.

How much do you know about the wild early years of the gaming world?