This Month in Video Game History: June 11 - June 21

 1978

Texas Instrument introduced the Speak & Spell educational device at the summer Consumer Electronics Show. The device was designed to help children learn to spell over two hundred common words. It also featured a Hangman game. It was the first device to feature voice synthesis with a single processor. It was also the first handheld electronic entertainment device for children to gain widespread popularity, demonstrating to the coming game industry that there was a large handheld market yet to be exploited.

1990

A San Francisco District Court rejects Nintendo’s request for a restraining order to prevent Lewis Galoob Toys from selling the Game Genie.

THQ released the single-player action roleplaying game Quest 64 for the Nintendo 64 in the U.S. Though the game was widely criticized for its crude graphics and straight-forward gameplay, it nonetheless garnered critical acclaim for its innovative experience system and openly explorable environment. It's design would influence later roleplaying games, particularly those aimed at younger audiences. (ESRB: E)

2001

Konami released Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for the Game Boy Advance in the U.S. It was the first Castlevania game for the Game Boy Advance and the last game in the series to be released under a different title in Japan than it was sold under in other parts of the world. (ESRB: T)

Nintendo launched its Game Boy Advance handheld video game system in the U.S. The system featured a 32-bit 16.8MHz ARM, as well as a Z80 processor that made it backward-compatible with titled relead for previous Game Boy systems. It's main selling point was it's screen, which was larger that that of the Game Boy Color.

2003

Destineer and MacSoft released the popular first-person shooter Unreal Tournament for Macintosh computers in the U.S. (ESRB: M)

2006

 GameScience.com reported that the popular puzzle game Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! had remained the top selling game in Japan for 31 of the 34 weeks since its release, selling over 2,322,970 units nationwide. The success made it the best-selling puzzle game since Tetris.

Nintendo released the Nintendo DS Lite handheld video game system in North America with a Polar White case. Overnite, major internet retailers across the country sold out of the devices, and by June 13, Nintendo announced that 136,500 units had been sold. Price: US$129.99 / CA$149.99

1913

Pathé Frères studios released the first modern animated cartoon in the United States, "Dachshund." The short feature paves the way for the medium which will be one of the principal inspirations behind the design of future console games.

2001

Sierra Studios released Half-Life: Blue Shift, the second, stand-alone expansion pack for the wildly popular first-person shooter computer game Half-Life.

 2006

The persistent-world massively multiplayer online roleplaying game Eve Online was released in China, where it will be massively popular.

Midway Games released the real-time strategy game Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War for Windows. Though the game was commercially successful in the U.K. and the technology behind the game garnered numerous awards, its gameplay received mixed reviews in North American and most of Europe due to its sometime unsuccessful merger of conventions from both the strategy and third-person action genres. (ESRB: T)

1986

Silicon Valley-based video game developer Activision finalizes its acquisition of Massachusetts developer Infocom, which was best known for its pioneering work in text adventure games such as Zork. After three years of consistent financial losses, Activision will close down Infocom studios in 1989, keeping only five of the company's employees.

2000

Electronic Arts releases the turn-based strategy game Shogun: Total War for Windows. The game marks the beginning of EA's ventures into strategy games. Previous, the company had largely developed games in the the popular franchises of its EA Sports brands.

Japanese video game producer SNK, which first established a North American division in 1981 in order to market coin-operated arcade games, withdraws from the American market due to its company-wide failing finances.

Nintendo released a port of the real-time strategy game StarCraft for the Nintendo 64 in North America.

2002

Microïds releases the graphic adventure game Syberia for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. The game was notable for having no death mechanism. By making it impossible for players to die, the game encourages players to fully immerse themselves in the game without fear of loosing or being forced to restart. Despite the surreal nature of the game's storyline and its lack of achievable objectives, the game will earn numerous awards. (ESRB: T)

2005

Electronic Arts released the first-person shooter GoldenEye: Rogue Agent for the Nintendo DS. (ESRB: T)

2006

Activision and Aspyr released Call of Duty 2 for Macs.

Nintendo announced after selling 136,500 DS Lite units in two days since its North American release that the system was on schedule to match and even exceed the record-setting half a million units sold by the Nintendo DS during its first ten days of release.