VOCABULARY

• Interface: a system that is used for operating a computer.

• To spread: to become known by many people.
  Ex. The news spread quickly.

• Patent: an official document that gives a person or computer the right to be the only one that makes or sells a product for a certain period of time.

• Mouthful (US): something said that has a lot of meaning or importance.

• To wonder: to want to know something or to try to understand the reason for something.
  Ex. I wonder if she’ll call him.

• Release: the act of making something available to the public.
  Ex. The release of her article for publication is scheduled for tomorrow.

• Hit: success
  Ex. The song is a hit.

• To heat up: to increase or become more active or intense.

• To feature: to include someone or something as an important part.
  Ex. I consider the measures featured in the report to be insufficient.

• To kick off: to begin, to get started.
  Ex. The game kicks off at 2:00.

• Milestone: an important event in the development or history of something or in someone’s life.
  Ex. Your poem will be a milestone in the literature of your Country.

• Damsel in distress (old-fashioned): a young woman who is not married and needs to be rescued.

• Sales: the number of items sold.

• Merely: only, just.
  Ex. It was merely a suggestion.

Downloadable PDF file: A brief history of videogames (part 1) – Vocabulary

Here you can watch this video with subtitles: Ted Ed

Fill in the gaps in the following sentences with the correct form of the words from the vocabulary list written above:

1. In 1972, Bear’s idea to get video games out of the science lab and into the living room led to the _____________ of a game console called Odyssey.

2. A video game is an electronic game that has an ______________ designed for human interaction on a video device.

3. Space Invaders also helped ____________ what is known as the Golden Age of Arcade Games.

4. In fact, the earliest U.S. video game ______________ on record was in 1948, and at the time it was referred to as a cathode-ray tube amusement device. That’s a ______________ !

5. This all changed when a man named Ralph Baer looked at his television screen and ______________ how else it might be used.

6. By 1978, competition between Atari and another game company called Midway was _______________.

7. While arcade games continued to decline in ________________ over the years, the popularity of video games was ________________ beginning […].

8. By 1980, color came to arcade games, and this was also the year that another video gaming _________________ was born.

9. It was an immediate ___________________ and it’s credited as the first commercially successful video game.

10. Video games are used by scientists, the military, and people like you, and their evolution has ________________ across arcades, consoles, computers, smartphones, and all kind of other electronics.

11. It was released in 1987 and, like Donkey Kong, it ___________________ a _______________________ storyline, a storyline common in many video games.

Downloadable PDF file: A brief history of videogames (part 1) – Fill in the gaps exercise with answers

Answers: 

1) Release; 2) interface; 3) kick off; 4) patent; mouthful; 5) wondered; 6) heating up; 7) sales; merely; 8) milestone; 9) hit; 10) spread; 11) featured; damsel in distress.