After I made the article on Half-Life being released this month 13 years ago I began to wonder what other things happened in this month of significance in video game history. I also began thinking about this a little harder, about what other massively important things actually have happened, after I made the article about Steve Jobs; but I digress. 

While this isn’t comprehensive by any means I found some interesting tidbits by quick research. 

Here are some important moments in gaming history for the month of November! If you know any more feel free to discuss them in the forums or in the comments below. 

  1. November 15th 1982: Atari signs a world wide agreement with Nintendo to bring Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr to Atari home systems. 
  2. November 29th 1972: Atari ships the coin operated Pong video game which first debuted in Andy Capp’s Tavern in California.
  3. November 13th 1982: Scott Safran scores a word record of 41,336,440 on Asteroids. This carried all the way till 2005!
  4. November 21st 1989: Atari introduces the Atari Lynx. Though it is considered a failure today at this point it was the first full color handheld system to be released in the US. It retailed for around $150-$200. 
  5. November 24th 1992: Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Genesis and Game Gear. This infamous day was called Sonic 2sday. 
  6. November 25th 1998: Sega ends the Sega Channel due to low subscriptions. Even though it had to be cancelled and was not the first time a company had a subscription service to download games it is the most recognizable and was the most popular until modern gaming and the internet boom. 
  7. November 15th 2001: Bill Gates sells the first Xbox to Edward Glucksman at 12:01AM.