01
April 4, 1975
Microsoft is founded
Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft in Albuquerque, initially around software for the Altair 8800.
Partnership card
Gaming History, One Month at a Time
GTM-1975-04
April 1975
Microsoft is founded to sell software for the Altair, a reminder that before videogames could become domestic software culture, domestic software itself had to be invented.
Microsoft foundedAltair BASICsoftware cultureno release shelf
Timeline archive
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1975 month drawer
Installed months are active; empty drawers are held for future exhibits.
Gallery 01
News
Five researched moments from a year where videogames are still cabinets, circuits, terminals and distant home experiments.
02
April 1975
BASIC becomes the language of possibility
Altair BASIC is not a game, but BASIC will become the language through which many players first type, alter and understand games.
BASIC prompt
03
April 1975
Games remain marginal in the computer story
The industry language is kits, memory, terminals and interpreters. Play is present, but not yet the headline.
Memory board
04
April 1975
PLATO dungeon experiments continue around the edges
Computer role-playing ideas are forming on networked university systems, but their dates are rarely clean monthly retail events.
Dungeon terminal
05
April 1975
UK culture still reads this as computing, not gaming
A British visitor to the period would find fewer game brands and more electronics vocabulary: kits, boards, circuits, terminals.
Electronics counter card
Gallery 02
Releases
A deliberately sparse shelf: only releases supported by the sources reviewed are displayed.
April 1975Archive note
Intentional gap
No confident month-specific release shelf
The sources reviewed do not support a full list of videogame releases specifically for April 1975. This exhibit leaves the shelf sparse rather than inventing a modern launch calendar for a very early period.
Gallery 03
Hardware
Four objects explain the month: cabinets, terminals, dedicated TV games and hobby computers.
Arcade cabinet as the main videogame form
In April 1975, most ordinary videogame play still means encountering a cabinet or table machine in public.
Coin-operatedPublic playDedicated circuitry
PLATO terminals
PLATO is the hidden high-end exhibit: networked terminals, institutional access, dungeon games and simulations years before ordinary online play.
University networkTUTOR languageShared terminals
Dedicated Pong-style circuitry
Early home videogames are appliances: fixed circuits for a small set of TV games rather than software platforms.
No cartridgesTV outputPaddle controls
Hobby computer kits
The hobby computer is still intimidating, expensive and technical, but it is becoming imaginable as a personal object.
Kit cultureBASICMagazine-led learning
Gallery 04
Magazine Covers
In 1975 there is no normal videogame magazine shelf yet. Electronics and computing magazines are the map.
April 1975
Popular Electronics
Popular Electronics is shown as part of the paper network around early games: electronics, hobby computing, type-ins and ideas before specialist videogame magazines existed.
April 1975
BYTE
BYTE is shown as part of the paper network around early games: electronics, hobby computing, type-ins and ideas before specialist videogame magazines existed.
April 1975
Creative Computing
Creative Computing is shown as part of the paper network around early games: electronics, hobby computing, type-ins and ideas before specialist videogame magazines existed.
April 1975
Practical Electronics
Practical Electronics is shown as part of the paper network around early games: electronics, hobby computing, type-ins and ideas before specialist videogame magazines existed.
Gallery 05
Online Life
Networked play exists at the edges, but ordinary players live in a world of paper, arcades and local knowledge.
Online life was institutional, not domestic
For an ordinary player in April 1975, there is no online gaming life in the modern sense. Networked play belongs to systems such as PLATO, not the home.
PLATO is the hidden online gallery
The most advanced social computer-game activity is behind institutional access: terminals, shared systems, lessons, chat and games.
Paper is the discoverability layer
Magazines, adverts, club newsletters and manuals are how people find out what is possible.
Arcades are the social feed
The live update is still a public machine: who is playing, who is watching, and whose initials sit on the score table.
Gallery 06
What It Felt Like
A very early exhibit: young medium, patchy record, public machines, expensive hardware and a future only partly visible.
01
The future was still public
Videogames feel like public machines first: coin slots, knobs, cabinets and the surprise that a screen can be played.
02
The home version was only beginning
The home future is visible but not settled. A television game is still a novelty, and a computer still feels like a kit or an institution.
03
Britain saw the edges first
From Britain, the year feels early and slightly distant: amusements, electronics counters, imported American stories and almost no dedicated games retail.
04
The record is patchy because the medium is young
There are few clean launch days, few consumer reviews and no settled games press. The museum label often has to say: year-level, regional, uncertain.