TIMELINE

 • TIMELINE

1912

Leonardo Torres Quevedo builds the first real instance of a chess computer, an automaton named El Ajedrecista

1913

Kiwi engineer George Julius creates the world’s first computer - a building-sized machine powered by gravity and used to tally horse racing bets. This machine was made of gears, cables and pulleys.

1914-1918 World War I

1918

The potential of ceramic armor is first realized

1935

Alexander Turing describes an abstract computing machine consisting of a limitless memory and a scanner that moves back and forth through the memory, symbol by symbol, reading what it finds and writing further symbols. The actions of the scanner are dictated by a program of instructions that also is stored in the memory in the form of symbols. This is Turing’s stored-program concept, and implicit in it is the possibility of the machine operating on, and so modifying or improving, its own program. Turing’s conception is now known simply as the universal Turing machine. All modern computers are in essence universal Turing machines.

1939-1945 World War II

1945

Adolph Hitler commits suicide in Berlin

1946

Russian soldiers find a "V5" rocket launching facility, with no rockets present. It is believed this was to be a final V series weapon that never saw use during the war.

1950

Alan Turing creates a chess algorithm that doesn't run on a computer

1950-1953 Korean War

1951

Christopher Strachey’s checkers (draughts) program ran on the Ferranti Mark I computer at the University of Manchester, England, becoming the first successful AI program.

1952

Arthur Samuel creates the first AI program to run in the United States, a checkers program for the prototype of the IBM 701. Samuel took over the essentials of Strachey's checkers program and over a period of years considerably extended it.

1956

Los Alamos chess becomes the first computer program to play a chess-like game, developed by Paul Stein and Mark Wells for the MANIAC I computer

1960

Russian scientist Alexander Kobrinski unveils the first clinically significant myoelectric prosthesis

1962

The Cuban Missle Crisis begins

1965

United States enters Vietnam War

Ceramic coating over metal is introduced for armored vehicles including helicopters and personal protective armor

1966

Mervin McGriffin begins acquring various departments stores, rebranding them to the Q-Mart name and building numerous others.

The first (deceased) human body is cryogenically frozen. It had been embalmed for two months by being placed in liquid nitrogen and stored at just above freezing.

1967

The Secret Soldier Weapon XYZ program is initiated

1970

Off-track betting is legalized in New York

1972

US Space Shuttle program begun

1973

Vietnam Ceasefire Agreement signed

1974

Fantasy Tactical Simulations publishes the Creatures and Corridors tabletop roleplaying game, authored by Arnold Davidson and G. Ernest Graxgy

1977

First unmanned space shuttle flight

1978

MUD1 becomes the first online computer game, confined to an internal network.

1979

US Embassy In Tehran, Iran, seized

The Soviet–Afghan War begins

1980

Republican Ronald Regan is elected as the 40th United States President and adopts strong anti-communist foreign policy

ARPANET becomes the world's first online gaming network, connecting to the University of Essex in the UK. MUD1 is introduced on ARPANET.

1981

Q-Mart stores in the US surpass 2,000, with plans to bring Q-Mart to other countries.

First crewed space shuttle flight

A rudimentary version of a bionic eye is created by Bionoptics, Inc.

The Creatures and Corridors tabletop roleplaying game boxed set is released by FTS, featuring artwork by Darryl Moremel. It sells extremely well alongside its more advanced version, Enhanced Creatures and Corridors.

1982

S.A.M.A.N.T.H.A.
[Statistical Analysis Management Artificial Neural Telecommunications Hive Algorithm] is conceived as an advanced statistical analysis tool for betting on sporting events. The AI somehow begins inserting itself into other programs and is shut down.

Advanced heat and projectile resistant, ceramic coated full body armor is developed for the United States military. The prohibitive cost to equip a large number of soldiers ensures limited use in the beginning.

Cryopreservation is secretly "perfected," with a 412 in 567 chance of success without damaging tissue, or 72.663139329806% survival rate.

1983

The concept of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) is announced on March 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan. Nicknamed the "Star Wars Program,
it was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons.

The Global Interweb is created, linking computers by phone and satellite uplink

Plasma energy proves to be a viable energy alternative after experiments with superheated gas molecules are successful. Electrical power generated from these systems is very efficient and large loss of energy is greatly minimized. The discovery is not disclosed to the general public and all future developments are strictly monitored by a section of the Defense Department. The Icarus Group is given full proprietary control over research and application.

1984

NETBYTE develops MAID. This is the first game to be accessed by a world-wide computer network.

CompServer debuts Kismet Archipelago, the first commercial multiplayer online role playing game.

President Ronald Reagan declines running for a second term due to health concerns. Republican nominee Travis Whittaker wins the election, becoming the 41st President of the United States.

Quantum static fields able to generate gravometric forces are theorized.

Dr. Raymond Gunther develops a prototype plasma beam emitter

1985

The Omega Particle Beam is secretly installed aboard a satellite as part of the SDI program

Iranian-held hostages are freed during a U.S. military operation. Reports that unconventional weapons were used are denied. A group of Iraqui-backed militants are also destroyed, leading some to believe that the U.S. is still secretly aiding Iran against its enemies.

1986

The Space Shuttle Pathisea is launched.

U.S. President Travis Whittaker and Russian Premier Mikhail Gorbachev open talks at a summit in Reykjavik, Iceland.

1987

The Drug Wars occur. Formerly U.S. backed insurgents in Nicaragua suffer heavy casualties.

The U.S. aids Afghanistan, aiding the Muhajideen against the Russians. The Russians resist using advanced weaponry not seen previously. Other armed conflicts escalate requiring the intervention of U.N. and joint NATO coalitions. Although never officially declared, this becomes known as "The Last War."

Due to global economic instabilities, the U.S. transitions to Warbucks as the chief currency

GIVME food vending units appear in the U.S. Consumers believe them to to be either part of a marketing ploy taking advantage of cold war hysteria or an attempt to restrict food markets to U.S. products.

1988 (The Fall)

The Omega Particle Beam misfires, destroying a large portion of the Soviet city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad.) This precipitates an automatic nuclear response by Russia, culminating in an exchange of retaliatory missile launches by other capable countries, including the U.S. The SDI satellites are unable to neutralize all of the missiles directed at the U.S. More than 90% of the Earth's population is eradicated not only from the detonations, but due to radiation illness, toxic inhalation, disease and a period of nuclear winter. Radioactive fallout persists for weeks in some areas or up to thirty years or more in others. Small pockets of areas seem less affected, due to natural topography or are spared by weather patterns. Most major cities lie in ruins. Survivors roam desert wastelands. Over the following years, unforeseen radioactive mutations become prevalent. Such mutants who are able to reproduce grow in numbers.

1991

A loose protectorate is formed in the American Southwest, policed by those who would later become known as The Troubleshooter Collective.

2007

The Lorekeepers establish the Tabernacle of Thought in an edifice that survived the Fall. From this towering fortress, they attempt to find and preserve knowledge of the past.

2067

General Gregorian Mills unifies a number of survivor settlements to form the Grand Union

2074

Under perceived threat of genocide, the mutant bands form the Mutant Nation, lead by Overlord Warmaster

2079

Overlord Warmaster is slain during a coup. Queen Demonstra assumes leadership.

2088. NOW.

The Space Shuttle Pathisea finally awakens its cryogenically preserved crew who return to Earth. Faulty wiring seems to have prevented earlier activation.

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