June 27

1972 -- Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney incorporate Atari, a Japanese-sounding American company that would revolutionize the video game industry and then fade into its modern-day obscurity. Please note, sources seem to split on whether this occurred on June 27 or June 28. I went with June 27, but it was the 1970s -- it was fairly normal for nobody to be quite sure what day it was.

June 28

2006 -- Half-Life 2: Survivor hits arcades. Despite the very active mod community working with the Source engine, this version of one of the best games of all time is still the weirdest thing to have anything to do with Valve.

June 29

1982 -- Universal launches a lawsuit against Nintendo. They claim -- and this may sound bonkers -- that Donkey Kong bears a striking resemblance to...King Kong? I know! How stupid. It's obvious that "Donkey" has nothing to do with "King" and that King Kong is actually part of the public domain as established in a previous lawsuit. Duh. Everybody knows that.

2000 -- Blizzard releases Diablo 2. Many thousands of computer mice would die.

2007 -- Apple releases the iPhone. Many thousands of Windows Mobile phones would die.

June 30

2003 -- A mass exodus from the Blizzard North studio begins, with 17 key employees resigning, including Bill Roper (pictured, left), and nearly twice that number following soon after. Those employees would start Flagship Studios (now defunct) and Castaway Entertainment (now defunct). Blizzard North, the studio that brought us Diablo and Diablo 2, would close within two years of the exodus. Well...that certainly worked out for everyone.

July 1

1997 -- Nintendo introduces the Rumble Pak for the Nintendo 64 to the North American market with Star Fox 64. This release marked the first time we saw rumble on a Nintendo system and the last time we saw a good Star Fox game.

2003 -- Blizzard releases Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos. OK, what the hell is up with Blizzard doing stuff at the beginning of summer?

2004 -- Sega AM2 (which stands for Sega Amusement Machine Research and Development Department 2) is no more, when it is rolled into the Sega. The studio had an incredible run, creating such hit franchises as Virtua Fighter and Virtua Cop. I, for one, am happy that the studio that popularized the modern quicktime event (via Shenmue) is now long gone. Good riddance.

July 2
 
1984 -- Warner Communications sells the home division of Atari while retaining the arcade division. Which is fine, because either way you look at it, the glory days of the company were long gone.

July 3

1999 -- Noted patriot, Billy Mitchell, celebrates the July 4th holiday by becoming the first player ever to play a perfect Pac-Man game. Why on July 3? Because Billy Mitchell high scores will not have their anniversaries shared with insignificant events like the birth of the most powerful country on earth.