Compared to the last two editions, this week is looking pretty slim as far as video-game history is concerned. What it lacks in quantity it certainly makes up for in quality with two major figures in gaming sharing a birthday.

October 24

2006: Eidos releases the Reservoir Dogs game. I was initially quite curious about how they'd make this playable. Now I know that movies are better when watched. 

October 26

1997: Age of Empires is released. One of my friends at the time later got this for Christmas, and we spent our entire winter break trying to figure it out. We were nine. 

2000: The PlayStation 2 goes on sale in North America, spelling death for the Dreamcast. 

2001: Pikmin launches in Japan. 

October 28

1955: Bill Gates is born. 

1967: John Romero is born. His shimmery and fabulous hair soon follows.

2005: The first BlizzCon takes place at the Anaheim Convention Center. It astounds me that I'm not at all interested in the games Blizzard makes, but enough people are that they can plan a gigantic event around it. Can you think of any other developer that could get away with this?

October 29

1988: The Megadrive -- Sega Genesis to Americans -- is released in Japan. It is weird knowing that this console's been around as long as I have. 

1998: Author, comedian, and video-game voice actor Stephen Fry helps present the first annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards. This ceremony is now known simply as the Game Awards. 

2003: The first Call of Duty game is released. 

October 30

1987: The much-maligned PC Engine goes on sale in Japan. It's truly unfortunate that it and its western version, the TurboGrafx-16, didn't do very well. They were capable of deliciously complex audio long before their competitors.

1998: Grim Fandango is released.