This is a list of Japanese inventions and discoveries. The Japanese have made contributions across a number of scientific, technological and art domains. In particular, the country has played a crucial role in the digital revolution since the 20th century, with many modern revolutionary and widespread technologies in fields such as electronics and robotics introduced by Japanese inventors and entrepreneurs.

• Kamishibai — Has origins in Buddhist temples, where monks from the 8th century onwards used emakimono ("picture scrolls") as pictorial aids for recounting their history of the monasteries, an early combination of picture and text to convey a story.^[1]
• Mecha — Dai Ningen Tanku from Ōgon Bat (1931) was the first piloted humanoid giant mecha robot.^[2] Tank Tankuro (1934) had a robot-like protagonist.^[3] Genshi Ryoku Jinzō Ningen (1948) had the first humanoid giant robot piloted by the protagonist.^[4]
  • Transforming mecha — Pioneered by Shōji Kawamori in the early 1980s with the Diaclone and Macross franchises, which in turn spawned Transformers and Robotech. His transforming mecha designs include VF-1 Valkyrie and Optimus Prime.^[5][6]
• Origami — Papermaking developed in Japan during the Heian period circa 805–809.^[7][8][9] Folded paper began to be used for decorations and tools in Shinto ceremonies, where paper decorations and wrapped gifts in folded paper became stylized and established as ceremonial origami.^[7][8]
  • Yoshizawa–Randlett system — The Yoshizawa–Randlett system is a diagramming system used for origami models. It was first developed by Akira Yoshizawa in 1954. It was later improved upon by Samuel Randlett and Robert Harbin.^[10]
• Revolving stage — Invented for the Kabuki theatre in Japan in the 18th century, the revolving stage was introduced into Western theater at the Residenz theatre in Munich in 1896 under the influence of japonism fever.^[11]
• Superhero — Sarutobi Sasuke is a superhero ninja from 1910s children's novels.^[12][13][14] By 1914, he had superpowers.^[12] Ōgon Bat (1931) and Prince of Gamma (early 1930s) are considered the earliest costumed superheroes with superpowers.^[15][16]

• Capsule hotel — The first capsule hotel in the world opened in 1979 and was the Capsule Inn Osaka, located in the Umeda district of Osaka, Japan and designed by Kisho Kurokawa. From there, it spread to other cities within Japan. Since then, the concept has further spread to various other territories, including Belgium, China, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, and Poland.
• Earthquake-resistant structure — Shinbashira-based pagodas and temples are earthquake resistant,^[17][18] such as Hōryū-ji (7th century)^[17] and Shōsōin (8th century).^[19]
• Japanese castle — Fortresses constructed primarily out of stone and wood used for military defence in strategic locations.^[20]
• Japanese pagoda — The Japanese pagoda originates from the Chinese pagoda, but was adapted for Japan's environment. Notably, the addition of a shinbashira pillar to better withstand earthquakes in Japan.^[17]
  • Tahōtō — Tahōtō is a form of Japanese pagoda found primarily at Esoteric Shingon and Tendai school Buddhist temples. Unlike most pagodas, it has two stories.^[21]
• Metabolism — A post-war Japanese architectural movement developed by a wide variety of Japanese architects including Kiyonori Kikutake, Kisho Kurokawa and Fumihiko Maki, Metabolism aimed to fuse ideas about architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth.^[22]
• Shinbashira — A central pillar at the core of a Japanese pagoda or temple. The pillar structure is made out of straight trunks of Japanese cypress (hinoki) trees. Hōryū-ji (7th century) is an early example.^[17]
• Wooden building — Hōryū-ji, a Buddhist temple built in the 7th century, is widely recognized as the world's oldest wooden building.^[23][24]

• Comic book — Adam L. Kern has suggested that kibyoshi, picture books from the late 18th century, may have been the world's first comic books. These graphical narratives share with modern manga humorous, satirical, and romantic themes.^[25] Some works were mass-produced as serials using woodblock printing.^[26]
• Manga — The history of manga has origins in scrolls dating back to the 12th century, and it is believed they represent the basis for the right-to-left reading style. During the Edo period (1603–1867), Toba Ehon embedded the concept of manga.^[27] The word itself first came into common usage in 1798,^[28] with the publication of works such as Santō Kyōden's picturebook Shiji no yukikai (1798),^[29][30] and in the early 19th century with such works as Aikawa Minwa's Manga hyakujo (1814) and the Hokusai Manga books (1814–1834).^[31][25]
  • Cyberpunk manga — Began with Katsuhiro Otomo's manga series Akira (1982). The Akira franchise inspired a wave of Japanese cyberpunk manga and anime works.^[32]
  • Lone Wolf and Cub — A trope/genre spawned by manga Lone Wolf and Cub (1970).^[33][34][35] Earliest example of trope is Osamu Tezuka's manga Dororo (1967).^[36]
  • Magical girl — Princess Knight (1953) was a prototype for the genre.^[37][38] Himitsu no Akko-chan (1962) is credited as the earliest magical girl manga.^[39]
• Steampunk comic — Steampunk manga appeared in the 1940s, such as Osamu Tezuka's science-fiction trilogy of Lost World (1948), Metropolis (1949) and Nextworld (1951).^[40]
• Super robot — Introduced by Go Nagai's manga series Mazinger Z (1972),^[41] which defined the super robot genre.^[42]

• Anime — Japanese animation, or anime, today widely popular both in Japan and abroad, began in the early 20th century.
• Blockbuster format — Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954) was "the clearest precursor" and "the model for" the Hollywood blockbuster format in the 1970s.^[43]
  • Cutting on action — Akira Kurosawa's approach to "cutting on motion" has been widely adopted by many Hollywood blockbuster films.^[44]
• CGI in animated feature film — Golgo 13: The Professional (1983) was the first animated feature film to incorporate CGI animation.^[45]
• Cyberpunk animation — Began with Katsuhiro Otomo's film Akira (1988). Akira inspired a wave of cyberpunk manga and anime works.^[32]
  • Postcyberpunk animation/film — The first postcyberpunk media work in an animated/film format was Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in 2002. It has been called "the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence."^[46]
  • Simulated reality — The OVA anime Megazone 23 (1985) tackled the concept of a simulated reality more than a decade before later films such as Dark City (1998), The Matrix (1999) and Existenz (1999).^[47]
• Jidaigeki — A genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868.^[48] Jidaigeki silent films date back to the early 20th century.^[49]
  • Ninja film — Jidaigeki silent films began depicting ninjas in the 1910s.^[49]
  • Samurai cinema — Jidaigeki silent films began depicting samurai in the 1910s.^[50] While early samurai period pieces were mainly dramatic, samurai films produced after World War II became more action-based.^[51]
• Kaiju — Yoshirō Edamasa's The Great Buddha Arrival (1934) is one of the earliest examples of a kaiju film in Japanese cinematic history.^[52] Godzilla (1954) is commonly regarded as the first Japanese kaiju film.^[53]
  • Giant monster suit — Eiji Tsuburaya, while working on the film Godzilla (1954), formulated the technique of using a human actor in a creature suit to play a giant monster combined with the use of miniatures and scaled-down city sets.^[54]
• OOriginal net animation (ONA) — Makoto Shinkai was a pioneer of ONA, producing the earliest ONA short films, including Tōi Sekai (1997)^[55] and Kakomareta Sekai (1998).^[56]
  • Animated web film — The earliest animated web films were Makoto Shinkai's ONA short films Tōi Sekai (1997)^[55] and Kakomareta Sekai (1998).^[56]
  • Anime web series — The earliest anime web series were the ONA series Infinite Ryvius: Illusion (2000),^[57] Ajimu (2001)^[58] and Mahou Yuugi (2001).^[59]
• Man with No Name — A stock character that originated with Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), where the archetype was first portrayed by Toshirō Mifune. The archetype was adapted by Sergio Leone for his Spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy (1964–1966), with Clint Eastwood playing the role of the "Man with No Name" in Japan.
• Rashomon effect — The Rashomon effect is the phenomenon of the unreliability of eyewitnesses. The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 Japanese film Rashomon, in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses.^[60]
• Real robot — Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) introduced the real robot concept and, along with The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982), formed the basis of real robot anime.^[61] One of the founding fathers of real robot design is Kunio Okawara.^[62]
• Seven Samurai formula — Seven Samurai (1954) originated the "assembling the team" trope, common in action and heist films.^[63] It spawned the "men-on-a-mission"^[64] or "Seven Samurai formula" where characters band together for a cause.^[65][66]
• Steampunk animation — The earliest examples of steampunk animation are Hayao Miyazaki's anime works Future Boy Conan (1978),^[67] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)^[68] and Castle in the Sky (1986).^[69][70]
• Superflat — A postmodern art form, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime.^[71]
• Time loop — Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1965) was adapted into the earliest TV series and feature films with time loops, including a 1972 Japanese TV series and 1983 Japanese film.^[72][73][74]
  • Time loop animation — The earliest animated work with the time loop concept was Mamoru Oshii's anime film Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984).^[75]
• Tokusatsu — Tokusatsu special effects date back to Shōzō Makino's films.^[76] Eiji Tsuburaya began to develop tokusatsu with Princess Kaguya (1935) and The Daughter of the Samurai (1937).^[77] Modern tokusatsu began to take shape in the late 1940s.^[78]
  • Suitmation — Eiji Tsuburaya, while working on the film Godzilla (1954), formulated the special effects technique of suitmation, the use of a human actor in a costume to play a giant monster combined with the use of miniatures and scaled-down sets.^[54]
  • Suit actor — A notable early example was Haruo Nakajima,^[79][80] the first suit actor to play Godzilla (later succeeded by Kenpachiro Satsuma for the Heisei films).^[81][80]
• Virtual idol — Originates from Macross franchise (1982).^[82] First virtual idol was Lynn Minmay from Macross. She was the first fictional idol singer to garner real-world success.^[82] Megazone 23 (1985) featured EVE, an AI idol in a virtual reality.^[83][84]

• Isekai — The concept has origins in the story of fisherman Urashima Tarō (8th century), who saves a turtle and is brought to a wondrous undersea kingdom.^[85]
• Novel — Ochikubo Monogatari (10th century) has been called the "world's first full-length novel".^[86] The Tale of Genji (11th century) is often cited as "the first novel".^[87][88]
  • Historical novel — The Tale of Genji, written in the early 11th century by Murasaki Shikibu, is considered to be the first historical novel.^[89]
  • Psychological novel — The Tale of Genji (early 11th century) is considered to be the first psychological novel.^[89]
• Science fiction — Urashima Tarō story from Nihongi (720) involves time travel.^[90][91] The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (10th century) is considered science fiction.^[92]
  • Flying saucer — The 10th-century Japanese narrative The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter has a manuscript illustration depicting a round flying machine similar to a flying saucer.^[92]
• Time travel — The Japanese tale of Urashima Tarō,^[93] first described in the Manyoshu (8th century), tells of a young fisherman who visits an undersea palace. After three days, he returns home to his village and finds himself 300 years in the future.^[94]

• Aikido — Aikido was created and developed by Morihei Ueshiba in first half of the 20th century.
• Bushido
• Fatality — Gory fatality finishing moves first appeared in the film The Street Fighter (1974)^[95] and the manga and anime series Fist of the North Star (1983 debut)^[96] and Riki-Oh (1988 debut).^[97][98]
• Judo — It was created as a physical, mental and moral pedagogy in Japan, in 1882, by Kanō Jigorō.^[99]
• Jujutsu — Jujutsu, the "way of yielding", is a collective name for Japanese martial art styles including unarmed and armed techniques. Jujutsu evolved among the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for defeating an armed and armored opponent without weapons. Due to the ineffectiveness of striking against an armored opponent, the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.^[100]
• Karate — It began as a common fighting system known as "ti" (or "te") among the pechin class of the Ryukyuans. There were few formal styles of ti, but rather many practitioners with their own methods. One surviving example is the Motobu-ryū school passed down from the Motobu family by Seikichi Uehara.^[101] Early styles of karate are often generalized as Shuri-te, Naha-te, and Tomari-te, named after the three cities from which they emerged.^[102]
• Kendo
• Mixed martial arts (MMA) — Mixed combat sports in Japan appeared in pre-modern times^[103] and the early 1900s.^[104][105] Early mixed bouts include Kimura vs. Gracie (1951),^[106] Oyama Dojo vs. Muay Thai (1963),^[107] Sawamura vs. Adisorn (1963),^[107] and Ali vs. Inoki (1976).^[108][109] Modern MMA originates from shootfighting promotions Shooto (1985), UWF, Fujiwara Gumi, RINGS (1991), and Pancrase (1993), which inspired Pride (acquired by UFC).^[110][111]
• Ninjutsu — Developed by groups of people mainly from the Iga Province and Kōka, Shiga of Japan. Throughout history, many different schools (ryū) have taught their unique versions of ninjutsu. An example of these is the Togakure-ryū. This ryū was developed after a defeated samurai warrior called Daisuke Togakure escaped to the region of Iga. Later he came in contact with the warrior-monk Kain Doshi who taught him a new way of viewing life and the means of survival (ninjutsu).^[112]
• Okinawan martial arts — In the 14th century, when the three kingdoms on Okinawa (Chūzan, Hokuzan, and Nanzan) entered into a tributary relationship with the Ming dynasty of China, Chinese Imperial envoys and other Chinese arrived, some of whom taught Chinese Chuan Fa (Kempo) to the Okinawans. The Okinawans combined Chinese Chuan Fa with the existing martial art of Te to form Tō-de (唐手, Okinawan: Tū-dī, Tang hand), sometimes called Okinawa-te (沖縄手).^[113] By the 18th century, different types of Te had developed in three different villages – Naha, Shuri, and Tomari. The styles were named Naha-te, Shuri-te, and Tomari-te, respectively. Practitioners from these three villages went on to develop modern karate.^[114]
• Puroresu
  • Strong style
• Soccer kick — High-profile early users of soccer kicks as a finishing move include Katsuyori Shibata^[115][116] and Antonio Inoki. In a 1977 puroresu match between Inoki and Great Antonio, Inoki used soccer kicks to legitimately knock out Great Antonio.^[117][118]
• Shoot wrestling — Japanese hybrid grappling style and combat sport,^[119] originating from 1970s puroresu.^[120] The first wave of shoot wrestlers were Japanese students of Antonio Inoki and Karl Gotch from NJPW, who were advocates of more realistic wrestling. Their students left NJPW to form the UWF (1984), pioneering the new style.^[121]
  • Shoot boxing — Shoot boxing was created in August 1985 by former kickboxer Caesar Takeshi.^[122]
  • Shootfighting
• Sumo — According to the Nihon shoki, published in 720, the origin of sumo is the contest of strength between Nomi no Sukune and Taima no Kehaya in 26 B.C.^[123] Haniwa of sumo wrestlers are made in the Kofun period (300–538).^[124] The imperial family often watches sumo as a form of entertainment in the Heian period (794–1192). It has evolved over the centuries with professional sumo wrestlers appearing in the Edo period (1603–1868).^[125] The word sumo is written with the Chinese characters or Kanji of "mutual bruising."

• Air raid — Early in World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Wakamiya conducted the world's first carrier-launched air raid,^[126] carried out in September 1914.^[127]
• Amphibious assault ship — Imperial Japanese Army Akitsu maru is regarded as the first of the kind.
• Dock landing ship — Imperial Japanese Army Shinshu maru is regarded as the first of the kind.
• Fire balloon — A fire balloon, or balloon bomb, was an experimental weapon launched by Japan from 1944 to 1945, during World War II.^[128]
• Diesel-powered tank — The world's first diesel-powered tank, this distinction goes to Japanese Type 89B I-Go Otsu, produced with a diesel engine from 1934 onwards.

• Katana — The katana were traditional Japanese swords used by samurai warriors of ancient and feudal Japan. The swords originated in the Muromachi period (1392–1573) as a result of changing battle conditions requiring faster response times. The katana facilitated this by being worn with the blade facing up, which allowed the samurai to draw their blade and slash at their enemy in a single motion. Previously, the curved sword of the samurai was worn with the blade facing down. The ability to draw and cut in one motion also became increasingly useful in the daily life of the samurai.^[129]
• Shuriken — The shuriken was invented during the Gosannen War as a concealed weapon, primarily for the purpose of distracting a target.^[130]

• Airsoft — Airsoft originated in Japan, then spread to Hong Kong and China in the late 1970s.^[131]
• Airsoft gun — The inventor of the first airsoft gun is Tanio Kobayashi.

• Folding hand fan — In ancient Japan, the first hand fans were oval and rigid fans, influenced greatly by Chinese fans. The earliest visual depiction of fans in Japan dates back to the 6th century AD, with burial tomb paintings showed drawings of fans. The folding fan was invented in Japan, with dates ranging from the 6th to 9th centuries and later exported to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the West. Such a flourishing trade involving Japanese hand fans existed in the Ming dynasty times, when folding fans almost absolutely displaced the old rigid type in China.^[132][133]
• Kawaii — Roots in The Pillow Book (1002),^[134] Edo fashion such as netsuke,^[135] and youth culture after 1899 with shōjo magazines and manga.^[136] Rune Naito's illustrations in shōjo magazines (1950s–1970s) pioneered the kawaii aesthetic.^[137]
  • Purikura — Conceived in 1994 by Sasaki Miho for Atlus,^[138] which pursued her idea^[138] and developed it with the help of Sega.^[139][140] Atlus and Sega introduced Print Club, the first purikura,^[140] in 1995, initially at game arcades.^[139]
• Selfie — Modern selfie originates from kawaii culture,^[141] such as 1990s kawaii albums.^[140] Digital selfie originates from purikura(1995)^[141][142] producing selfies.^[141][140] Japanese cell phones introduced front-facing cameras for selfies.^[141][143]

• Candlestick chart — Candlestick charts have been developed in the 18th century by Munehisa Homma, a Japanese rice trader of financial instruments. They were introduced to the Western world by Steve Nison in his book, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques.
• Futures contract — The first futures exchange market was the Dōjima Rice Exchange in Japan in the 1730s.^[144]

• Mobile payment — Mobile payments began adoption in Japan during the early 2000s.^[145][146]
  • Mobile wallet — In 2004, NTT DoCoMo and Sony introduced the first mobile wallets, for 3G mobile phones in Japan.^[147]
• Smart card — Kunitaka Arimura of the Arimura Technology Institute in Japan independently developed the idea of incorporating an integrated circuit onto a plastic card, and filed a smart card patent in March 1970.^[148][149]

• Canned coffee — Canned coffee was invented in 1965 by Miura Yoshitake, a coffee shop owner in Hamada, Shimane Prefecture, Japan.^[150]
• Cooking comic — Manga has long contained references to food and cooking.^[151] Genre emerged in 1970, with Totsugeki Ramen, Cake Cake Cake and Kitchen Kenpo.^[152]
• Fake food — Simulated food was invented after Japan's surrender ending World War II in 1945. Westerners traveling to Japan had trouble reading Japanese menus and in response, Japanese artisans and candlemakers created wax food so foreigners could easily order something that looked appetizing.^[153]
• Instant noodle — Invented by Momofuku Ando, a Taiwanese-Japanese inventor, in 1958.^[154]
• Monosodium glutamate — Invented and patented by Kikunae Ikeda.^[155]
• Umami — Umami as a separate taste was first identified in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University while researching the strong flavor in seaweed broth.^[156]
• Fortune cookie — Although popular in Western Chinese restaurants, fortune cookies did not originate in China and are in fact rare there. They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Japanese version had a fortune, but not lucky numbers, and was commonly eaten with tea.^[157]

• Emoji — The first emoji was created in 1998 or 1999 in Japan by Shigetaka Kurita.^[158]
• Textboard — Textboards like imageboards were invented in Japan. However, unlike imageboards, textboards are relatively unknown outside Japan.^[159]
  • Imageboard — The first imageboards were created in Japan. Later imageboards such as 2chan would be created.^[159]
• Virtual influencer — Synonymous with virtual idols, which originate from Japan's anime and idol culture that dates back to the 1980s.^[160] The Japanese talent agency Horipro created the first real-life AI virtual influencer, Kyoko Date, in 1995.^{[161][162][163]}
• VTuber — In 2010, Nitroplus uploaded YouTube videos with Super Sonico talking to the audience about herself and company releases.^[164] In 2011, vlogger Ami Yamato uploaded videos featuring an animated virtual avatar speaking to the camera.^[165][166]

• Lean manufacturing — A generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as "Lean" only in the 1990s.^[167][168]
• Uncanny valley — Masahiro Mori first introduced the concept in 1970 from his book titled Bukimi No Tani (不気味の谷), phrasing it as bukimi no tani genshō (不気味の谷現象, lit. 'uncanny valley phenomenon').^[169]

• Pachinko — Pachinko machines were first built during the 1920s as a children's toy called the "Corinth game" (コリントゲーム, korinto gēmu).^[170] It emerged as an adult pastime in Nagoya around 1930, and spread from there.^[171]

• Go (modern rules) — Though the game originated in China, free opening of the game as it is played globally began in the 16th century Japan.
• Gomoku — Historical records indicate the origins of gomoku can be traced back to the mid-1700s during the Edo period. By the late Edo period, around 1850, books had been published on gomoku.^[172]

• Air hockey — Sega's electro-mechanical (EM) arcade game MotoPolo (1968) anticipated air hockey gameplay.^[173]
• Audio-visual novelty game — In the 1960s, a new category of audio-visual novelty games emerged from Japanese developers,^[174] starting with Periscope (1965).^[174][175]
  • Electronic sound — Periscope (1965) by Namco and Sega introduced electronic sound.^{[175][176][177]} Sega's Duck Hunt (1968) used solid-state electronic sound.^[178]
  • Special effects — Periscope (1965) introduced special effects.^[175] Sega EM games used rear image projection on a screen,^[179] since Duck Hunt (1968).^{[178][180][181]}
  • Image projection — Sega games used rear image projection on a screen,^[179] starting with Duck Hunt (1968).^{[178][180][181]} Kasco's Indy 500 (1968)^[182][183] projected pseudo-3D visuals on a screen.^{[184][185][186]}
  • Pseudo-3D — Kasco's Indy 500 (1968)^[182][183] projected pseudo-3D first-person graphics on a screen.^{[184][185][186]} Sega's EM arcade games at the time had vertical playfields using mirrors for an artificial sense of depth.^[184]
• Audio streaming — Sega's 1968 EM games MotoPolo and Helicopter introduced an 8-track player unit that plays sounds from endless tape cartridge through a speaker.^{[173][176][187]}
  • Game music — Sega introduced electronic game music with their arcade electro-mechanical game Jumbo (1969), which used an 8-track player to playback electronic circus music.^[188][189]
• Bonus points — The concept dates back to Sega's electro-mechanical arcade light gun shooter Duck Hunt (1968). The game awarded the player a higher score for a head shot, earning 15 points, whereas a standard body shot earned 10 points.^[178]
• Cooperative gameplay (co-op) — Periscope, an electro-mechanical arcade shooter released by Namco in 1965^[190] and Sega in 1966,^[191] was both a single-player game and a three-player co-op game.^[192][193]
  • 3-player (3P) — Periscope (1965) was both a single-player game and a three-player game.^[192]
• First-person racing game — Kasco's EM arcade racer Indy 500 (1968)^[182][183] displayed colorful graphics^[182] projected using mirrors to give a pseudo-3D first-person perspective on a screen.^{[184][185][186]}
• First-person shooter (FPS) — Sega's EM arcade game Jet Rocket (1970) is considered the first FPS. It had a successor Heli–Shooter (1977).^[194]
• Flight simulator game — Sega's EM arcade game Jet Rocket (1970), a first-person combat flight simulator featuring cockpit controls,^[195] pioneered the first-person flight simulator genre.^[196]
• Formula One game — F-1 (1976) by Namco has been cited as the first truly Formula One arcade game.^[197]
• Full-motion video (FMV) — Nintendo's EM arcade game Wild Gunman (1974), published by Sega in North America, was the first FMV game.^[198]
  • Voice acting — Dates back to Nintendo's Wild Gunman (1974), where the FMV intro scene has a voiced narrator giving gameplay instructions.^[198]
• Headshot — The concept dates back to Sega's electro-mechanical arcade light gun shooter Duck Hunt (1968). The game awarded the player a higher score for a head shot, earning 15 points, whereas a standard body shot earned 10 points.^[178]
• Holography — Sega's Monte Carlo (1971) introduced holographic animations.^[199] Taito announced a holographic arcade gun game at the 1975 AMOA show.^[200] Kasco used rotating cylindrical holograms in the EM arcade game Gun Smoke (1975).^[201]
• Interactive movie game — Wild Gunman (1974) was the first interactive movie game.^[202]
  • Interactive storytelling — Wild Gunman (1974) was the first game with interactive storytelling. Each scenario presents alternate FMV scenes depending on user action.^[202][198]
• Medal game — Medal games began in Japan during the early 1970s and started becoming popular with Sega's Harness Racing (1974), Nintendo's EVR Race (1975) and Aruze's The Derby Vφ (1975).^[203]
• Ninja game — Earliest ninja game was Kasco's EM arcade shooter Ninja Gun (1977).^{[204][205][206]}
• Open world — Origins traced back to Sega's EM arcade game Jet Rocket (1970), a flight simulator with free-roaming capabilities.^[196] Sega's successor Heli-Shooter (1977) used a microprocessor to allow open-world helicopter flight.^[194]
• Quick time event (QTE) — Nintendo's electro-mechanical arcade game Wild Gunman (1974) featured the earliest quick time events (QTE).^[207] The terms "quick time event" and "QTE" were later coined by Shenmue (1999) director Yu Suzuki.^[208]
• Rhythm game — In the early 1970s, Kasco created a rhythm-based EM arcade game, designed by Kenzou Furukawa, whose idea was "a game where you’d lift girls skirts in time to some rhythm" inspired by the 1969 Oh! Mouretsu commercials.^[209]
• Submarine simulator — Periscope (1965), by Namco and Sega, used lights and plastic waves to simulate sinking ships from a submarine,^[210] and had players look through a periscope to direct and fire torpedoes.^[211]
• Whac-A-Mole — Invented in 1975 by Kazuo Yamada of TOGO, based on the designer's 1974 pencil sketches.^[212] TOGO released it as Mogura Taiji to Japanese arcades in 1975.^[203] At the 1976 IAAPA show, Mogura Taiji was the first mallet game.^[213]

• 32-bit console — FM Towns Marty, released by Fujitsu in February 1993, was the first console with a 32-bit CPU.^[214][215]
  • 64-bit console — The Nintendo 64 (1996) was the first console with a 64-bit CPU.^[216]
  • 128-bit console — Sega's Dreamcast (1998) was the first console with a 128-bit floating-point unit.^[217]
• 3D stereoscopic handheld — Takara Tomy's first TomyTronic model (1983) was similar to Game & Watch but with stereoscopic 3D.^[218]
  • Autostereoscopic console — The Nintendo 3DS, the first handheld with an autostereoscopic 3D display using a parallax barrier, was released in 2011.^[219]
• CD-ROM game console — The CD-ROM² add-on for NEC's PC Engine released in November 1988, making the PC Engine the first game console to use CD-ROM as storage media.^[220][221]
• Memory card — Earliest memory cards introduced in 1985, the Sega Card for the SG-1000 and Master System consoles.^[222] The Sega Card was developed as a cheaper alternative to game cartridges.^[222]
  • Memory card save — Neo Geo AES (1990) was the first console able to use a memory card for saved game data. It was compatible with Neo Geo MVS arcade cabinets, allowing migration of saves between home and arcade systems.^[223][224]
• Nintendo — Gunpei Yokoi was the creator of the Game Boy and Virtual Boy and worked on Famicom (and NES), the Metroid series, Game Boy Pocket and did extensive work on the system we know today as the Nintendo Entertainment System (called the FamiCom in Japan).^[225]
• Online console multiplayer — In 1987, Nintendo launched the Family Computer Network System for the Famicom in Japan. Online games developed for the system include a graphical, competitive online multiplayer version of Go.^[226]
• PlayStation — The first Sony PlayStation was invented by Ken Kutaragi. Research and development for the PlayStation began in 1990, headed by Kutaragi, a Sony engineer.^[227]
• VR headset — The Sega VR headset was an early unreleased VR device with built-in motion tracking, first announced in 1991. Its sensors tracked the player's movement and head position.^[228]

• Analog thumbstick — Introduced by Dempa's XE-1 AP controller (1989) for the Sega Mega Drive console and Japanese computers.^[229]
  • Digital-analog thumbstick — Introduced with the Nintendo 64 controller, debuted in 1995 and released in 1996.^[230][231] Its thumbstick was a digital-analog hybrid.^[232]

• D-pad — In 1982, Nintendo's Gunpei Yokoi elaborated on the idea of a circular pad, shrinking it and altering the points into the familiar modern "cross" design for control of on-screen characters in their Donkey Kong handheld game. It came to be known as the "D-pad".^[233] The design proved to be popular for subsequent Game & Watch titles. This particular design was patented. In 1984, the Japanese company Epoch created a handheld game system called the Epoch Game Pocket Computer. It featured a D-pad, but it was not popular for its time and soon faded. Initially intended to be a compact controller for the Game & Watch handheld games alongside the prior non-connected style pad, Nintendo realized that Gunpei's design would also be appropriate for regular consoles, and Nintendo made the D-pad the standard directional control for the hugely successful Nintendo Entertainment System under the name "+Control Pad".
• Dance pad — The earliest dance pad was Bandai's Power Pad, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987.^[234]
• Directional buttons — Sega's arcade electro-mechanical game Missile (1969) had two directional buttons are used to move a motorized tank.^[235]

• Dual control — Sega's EM game Missile (969 ) had dual-control scheme, with two directional buttons moving a tank and a joystick used to shoot and steer the missile.^[235]
  • Dual-stick controls — Taito's Western Gun (1975) introduced dual-stick controls, with one joystick for movement and the other for changing the shooting direction.^[236]
  • Twin-stick shooter — Introduced by Taito's Western Gun (1975), which used one joystick for movement and a second for firing.^[237][236]
  • Dual analog control — Sony's Dual Analog and DualShock controllers in 1997 were the first to feature two analog sticks.^[238]
• Gamepad — Nintendo developed the standard gamepad design, with a D-pad, for the Donkey Kong Game & Watch handheld (1982) and the NES controller (1983).^[239][240]
• Joystick — Sega's EM arcade game MotoPolo, released in early 1968, introduced joystick controllers, used to move miniature motorbikes in any direction on the table.^[176]
  • Analog joystick — Introduced by Sega's MotoPolo (1968). Joysticks used analog magnetic lever technology to move miniature motorbikes in any direction.^[176]
  • Joystick with fire button — First game to use a joystick with fire button was Sega's EM arcade game Missile (1969), which used a two-way joystick to shoot and steer the missile onto oncoming planes.^[235]
  • 8-direction joystick — Taito's Western Gun (1975) introduced dual eight-way joysticks, one for movement and the other for aiming.^[236] Taito's Interceptor (1975) used an eight-way joystick for aiming.^[241]
  • Analog flight stick — Sega's Space Harrier (1985) introduced an analog flight stick for movement. It could register movement in any direction as well as measure the degree of push.^[242]
  • Rotary joystick — Joystick–knob hybrid, where the joystick can be moved in various directions and/or rotated like a knob, like for 8‑direction movement and 360-degree aiming.^[243][244] Introduced by SNK's TNK III (1985) and Ikari Warriors (1986).^[243]
• Motion controller — Sega AM2's Hang-On (1985) was controlled using an arcade cabinet resembling a motorbike, which the player moved with their body. This began the taikan trend in arcades of the late 1980s.^[245]
  • Motion-sensing controller — Invented by Nintendo for the Wii, the Wii Remote is the first controller with motion-sensing capability. It was a candidate for Time's Best Invention of 2006.^[246]
• Motion simulator — A trend for hydraulic arcade cabinets in the 1980s,^[247][248] introduced by Sega.^[248] Space Tactics (1981) had the screen move with the on-screen action.^[247] Space Harrier (1985) set the trend for hydraulic motion simulators.^[247][249]
  • 360-degree motion simulator — A sophisticated motion simulator cabinet in arcades was Sega's R360 (1990), which simulated the full 360-degree rotation of an aircraft. It was first used for the arcade game G-LOC: Air Battle (1990).^[247][249]
• Periscope — Periscope (1965), an EM arcade game by Namco^[190] and Sega,^[191] introduced a new controller in the form of a periscope viewer. Its periscope viewer arcade cabinet design was later adopted by several arcade video games.^[250]
• Positional gun — A positional gun is essentially an analog joystick that records the position of the gun to determine the player's aim on the screen.^[251][252] Earliest examples of a positional gun were Sega's Sea Devil (1972)^[253] and Taito's Attack (1976).^[254]
• Throttle — Sega's electro-mechanical arcade game Heli-Shooter (1977) involves the player piloting a helicopter using a throttle joystick to accelerate and decelerate.^[255][256]
  • Throttle lever — Sega's arcade video game After Burner II (1987), in addition to using an analog joystick, introduced a throttle lever to accelerate and decelerate the speed.^[257]
• Touch control — In 1985, the Sega Graphic Board for the SG-1000 console and SC-3000 computer was a touch tablet with stylus pen, used for the drawing game Terebi Oekaki.^[258] In 1986, the Sega AI Computer had a touchpad, mainly used for educational games.^{[259][260][261]}
• Trackball control — The earliest use of trackball controls in a video game was Sega's arcade football/soccer game World Cup, released in March 1978.^{[262][263][264]}

• Basketball video game — Taito's TV Basketball (1974) was the first basketball sports video game.^[265]
• Bowlingo — In 1990, Capcom entered the bowling industry with Bowlingo. It was a coin-operated, electro-mechanical, automated mini ten-pin bowling installation, smaller than a standard bowling alley, designed to be smaller and cheaper for arcades.^[266]
• Drifting — Kunimitsu Takahashi created drifting techniques in the 1970s.^[267] This inspired Keiichi Tsuchiya, who quickly gained a reputation. In 1987, car magazines and tuning garages produced a video of his drifting skills, known as Pluspy.^[268]
  • Drifting competition — In 1988, Keiichi Tsuchiya alongside Option magazine founder and chief editor Daijiro Inada organised the first contest specifically for sliding a car sideways. In 1996, Option organized the first contest outside Japan^[269] which began to spread to other countries.
• Ekiden (road relay)
• Esports — Has arcade roots dating back to 1974, with Sega's All Japan TV Game Championships, a nationwide tournament in Japan.^{[270][271][272]} Local tournaments held in 300 locations led to sixteen finalists competing in the final elimination rounds.^[270]
• Gateball
• Instant replay — From 1957, NHK began instant replay broadcasts of sumo wrestling events. Due to matches being short, broadcasters would quickly rewind the video tape after a match to replay the contest.^[273] NHK used instant replay for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.^[274]
• Keirin — Started as a gambling sport in 1948 and became an Olympic sport in 2000.
• Sports animation — Animal Olympic Games, a 1928 animated short film directed by Yasuji Murata, is regarded by critics as the first sports anime.^[275]
• 3D sports video game — ASCII's Amnork (1986) was a sports video game for the FM-77 AV computer that introduced the use of real-time 3D polygon graphics.^[276]

• 16-bit video game — Universal's arcade game Get A Way (1978) was the first game with a 16-bit CPU.^[277][278]
  • 64-bit game system — Namco Magic Edge Hornet Simulator arcade system (1993) was the first 64-bit game system.^[279][280]
  • 128-bit arcade system — The Sega NAOMI, launched in 1998, was the first arcade system with a 128-bit floating-point unit (FPU).^[217]

• 3D polygon graphics — Pre-rendered 3D graphics were introduced with arcade laserdisc game Interstellar,^[281][282] debuted by Funai at the AM Show in September 1983.^[283]
  • 3D pre-rendered graphics — Introduced with arcade game Interstellar,^[281][282] debuted by Funai in September 1983.^[283]
  • 3D real-time computer graphics — Technosoft's Plazma Line (1984) was the first home computer game with real‑time 3D polygon graphics.^[284]
  • 3D action game — Interstellar (1983) was the earliest action game with pre-rendered 3D graphics.^[281][282] Plazma Line (1984) was the earliest computer action game with real‑time 3D polygon graphics.^[284]
  • 3D racing game — Plazma Line (1984) was the earliest racing game with real‑time 3D polygon graphics.^[284] Namco's Winning Run (1988) was the first car racing game with fully real-time 3D polygon graphics.^{[285][286][287]}
• 3D stereoscopic game — Sega's SubRoc-3D (1982) was the first 3D stereoscopic game,^[288][289] using an active shutter 3D system developed with Matsushita.^[290]
  • Autostereoscopy — A prototype single-viewer 3D display, the Floating Image System, was presented by Sega AM3 in 1997.^[291]
• Action role-playing game (ARPG) — Established in 1980s Japan.^[292] Earliest ARPGs include Panorama Toh,^[293][294] Bokosuka Wars (1983),^[295][296] The Tower of Druaga,^[292] Dragon Slayer,^[297][298] Hydlide and Courageous Perseus (1984).^[298]
  • 3D role-playing game — Arsys Software's Wibarm (1986) is the earliest RPG to feature 3D polygon graphics.^[299][300] Star Cruiser (1988), also developed by Arsys Software, was an early RPG with fully 3D polygon graphics.^[301]
  • Morality meter — Xanadu (1985) had a Karma meter, which affects the temple's reaction.^[302][303] Hydlide II (1985) had an alignment morality meter, affected by killing evil/good monsters or humans, which affects townsfolk reactions.^[304]
  • Role-playing shooter (RPS) — Panorama Toh (1983) was the first action RPG with shooter elements,^[293] featuring real-time gun combat.^[294] Wibarm (1986) combined run-and-gun gameplay with RPG elements.^[299]
  • Soulslike — A subgenre of action role-playing and action-adventure games that originate from FromSoftware's Demon's Souls in 2009.^[305][306]
• Audio streaming in video game — Sega introduced this technique to arcade video games, using a tape deck to playback motorbike sound effects in Fonz (1976).^[307]
• Beat 'em up — The first game to feature fist fighting was Sega's boxing game Heavyweight Champ (1976), but it was Data East's fighting game Karate Champ (1984) which popularized martial arts themed games.^[308] The same year, Hong Kong cinema-inspired Kung-Fu Master laid the foundations for scrolling beat 'em ups with its simple gameplay and multiple enemies.^[308][309] Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, released in 1986 in Japan, deviated from the martial arts themes of earlier games and introduced street brawling to the genre. Renegade (released the same year) added an underworld revenge plot that proved more popular with gamers than the principled combat sport of other games.^[310] Renegade set the standard for future beat 'em up games as it introduced the ability to move both horizontally and vertically.^[311]
  • Belt scrolling' — Introduced by Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (1986).^[312][313] In contrast to Kunio‑kuns arena-like stages, Double Dragon (1987) extended the belt scrolling to a continuous side-scrolling world.^[314][315]
• Bloom — The earliest real-time 3D polygon games to use the bloom effect include Squaresoft's The Bouncer (2000)^[316] and Ico (2001) by Team Ico.^[317]
• Bonus stage — The first bonus stage in video game history is in Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980. This became a signature feature of other arcade games like Galaga in 1981.^[318][319]
• Boss battle in real-time — Sega's Samurai (released March 1980) had the player samurai fight a number of swordsmen before confronting a more powerful boss samurai.^[320] SNK's Sasuke vs. Commander (released October 1980)^[321] had the player confront ninja bosses.^[322][323]
  • Multiple bosses — SNK's Sasuke vs. Commander, released in October 1980,^[321] is a ninja game where the player confronts bosses with ninjutsu attacks and enemy patterns.^[322] It was the earliest game with multiple boss encounters.^[323]
  • Final boss — In Phoenix (1980), the player's ship must fight a giant mothership in the final level.^[324] Kung-Fu Master (1984) established a boss battle structure^[325][326] where end-of-level sub-bosses are followed by a final boss on the last level.^[327]
  • Sub-boss — Irem's arcade game Kung-Fu Master (1984) established a boss battle structure^[325][326] where end-of-level sub-bosses are followed by the final boss on the top level.^[327]
  • Boss rush — Sega's arcade game Fantasy Zone (1986) popularized the concept of a boss rush, a stage where players face multiple previous bosses again in succession.^[328]
• Branching storylines — The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) introduced non-linear branching storylines, branching out into different scenarios in response to player actions.^[329]
• CD-ROM video game — The first CD-ROM games were Fighting Street and No-Ri-Ko, released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in November 1988.^[330] In 1987, there were CD-ROM² demos of Odori Koen Satsujin Jiken, CD Zoo, and Tengai Makyō: Ziria.^[330]
  • CD-ROM RPG — Tengai Makyō: Ziria (Far East of Eden: Ziria) for the PC Engine CD-ROM² was the first RPG released on CD-ROM.^[331] After a mockup demo was shown in 1987,^[330] the complete game was released in June 1989.^[332]
  • CD-ROM action RPG — Ys I & II, released for the PC Engine CD-ROM² in December 1989,^[333] was the first action RPG (ARPG) released on CD-ROM.^[334]

• Cel shading — The Sega Dreamcast title Jet Set Radio, at the 1999 Tokyo Game Show, drew media attention for its cel-shaded style.^[335][336] Jet Set Radio holds a Guiness World Record for the first video game to use cel-shading.^[337]
• Character action game — Emerged in 1980s Japan, emphasizing "character development, hand-drawn animation and backgrounds," and "scripted, pattern" gameplay.^{[338][339][340]} Genre was established by Pac-Man (1980).^{[341][342][343]}
• Combo — Data East's arcade DECO Cassette System game Flash Boy (1981), a scrolling action game, had the earliest combo mechanic. When the player punches an enemy and it explodes, debris can destroy other enemies.^[344]
  • Combo system — The first fighting game with a combo system was Culture Brain's Shanghai Kid (1985), with "rush" attacks similar to custom combos in Street Fighter Alpha 2 (1996).^[345]
• Command menu — Yuji Horii's The Hokkaido Serial Murder Case: The Okhotsk Disappearance [ja] (1984) introduced a command menu system,^[346] in contrast to text entry.^[347][329]
  • Branching menu — The 1985 NES port of The Portopia Serial Murder Case^[346] has branching menu selections.^[347][348]
• Color sprite — Kasco's arcade game Playtron (1973) was the first video game with color sprites.^[349][183]
  • Sprite animation — Kasco's Playtron (1973) was the first video game with sprite animations.^[349][183]
  • Human sprite — First video game to represent player characters as human sprites was Taito's TV Basketball,^{[350][351][352]} released in April 1974.^[353] The game was designed by Tomohiro Nishikado.^[354][355]
  • Multi-color sprite — Namco's Galaxian (1979) was the first arcade video game to feature multi-colored sprites.^[265]
• Color vector graphics — The Sega G80 arcade system, launched in 1981, possessed the world's first color vector X-Y video system.^[356]
• Co-op action video game — In 1975, Sega released the early co-op light gun shooter video games Balloon Gun^[357] and Bullet Mark.^[358]
• Cover mechanic — In Taito's Gun Fight (1975),^[359] the player characters could take cover behind destructible objects.^[360] In Taito's Space Invaders (1978), the player's laser cannon could take cover behind destructible defense bunkers to avoid enemy fire.^[361]
  • Cover system — Namco's Time Crisis (1995) introduced a dedicated cover button.^[361] Koei's WinBack (1999) forced the player to stop and shoot, with crates and corners providing cover for the player character to pop out and fire.^[361]
• Cutscene — Taito's Space Invaders Part II (1979) introduced cutscenes as brief comical intermissions between levels,^[362][363] later popularized by Namco's Pac-Man (1980).^[364]
  • Narrative cutscene — Dates back to Nintendo's Sheriff (1979).^[365] Nintendo's Donkey Kong (1981) used cutscenes to visually advance a complete story.^[366]
• Damsel in distress — Dates back to Nintendo's Sheriff (1979).^[367]
• Day-night cycle — Panorama Toh (1983) introduced an open world with day-night cycles.^[293] Day-night cycles later appeared in Hydlide 3: The Space Memories (1987),^[304] Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987)^[368] and Dragon Quest III (1988).^[369]
• Destructible environment — Introduced by Taito's Gun Fight (1975)^[370] and Space Invaders (1978), where players could take cover behind destructible objects.^[371] A fully destructible environment dates back to Dig Dug (1982) and Mr. Do! (1982).^[372]
• Dialogue tree — Introduced by The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983), with conversations between the player and NPCs,^[329][373] along with branching dialogue.^[347][348] The dialogue choices are considered "way ahead of its time".^[348]
• Digitized sprite — Magical Company's 2D arcade fighting game Last Apostle Puppet Show (1988) was the first game to feature digitized sprites.^[374]
• Drifting mechanic — Introduced by Sega's Out Run (1986). The mechanic incorporates AI assistance and details such as, if the car's tires grip the road surface too closely, the car's handling becomes too twitchy.^[375]
• Farm life sim — The genre began with the SNES game Harvest Moon (1996).^[376] Producer Yasuhiro Wada, inspired by his childhood in the countryside as well as Derby Stallion, wanted to make a rural setting "role-playing" game without any combat.^[377]
• Fighting game — Sega's black and white boxing game Heavyweight Champ was released in 1976 as the first video game to feature fist fighting.^[378] However, Data East's Karate Champ from 1984 is credited with establishing and popularizing the one-on-one fighting game genre, and went on to influence Konami's Yie Ar Kung-Fu from 1985.^[379] Yie Ar Kung Fu expanded on Karate Champ by pitting the player against a variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting style.^[379][380] Capcom's Street Fighter (1987) introduced the use of special moves that could only be discovered by experimenting with the game controls. Street Fighter II (1991) established the conventions of the fighting game genre and, whereas previous games allowed players to combat computer-controlled fighters, Street Fighter II allowed players to play against each other.^[381]
  • Platform fighter — Namco's The Outfoxies originated the concept of platform fighters. The subgenre would be most defined by the release of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. in 1999, which defined the subgenre's mechanics.^[382]
• Flight simulator video game — Taito's arcade video game Interceptor (1975), designed by Tomohiro Nishikado,^[383] was a crude early first-person combat flight simulator video game.^[241]
• First-person shooter video game (FPS) — Taito's arcade video game Interceptor (1975), designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, is considered an early first-person shooter (FPS).^[384]
  • 3D first-person shooter — Earliest FPS to use 3D polygons was ASCII's Amnork (1986) for the FM‑77 AV.^[385] The next oldest FPS with 3D polygons were Star Cruiser (1988),^[301] Star Cruiser II (1993)^[386] and Geograph Seal (1994).^[387][388]
• Force feedback — In 1976, Sega's motorbike game Moto-Cross,^[389] also known as Fonz,^[390] was the first game to use haptic feedback, causing the handlebars to vibrate during a collision with another vehicle.^[391]
• FMV video game — The first video game to feature FMV was later Sega's arcade laserdisc game Astron Belt (1983).^[392]
  • FMV cutscene — Data East's laserdisc video game Bega's Battle (1983) introduced animated FMV cutscenes with voice acting to develop a story between the game's shooting stages.^[393]
• Gouraud shading — Namco's SimDrive (SimRoad) for the Namco System 22,^[394][395] with a limited release in 1992,^[396] introduced Gouraud shading.^[397] It was a prototype for Ridge Racer (1993),^[396] which popularized Gouraud shading.^[397]
  • Phong shading — The Sega Hikaru arcade system introduced Phong shading, with the system's debut title Brave Firefighters (1999). Space Channel 5 (1999) for the Sega Dreamcast was the first home console game with limited Phong shading.^[398]
• Hack and slash — In Sega's action game Samurai (1980), the player samurai swordsman must fight a number of other swordsmen.^[320] The earliest side‑scrolling hack‑and‑slash game was Taito's arcade game The Legend of Kage (1985).^[399][400]
  • 3D hack and slash (character action) — A subgenre of 3D, third-person, weapon-based, melee action games. Defined by Hideki Kamiya, creator of Devil May Cry and Bayonetta,^[401] in turn influenced by Onimusha (2001).^[402]
• Health meter — Data East's Flash Boy (1981) for the DECO Cassette System introduced an energy bar.^[403] Punch-Out, developed in 1983, features a stamina meter.^[404]
  • Health meter regeneration — In Punch-Out (developed 1983), a stamina meter replenishes when the player strikes the opponent.^[404] In Hydlide (1984) and Ys (1987),^[405][406] the health meter recovers when the character does not move.^[407][408]
• High score — Defined by Taito's Space Invaders (1978), with high scores determined by playing to stay alive for as long as possible, as scores keep rising.^[409] It was also the first game to save the score.^[410]
• Holographic video game — Sega released the first holographic video games for arcades, Time Traveler (1991) and Holosseum (1992).^[201] The holographic mirror-like optical device used by the games was invented by Japanese company Dentsu.^[411]
• Human combat — Taito's Western Gun (1975), also known as Gun Fight, was the first video game to depict human-to-human combat.^[412]
• Isometric graphics — The first game with isometric graphics was Data East's arcade game Treasure Island,^[413] debuted in September 1981.^[414]
  • Isometric scrolling — The first game with isometric scrolling was Sega's arcade game Zaxxon,^[415][416] which debuted in December 1981.^[417]
• Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) — Koei's The Dragon and Princess (1982), released for the PC-88 and FM-7 computers, was the first role-playing video game (RPG) made in Japan.^[418][419]
  • Active Time Battle (ATB) — Hiroyuki Ito introduced the "Active Time Battle" system in Final Fantasy IV (1991),^[420] where the time-keeping system does not stop.^[421] Square Co., Ltd. filed a United States patent application for the ATB system on March 16, 1992, under the title "Video game apparatus, method and device for controlling same" and was awarded the patent on February 21, 1995. On the battle screen, each character has an ATB meter that gradually fills, and the player is allowed to issue a command to that character once the meter is full.^[422] The fact that enemies can attack or be attacked at any time is credited with injecting urgency and excitement into the combat system.^[421]
  • Critical hit — The concept of critical hits was introduced to video games with the 1986 JRPG title Dragon Quest.^[423]
  • Monster-taming game — In Cosmic Soldier (1985), enemies can be recruited into the player's party.^[424] The genre's origins lie in the Megami Tensei series, which began with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (1987).^[425][426]
  • Pausable real-time — Early examples of pausable real-time combat include Knights of Xentar (1991),^[427][428] Secret of Mana (1993)^[429] and Tales of Phantasia (1995).^[430]
  • Tactical RPG (TRPG) — Koei's The Dragon and Princess (1982) is a precursor to the tactical RPG genre, with a tactical turn‑based battle system.^[418][419] Bokosuka Wars (1983) laid the foundations for the tactical RPG genre.^[431]
• Kart racing game — Power Drift featured go-kart racing in 1988,^[432] but Super Mario Kart (1992) is cited to have popularized the kart racing genre, being the first kart racing game to implement combat elements within races.^[433]
• Killer app — The 1980 Atari VCS version of Space Invaders became the first killer app for home video game consoles after quadrupling the system's sales.^[434][435]
• Laserdisc game — The first was Sega's arcade game Astron Belt, featuring FMV footage superimposed with 2D sprites.^[436][437] Developed in 1982,^[438] it debuted at the September 1982 AM Show^[439] and then released for Japan in March 1983.^[440]
• Last man standing — The earliest last-man-standing video game with a shrinking play zone was Hudson Soft's 1983 action game Bomberman.^[441]
  • Battle royale game (BR) — Bomberman (1990) is considered the first battle royale (BR) game.^[441] The film Battle Royale (2000) set out the genre rules.^[442] Visual novels adapted the formula, such as Higurashi (2002) and Zero Escape (2009).^[443]
• Levels — Space Invaders (1978) introduced the "concept of going round after round."^[444] Multiple distinct levels^[445] date back to Heiankyo Alien (1979).^[446] Scramble (1981) introduced multiple distinct scrolling levels.^[447]
• Lives — Taito's classic arcade video game Space Invaders (1978) is credited with introducing multiple lives to video games.^[448]
• Maze chase — Heiankyo Alien (1979) was an early maze chase game predating Namco's Pac-Man (1980), which established the maze chase genre and spawning many imitations.^[449]
• Memory card — Earliest memory cards introduced in 1985, the Sega Card for SG-1000 and Master System consoles,^[222] and the Bee Card and Astron SoftCard for MSX computers.^[450]
• Microtransaction — Invented by Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone (1990). It has shops where players can insert coins into the arcade machine to purchase upgrades, power-ups, health, weapons, special moves and characters.^[451]
• Mini-map — The first video game with a radar mini-map was Namco's arcade game Rally-X (1980).^[452]
• Motion capture — In Magical Company's arcade fighting game Last Apostle Puppet Show (1988), an early form of motion capture was used to animate the 2D digitized sprites.^[374]
  • 3D motion capture — The first 3D games to use motion capture for animating the 3D character models were the Sega Model arcade games Virtua Fighter (1993)^[453][454] and Virtua Fighter 2 (1994).^[455]
  • Passive optical motion capture — Namco's arcade fighting game Soul Edge (1995) was the first video game to use passive optical motion-capture technology.^[456]
• Multi-directional shooter — Taito's Western Gun (1975) laid the foundations for the multi-directional shooter genre.^[457]
• Multiple endings — The Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983) introduced alternate endings, considered "way ahead of its time".^[348] The earliest action games to feature multiple endings were the NES game Metroid (1986)^[458] and MSX game Penguin Adventure (1986).^[459]
• Ninja video game — Emerged in the early 1980s,^[460] the earliest being SNK's arcade shooter Sasuke vs. Commander (1980).^[461]
• Online graphical multiplayer — LINKS, a Japanese online network for the MSX launched in 1986, featured early graphical online multiplayer games: T&E Soft's Daiva Dr. Amandora and Super Laydock, Telenet's Girly Block, and Bothtec's Dires.^[462]
• Overworld — The arcade game Route-16, released by Sun Electronics in February 1981,^[463] featured the earliest overworld.^[464] Exiting a maze takes the player to a large overworld map, from where they could enter various buildings.^[464]
  • Hub world — The 1981 arcade games Route-16 (by Sun Electronics) and 005 (by Sega) featured the earliest hub worlds.^[464][465]
  • Open world video game — Route-16 (1981) introduced an overworld.^[464] Panorama Toh (1983) introduced an open world with day‑night cycles.^[293] Early open worlds also in Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983)^[466][348] and Hydlide (1984).^[467]
• Platformer — Space Panic, a 1980 arcade release, is sometimes credited as the first platform game.^[468] It was clearly an influence on the genre, with gameplay centered on climbing ladders between different floors, a common element in many early platform games. Donkey Kong, an arcade game created by Nintendo, released in July 1981, was the first game that allowed players to jump over obstacles and across gaps, making it the first true platformer.^[469]
  • Metroidvania — Spawned by the Metroid and Castlevania, with template based on Metroid (1986), Castlevania II (1987), Super Metroid (1994) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997),^[470] but predated by Brain Breaker (1985).^{[471][472][473]}
  • Scrolling platformer — The first platform game to use scrolling graphics was Jump Bug (1981), a simple platform-shooter developed by Alpha Denshi.^[474] In August 1982, Taito released Jungle King,^[475] which featured scrolling jump and run sequences that had players hopping over obstacles. Namco took the scrolling platformer a step further with the 1984 release Pac-Land. Pac-Land came after the genre had a few years to develop, and was an evolution of earlier platform games, aspiring to be more than a simple game of hurdle jumping, like some of its predecessors.^[476] It closely resembled later scrolling platformers like Wonder Boy and Super Mario Bros. and was probably a direct influence on them. It also had multi-layered parallax scrolling.^[477][478]
• Point-and-click — Legends of Star Arthur: Planet Mephius, released by T&E Soft in July 1983, introduced a point-and-click interface, utilizing a cursor to interact with objects.^[479] A similar point-and-click cursor interface was used in Wingman (1984).^[480]
• Power-up — Pac-Man from 1980 is credited as the first video game to feature a power-up mechanic,^[481] though at the time they were called "power capsules" by the manufacturers.^[482]

• Pseudo-3D video game — Dates back to Tomohiro Nishikado's Interceptor (1975)^[483] and Sega's Road Race (1976).^[484][485]
  • Sprite scaling — Dates back to Interceptor (1975)^[483] and Road Race (1976).^[484][485]
• QTE cutscene — Die Hard Arcade (1996) introduced QTEs in the modern form of cutscene interludes in an otherwise interactive game.^[208] The term was coined by Shenmue (1999) director Yu Suzuki.^[208]
• Racing simulation — The earliest attempt was Namco's Pole Position (1982),^[486] advertised for "unbelievable driving realism".^[487] Eurogamer called it "a simulation down to the core".^[488]
• Rail shooter — Sega's Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982) is a pseudo-3D rail shooter arcade game by Sega.^[489][490] Sega's Space Harrier (1985) was a seminal game that defined the genre.^[491]
  • 3D rail shooter — Pre-rendered 3D graphics were first used for rail shooter Interstellar (1983).^[281][282] Silpheed (1986) was a computer rail shooter with real-time 3D polygons.^[492]
• Real-time strategy (RTS) — Games considered early RTS include Bokosuka Wars (1983),^[493] Gain Ground (1988)^[494][495] and Herzog (1988).^[496] The game considered the first true RTS is Herzog Zwei (1989).^{[497][498][499]}
  • Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) — Herzog Zwei (1989) was a precursor to,^[500][501] or early example of, the MOBA genre,^[502][503] with a similar gameplay formula.^{[501][503][500]}
• Rhythm video game — Dance Aerobics was released in 1987, and allowed players to create music by stepping on Nintendo's Power Pad peripheral. It has been called the first rhythm-action game in retrospect,^[504] although the 1996 title PaRappa the Rapper has also been deemed the first rhythm game, whose basic template forms the core of subsequent games in the genre. In 1997, Konami's Beatmania sparked an emergent market for rhythm games in Japan. The company's music division, Bemani, released a number of music games over the next several years.
• Save data — The first game to save the player's high score was Taito's Space Invaders (1978).^[410]
  • Cartridge save — Taito's Mirai Shinwa Jarvas (1986) and Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda (1987) introduced the concept of saved games stored in battery-backed random-access memory on the game cartridge.^[505]
  • FRAM save — Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) was commercialized in the mid-1990s. Its first high-profile commercial use was by game company Sega, who used FRAM chips to store saved games in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994) game cartridges.^[506]
• Scrolling — The first video game with scrolling was Taito's vertical-scrolling racing game Speed Race (1974).^[507][508] The first games with forward-scrolling were Sega's 1976 racing games Road Race^[509] and Moto-Cross^[389] (Fonz).^[390]
  • Hardware scrolling — The Namco Galaxian arcade system board introduced with Galaxian (1979) pioneered a hardware sprite system that animates pre-loaded sprites over a scrolling background, which became the basis for later arcade hardware and home consoles.^[510]
  • Parallax scrolling — Jump Bug (1981) introduced a limited form of parallax scrolling.^[511][512] Moon Patrol (1982) introduced full parallax scrolling, with 3 background layers scrolling at different speeds,^[511] popularizing the graphical technique.^[513][514]
  • Side-scrolling — Sega's Bomber was a side-scrolling shooter released for arcades in April 1977.^[515][516] Konami's Scramble, released early 1981, introduced forced side-scrolling and was the first side‑scroller with multiple distinct levels.^[447]
  • Vertical scrolling — The first video game with vertical scrolling graphics was Taito's arcade game Speed Race, released in 1974.^[517][518]
• Shoot 'em up — Space Invaders is frequently cited as the "first" or "original" in the genre.^[447][519] Space Invaders pitted the player against multiple enemies descending from the top of the screen at a constantly increasing speed.^[519] As with subsequent shoot 'em ups of the time, the game was set in space as the available technology only permitted a black background. The game also introduced the idea of giving the player a number of "lives". Space Invaders was a massive commercial success, causing a coin shortage in Japan.^[520][521] The following year, Namco's Galaxian took the genre further with more complex enemy patterns and richer graphics.^[447][522]
  • Bullet hell — The bullet hell or danmaku genre began to emerge in the early 1990s as 2D developers needed to find a way to compete with 3D games which were becoming increasingly popular at the time. Toaplan's Batsugun (1993) is considered to be the ancestor of the modern bullet hell genre.^[523] The Touhou Project series is one of the most popular bullet hell franchises.
• Speech synthesis — In 1980, the first known video game to feature speech synthesis was released: Sunsoft's shoot 'em up game Stratovox.^[524]
• Stealth game — The first stealth-based video game was Hiroshi Suzuki's Manbiki Shounen (1979). The first commercially successful stealth game was Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear (1987), the first in the Metal Gear series. It was followed by Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990) which significantly expanded the genre, and then Metal Gear Solid (1998).
• Strafing — Star Cruiser (1988) was an early first-person shooter with strafing controls, considered ahead of its time.^[525] Taito's Gun Buster (1992) was an early arcade first-person shooter with strafing controls, considered revolutionary for its time.^[526]
• Survival game — Survival scenarios date back to Space Invaders (1978), Pac-Man (1980) and survival horror.^[527] Survival mechanics were introduced in Panorama Toh (1983)^[293] and Hydlide 3 (1987).^[304] SOS (1993) was an early survival game.^[528]
• Survival horror — The earliest survival horror game was Nostromo, developed by Akira Takiguchi (a Tokyo University student and Taito contractor) for the PET 2001 and published by ASCII for the PC-6001 in 1981.^[529] The term survival horror was coined by Capcom's Resident Evil (1996), which defined the genre.^[530][531] It was inspired by Capcom's earlier horror game Sweet Home (1989).^[532]
  • Psychological horror game — Silent Hill (1999) was praised for moving away survival horror games from B movie horror elements to the psychological style seen in art house or Japanese horror films,^[533] due to the game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror.^[534] The original Silent Hill is considered one of the scariest games of all time,^[535] and the strong narrative from Silent Hill 2 in 2001 has made the series one of the most influential in the genre.^[536] Fatal Frame from 2001 was a unique entry into the genre, as the player explores a mansion and takes photographs of ghosts in order to defeat them.^[537][538]
• Texture mapping — Namco's SimDrive (SimRoad) for the Namco System 22,^[394][395] with a limited 1992 release,^[396] introduced 3D texture mapping.^[539] It was a prototype for Ridge Racer (1993),^[396] which popularized texture mapping.^{[540][541][542]}
  • Texture filtering — The Sega Model 2 arcade system introduced the use of 3D texture filtering with Daytona USA,^[543] which debuted at Tokyo's Amusement Machine Show in August 1993.^[544][545]
• Tile-based video game — The tile-map model was introduced by Namco's Galaxian (1979), which ran on the Namco Galaxian arcade system board. It set the standard for 8×8 pixel tiles, multiple colors per tile, and scrolling tiled backgrounds.^[546]
• Third-person shooter (TPS) — Radar Scope (1979) introduced a pseudo-3D perspective.^[547] Zoom 909 (1982) added on-rails movement.^[548] Devastators (1988) added taking cover.^[549][550] Last Survivor (1989) added free‑roaming and deathmatch.^[551]
  • 3D TPS — Pre-rendered 3D was first used in third-person (TP) rail shooter Interstellar (1983).^[281][282] Silpheed (1986) was a TP rail shooter with real-time 3D.^[492] Namco's Cyber Sled (1993) was a competitive TPS with real-time 3D polygons.^[552]
  • Over-the-shoulder — Resident Evil 4 (2005) redefined the third-person shooter genre^[553] with its "over the shoulder" offset camera angles, where the camera is placed directly over the right shoulder and therefore doesn't obscure the action.^[554]
• Video game mascot — Pac-Man, who debuted in Namco's 1980 arcade game Pac-Man, is recognized as the first video game mascot.^[265]
• Video game music (VGM) — Dates back to the opening chiptune in Gun Fight (1975).^[555] First game with continuous music was Space Invaders (1978).^[556] First video game with continuous melodic background music was Rally-X (1980).^[524]
  • Sampling — Namco's arcade game Rally-X (1980) was the first game to use a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to produce sampled tones instead of a tone generator.^[556]
• Visual novel (VN) — The visual novel genre is a type of interactive fiction developed in Japan in the early 1990s. As the name suggests, visual novels typically have limited interactivity, as most player interaction is restricted to clicking text and graphics.^[557]