In preparation for Pride Month this year, I decided to look at the history of queerness in video games. From some of the internet discussion of the topic, it seemed to pop out of almost nowhere around the 2010s, taking people by surprise and embedding itself into the video game world, starting with memorable games like Mass Effect in 2007 and Dragon Age in 2009. These two games only had a few romance options for same-sex relationships, but were met with opposition for including even those few options. This version of the history of queerness in video games did not seem quite right to me. However, around the early 2000s and the 2010s, my access to games was limited by my circumstances and age. As I researched further, I realized that many of the representations shown in earlier video games were filled with stereotypes and were rarely multi-dimensional characters with their own full personalities. Still, these were part of opening up dialogues and furthering representation. Without spoilers, here are a few of the games from the 1980s to the early 2000s!

1986: Moonmist. The main character is a detective investigating her friend’s new home. One of the storylines in the game includes a reveal that one of the characters was in a relationship with another woman.

1988: Caper in the Castro. The player is a lesbian detective who is searching for her friend.

1989: Circuit’s Edge. Another detective game! This one includes a trans woman and a gay man.

1992: The Dagger of Amon Ra. The second installment of The Laura Bow Mysteries adventure games. It shows two women in a relationship.

1993: Dracula Unleashed. This one is an adventure game, where players investigate the strange circumstances surrounding the death of the main character’s brother. A character named Alfred Horner is the first gay character in a computer game to be given a speaking role.

1995: The Orion Conspiracy. In this one, the main character lives in a space station and is investigating his son’s death. It is the first game to use the word “homosexual.”

1998: Fallout 2. This is the first video game to include same-sex marriages.

2001: RuneScape. A character within the quest “the Light Within,” Angof, is a trans woman.

The history of queerness in video games has been one of discrete hinting, stereotyping, and controversy—a bittersweet torrent of back-and-forths between developers and corporations, and independent developers releasing games to give the representation the queer community wanted and needed.