History of Digital Games in Turkey

This paper, a DiGRA 2005 conference study by Erdal Yılmaz and Kürşat Çağıltay of Middle East Technical University, traces the history of digital games in Turkey and assesses the state of its game development industry. Its central argument is that while Turkish players' habits and play durations parallel global averages, domestic game development has been extremely limited and poorly documented. The authors frame their account against a brief global history, from Spacewar and Pong through Wolfenstein-3D and Doom, before turning to the Turkish context.

The study describes how digital games reached Turkey in the early 1980s, when economic liberalization and limited broadcast options made arcade-style "Atari Salonu" halls popular, prompting a 1985 regulatory response requiring local permits. Home development then progressed through three phases: an amateur period in the 1980s built on machines like the Commodore 64 and magazine-published source code; a semi-professional period in the 1990s centered on Amiga and PC groups such as Siliconworx and Compuphiliacs, whose titles like "Fields of Hope" and "Legends of Istanbul" sold only a few thousand copies each; and a professional stage from 2000 onward, marked by Mevlüt Dinç's company Sobee, mobile developers such as FunPac, and titles like "Pusu" and "Culpa Innata." The authors note a recurring use of Turkish national heroes and culture across these games, and their evidence rests largely on interviews, anecdotes, forums, and blogs due to a scarcity of academic sources.