The history of the snake game
Few games have lasted as long as snake. The idea is simple enough to explain in one sentence and deep enough to play for decades: move, eat, grow, and don't run into anything. Here is how it got from 1970s arcades to today's multiplayer arenas.
The arcade original (1976)
The snake idea began in 1976 with Blockade, an arcade game for two players. Each player steered a line that left a trail behind it, and the first to crash into a trail lost. There was no food yet: it was a pure game of space and trapping, much like the cut-offs in multiplayer snake today.
Home computers and the first snakes that eat
Through the late 1970s and the 1980s, the idea spread to home computers as dozens of versions under different names. Somewhere along the way the line got a head and started eating: food that made it longer. Arcade games like Nibbler (1982) turned it into a maze game with a snake that grew as it ate. That was the version that stuck.
Snake goes in everyone's pocket (1997)
Snake became famous worldwide in 1997, when it shipped on mobile phones. Millions of people who had never owned a games console played it on a tiny screen with a number keypad, competing for high scores with friends and family. For many people, "snake" still means that game.
Its success came from the same things that make snake great now: you learn it in seconds, every game is short, and you always feel you could do better next time.
The .io era (2016)
In 2016, browser games brought snake online. Huge live arenas let hundreds of players steer snakes at once in a single shared world, with free movement instead of a grid. Snake became a social game again, as it had been in 1976.
Where Snake Feast fits
Snake Feast goes back to the classic grid, with precise turns and fair collisions, and brings it online properly: real-time matches against friends and players worldwide, modes like battle royale and King of the Hill, power-ups, and a daily challenge for the high-score chasers. It plays in any browser and on phones, as snake always has.
Frequently asked questions
What was the first snake game?
Blockade, an arcade game from 1976, is usually named as the first: two players leaving trails and trying to make the other crash.
When did snake become a phone game?
In 1997, when it was built into mobile phones and became one of the most-played games in the world.
Is multiplayer snake new?
No. The very first snake game was a two-player game. Online multiplayer brought that back.
