The Bejeweled franchise is celebrating a decade of greatness (10 years!), which is a bit surprising. I know that it’s been around for sometime now, but I didn’t realize that it launched when I was in my mid-20s. Let me stop thinking about that before this post descends into a bitchfest about me getting old.
The first iteration of Bejeweled appeared in the spring of 2000 as Diamond Mine, an appropraitely named game due to the oh so sparkly sexiness. A decade (and more than 350 million downloads later) Bejeweled, in its many iterations, has won award upon award. In fact, it was named The Most Popular Puzzle Game Series of the Century by the Guinness World Records 2010 Video Games Edition. Sure, we’re only ten years in, but I’m sure that the fine ladies and gents at Popcap Games are quite the proud mamas and papas.
And rightully so: Popcap Games’ baby is all growns up, appearing on virtually every platform in existence. If you factor in the free-to-play online versions, trial downloads, pre-installs, and demo disks, an estimated half billion people have played Bejeweled in one form or another since its introduction. That’s alot of gem-matching, folks. And I’ve been there every step of the way.
Bejeweled is the game that purged me of my Tetris addiction, which means I essentially replaced an old crack pipe with a brand spanking new one. As Popcap Games celebrates Bejeweled‘s 10th anniversary, let’s take a look at some of the series’ highlights. A nerdy trip down memory lane, if you will.
June of 2000: Bejeweled launches under its original name, Diamond Mine, on Microsoft’s Zone.com.
October, 2000: Diamond Mine is renamed Bejeweled and begins to appear in other portals. This is when I first encounter the game.
Mid-2004: Bejeweled 2 launches. It would eventually touch every platform available: PSN, XBLA, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, PC, Mac, smartphones, featurephones, iPhone, iPod touch, Palm Pre, Zeebo, and the Web. Even airline setbacks! I think my dear ol’ mama even played this.
Oct. 2008: Bejeweled Twist debuts. Not my favorite of the bunch, but still a quality effort.
Dec. 2008: Bejeweled Blitz arrives on the scene. There’s also 3 months of missing time I can’t account for. Coincidence?
Nov. 2009: Bejeweled 2 for the Apple iPhone receives the Bejeweled Blitz update. Oh, my.
April 2010: Bejeweled Blitz gets a PC port. I’m happy that I’m able to muster up enough will power to tear myself away from the game and type this. Ain’t easy, folks.
That’s my history with Popcap’s gem (ha!) of a series–what’s yours?
Happy birthday, Bejeweled. Here’s to many, many more.
