Activision Blizzard is one of the largest, most talked-about video game companies in the world. Never before has one entity so completely dominated the landscape of gaming, with a lock on the most popular genres and partnerships with the world's most talented developers. And its newest addition, an industry darling named Blizzard Entertainment , may be its most important.

Starting from humble beginnings, Blizzard developed a host of classic games that are held in high regard by retro gaming aficionados. Who doesn't get misty-eyed over the Lost Vikings and Rock n' Roll racing? It's hard to believe that this is the same company behind the biggest MMO in the world, perhaps the highest profile strategy game in the world, and a handful of big-budget upcoming projects. Getting to this point wasn't without its difficulties and hardships, but it's certainly been a fun ride. Join us as we take a look back at the History of Blizzard.

Two of the three founders of Blizzard Entertainment have remained completely involved with their original enterprise, a testament to the company's staying power. Allen Adham, Frank Pearce, and Mike Morhaime founded the company Silicon & Synapse in February of 1991, just after they graduated from UCLA where Adham had studied computer science and had previously worked on coding games with Interplay, Datasoft, and Software Toolworks. (Adham left Blizzard in 2004.) The company's early projects were all ports, an easy way for the founders to become comfortable with coding techniques and art design. If you ever played Battle Chess on Windows or Commodore 64 you experienced one of Blizzard's first works. You'll also probably never forget the gory "castle takes queen" animation. Other ports included Lord of the Rings on Amiga and Shanghai on Windows.

In 1992 Blizzard (still known as Silicon and Synapse) released a remake of Racing Destruction Set called RPM Racing on the Super Nintendo Entertainment system. The title acted as the foundation for what would be one of the company's first original projects. The next year they released Rock & Roll Racing and The Lost Vikings for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The Lost Vikings combined a humorous attitude with a clever technique of having players switch between three characters to solve platforming puzzles. Rock n' Roll Racing is perhaps best known for its licensed instrumental versions of classic rock songs including Bad to the Bone. Oh, it also featured Larry "Super Mouth" Huffman providing racing commentary.

While Blizzard was gaining experience on the home console in 1992, Westwood Studios released the enormously influential Dune II. Though it wasn't much of a commercial success, this unique strategy title would certainly impact Blizzard's next project and PC gaming would never be the same.

"When we were a much younger and smaller company, the bonds that developed between everyone were very strong. It was easy to know everyone well because going out for a beer only meant taking 2 or 3 cars to bring the entire company." - Frank Pearce talking to IGN in 2001

In 1994, Silicon and Synapse briefly changed their name to Chaos Studios and then finally settled on Blizzard, a name that has become known the world over. They were also hard at work on their next project, one that would carry a moniker that would become even more popular than the studio itself.

1994 was also the year Blizzard released Blackthorne for the SNES. This bloody platformer starred a shotgun toting space pirate that battled villains bearing more than a passing resemblance to the orcs that would become so recognizable in later Blizzard products. By that summer, PC gamers were circulating the demo for Warcraft: Orcs vs. Humans. The series took the top-down strategy tactics in Dune II and added an approachable fantasy presentation. Anyone familiar with Tolkein's tales could find something familiar in the colorful and often humorous characters portrayed in Warcraft. It no longer mattered who was "first" to the genre after Blizzard played to their greatest strength: tapping into mass appeal.

Perhaps what is most important about this landmark game for Blizzard was that it didn't just attract hardcore gamers, but it generated them. The addition of multiplayer over modem and LAN allowed for the full potential of the strategy genre to be explored by millions of friends experiencing online competition in a strategy game for the first time. Warcraft not only put Blizzard on the map, it also made the company profitable.

"For me, when I got my start it was back in '94 after we shipped Warcraft 1 and the company was probably 25 employees at the time. I went to CES and we had a ten-by-ten booth and there were a few dozen people who came by our booth to take a look at the game and they were all excited." - Shane Dabiri Speaking with IGN in 2009

When the first Warcraft hit store shelves it was one of three real time strategy games on the market. Years later this genre would be flooded by clones and knock-offs, but Blizzard had a foothold in what would become one of the most popular genres on PC. The follow-up, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness , would be released for MS-DOS at the very end of 1995. A significant upgrade to the original, the award-winning sequel enthralled gamers and swept the awards season at the end of 1996. It's difficult to understand what we take for granted in today's games, but to gain some perspective, Warcraft II was the first game ever to feature the fog of war, scouting units (remember the blimps?), and of course characters that became audibly annoyed when players incessantly clicked on them.

Blizzard forged ahead technologically as well. Warcraft II included an easy-to-use map editor that let players share their .PUD files across the web. Along with two-player matches over a modem and eight-player matches over a local network, Warcraft II became popular over Kali, a tool that allowed players to take the game online and a third-party precursor to Blizzard's own Battle.net. The company realized the importance of this online aspect of the game and would incorporate it heavily into their next project.

Everyone has their favorite Blizzard title, but the importance of the original Warcraft series is undeniable. When WarCraft II went up against the Westwood-developed title Command & Conquer (which was released in August of 1995) it spawned a rivalry to Mario vs. Sonic on the consoles. This battle of the strategy games turned casual players into passionate fans, spurred innovation in both titles and bolstered PC gaming as a whole.