Timeline v2.5

1958: ARPA is established.

1969: ARPA launches the ARPANET computer network.

1971: The first computer virus, ‘Creeper’, is created. A counter program, ‘Reaper’, is used to eliminate it.

1972: Pong is released.

1974: <CLASSIFIED>

1977: ENCOM is listed in TIME Magazine among the ‘Top Ten Companies To Invest In’ following a string of video game hits like Space Paranoids and Vice Squad.

1982: Arcade entrepreneur and former ENCOM employee Kevin Flynn is revealed to be the original coder of ‘The ENCOM Five’ instead of then Senior Executive VP Ed Dillinger.
>TCP/IP, the basic communication language/protocol of the Internet, is developed thanks to government grants. Team lead Tadashi Hikari vows to make the Internet accessible wherever possible.

1983: SciLab is founded by Tadashi Hikari, receives government grants.
>DEFCON 1 is briefly declared by the United States Armed Forces for the first time. The reasoning given is unclear and never unclassified.
>Kevin Flynn is promoted to CEO of ENCOM, along with new board members Alan Bradley and Lora Bradley.

1984: <CLASSIFIED>

1986: The <DATA CORRUPTED> project is shut down by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most of the team members are hired by ENCOM.

1989: The highlight of the 1989 World’s Fair proves to be the world’s first ‘wireless room’, one connected to the Internet. ENCOM is the partner for the project.

>Berlin Wall falls. Within the same week, Kevin Flynn is declared missing and ENCOM’s stake of ownership falls to his young son Sam. Alan Bradley becomes acting CEO until a replacement is named at the end of the year.

1990: In a corporate room shuffle, ENCOM votes to remove Alan and Lora Bradley are removed from their positions as members of the board of directors. Alan and Lora are offered high-ranking positions within ENCOM's engineering department.

1991: The first computer viruses appear. Mass hysteria ensues as millions of dollars in damages occurs. Some appliances end up trying to fight each other.

July 1991: Recall begins of ‘wireless room’ products as a near 100% failure rate occurs amongst all Internet-capable appliances. ENCOM stock declines 47% on the news, government agencies announce a formal review of all contracts with SciLab.

July-December 1991: Virus activity fluctuates wildly in a 'Virus Dark Age'.
<DATA MISSING>

1 December 1991: DEFCOM 1 is declared for the second time
2 December 1991: Internet activity suddenly resumes, though virus levels are at a then-all time high.
7 December 1991: ENCOM and SciLab announce the launch of the PET v1.0, a small electronic portable device touted as a ‘virus busting’ machine thanks to the ‘Network Navigator’ (NetNavi) AI program inside.

1992: Government agencies conclude that SciLab contracts will continue following a decline in virus activity by 93%. Anti-virus protocols are mandated to be installed into all future Internet-capable appliances.
>In the aftermath of the Virus Dark Age, Microsoft stock declines by 26%. Several key members of Microsoft, including Harald Hoerwick, split off to form their own company, CC Corp.

1993: CC Corp releases a 'killer app' for their new OS 'ALTMINT OS', 'The World'. It propels the MMORPG to prominence years ahead of schedule.

1994: <CLASSIFIED>
>Ubi Soft announces the Animus Personal Entertainment Console (APEC) as a competitor to the PET.
>ENCOM announces the untimely death of Lora Bradley.

1995: HBD, or ‘Heart Broken Disease’, is officially discovered. Dr. Tadashi Hikari declares his immediate retirement from SciLab following a cancer diagnosis.
>The PET 2.0 is officially released, offering increased customizability over the palette swaps of the standard NetNavi.
>Plavsky Particle System Engineering (PPSE) releases an add-on to the APEC, with the pack-in game 'Gundam Frontier', an add-on to the APEC designed to digitize Gundam gunpla sets. Upgrades and patches allow it to be ported to PETs.

1996: Dr. Tadashi Hikari is declared legally dead after going missing.
>The popularity of Gundam Frontier makes the news as instances of random players glow red at times, resulting in increased performance. The resulting rollout of the "Gunpla Avatar Increased Output System" (GAIOS) software suite attempts to control and regulate these "Awakenings".

1999: Times Universe, an American company, expands into Eastern Asia in a partnership with the W Corporation. The companies assist with co-sponsoring a NASA/JAXA space elevator near the Hawaiian Islands.
>PPSE debuts a stand-alone hardware rig for dedicated gunpla fights. The GAIOS Frontier pods slowly begin to revitalize arcades across North America.
>A fire destroys CC Corp's databases, eliminating most of data associated with 'The World'.

2000: Internet-based crime syndicates increase scope and reach. Organizations such as ‘W3’ cause billions of dollars in losses.

2001: Following the catastrophic launch of Windows ME, Microsoft declares bankruptcy. Window's market share is roughly split by CC Corp's ALTIMIT OS and ENCOM's OS-7.
>CC Corp releases 'The World R:2', the long-awaited followup to 'The World'. With players unable to transfer character data from 'The World' or illegal legacy servers and with significant gameplay changes, many refer to the launch as 'Goddess's Death'.

20XX: The 5th Gunpla Battle World Championship ends in controversy as champion 'Mr. Gunpla' is defeated by Will Fairhurst, followed by both competitors announcing their retirement from competitive gunpla battling in the following weeks.

20XX: The 7th Gunpla Battle World Championship also ends in controversy as PPSE is nearly bankrupted when the event is attacked by a virus that creates a virtual A Baoa Qu instance. Bandai steps in following the tournament's conclusion, purchasing PPSE.

20XX: Compounding errors and bugs have assembled into Artificially Intelligent Data Anomalies, or AIDA. After much consideration, CC Corp declines to shut down 'The World R:2' for fear of allowing the AIDA to spread to the rest of the Internet.

20XX: fCon CEO Ed Dillinger announces its intention to perform a hostile takeover of ENCOM, filing legal paperwork that Sam Flynn is intentionally tanking the company. The board and CEO file amicus briefs in favor of the takeover.
>ENCOM OS-12 (estimated to be at 26% market share) is announced to have the strictest security measures on the planet to prevent piracy.