30 years ago Electronic Arts shipped its first batch of five games

Electronic Arts shipped its first batch of video games 30 years ago yesterday, according to a post on the Origin website.

In the latest "Halls of EA" post highlighting the company's games and accomplishments, Christy Cases wrote that on May 20, 1983, 50 to 60 EA employees along with founder Trip Hawkins packed and shipped the company's first five games. These employees left their usual duties of programming and marketing to assist in personally packing the titles into boxes and loading them onto UPS trucks. These games were then shipped off to mom-and-pop video game stores, as back then dedicated retailers like GameStop did not exist.

EA's first lineup included Commodore 64 titles Archon: The Light and the Dark, Axis Assassin, Hard Hat Mack, Worms? and MULE.

EA's current senior director of global media solutions Nancy Fong, who was present for the packaging, said the entire company had to pitch in for shipping because they didn't have enough warehouse employees at the time. After packing, the team celebrated with a company barbecue and had t-shirts made bearing the phrase, "I survived: May 20 1983."

"It was a great team bonding experience," she said. "It was hard, but we had fun. The average age of workers at the time was around 25 to 26.

"Everyone was so happy, that was the culmination of so much hard work," she added.