1997

1997 was the start of BEMANI. Back then, KONAMI didn't use the BEMANI name for their music game franchise; they used the name gmd, in reference to the room number the original beatmania was made in; GMD R&D 14 (Games & Music Division Research & Development 14). The original music staff consisted of three composers: Hiroshi Takeyasu (who soon left the series to work on pop'n music), Reo Nagumo (who would serve as the head sound director of the series for the next year, and later as a sound producer), and Tomomi Ohta, the first female musician in BEMANI. The first beatmania had only seven different songs and only two charts for each song: one for Single, and one for Double.

December

December 10th: beatmania, the very first BEMANI game ever made, is released to Japanese arcades.