I would say the first few were

Suzuki Yu san

Naka Yuji san

and I wish I had heard about Kojima Hideo san back with Metal Gear and Snacher on MSX2 rather then with MGS on PS1. 

and it's said

Geoff Crammond isn't making F1 Games anymore is F1 Games were the best in the industry.   

Will Wright

How much involvement does someone have to have to be considered a developer?

Do you think that a group of 5 people make a game so each of them make 20% so that makes them a developer?

Do you consider the producer who never touches any part of the game a developer?

Do you consider the programmer that creates the interface for help menu a developer?

Do you consider the internal QA tester that spends eight hours a day walking in a corner to see if they can fall through it a developer?

Do you consider the designer that spends the entire project writing documents and balancing spreadsheets a developer?

Do you consider the entry level environmental artist that spends 6 months welding vertices of pieces that a senior artist gave them a developer?

I don't know if you realize this, but creating a game is a massive group effort and all of those above people are game developers.  Just because they don't play a major part, don't create something you actually see, has a job that a trained monkey could do, or is someone that simply overseas development doesn't mean they aren't a game developer.

Making games isn't a group of dudes sitting on a couch with controllers in hand tightening up the graphics on level 3, it's the cohesive effort of a large group of people with widely varied jobs big and small, noticeable and behind the scenes,  and immensely important and seemingly unimportant aspects all working together.

Pardon me if I sound a little offended here but I see it as an insult that you don't consider the composers developers.  I think of it that way because the composers I do know would be incredibly insulted if you thought of their work so insignificant to the game that they aren't actually game developers even though they put years of blood, sweat, and tears into the project.

-edit-

And yes, a composer that has nothing to do with the game wouldn't be counted a developer.  That is true but that is not the case for Nobuo Uematsu at all.

he is one of the fathers of gaming after all.

It would have happened in the Atari 800/Apple II/Commodore 64 generation.  The first was probably Richard Garriott starting with "Ultima III - Exodus."  But it could have also been Stuart Smith, for "Ali Baba and the 40th Thieves."  When Smith's next game Herakles came it - it was like a 'Halo' Launch night for me and my friends.

Good games.

I think you may be misunderstanding my point of view a little. Just because I don't consider them developers does not mean I think their work insignificant. I did just admit music is the 2nd most important thing to me in a game. I understand your point and I know that it's not so simple to categorize the contributions of all those who work on a game. There is no doubt that the work of a composer is essential to a video game.

What I meant was that I see composers as important standalone entities who lend their efforts to various projects without actually being bound by the definition of the different projects. In other words, a figure that exists independently of a given project. A composer is simply a composer. It should go without saying that I hold them in the highest regard.

Sid Meier or David Braben - i don't remember anymore but since i played railroad tycoon maniacally before frontier it probably was Meier.

I also remember reading a lot about Chris Roberts in those days.

Sid Meier, and that's because his names are on all his games, not sure if he's the developer or what. Years later and I still don't really care about who develops it, if I like the game I like it. Never really bothered to research their names

This.

Edit.: Ah wait, Sid Meier.

Edit after reading the thread: I remembered him on me own, not because the name came up a lot later in the thread :).

I also wish I could remember the name of the guy that created Another World...ah, Eric Chani (after googlein it: Eric Chahi). Not exactly famous, but deserves mentioning.

Sid Meier is the earliest I knew of by far; mostly because he had his name stamped across Pirates and Civilization.