History of video game consoles
Though the history of the video game spans almost five decades, video games themselves didn't become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s.
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2 The 1960s 3 The 1970s 4 The 1980s 5 The 1990s 6 Early 21st Century 7 See also 8 External links |
Early years
Many people attribute the invention of the video game to William Higinbotham, who in 1958 created a Pong-like game called Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope to entertain visitors at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This is incorrect, as under the general definition, the first video game came about six years prior to Tennis for Two.
A.S. Douglas developed a graphical version of Tic-Tac-Toe in 1952 at the University of Cambridge in order to demonstrate his thesis on Human-Computer interaction. It was played on the now archaic EDSAC computer, which implemented cathode ray tubes in order to create a visual display. In spite of its technological antiquity, the game is still playable on emulators available on the Internet.
The 1960s
In 1961, a group of students at MIT, including Steve Russell, programmed a game called Spacewar on the then-new DEC PDP-1. The game pitted two human players against each other, each controlling a space ship capable of firing missiles. A black hole in the centre created a large gravitational field and another source of hazard. This game was soon distributed with new DEC computers and traded throughout primitive cyberspace. It was the first widely available and influential game.
One of the developers of Multics, Ken Thompson, continued to develop the operating system after AT&T stopped funding it. His work focussed on development of the OS for the GE-645 mainframe. He actually wanted to play a game he was writing called Space Travel. Though the game was never released commercially (and apparently costing $75 per go on the mainframe), the game's development led to the invention of the UNIX operating system.
In 1966, an engineer named Ralph Baer created a simple video game called Chase that could be displayed on a standard television set. Baer continued development, and in 1968 he had a prototype that could play several different games, including versions of table tennis and target shooting.
The 1970s
In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar and called it Computer Space. Nutting Associates bought the game, hired Bushnell, and manufactured 1,500 Computer Space machines. The game was not a success because people found it difficult to play.
As Bushnell felt he didn't receive enough pay by licensing games to other manufacturers, he founded his own company, Atari, in 1972. The first arcade video game with widespread success was Atari's Pong, released the same year. The game is loosely based around table tennis: two players each control a "paddle" which has the freedom to move up and down at their end of the "court". A ball is "served" from the center of the court and as the ball moves towards their side of the court each player must maneuver their bat to hit the ball back to their opponent. Atari sold 19,000 Pong machines, and soon many imitators followed. The coin-operated arcade video game craze had begun.
1972 also saw the release of the first video game console for the home market, the Magnavox Odyssey, based on Ralph Baer's earlier work and licensed from his employer. The console was connected to a home television set. Built using mainly analog electronics, it was not a large success, although other companies with similar products (including Atari) had to pay a licensing fee for some time.
1976 saw the first controversy over gratuitous violence in a video game, with the release of Death Race, by Exidy, where the object of the game was to run over "gremlins"—who looked more like pedestrians—with a car. The controversy increased public awareness of video games.
Early home computers from Apple, Commodore, TRS-80 and others had many games, that people typed in from books (those present will remember David Ahl's book, Basic Computer Games), magazines (Creative Computing), and cassette tapes, floppy disks, and ROM cartridges.
In 1977, Atari released its cartridge-based console called Video Computer System (VCS), later called Atari 2600.
In 1978, Nintendo released an arcade game: Computer Othello.
In 1978, Atari released Asteroids, its biggest best-seller. It replaced the game Lunar Lander as the number one arcade hit.
In 1979, Activision was created by disgruntled former Atari programmers. It was the first third-party developer of video games ever.
Other arcade classics of the late 1970s include Night Driver, Space Invaders, Breakout and Battle Zone.
While the fruit of development in early video games appeared mainly (for the consumer) in video arcades and home consoles, the rapidly evolving home computers of the 1970s and 80s allowed their owners to program simple games. Soon many of these games (often clones of popular arcade games) were being distributed through a variety of channels, included the physical mailing and selling of floppy disks and tapes, and the inclusion of the game's source code in magazines and newsletters, which allowed users to type in the code for themselves. Soon a small cottage industry was formed, with amateur coders selling disks in plastic bags sent through the mail.
Home video-game systems became popular during the 1980sThe 1980s
Shigeru Miyamoto was asked to fix the pre-production Radarscope, an arcade game to be released by Nintendo. He decided to make a new game instead: Donkey Kong, which instantly became a big success.
Coleco released Colecovision, a cartridge-based home console. Nintendo licensed Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr to Coleco. Midway released a top-selling game: Ms. Pacman and Namco released Super Pacman.
The famous Commodore 64 (C64) was released in 1983. This was a great success in sales, because it was marketed aggressively. It had a BASIC programming environment and advanced graphic and sound capabilities for its time, similar to the Atari 2600 console.
In mid-1983 the video game industry crashes.
In 1984, The Apple Macintosh arrives. It lacked color, but the operating system support for the GUI attracted developers of some interesting games (e.g. Lode Runner) even before color returned in 1987 with the Mac II.
In 1985 Nintendo saves the North American video game console market by releasing its Famicom in the United States under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was bundled with Super Mario Brothers and it suddenly became a success. The NES dominated the market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the early 1990s, causing some to call this time the Nintendo era. Squaresoft was founded and Hironobu Sakaguchi decided to make their final game a fantasy role-playing game, and the Final Fantasy series is born. Final Fantasy 1 saved Squaresoft from bankruptcy.
In 1989 Nintendo released the Game Boy, a monochrome handheld console. Sega released its 16-bit console, Sega Genesis.
The 1990s
In 1990, Nintendo's sales rose because of the success of Super Mario 3. SNK released the 16-bit NeoGeo console in home and arcade formats.
In 1991, Nintendo released the SNES home console. Sega created Sonic the Hedgehog. The first fighting game arcade success was Street Fighter II, released by Capcom. The "16-bit Genesis and SNES were the most popular consoles for the next several years.
Midway released its top-selling fighting game Mortal Kombat in 1992. It became an instant success. It was the first game with digitized characters. It was criticized for its gratuitous violence, which ironically added to its popularity. Nintendo released a version for SNES without blood and different fatalities.
In 1994, Rare made a game for Nintendo called Donkey Kong Country. The game was popular because of its distinct graphics, sound and gameplay. Its 3D pre-rendered graphics contributed to its success. Nintendo released Super Game Boy, an adaptation for the SNES in order to be able to play Gameboy games in the console.
In 1995, Nintendo released its 32-bit virtual-reality console called Virtual Boy. Sega released the Sega Saturn. Sony released the PlayStation and its sales started to rival Nintendo and Sega.
In 1996, after many delays, the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 are released. More than 1.5 million units were sold in only three months. Nintendo stopped manufacturing Virtual Boy.
In 1998, Nintendo released and the Game Boy Color. The Sega Saturn is discontinued and considered to be a huge failure.
In 1999, Sega released the DreamCast (named Katana before release). Connectix Corporation released the Virtual Game Station, a successful PlayStation emulator. Sony went to court to dispute the legality of the system, but Connectix won. The Bleem company released Bleem, another PlayStation emulator.
Early 21st Century
In 2000, Sony released the PlayStation 2.
In 2001, Nintendo released the GameCube and the successor to the Game Boy Color, the Game Boy Advance. Microsoft entered the videogame console industry by releasing its new home console, the Xbox. Sega announced they would discontinue the Dreamcast and no longer manufacture hardware.
In 2002, Sega became a third-party developer for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Following the launch of the GameCube, Nintendo releases Super Mario Sunshine.
In 2003, Microsoft bought Rare. Nokia introduced the N-Gage multimedia handheld console. 3DO filed bankruptcy. Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance SP compact handheld console and . Infogrames, owner of the Atari intellectual properties, changes its name to Atari.
In 2004, Nintendo announced a brand new type of portable handheld console, the Nintendo DS. Nintendo also re-releases eight separate NES games to the GameBoy Advance caled the Classic NES Series. Sony announced the PSP.
See also
External links