Evolution of Video Games

"William Higinbotham, who in 1958 created a game called Tennis for Two…" (The Beginning), is the one credited for the invention of the video game. At this stage in time, this new innovation did not spark much interest with the public. "Computer and video games themselves did not become part of the

Although, seeing as video games are increasingly popular today, not everyone met as unfortunate of a fate. Today, many could credit this to the video game development corporation known as Atari, which arose in 1972 and continuously flourished until about 1982. In 1972, Atari came out with PONG, the first electronic arcade game, and it was an enormous accomplishment that exploded into what is now called the electronic gaming revolution. As time passed, Atari managed to triumph over its competition time and time again, but that is not to say that each of the failed corporations did not feature something that is used today. In fact, a couple of the failed organizations contributed something original to what is common today. For instance, Fairchild Camera and Instrument creating the first system that could play several different games, rather than just one. Another aforementioned group, RCA, was the first to produce and utilize keypad controllers instead of paddles or joysticks. Other consoles that came along, such as Intellivision and Vectrex, sported better graphics than the Atari’s consoles and games, but they still did not manage to gross the amount of money that Atari did because Atari was still on top of collecting all of the most entertaining and enjoyable games of their time. Keep in mind what attracted the masses to video games in the past: fun and addictive gameplay, not how good they looked. Now that the principal eras of gaming have been

"William Higinbotham, who in 1958 created a game called Tennis for Two…" (The Beginning), is the one credited for the invention of the video game. At this stage in time, this new innovation did not spark much interest with the public. "Computer and video games themselves did not become

World 's first commercially sold coin-op video game was called “Computer space”. It was created in 1971 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Unfortunately it wasn 't successful due low marketing, the complicity of game play and difficulty of controls. But creators of “Computer space” didn 't

Video games have been around since the 1950’s. The first computer game was called Chess and there was no “video” to be displayed. The program was not even powerful enough to play the full game. The first computer game to use video was called XOX, or Noughts and Crosses, a form of digital tic-tac-toe. Since then, video games have rapidly grown in popularity and improved the play style and graphics. Some graphics in video games that are currently being released look realistic and the gameplay is smoother. Also, video games today are no longer confined to a desktop computer. There are now gaming laptops, consoles (Ex. GameCube, Xbox, PS3), handheld video games (Ex. Gameboy, 3DS, PSP), and you can now play games on your smart phone anywhere you want. The most popular ways to play video games are on computers or on consoles. PC gaming (computer gaming) and console gaming have been at a “gaming war” for yeas on which is better to play video games on. Both PC gaming and console gaming offer entertainment and a journey into a fantasy world, however, each offers a different way of gaming for the player. Depending on which system is chosen can determine the cost of the system and the upkeep, the way it is played and the special features each have to offer.

“During the 1940s and the 1950s, computers took up entire rooms and were so expensive that only universities and large companies could afford them” (Behring 1). Being as that, computers were too expensive to obtain to be able to create a game, “students Steve Russell and his friends” used their school’s computer to create the “dueling game between two spaceships”, called “Spacewar”. (Behring 1) They game began to be used at other universities that also had computer programs. Ralph Baer who was an engineer, considered using the television to play video games on. Baer then created the first video games for the television in 1967(Behring2). Once the first games were created more games followed. Then what would be known as the gaming industry by a “Nolan Bushnell”, who wanted to use they games for retail. The industry would grow within a short span of time in which the sales declined until evolved games would once again rise sales and future advancements.

Video games were originated first in laboratories by scientists. “This first idea came from their imaginations in late 1940s but unfortunately it did not reach the people as they were confined only to laboratories. This situation was observed till early 1970s until arcade games became popular.Then later on a new start-up named “Atari” unleashed a new

Gaming has been around since the 1960’s and was nothing like the high definition games that we currently sitting in the living room, it was simply a game where a player controls a paddle and hits a ball back and forth similar to the more famous game the world knows as Pong. In 1970’s the very first arcade video games were being developed and by 1978 to 1982 also known as the golden age of arcade video games these coin hungry machines were easily found in a plethora of

The 1980’s is when the video game industry began to take off in earnest. In 1977 came the Atari 2600. Intellivision came next, introduced by Mattel in 1980. Intellivision, which featured better graphics compared to the older Atari 2600, became very popular. The ColecoVision, the most powerful console to date, appeared in 1982. Like the others, its sales also grew. However, having three major consoles on the market, a

Video games have been known to play a part in the childhood of many people. Although there is much debate about what video game was really made first, Spacewar!, made by Steve Russell and first premiered for the public in 1962, is one of the many games people list as the first real video game. Later, in 1972, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney teamed up to create the Atari company, which would produce coin-operated video games such as their first big hit, Pong. Little by little, gaming technology became more complex and in 1972 the Magnavox Odyssey was released by Ralph Baer as a video game console for home use. However, at that time Atari’s video game system had become one of the most successful systems on the American market, until the market

The first video game, Spacewar, was created by three MIT students in 1961 (Johnson, 215). Spacewar involved two players flying spaceships and firing torpedoes at one another. Johnson takes a more optimistic take on technology, in comparison to Carr. He discusses how video games contributed to the entertainment aspect of technology and computers, which now generates $100 billion in sales (Johnson, 217-218). Programmers could now take a more creative route, fulfilling magical worlds that could be accessed by players around the world.

Video games are a great pass time and relaxing getaway from everyday life, but how have the systems that play the wide verity of video games change over the years? The first video game console was called “The Brown Box”, created by Ralph H. Baer in 1962. The Brown Box was designed as a “Rectangular Brown Wooden Box with two attached controllers”. Ralph Baer was then nicknamed “The Father of Video Games”, the console only had 6 games, most notably was “Ping-Pong” also known as “Pong”.

Did video game consoles gradually evolve over time, or was it an abrupt evolution? Currently there are only three companies producing home video game consoles, which are Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft and they had to fight to get to where they are. Is there a certain formula a company must follow to become successful in this business or were they just lucky? This paper will look at the evolution of home video game consoles over time, starting with the first home video game console in the 1970s to current day consoles. I surmise that there are certain characteristics that companies with successful video game consoles have over others. I also surmise that because of the available technology at the time that video games consoles will be grouped

The first real “video game” was developed in 1958, by a physicist named William Higginbotham. It was a table tennis game and is played on an oscilloscope, a device used for visual displays. While some big name games, companies, and events had, yet, to happen, it sparked the video game industry. These paragraphs will guide you through the many years of games. As Mario would say, “Lets‘a go!!”

Herman et all (2002) points out that history of video games begins from 1971 year, when Nutting association released 1500 machines with Spacewar video game. At the beginning it was too difficult to control the game process and playing machines had huge dimensions. But by the time with new technologies they become more compact and easier to play. According to the information given by Herman et all (2002), the period between the years of 1978-1981 is called ‘golden age’ of video game industry. In this period the arcade games ‘Football’ and ‘Space Invaders’ were released. All previously known sale records were broken by these two games with nearly equal wages. In this time interval great breakthroughs in the field of graphics were achieved,