History of Video Games Essay

"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

The magic 8 ball or the Syco-Slate was first created by Albert C. Carter. As a young man, Carter was fascinated by his mother’s job, Psycho-Slate. The Psycho-Slate was basically a fortune teller. He was inspired in her work and wanted to do something like that. In 1944, he created the Syco-Slate. The Syco-Slate is a liquid-filled tube,

The first console was called the Brown Box and was mad by a TV maker, Ralph Baer. The Brown Box was made in 1967. Nolan Bushaell bounded Atari in 1972. Atari then had its first big hit with the infamous Pong. In 1980 Mattel releases the Intelivision which is the first challenge against Atari’s rule. Nintendo wasn’t always the video game we know, it was originally a Japanese playing card company. In 1985 Nintendo releases the Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System, Wow what a creative name that is. Then in 1989 they released their second smash hit with the Gameboy, to compete with other companies such as Atari, Who released their Atari 2600. It included the newly released Tetris which would grow to become a massive hit to top off the huge sales of the Gameboy. In 1991 the super Nes is released. Then the original PlayStation is released in 1995 becoming extremely popular. To combat this popularity Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in 1996. It includes favorites such as Mario 64, Zelda, and Metroid. The PS2 is released in 2000 marking the beginning of a new era of game consoles. It is the first console to include 128 bit graphics. A problem with original game consoles such as the Atari 2600 is they had little memory. With such little memory Graphics could only be up to 160 by 228 pixels. The normal today is 1925 by 1080 pixels. Some of the earliest adventure games used text instead of images to create the world you’re in. The first of these “text” games was

When video games were first being introduced to the general public, they weren’t all that exciting. Most gaming took place in arcades and most arcades didn’t have many game cabinets due to their being very few games to begin with. However, all of this changed when the Atari 2600 was released. At the time, Atari was known for their home computers and their hit arcade game “Pong”. Though the Atari 2600 might not have been the first video game system, it was definitely the most successful at that time and a great success for Atari’s first attempt at a home video game console. Thanks to the success of the 2600, video games began to take off and arcades started popping up all over the world with hits like “Pac-Man” and “Donkey Kong”. These would be the

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

Alot of people like video game, but don’t really think much about who came up with this and how did it get so popular well here are the answers to those questions. In 1972 Atari develops the very 1st video game Pong a table tennis like game.The game came in a console of its own you could not play anything on it but pong.Today pong seems like a pile of junk, but back in 1972 It was like the invention of the light bulb.Atari was the biggest company for 3 whole years until the competition came to rise.

Video games have been around since 1958, when physicist William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two to entertain guests for the Brookhaven national Laboratory. MIT arguably created the first real and widely known video game in the late 1960s, Spacewar!. Many people think that the first commercially available game is Pong!, this on the other hand, is not true. The first commercially available video game was called Computer Space. It was an arcade game much like Spacewar!, the only difference being that Computer Space used more processing power and new technology, and that it was the first arcade game as well, not available to personal computers or home televisions. The Magnavox Odyssey was the first home console that was available for the general public. It featured a controller much like the one that pong would eventually make, except that its two dials controlled vertical and horizontal, rather than just vertical. The Magnavox Odyssey as a console was eventually a huge failure, leaving tens of thousands unsold. Games continued to be produced for households, with the most noticeable violent game releasing on August 18, 1995. The game was called Mortal Kombat, the game depicted two

He got to thinking and started combining ideas from other games to make the game of what it is known today as basketball. Naismith invented this game in 1891 (Faurschou).

Black Hole was the first pinball machine to feature two play fields the lower field being viewed from a window in the upper field. Shortly after its release black hole was reported to be the highest grossing pinball machine of all time. This maybe due to the fact that it was the first machine to cost 50 cents per play(this is an argued

Atari was the first commercial video game company with hits like ‘break out” and “pong”. For many people pong was the first video game they have ever played. The idea of pong is that there is two rectangles that only move up and down and a little square that bounces around the screen until one of the rectangles miss, once the rectangle miss’ the game is over. This game may seem simple now but it sold 19,000 units so you can say what you want but back then this was the greatest game ever.

The very first video game was founded in the late 1940’s games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. “The earliest example is from 1947—a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U.S. Patent, inspired by radar display tech, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen ”.Video games had no representational images or art they were moving blocks and simulations during the 1950s and 1960s. This all changed during the arcade era in the 1970s, with the creation of arcade games and the rise of the early Nintendo. Games such as Mario, Atari, Duck hunt, Mike

This however inspired other programmers to make more games and the following year Atari released ‘PONG’ as an upright arcade machine, the aim of the games is to score points in a simulated tennis style match.

Although the first video games appeared in the 1950s,[1] they were played on massive computers connected to vector displays, not analog televisions. Ralph H. Baer conceived the idea of a home video game in 1951. In the late 1960s while working for Sanders Associates he created a series of video game console designs. One of these designs, which gained the nickname of the "Brown Box", featured changeable game modes and was demonstrated to several TV manufactures ultimately leading to an agreement between Sanders Associates and Magnavox.[2]

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,