My First Video Game System

The very first ‘Video Game’ was invented by Edward U. Condon in 1940, At first it was a simple game called ‘Nim’. In nim players try to avoid picking up the last match. Thousands of people played it, although the computer won at least 90% of the games. Around ten years later in 1950, a new computer program was created by Claude Shannon for the game of chess. In autumn of 1972 the first gaming console was released by ‘Magnavox’ and they called it the Odyssey. Three years later, the next big gaming console arrived when Sears sold the first ‘Atari Pong.’ This was the beginning of a long partnership between Atari and Sears. This relationship lasted multiple years, and Sears sold several successful games. Multiple years later in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System. This new gaming console dominated the Gaming Industry and grew Nintendo’s Company. Nintendo created several gaming console legends, such as the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advanced, Nintendo Gamecube, Gameboy Advanced SD, and Nintendo DS, all of which made a huge impact on everybody’s childhood from 1985 to 2005. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century Playstation and Xbox also started releasing consoles. They are still to this day making successful Gaming Consoles, and individual games, as well as Xbox and Playstation.

Technology has been around since as long as we can remember, it has continuously been evolving and changing. Video games are just one form of technology that have a great impact on lives. Ever since the first home game console (Magnavox Odyssey) there have been many improvements to please the audience. Another reason why video games are being made is to provide the consumers with some form of entertainment which can emerge the player in a deep story or thrilling action. There are many reasons why many find enjoyment in these actions, but what they might not understand that videogames are not just mindless violent games.

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

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

So, I’m going to change things a bit. Instead of just talking about dates and numbers, which can be boring; I’m going to give this a little casual twist. So, in order to start the history let’s get a few facts out of the way. Let’s talk about gamers, mainly because I’ll be using the term a lot; gamers are people who spent a lot of time playing videogames. The Average gamer playing video games has spent twelve years playing them. Adult gamers have an average of fourteen years of playing videogames, guys have an average of sixteen years, and girls have an average twelve years. Speaking of girls did you know that 47% of gamers are girls? I would have never guessed that, but it’s a fact. So, as of 2013 49% of all people who live in The United States owns a console. All of them that own a console have at least two of them. Me, I own eleven… I think I may have a problem. Anyway, now that some of the facts are out of the way let’s start, THE HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES! Now before I start I want to talk about all the most important events in the history of videogames, as I call them eras. Each era is very important because they shaped the videogames we know and love today.

According to the article, "Video Games and Children," by Bernard Cesarone, ever since the 1970?s, parents have been placing their children in front of televisions and allowed them to waste away the hours playing video games (31). As technology and a national surge

This led to a market that was flooded with consoles and left many consumers confused. Adding to this confusion was the fact that there wasn’t many reliable sources for game information. The market was overwhelmed with lackluster and poorly made games and no one was being informed as to which games these were. So eventually people just stopped buying games. All of this mixed with Atari manufacturing too many console units and games led to a market crash many call “The Video Game Crash of ‘83” causing many to label video games as a dying fad.

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.

A “Special Exhibition” that was currently being displayed at the Frost Museum was The History of Video Games. It showcased gaming systems dating all the way back to the early 70’s Atari System. It showed computer as well as gaming systems, and images of games such as Super Mario Bros., Doom, and even as far back as PacMan. The exhibit allowed the viewer to experience the incredible way in which the world of video games has changed in a relatively short amount of time. It used actual gaming systems which the participant could

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

The first is of course the continuous advancement of technology. As technology keeps advancing, so do our video games, and so do the trends. The newest video game trend are video games where you put a head set on and it feels like you are in the game. It responds to your head movements, for example, when you turn right, you look right in the game. People in our society always want something new. They get bored with things very quickly, which also causes new trends. Companies look to use this advancement in technology to come up with new video games so they can make more money. Right now in America, consumers are spending 22 billion dollars a year on video games. If companies can keep making more advancements and creating new trends, Americans will keep spending more and more money, which means more profits for the companies. It is a continuous circle that may never stop. And why this happens, is simply because Americans cannot get enough video games. Americans love to play video games as I have stated before. There are many reasons people play. The first reason is they are just fun. In video games, you can do things you can never do in real life, such as blow up a building or fly a plane. You can do anything you want in the virtual world with out any consequences (for the most part), and people love this. As Jane McGonigal (the director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the

The consumer video game systems offer an exciting opportunity to discuss and analyze the design of technology based on the strategy of each of the players within the industry. We will focus our analysis on the next generation of video consoles: Nintendo’s Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3).

All these developments have created a new type of market. The video games industry has changed dramatically, from a teenage boy playing in front of the TV to a business man or woman playing on a smart phone, blackberry or tablet. Video games are socially accepted as an entertainment tool and has being viewed positively.

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,