The Grandfathers Of Video Games

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.

Some of companies of the 1980s were Nintendo, Sega, Epoch, Bandai and Sony. (“5 of 7”) They were all designing new video game consoles and developing games to sell with the console. (“5 of 7”) Some companies were epic failures and others opened the way to new technologies. The Famicom Disk System, which was released by Nintendo, also known as the FDS, failed in Japan and both the game system and the games were unreliable. Regardless of case, several million were sold. (McFerran) In the late 1980s Nintendo released its

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 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

After Sega went out of business with their last console, the Sega Dreamcast, there were only two developers creating consoles which was Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft saw an opportunity to make money and they had already had some experience in the video game industry with their help at Sega.

In 1985, Nintendo launched their first at-home console, known as the Family Computer (Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S.). Miyamoto created the two

In 1889, Fusajiro Yamauchi founded a small company in a building in the heart of Kyoto, Japan.(Nintendo History. n.d.) The company's purpose was to create a form of Japanese playing card called Hanafuda. He called this company Nintendo. Over the next century Nintendo grew and expanded, changing its products and services, and attempting new things as the times changed. Then, during the 1970s Nintendo fixed its eyes on a new market, video games. Nintendo showcases how a small card company can become a gaming powerhouse and a legend for companies and gamers alike.

The battle went for 2 years until this happened in 1977 Shigeru miyamoto went to Nintendo an average card game company that made things like flower games and other card games.miyamoto turned that company into a high scale video game company. They released the nes and went overboard of anything Atari had done all their existence.miyamoto joined at the age of 25 and currently is at the age of

Nintendo started as a small Japanese business by Fusajiro Yamauchi near the end of 1889 as Nintendo Koppai. Based in Kyoto, Japan, the business produced and marketed a playing card game called Hanafuda. In 1956, Nintendo’s president Hiroshi Yamauchi began to realize the limitation of playing cards business because it was viewed as a mere tool of gambling. In order to overcome the limitation, Nintendo struck a deal with Disney in 1959 which allowed them to put Disney characters on their playing cards. This opens up new markets where both children and homemakers started purchasing playing cards.5 Due to this success; Nintendo went public in 1962 and became a listed company in Osaka Stock Exchange. Soon after, Nintendo started to venture in

Everyone was excited about a new gaming system that was coming out;“Nintendo first released the handheld Game Boy system in North America on July 31, 1989” (Epstein pg.45). Many families stood in line for hours trying to get their kids the Nintendo, some parents didn’t stand in line for their kids they stood in line for themselves. When the Game Boy first came out they were only $89.99, today they are $169.99. They were the new toy that every kid wanted to have. Parents started

Nintendo first started out as a playing card company that would soon grow into one of the largest video game company in the world. Shigeru Miyamoto created one of Nintendo’s most well-known iconic characters: Mario. Mario made his first appearance in Donkey Kong named as Jumpman. With the graphic limitations at the time Mario’s design was simple and consisted of red overalls, a blue shirt, large nose, and a mustache. A beloved character by all, Mario with his simplistic games, has made an impact on those who have played them. Mario continues to play a role in their lives. To this day, Nintendo depends on their widely known mascot to help them succeed in the gaming industry.

After see how successful video games were becoming they began to dabble in them originally with systems like the color TV game 6. In the 70's Nintendo began to head to America to cash in on the growing arcade market but his Japanese games weren't a him in the states so he turned to Shigeru Miyamoto who released his most recent project Donkey Kong (Walker, J)which was the smash hit Nintendo need and they set up an American branch of the company. Hiroshi's methods were controversial at best in fact he set up three different research and development units meant to compete with one another which gave the world different but successful ideas One of his best ideas was known as Famicom but in America it was referred to as the Nintendo entertainment system one of the first systems that ran multiple game through a cartridge for the system Hiroshi was the only one to decide what games were to be released which is believed to one of the best decisions due to his great insight on what people in the future would want. After the super Nintendo an update on the Nintendo entertainment system the company released the virtual boy one of the biggest flops the company has taken It was a 32 bit 3d table top console.

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,

16 bit processors. The year 1989 saw the leap from 8-bit to 16-bit consoles with NEC’s TurboGrafx-16 and Sega’s Genesis 16, both of which featured six-channel stereo sound. The 16-bit processing chip offered by Sega could process two times as much data per cycle as the earlier 8-bit processors. Additionally, it included an 8-bit processor solely for sound. Combined, this resulted in a clearer, fuller sound; larger, more detailed games; better developed characters; complex graphics; and faster action. Finally, home video game systems could compete with the performance features of the much larger coin-operated arcade games. With this increase in technology, Sega was able to surpass the Nintendo system in sales by 1991, and became the