The History Of Video Games

Would it not be awesome if we could do the things one can only dream of doing? Imagine a world where you can be a running back in the NFL, a powerful sorcerer, and Batman, all in the same day. This world does exist and its the world of video games. Video games allow us to escape reality and the stress that comes with it. It is a world of infinite possibilities with something for everyone. You can slay huge aliens with your friends in a virtual reality, harvest the crops from you very own virtual farm, or even run your own country! In the world of video games, you can do whatever your heart desires! But video games have not always been this way and have not always been around. It has taken a

"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

As mentioned before, television was first introduced to the public at the World’s Fair in 1939. Yet because of World War II, it was not fully able to make its

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

Around the middle of the 20th Century man cultures started to grow beyond what they previously were thanks to different mediums (such as television and music) helping to push boundaries; with this came the birth of pop culture. Considering pop culture is a shortened version of popular culture it’s clear that many of the things in pop culture would be short lived. The short lived trends and happenings are labeled as “fads”. Strangely enough, some fads progress beyond their short lifespan and actually become a mainstay in the varying international cultures. One such example might be familiar as it is common in today’s society. This example is, indeed, video games.

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

He was funded by a wealthy banker who was convinced Farnsworth would succeed with his ambition to perfect the electronic television. After five years in San Francisco, Farnsworth presented his electronic television, but took a blow when his television did not project the image. People were convinced that there was no future for television, but not everyone was so doubtful. England was searching for what would be the future format of television. Scottish scientist James Bear, was convinced his mechanical television was the future, but England was curious to see Farnsworth invention. This time, Farnsworth presentation not only wowed the crowd, but even James Bear was astonished by the clear picture on the

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

Almost everyone in the world has played some sort of videogame before. They exist everywhere and are becoming more and more accessible due to the globalization of technology. On average you will spend 10,000 hours playing video games from 5th to 12th grade (McGonigal, 2010). It is estimated that 68% of households play video games (Evolution of Games, 2010). So where did video games originate from? What was the first game ever created?

Baer: he was nicknamed “The Father of Video Games”. In 1975 there was a console called Atari Sears Tele-Game Pong System. Another interesting fact is that the consoles are banned in China. The video game console is important because it helped develop a gaming life for some people and community for a lot of people that like to play video games. Today its role is for kids and adults to enjoy their gaming life and interact with friends on a video game to get in touch more often. The video game console has evolved over about 48 years and it has changed in many ways. One way it has changed is well just everything and it was not able to be connected with your TV back then but now you can. One interesting fact is that the Nintendo and play station were sold with 155 million units. The very first video game console came out in 1972 and it was called The Magnavox Odyssey. It became popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The first ever video game to play on the video game console was Tennis for Two. It was the very first one even though people thought the first video game was Pong most of those people were wrong. In 1976 they released a console named Fairchild Channel F in

The first video game was invented in 1958 by William Higinbotham at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, NY. It was a table tennis like game played on an oscilloscope. However, there was no official name for this game. It was very simple with very simple controls. Three years later, Steve Russell invented Spacewar, the first interactive computer game in 1961. However, a year later in 1970 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney begin to attempt to create an arcade version of Spacewar, calling it Computer Space. One year later in 1971, Computer Space became the first video arcade game ever released. “Survivals games like Pac-man and shooting games like Spacewar were very popular back in my day.” (Carolyn C. Clark, from Jamie Clark interview). Even though these games were very simple, their popularity grew faster and faster as the years went by.

In 1966, while working as an engineer for Sanders Associates, Baer “scribbled out a four-page description for the ‘game box’ that would allow people to play action, sports and other games on a television set. (Mullis, 2014) Seven prototypes were developed and the first patent was filed in 1971 making it the first video game patent in history. Magnavox was given the license and they developed the Odyssey in 1972 making it the world’s first home video game.

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,