The History of Video Games

Video games are now like another domestic appliance which you have in the home. Today, the new generation of children are born into households which already have a games console weather it is an in them. But 40 years ago, there was a pivotal point where video games were at a make or break moment.

pong: the acclaimed to be the very first video game ever made.

In 1972 Ted Bushnell, founder of Atari and with the help of Al Acorn, went on to design Pong months after the company was found. They two then fashioned a makeshift game cabinet after they rigged it up to a coin mechanism, the placed it in a local bar to test it and when they returned the next morning to find the coin box full and it marked the beginning of a new era in leisure & recreation.

the AGS marked the birth of the console era as it was the first to enter homes

After a number of arcade games, Atari then developed the Atari Gaming System in 1977, reason being that arcades were beginning to be associated with anti-social and degenerate behaviour. This had marked the domestication of video games and a bright future.

the Nes proced some of the most iconic games and carachters of all time

By the 1980s a threat of a games recession began to show. But newcomers Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985 holding the successful video game recipe not being in the technology but with games and iconic characters like Mario and Link(Legend of Zelda) who are today timeless protagonists in the video game world.

the genesis helped sega beat Nintentedo in the bit race

In 1989, SEGA released a 16-Bit console called the Genesis. Although nobody knew what a Bit was at the time, the only thing that people knew was more Bits were always better and when the Genesis was released it marked the beginning of a Bit War between the two companies with the 16-Bit Super Nintendo in 1992 and the 32-Bit SEGA 32X in 1994.

The war went on and on until electronics Giant Sony released the PlayStation in 1993. This was a leap forward as it was the first console to utilise the CD (compact disk) making games much easier and better to produce and also marked a step forward in home entertainment.

the playstation as pictured above is the most successfull games console of all time

the PS2 helped introduce the DVD into homes worldwide

Sony had gained so much momentum that even just speculation of the Playstation 2 kept a Technologically great console such as the SEGA Dreamcast from taking off. In the year 2000 Sony released the Playstation 2, a 64-Bit games console with a not only a CD player but now a DVD player. Once again Sony had provided a superior console and introduced a new technology into households worldwide.

the xbox was the first ever console that held a threat against Sony

Then Microsoft had entered the market that is. In 2001, Microsoft released the Xbox which could doeverything the Playstation could do and better. The Xbox ran on a 32-Bit CPU and held 10GB of memory with downloadable network capabilities. By 2002, it marked the death of past giants Nintendo and Sega and the passing of the torch to Sony and Microsoft and Sony for the next 10 years.

References

Top 10 Video Games Consoles of All Time – thegamescolsole.com – http://www.thegameconsole.com/

Pong – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong

Nintendo Entertainment System – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NES

Super Nintendo Entertainment System – – http://www.NES-Bit.com

SEGA Genesis – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Genesis

SEGA Saturn – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Saturn

Sony Playstation – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation

Nintendo 64 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64

SEGA Dreamcast – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast

Playstation 2 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2

Microsoft Xbox –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox