History of Video Games

The history of video games is a fairly recent one; the first video games were created in the 1950s as computer demonstrations and visual diversions. Little did their creators know the massive entertainment industry they would spawn.

The title of first computer game creator is often credited to A.S. Douglas, the developer of a graphical tic-tac-toe game in 1952 on a mainframe computer at the University of Cambridge. In 1958, William Higinbotham created a simple tennis game on his oscilloscope at Brookhaven National Laboratory and in 1962 Steve Russell from M.I.T. led the team that programmed SpaceWars on a PDP-1 mini-computer; the computer allowed two users to play the game simultaneously.

While the first games were created to run on computers, the game Ralph Baer wrote in 1967 was displayed on a television set. This advance led to the release of his game and several variations on the Odyssey system by Magnavox in 1972. While Baer was working on the home system, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney were at work on the first arcade game, Computer Space. Computer Space was released in 1971 and its success led Bushnell to found Atari Computer. In 1975, Atari's home version of Pong was a top seller and the video game industry was launched.

The late 1970s and early 1980s brought an assortment of game systems from various manufacturers. Some of the systems never attained any success (for example, who has heard of the Emerson Arcadia 2001), while others found a wider audience. Mattel's Intellivision, the Atari 2600 and 5200 and the ColecoVision all had followings, but the market crashed in 1984. Suddenly, manufactured games were landfill instead of coveted Christmas presents.

1985 brought the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Sega's Master system. The NES ruled the market for this generation of video game systems (known as 8-bit game systems for the technology they used) and Nintendo followed up with the release of the Game Boy in 1988. Sega's Master system had more success in Japan than in the U.S. Undeterred, Sega progressed by launching the Sega Genesis in 1989, beating Nintendo to the market with a 16-bit system by two years. Sega gained dramatic market share during that time and launched a color handheld device, the Game Gear, in 1990. This era brought a large number of "action-platform" games onto the market with licensed games becoming increasingly popular. Sega leveraged their popular Sonic character and the development of exclusive fighting games to attract customers while Nintendo expanded their Mario license.

Other companies, including NEC and SNK, tried to compete at the same time, but could not put a dent in the lock on the market held by Sega and Nintendo. The early 1990s brought Phillips into the market with CD-I, Commodore with their CDTV, the 3DO and Atari's Jaguar, none of which had substantial success.

In the mid 1990s, Sega launched a new system, the Sega Saturn, but it was overshadowed by Sony's entry into the console market: the Sony Playstation. Nintendo followed with the Nintendo 64 (N64) the following year, but retained a fair number of gamers with the updated favorites in its lineup.

As the century turned over, game hardware continued to make dramatic advances. Sony brought out their next generation PlayStation 2 (PS2) in 2000 and the end of 2001 brought computing giant Microsoft's entry into the console market, the Xbox. Both systems have excellent graphics and sound capabilities and offer gaming experiences far superior to any of the earlier console systems. Customers clamored for both systems and demand initially exceeded available units. Although the buzz subsided somewhat, both companies achieved a large installed base and continue to support these systems with new game releases despite their upcoming hardware developments. Nintendo released their GameCube, but it had a poor showing compared to its competition. Meanwhile, PC gaming continues to be a strong market as more homes gain not only PCs but internet access, giving them exposure to Internet gaming.

Sony has announced the upcoming release of the Playstation 3 (planned for spring 2006) and Microsoft have recently released their Xbox 360 with Nintendo launching their next home console, the 'Revolution' towards the end of 2006.

• Video Game Violence Statistics
• History of Video Games Timeline
• Top Strategy Games

• Street Fighter Characters
• Free Online Horse Games
• Nintendogs Cheat Codes: Unlockable Breeds
• Street Fighter Characters 2
• Play Zuma Online for Free

• Gaming Consoles History
• History of Portable Video Games
• Slideshow:History of Video Games Timeline
• History of Video Games Timeline
• History of Video Games Systems