The History of Video Games
Since a video game is a sensory experience, the sound, the visual elements, and the interface that the player uses to interact with the game cannot be divorced from the programmed logic and instruction set that provides the experience.
The Early Years
The Early Years begin in 1952
Within this period of video game history reside the pioneers and visionaries who attempted to create an interactive experience using electronics and visual displays.
1952 - 1970
The Golden Age
The Golden Age of video games begins in 1971
This period begins with the mainstream appearance of video games as a consumer market in arcades, on home consoles, and their evolution on personal computer platforms. It covers the rise of the dedicated hardware systems and the origin of multi-game cartridge-based systems.
In September 1971, the Galaxy Game was installed at a student union at Stanford University. Based on Spacewar!, this was the first coin-operated video game. Only one was built, using a DEC PDP-11 and vector display terminals. In 1972 it was expanded to be able to handle four to eight consoles.
In the same year pong was released. Pong was the first arcade video game with widespread success. Atari sold 19,000 Pong machines, creating many imitators.
The arcade game industry entered its Golden Age in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders by Taito, a success that inspired dozens of manufacturers to enter the market. In 1979, Atari released Asteroids. Color arcade games became more popular in 1979 and 1980 with the arrival of titles such as Pac-Man. The Golden Age had a prevalence of arcade machines in shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants and convenience stores.
Also in the year of 1972 the first home 'console' system was developed by Ralph Baer and his associates called the Magnavox Odyssey. Over its production span, the Odyssey system achieved sales of 2 million units.
1971 - 1983
The Modern Age
The Modern age begins in 1984
It includes the continued evolution of video games on computers during the American public's disenchantment with dedicated console systems. It covers the rise of 8-bit and 16-bit architectures. During this era, many computers provide a home to video games, but the PC becomes the eventual standard. Network and Internet multi-player gaming becomes a household possibility.
In the year 1984 the platformer erra started to emerge. Namco took the scrolling platformer a step further with Pac-Land (1984), which was the first game to feature multi-layered parallax scrolling and closely resembled later scrolling platformers like Super Mario Bros. (1985) and Wonder Boy (1986).
Mario Bros. (1983), developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, offered two-player simultaneous cooperative play and laid the groundwork for two-player cooperative platformers.
Congo Bongo (1983), developed by Sega, was the first isometric platformer.
Prince of Persia (1989) was the first cinematic platformer.
Many other great titles were realised in that same erra that are still following us upto this day such as Zelda (1987), Mario Bros (1983), Prince of Persia (1989), Metal Gear (1987),
1984 - 1994
The "Next" Generation
The "Next" Generation arrived in 1995
This era of video game history bears witness to the rise of the 32-bit, 64-bit, and 128-bit processor architecture in home console machines. The continued popularity of online gaming, online betting like online poker sites and social networking grows and is reflected in the console market. This period is full of advances in hardware that enable more realistic and immersive experiences for gamers. In 1994, three new consoles were released in Japan: the Sega Saturn, the PlayStation, and the PC-FX, the Saturn and the PlayStation later seeing release in North America in 1995. The PlayStation quickly outsold all of its competitors, with the exception of the aging Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which still had the support of many major game companies.
The Virtual Boy from Nintendo was released in 1995 but did not achieve high sales. In 1996 the Virtual Boy was taken off the market.
After many delays, Nintendo released its 64-bit console, the Nintendo 64 in 1996. The consoles flagship title, Super Mario 64, became a defining title for 3D platformer games.
PaRappa the Rapper popularized rhythm, or music video games in Japan with its 1996 debut on the PlayStation. Subsequent music and dance games like beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution became ubiquitous attractions in Japanese arcades. While Parappa, DDR, and other games found a cult following when brought to North America, music games would not gain a wide audience in the market until the next decade.
1995 - 1999
Transition to 3D and CDs
The fifth generation is most noted for the rise of fully 3D games. While there were games prior that had used three dimensional environments, such as Virtua Racing and Star Fox, it was in this era that many game designers began to move traditionally 2D and pseudo-3D genres into full 3D. Super Mario 64 on the N64, Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation, Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast and Tomb Raider on the Saturn (later released on the PlayStation as well), are prime examples of this trend. Their 3D environments were widely marketed and they steered the industry's focus away from side-scrolling and rail-style titles, as well as opening doors to more complex games and genres. Games like GoldenEye 007, The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Soul Calibur were nothing like shoot-em-ups, RPG's or fighting games before them. 3D became the main focus in this era as well as a slow decline of cartridges in favor of CDs. Also, most 3D games used realistic graphics and large, interactive environments like Shenmue.
1999
Now the new erra of mobil phone gaming begins
Mobile gaming interest was raised when Nokia launched its N-Gage phone and handheld gaming platform in 2003. While about two million handsets were sold, the product line was seen as not a success and withdrawn from Nokia's lineup. Meanwhile many game developers had noticed that more advanced phones had color screens and reasonable memory and processing power to do reasonable gaming. Mobile phone gaming revenues passed 1 billion dollars in 2003, and passed 5 billion dollars in 2007, accounting for a quarter of all videogaming software revenues. More advanced phones came to the market such as the N-Series smartphone by Nokia in 2005 and the iPhone by Apple in 2007 which strongly added to the appeal of mobile phone gaming. In 2008 Nokia revised the N-Gage brand but now as a software library of games to its top-end phones. At Apple's App Store in 2008, more than half of all applications sold were games for the iPhone.
Motion control revolutionizes game play
The way gamers interact with games changed dramatically, especially with Nintendo's wholesale embrace of motion control as a standard method of interaction. The Wii Remote implemented the principles to be a worldwide success. To a lesser extent, Sony experimented with motion in its Sixaxis and subsequent DualShock 3 controller for the PS3, while Microsoft continually mentioned interest in developing the technology for the Xbox 360, such as Project Natal. While the Wii's infrared-based pointing system has been widely praised, and cited as a primary reason for the success of games such as Nintendo's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and EA's Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. Despite the success of these titles, reliable motion controls have been more elusive, with even the most refined motion controls failing to achieve true 1-to-1 reproduction of player motion on-screen. Some players have even found that they must move slower than they would like or the Wii will not register their movements, but this is rare. Nintendo's 2008 announcement of its Wii MotionPlus module intends to address these concerns.
Alternate controllers also continue to be important in gaming, as the increasingly involved controllers associated with Red Octane's Guitar Hero series and Harmonix's Rock Band demonstrate. In addition to this, Nintendo has produced various add-on attachments meant to adapt the Wii Remote to specific games, such as the Wii Zapper for shooting games and the Wii Wheel for driving games. With the introduction of the Balance Board in Nintendo's Wii Fit package, motion controls have been extended to players feet. Third party efforts from THQ, EA, and other publishers that integrate Nintendo's Balance Board are expected in 2009.
At Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009, Microsoft and Sony each presented their own new motion controllers: Project Natal (later renamed Kinect) and PlayStation Move, respectively.
The new decade has seen rising interest in the possibility of next generation consoles being developed in keeping with the traditional industry model of a five-year development cycle. However, in the industry there is believed to be a lack of appetite for another race to produce such a console. Reasons for this include the challenge and massive expense of creating consoles that are graphically superior to the current generation, with Sony and Microsoft still looking to recoup development costs on its current consoles. The focus for new technologies is likely to shift onto motion-based peripherals, such as Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move.
One new console is Nintendo's new handheld: the successor to the Nintendo DS known as the Nintendo 3DS. The system is due for release by the end of the fiscal year (March 2011). The system will incorporate 3D graphics and effects without the need for using 3D glasses. Other features include three cameras (one internal and a dual 3D external set), a motion sensor, a gyro sensor and a Slide Pad that allows 360-degree analog input.
On June 14 2010, during E3, Microsoft revealed their new Xbox 360 console referred to as the Xbox 360 S or Slim. Microsoft's intent was to make the unit smaller and quieter, while also installing a 250GB hard drive and built-in 802.11n WiFi. It starting shipping to US stores the same day, not reaching Europe until July 13th.
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