Video Game History

So just for reference here is a bit of history of home video game consoles. We won't talk so much about computer games, that would only add to this. So then lets begin.

We will start in 1972 (before I was around), Magnavox released the Odyssey. And it did alright, then Pong showed up. This is when people noticed and we got the Odyssey 100 and Odyssey 200. And that was basically generation 1 of video gaming.

Generation 2 began roughly in 1976. It was the early time of 8 bit gaming. This is the period that gave us the Atari 2600 and the ColecoVision. It also saw the release of the first hand held consoles with changeable cartridges. Also this is when games like Donkey Kong, Frogger, Space Invaders adn Pac-man arrived. Also it saw the crash of 1977 (older systems where sold cheap, flooding the market, Atari and Magnavox survied), the rebirth (many more companies released consoles, Atari continued to dominate) and the crash of 1983 . Due to the cheap systems on the market, the flood of poor quality games and the fact that more and more people began to own computers, the video game market nearly died. Many companies filed for bankrupcy.

Of course this opened the way for Nintendo to come to the states and in October of 1985 they release the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). The NES managed to survived because of a lockout chip which meant that they were able to control the games that came out on there system. This meant there wasn't the flood of cheap games and they were able to stay healthy as a company. This is also when we got the first appearance of SEGA, but there system failed to do much in the states, so mostly this generation of video games is known for the NES and Super Mario Bros. (It also happens to be where I entered gaming, though I kinda played around with some Atari stuffs).

Now then, as you can guess next came generation 4. Sega came out with the Genesis and to answer Nintendo release the SNES (Super Nintendo Enteratainment System). This closed out the 80s and brought gaming into the 1990s. Also Sega put out the Sega CD. And the 4th generation upgraded us for 8 bits to 16 bits. And with Sega being around it started some console wars. Now there were some other, smaller systems out there, but Nintendo and Sega were the big dogs. And Nintendo kept its lead as this generation closed out.

To start out the 5th generation Atari brought out the Jaguar and then there was the 3DO. These both used CDs and were much more powerful then the SNES and the Genesis. But they also didn't come close to selling as well. Due to cost and difficulty to program for them they were canned in 1996. To really get this generation going Sega put out the Saturn, a CD based system with dual chips, however it only lasted until 1998. A new comer named Sony released the Playstation (which would later be the PSone). This was orginally going to be a CD addon to the SNES. Nintendo put out the Nintendo 64 (N64). It was the only cartridge based system of the generation, but it still made enough money for Nintendo to remain on the top of the pile.

The 6th generation only saw bigger names putting out gaming systems, it also saw the switch from CDs (or in Nintendo's case cartridges) to DVDs (a whole 9 gigs of storage). This would allow for more information and more impressive gameplay as well as longer load times. Sega offered the dreamcast for this generation of gaming, it would be the end of Sega systems and the first that they would discontinue. Sony released what has so far been the best selling system of all time, the PS2. With the switch to games on DVD Sony allowed their system to play movies as well as games. Nintendo finally switched to an optical system, but went with a smaller size disc which would mean no watching of movies on the Gamecube. And then Microsoft entered the fight with the Xbox, which ended the need of memory cards by having a hard drive in the system. It was big and bulky, but it was carried on by Halo.

Now, in 2005 we entered the 7th generation of video game consoles. This era brought much more internet connectivity, High Def graphics, and wireless controllers. Microsoft ushered in the new era with the Xbox 360. Now to be the first system out Microsoft opted to stay with games on DVD, which limited the space for the game. Also they ended up with some issues with the system failing to work. But more Halo arrived and fixes were made. Sony brought out its third generation of system in the PS3. They waited to get the ability to play Bluray, which allowed for much, much more room on the disc. It also boasts quite an impressive processor. However this meant that it was more difficult to program for. Now eventually it will mean that the system will be able to do great things, however now it is still waiting for programs to exploit the system. And Nintendo presses on. They did make the decision to not try to compete directly with the other two and have aimed their system at more of a family based system. While they don't deal in High Def, they have a motion sensitive system for the controls.