A Brief History of Video games Presentation by: Marijana Surla William Anderson ITEC December 4, 2007

The First Electronic Computer Games Games were programmed as early as 1948 Most were electronic versions of existing games such as tic-tac-toe or checkers. Early games were used mostly for demonstrational purposes and were inaccessible to non-programmers. The first computer game known to be used for public entertainment was “tennis for two” in 1959.

Evolution of Games: From experiments to the birth of an industry. In 1962 a group of MIT students programmed a game called “Spacewar!” The computer manufacturer (DEC) decided to distribute this game with its mainframe computers. Throughout the rest of the 1960s college students were introduced to the concept of computer games. Stanford university students made a coin operated version of the game in 1971.

Birth of home video games. Throughout the late 1960s Ralph Baer worked on an experimental computer project. This computer was to use a television as a display. In 1968 the project was completed and he dubbed it the “Brown Box”. After programming several games for it such as tennis, hockey, and some shooting games, the design was sold to Magnavox. The box was dubbed the Magnavox Odyssey and it was released in 1972.

The Atari Era. In 1972 Nolan Bushnell created an arcade tennis game named Pong. Atari bought the program and began distributing it in 1973 in both arcade and home formats. Magnavox sued because of Pong’s similarities to the Odyssey’s tennis game. Atari won the rights to distribute pong and then began to dominate the home video game scene for the next 10 years.

Video game market crash and rise of the Arcades ( ) Many terrible games were released on home video game systems, yet the arcade market began to thrive. By 1983 most companies shut down or shifted focus to arcade games. Gaming began to become mainstream in the late 70s and early 80s. Game developers began to focus more on hype than game development.

Introduction of third party video game companies.

Rebirth of the Home Console Market In 1985 a Japanese company called Nintendo released the Famicom, an 8-bit home console system. Released in the United States as the NES, it became an instant hit. Games in this era were different from arcades. Games began to have complex stories.

Introduction of popular franchises

Handheld gaming. Gameboy released by Nintendo on April 21, Tetris was included with every original Gameboy. Competed against Atari Lynx, Sega Nomad, Sega GameGear, and many others.

16-bit era, Gaming’s “Golden Age”. Sega released the 16-bit Sega Genesis in Nintendo released the Super NES in 1991.

Decline of Arcades, rise of Computer games. Few arcade hits existed in the early 90s, and most arcade games where also made for consoles. Computer games were increasingly in popularity due to 2 new genres, Strategy games and first person shooters.

Fifth Generation, Gaming’s “Modern Age” Sony introduced the PlayStation in Sega Released the Sega Saturn in 1995 Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 in 1996

Sixth Generation Sega began the 6 th generation with the Sega DreamCast. Sony released the dvd playing PlayStaion 2. Nintendo followed up with the GameCube. Microsoft introduced its first console known as the Xbox.

PC gaming A new genre has evolved on PCs called Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Games. (MMORPGs) Windows based PCs have become the dominant computers used for gaming. Strategy games and First Person shooters are usually best on a pc.

Seventh Generation (current generation) Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in 2005 Sony launched the PlayStation 3 in 2006 and Nintendo released the Wii shortly after.

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