The History Of Computer Games and Consoles

By lucadixon

  • The First Ever Computer Game

    1958 - creation of "Ping pong" tennis on an oscilloscope screen by William Higinbotham at Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Development Of Spacewar

    1961 - development of Spacewar on a PDP-1 at MIT for the Science Open House

  • Atari is founded.

    1972 - Nolan Bushnell forms Atari to develop games, and produces Pong, a simple tennis game for arcades. Atari defined the computer industry from the 1970's through to the 1980's

  • The first commercially available home videogame

    1972 - the first commercially available home videogame for TV was launched, called Odyssey - complex, with many electronic components, and very expensive.

  • Pong!

    1974 - Atari produce a home version of Pong.

  • Nintendo starts to work on computer games

    1974 - Nintendo, a Japanese toy manufacturer produce an electronic version of the Japanese game "Go".

  • Space Invaders is released

    1978 - Space Invaders is released by Tatio, and two micro computers are released for commercial sale - the Commodore PET and the Atari

  • Pacman!

    1980 - Pacman is released in Japan, to be played on a micro home computer.Pacman was a simple but addictive game which is still a very popular arcade game with many people trtying to beat the top score of 3,333,360 which was set by Billy Mitchell at Family Funspot, New Hampshire USA.

  • The First Nintendo is released with the first version of Mario

    1983 - Nintendo release their first computer, and Mario is released at the same time. Mario was the first game of its time it was the first platform game and had plenty of different levels and villains to defeat.

  • The Video Game Crash

    In 1983 the video game industry came crashing down, too many companys had started bringin out new games and consoles and it was much harder for companyies to make money.

  • Nintendo's NES is released

    1985 - Nintendo release the NES. The NES helped bring the compter game industry back to life after the great video game crash in 1983 with games like Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr and Super Mario.

  • GameBoy becomes the first handheld game console

    1989 - First hand held machine from Nintendo, called "Game Boy". Tetris is produced for the Game Boy in Russia. The first Gameboy was very popular almost every household had one. It was quite big and heavy but this was later improved.

  • Sega Genesis

    1989 - Sega releases the Sega Genesis. This was made in japan but was very popular in Europe and USA and later Brazil. It was released around the same time as the NES and there was a big rivalry. Popular games were Sonic and streets of rage.The genesis was the first 8 bit console.

  • The Sony Playstation

    1994 - Sony releases the Playstation in Japan. Playstation games were the nextlevel in computer gaming sony had stepped up the game with the graphics, the controls and it the games were on disc instead of the older cartridge form.

  • Nintendo 64

    1996 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo 64 a couple of years after the playstation 1 these consoles were supposed to be rivals but the playstation proved to be far more popular nintendo had'nt yet developed games to be on disc and still had the big cartridge style games one thing the n64 did have that the playstation did'nt was four controller sockets so more players could participate in multiplayer games.

  • Gameboy Color

    1998- A color version of the gameboy is released.It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than the Game Boy Pocket.The Game Boy and Game Boy Color combined have sold 118.69 million units worldwide.

  • Dreamcast

    1999 - Dreamcast - 128 bit processor - is released in the UK. The dreamcast was a dissapointing console the controller was far two big and not many game swere released it didnt really catch on because the n64 playstation had already been released years before.

  • Playstation 2

    2001 - Playstation 2 is released. The PS2 initially sold well partly on the basis of the strength of the PlayStation brand and the console's backward compatibility, selling over 980,000 units in Japan by March 5, 2000, one day after launch. The PS2 can read CD and DVD software it also supports the original Playstation memory card. With the purchase o a network adaptor PS2 can be played online. Popular games were Tekken, Gran Turismo, GTA and Metal Gear Solid.

  • Nintendo Gamecube

    2001 - In September, Nintendo releases the Gamecube. he Nintendo GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium, after several aborted forays by Nintendo into disc-based storage media.Some earlier and later revisions of the GameCube consoles developed disc read problems with the optical pickup becoming thermally sensitive over time, causing read errors when the console reached normal operating temperature.

  • Microsoft release there first games console The XBOX

    2001 - In November, Microsoft enters the console market with the Xbox. Halo is released at launch, boosting sales.Microsoft repeatedly delayed the console, which was first mentioned in late 1999 during interviews with then-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.When Bill Gates unveiled the Xbox at the Game Developers Conference in 2000, audiences were dazzled by the console's technology. At the time of Gates' announcement, Sega's Dreamcast was diminishing and Sony's PlayStation 2 was just hitting the streets

  • Gameboy Advance

    Nintendo release the gameboy advance. This was a 32 bit handheld console The Game Boy Advance not only has typical platformers, but also a huge collection of SNES-style RPG's. It has also become a popular system for old-school gamers due to the increasing number of games ported from various 8-bit and 16-bit systems of the previous eras, including the popular Super Mario Advance series, as well as its compatibility with all earlier Game Boy titles.

  • Nintendo Vs PsP

    Nintendo and Sony release handheld games consoles within a month of each other. The PSP was able to connect to the internet and you were able to play head to head with another PSP the DS was unable to do this which was why the PSP were much more popular with games like GTA and FIFA selling loads of units.

  • XBOX 360

    Microsoft release the xbox 360.All games in high-definition; easy-to-use Dashboard interface excellent online gaming and communications via Xbox Live plays hundreds of original Xbox titles. Microsoft's Xbox 360 was the first "next-generation" game console to hit the market in November 2005, beating the PS3 and the Wii by a whole year.

  • DS Lite

    Nintendo DS release the ds lite a smaller slicker lighter version than the standard DS. the PlayStation 3 was designed for communication and compatibility with other electronic devices. In addition to its Bluetooth functionalities, the console has Ethernet ports and capacity for a IEEE 802.11 b/g "Wi-Fi" connection. Internet-connected gamers can access the web, chat with online friends, and even download content, even while playing a game.

  • PS3

    A year after the xbox 360 is released sony release the Playstation 3.PlayStation 3 games can be written to DVD or Blu-ray discs (BDs), the higher density format co-developed by Sony and Toshiba. Like the PS2, the PS3 is backwards-compatible, and can play both original PlayStation and PS2 games, as well as PS3 games. It can also read and play audio, video, and other files from a variety of contemporary media formats, including CDs, DVDs, and BDs.