-
In the beginning
The History of gaming is broken into a couple of different generations, seven to be more precise. But before any of the big names and consoles came in, coin operated arcade games ruled. -
The first console!
In 1972, the first home game console, named "The Magnavox Odyssey" was released. Prototype is known as the "Brown box" it was a wide success, over 340 thousand consoles sold, and there's even one on display at the Smithsonian. -
PONG
Pong was a sensational game at the time it was released and set out. It copied table tennis a bit but the mechanics were simple and easy to get around and understand. But they were under infringement by the Magnavox Odyssey. But they got a patent -
Let's race!
In 1974, Gran Track 10 was released by atari, making players speed against the clock in order to gain points. It was 8-bit, pixalized and easy. But people loved playing it, it set the ground work for games like Mariocart in the later years. -
Second Gen
This started in about 1976 to about 1983, where now game consoles were using microprocessors and moving at a faster rate. They could now, "Plug" their games into their consoles and play almost immediately. Families could now expand their gaming libraries and have more variety in their gaming worlds. -
Atari!
Atari at this time dominated the market, making the "Atari 2600". It came with two joysticks, a gaming cartridge which was originally Combat later Pac-man. People ate this up because now they had the possibility of two players! -
Buildings
Even people who wanted to get into children's entertainment wanted a piece of the action! So Chuck E Cheese's included arcade games to their mixture. Along with slides, pizza, fun characters, and small amusement ride, they helped improve gaming's image in the market. -
Take it to space!
Space invaders came out in 1978, all the way from Japan. You were a single lone ship in space trying to kill an entire army of "Space invaders" Trying to capture earth! It grossed over 2 BILLION dollars by 1982, just four years after it had released. The pixilated Alien became a pop culture icon, and is often used as a symbol to represent video games as a whole. -
Time for a new ruler!
In 1979 "Intellivision" Came out, posing a real threat to Atari and all of their games. It was made by Mattel Electronics and sold at $299. It came with four games including black jack and Las Vegas Poker. By 1982, over two million had been sold and over 100 million dollars were made in profit for Mattel. -
Pac-man (Namco)
Namco is one of the most, if not the most famous games of all time. It became a social phenomenon, inspired an animated show, got a top ten single hit, appealed to both boys and girls, and earned over 2.5 BILLION dollars in quarters by the 1990s. Not to mention, you can recognize the game character and immediately put it to Namco. -
Beginning of a legend
If you know Mario, you know he probably got his start jumping barrels to save the princess from Donkey Kong! He was a hero even before Peach became a seedling in the Nintendo developers head. Both he and Donkey Kong were iconic, and together dominated the industry from the 80's to the early 90's -
The "Beginning" Of the brothers.
In 1983 Mario brothers, full color, was released and people loved it. The Italian plumber brother's were fun, easy to play with and fun to operate. his is guessed to be Mario's big gig, while Luigi, the poor taller brother, was always second in line. But he got a big following as well! -
Use basic shapes!
We've all played Tetris. You move fixed shapes to fit into each other and gain points by making rows and stacking rows on top of each other. It was made in the Soviet Union, and it's name is rooted in the Greek word Tetra "Four" In 2010, in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue, it said that Tetris had sold over 100 million copies on mobile alone since 2005. -
Another legend
In 1986, Nintendo released yet another fan favorite and the world was obsessed. Link, in the legend of Zelda, became Iconic and a lot of kids grew up with them. Nintendo was kicking buts and taking names all over the industry, and they weren't even American rooted! Even today their games rival PS and Xbox. -
Handheld and on the go!
In 1989, Nintendo released their 8-bit Gameboy, a hand held gaming systems that can be taken on the go with the player, bringing fun and adventure to everything! Kids didn't have to sit in the car and look out windows for long car rides, now, they could sit and be quiet on their Gameboys. They were sold at $89.99 and sold over 118.69 million worldwide. -
Jump ahead
If you jump ahead to 2000, you'll find that the PlayStation 2, by Sony, is still the BEST SELLING console in history. Having over 3870 playable games you can get, and they were produced for about 12 years. -
Seventh generation.
The seventh generation gave rise to the XBox 360, Playstaion 3, and Nintendo's Wii. And these systems were built to last, you can still play all of the Nostalgic and iconic games. And Wii, Dominated the gaming industry during this generation. -
XBox 360
When the XBox 360 released and hit the shelves, it had a lot of problems and bugs. But once those were taken care of, players loved the online feeling and connecting with other players. The console made it seventh on the top selling consoles list. -
WII!!
The Nintendo Wii was made for a broader audience, All Teens and kids and Adults wanting this systems cause they could play Wii tennis, Wii boxing, and bowling and Baseball together. In December of 2009, they broke sales record for a single month in the US. -
PS 3
Was the third console released by Sony after the PS 2. You could watch Blu-Ray DVDs. It put out really good looking games at speeds of 1080p. You could either get the 20 gig one or the 60 gig one, either way, the games that you could play on this were incredible.
