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Magnavox Odyssey
World's first game console
Predates the Atari Pong home consoles
Prototype known as the “Brown Box” is now at the Smithsonian
340,000 units sold -
Pong
A coin-op arcade game by Atari Inc
Based on table tennis
First game to gain widespread popularity - launched the industry boom
Led to a successful patent-infringement lawsuit from the Magnavox Odyssey -
Gran Track 10
A single-player racing arcade game by Atari
Player races against the game clock, accumulating points
Early diode-based ROM was used
Controls, steering wheel, shifter, accelerator, and brake pedals were all firsts for arcade games -
Maze Wars
One of the first FPS
Players wander in a maze
Used tile-based movement
Other players are eyeballs that can be shot or harmed
Players gain points for shooting other players and lose them for being shot -
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Magnavox Odyssey
Played cartridges
Keyboard; used for educational games, selecting options, or programming
First game was an instant classic: Quest for the Rings!
Excellent speech synthesis unit
Master Strategy Series – a fusion of board and video games -
Coleco Telstar
By Coleco - AY-3-8500 chip
Pong variants on a domestic television receiver and available to any manufacturer
Battery-powered and external components were required -
APF TV Fun
Pong clone manufactured by APF formally a electronics developer
Four built-in games (Tennis, Hockey, Single Handball, and Squash)
Had a speaker and two controller knobs
Powered by AC adapter or batteries
Limited success -
fairchild channel F
The world's second cartridge-based video game console, after the Magnavox Odyssey
Sold for $169.95
Originally called Video Entertainment Syste (VES), but when Atar released VCS, it was renamed -
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Second Generation
By the mid-1970s cartridges moved to CPU-based consoles
Games now consisting of microprocessor-based code; games burned onto ROM chips mounted inside plastic cartridge casings that could be plugged into slots on the console
Consumers could acquire large libraries of game cartridges -
Atari 2600
Popularized game cartridges - popular in the 1980s
Originally Atari VCS; later changed to "Atari 2600" in 1982, after the release of Atari 5200
Two joysticks, two paddle controllers, and a cartridge game - initially Combat later Pac-Man -
Chuck E Cheese’s
First family entertainment centers aimed at young children
Pizza restaurant with arcade games, amusement rides, an animatronics show, climbing equipment, tubes, and slides
Helped improve the image of video games -
Space Invaders
Created in Japan - later licensed in US
Shooting game - players defeat waves of aliens with a laser and earn points
So successful it caused a temporary shortage of coins in Japan
Grossed $2 billion worldwide by 1982
Pixilated alien has become a pop culture icon, often used as a symbol representing video games as a whole -
Intellivision
By Mattel Electronics at $299
Four games available and a pack-in game: Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack
First to pose a serious threat to Atari
By 1982 over two million had been sold, earning Mattel a $100,000,000 profit -
Asteroids
Popular and influential game - 70,000 sold by Atari
Vector display and 2D view
Control a spaceship in an asteroid field traversed by flying saucers
Object - shoot asteroids and saucers while not colliding or being hit by counter-fire -
Pac Man
Namco - considered among the most famous arcade games of all time
Became a social phenomenon that sold related merchandise and inspired an animated television series and a top-ten hit single
Appealed to both genders
Generated more than $2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s
Highest brand awareness of any video game character -
Donkey Kong
By Nintendo - platform
Move the character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles
Rescue a damsel in distress from a giant ape - Donkey Kong
The hero and ape became two of Nintendo's most popular characters
Nintendo licensed to Coleco, which developed home console versions
Dominated the market in the 1980s and early 1990s -
frogger
Move frogs home by crossing a busy road and navigate a river - skillful players obtain bonuses
A classic - noted for its novel gameplay and theme
Used two Z80 processors
By 2005, sold 20 million worldwide, 5 million in the US -
Galaga
Fixed-shooter game
Control a space ship while aliens fly in formation and come down at the player's ship to either shoot or collide
Players fire at enemies, and once all enemies are vanquished, at which point the player moves to the next stage -
tron
Game was based on the Disney movie
A computer hacker is trapped inside a digital world and forced to participate in gladiatorial-type games -
Q-Bert
By Gottlieb
Isometric platform with puzzle elements where the player controls the character from a third-person perspective
Object is to make all cubes the same color
Uses a joystick -
Pole position
Arcade racing by Atari
Most popular coin-op arcade game of 1983
Use a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears
Featured an accelerator and brake pedal -
Mario Brothers
By Nintendo – platform arcade
Full color
Mario, a Italian-American plumber, and his brother Luigi must defeat creatures from the sewers below New York -
Tetris
Tile-matching from the Soviet Union
Name is from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- four segments
Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue had Tetris in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time
For Commodore 64 and IBM PC
Sold more than 70 million copies
In January 2010, it was announced that Tetris has sold more than 100 million copies for mobile phones alone since 2005 -
Video Game Crash
The delay of Atari's 7800 console left consumers hungry for the next big thing
A flood of consoles on the US market gave consumers too many choices
Poor game titles and too many games based on the movie ET
Introduction of personal computers like the Commodore 64 -
NES
8-bit console by Nintendo
Most successful of its time; sold over 60 million worldwide
Helped revitalize the US industry following crash of 1984 - set the standard for consoles
First console to play and openly court third-party developers
Slogan "Now You're Playing With Power!" -
Sega Master System
8-bit cartridge-based by Sega
The Master System was released as a direct competitor to the NES
Failed to topple Nintendo, but was popular in European markets -
The Legend of Zelda
Fantasy action-adventure created in Japan and published by Nintendo
Link, a playable character, must rescue Princess Zelda
As of December 2011, sold 67.93 million copies -
Atari 7800
Replaced Atari 5200, and re-establish Atari's supremacy over Nintendo and Sega
Digital joysticks; fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600; and affordable - $140
Designed to be upgraded to a home computer -
Final Fantasy
Science fantasy RPGs
Franchise includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise - more than 100 million units sold
Known for innovation, visuals, full-motion videos, photo-realistic character models, and orchestrated music -
Nintendo’s Game Boy
8-bit for $89.95
First successful handheld - predecessor of all other Game Boys
Originally bundled with Tetris
Sold 118.69 million worldwide -
Atari Lynx
World's first with a color LCD display by Atari
Advanced features and graphics, and ambidextrous layout
Failed to attract quality third-party developers, and was eventually abandoned -
Sega Genesis
Supported over 900 games
First 16-bit console to achieve notable market share - sold 40 million units worldwide
Direct competitor of the Super (SNES), although released two years earlier -
Sega Game Gear
Sega's response to the Game Boy; short battery life, lack of support, and lack of titles held it back
Third color console released
8-bit color at $149.99
Full-color backlit screen with a landscape format -
turboexpress
Most advanced of its time and could play games on a credit-card sized device called HuCards
66 2.6 in. screen, displayed 64 sprites at once, 16 per scanline, in 482 colors from a palette of 512
Had 8 kilobytes of RAM $249.99
Could use as a video monitor -
Sonic the Hedgehog
Platform by Sega
Successful; increased the popularity of Sega's console and established Sonic the Hedgehog as the company's mascot
Led to subsequent games in Sega's flagship Sonic the Hedgehog series -
Super Nintendo
Advanced graphics and sound capabilities
Ran 3D graphics better, helping usher in 3D in the fifth generation
Best-selling of the 16-bit era
Remains popular well into the 32-bit era -
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Fourth Generation
16-bit era
Dominated by commercial rivalry between Nintendo and Sega: Super Nintendo Entertainment System vs. the Sega Genesis
The machines introduced in this generation retained the majority market share until 1996 -
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Fifth Generation
32-bit and 64-bit
Dominated by three consoles, Sega Saturn, Sony PlayStation, and Nintendo 64
Nintendo's Game Boy Color released
Bit ratings did not increase with the exception of Nintendo 64
Performance depended on other factors such as processor clock speed, bandwidth, and memory size -
Sony PlayStation
32-bit by Sony
First of a series of PS consoles
First to ship 100 million units
PS2 released in 2000 is best-selling home console to date
Has a PlayStation network -
Sega Saturn
32-bit - sold 9.5 million units worldwide
Powerful machine for the time, but its design made harnessing power difficult
Was the "other" system, running a distant third behind the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation -
Nintendo 64
Nintendo's third home console $199
64-bit processor sold 32.93 million units worldwide
Released Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64
Slogan: "Get N, or get Out!" -
Sega Dreamcast
First sixth-generation console
Successor to the Sega Saturn as a comeback effort
Was hailed as ahead of its time but failed to gather momentum when PS2 was released
Discontinued in 2001 -
Sony PlayStation 2
Best-selling console in history, selling over 150 million
Over 3870 game title are available
Produced for 12 years -
Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo's fourth system used compact discs
Sold 22 million units worldwide
Discs are encrypted and unreadable by most DVD drives.
Discontinued in 2007 -
Microsoft Xbox
Microsoft's first console with 24 million units sold
Allowed players to play online
$299.99
Discontinued in 2008
Followed by the Xbox 360 and Xbox One -
Xbox 360
By Microsoft after the XBOX
Had problems at first
Xbox Live allows players to compete online and download content
Streams media from PC
Sold 80 million units worldwide - seventh highest-selling console -
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Seventh Generation
Started on November 22, 2005 with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and a year later with Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006 and Nintendo's Wii on November 19, 2006
Each new console introduced a new type of breakthrough in technology
Wii appears to be the leading seller of this generation -
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Nintendo's Wii
Fifth home game console by Nintendo.
Direct successor to the Gamecube Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Has a wireless controller, Wii Remote, can be used as a handheld pointing device and detect acceleration in three dimensions. -
PlayStation 3
Third by Sony after the PS2
First to use Blu-ray Disc
Can output high-definition video for games and movies in up to 1080p
Initially available in two configurations, 20 GB and the 60 GB model -
Nintendo Wii
by Nintendo for a broader audience
As of 2012, the Wii led PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales
12/2009, broke sales record for a single month in the US
Notable features: controller, WiiConnect24, and Virtual Console. -
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Eighth Generation
Includes Nintendo's Wii U, Sony PlayStation 4, and Microsoft's Xbox One
Face competition for smart phones, tablets, and smart TV
Predicted to be the last generation
Rise of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) as the major processor
