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History of Gaming Console
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Magnavox Odyssey
World's first game console
Predating the Atari Pong home consoles by several years.
designed by Ralph Baer
prototype known as the "Brown Box“ is now at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC
340,000 units sold -
Pong
A coin-op arcade game by Atari Inc.
Pong was based on table tennis, and named after the sound generated when the ball is hit.
Pong was the first video game to achieve widespread popularity in both arcade and home console versions, and launched the initial boom in the video game industry.
Pong's popularity led to a successful patent infringement lawsuit from the makers of an earlier video game, the Magnavox Odyssey. -
Maze Wars
One of the first First-person shooter (FPS) game.
a video game genre centered on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through a first-person perspective; that is, the player experiences the action through the eyes of the protagonis -
Magnavox Odyssey
Played programmable ROM cartridges.
Allowed each game to be a completely unique experience, with its own background and foreground graphics, gameplay, scoring, and music.
Odyssey² included a full keyboard, which was to be used for educational games, selecting options, or programming.
One of the strongest points of the system was its excellent speech synthesis unit.
The Odyssey² may be best remembered for its fusion of board and video games: The Master Strategy Series. The first ga -
APF TV Fun
Another early Pong clone manufactured by APF Electronics Inc. in the United Kingdom.
It featured 4 built in games, a speaker, and 2 controller knobs. Could not add more games.
It could be powered by either the included AC adapter or by using 6 C size batteries.4 games were Tennis, Hockey, Single Handball,Squash -
Atari 2600
Video game console credited with popularizing the use of a microprocessor and cartridges containing games.
Originally known as the Atari VCS-for Video Computer System—the machine's name was changed to "Atari 2600" in 1982, after the release of the more advanced Atari 5200.
It was wildly successful, and during the 1980s the 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game - initially Combat and subsequently Pac-Man. -
Intellivision
By Mattel Electronics.
Test marketed in California, with four games available, and nationwide in 1980 with a price tag of $299 with a game included: Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack.
By 1982 over two million Intellivision consoles had been sold, earning Mattel a $100,000,000 profit. -
Space Invaders
Created in Japan, and was later licensed by the Midway Company in the US.
Shooting game where the players defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.
So successful it caused a temporary shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan and grossed $2 billion worldwide by 1982.
The Pixelated enemy alien has become a pop culture icon, often used as a symbol representing video games as a whole. -
Asteroids
Most popular and influential games selling 70,000 by Atari.
Used a Vector display and a 2D view that wraps around in both screen axes.
Player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers.
Object of the game is to shoot and destroy asteroids and saucers while not colliding or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. -
Pac Man
Created by Namco. It is 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.
Was appealing to both genders.
Generated more than $2.5 billion in quarters by the 1990s.
Highest brand awareness of any video game character. -
Galaga
Fixed shooter arcade game by Namco in Japan and Midway in US.
In beginning the playing area is empty but over time, enemy aliens fly in formation and come down at the player's ship to either shoot or collide with it.
The player fires upon the enemies, and once all enemies are vanquished, the player moves onto the next stage. -
Donkey Kong
By Nintendo - platform game genre.
Players moved the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles who must rescue a damsel in distress, Lady, from a giant ape named Donkey Kong.
The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular characters.
Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco who developed home console versions.
Dominated the video game market in the 1980s and early 1990s. -
Pole Position
Pole Position arcade racing game released by Atari, Inc. in the US. Most popular coin-operated arcade game of 1983. Had a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears. The environmental/cockpit cabinet featured both an accelerator and brake pedal. -
Mario Brothers
Created by Nintendo in 1983.
In this game, Mario a Italian-American plumber and his brother Luigi, must defeat creatures from the sewers below New York.
The gameplay focuses on Mario's extermination of pests in the sewers by flipping them on their backs and kicking them away.
The original versions of Mario Bros., the arcade version and the Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) version, were received positively. -
Tetris
A tile-matching game originally designed and programmed in the Soviet Union.
The name is from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all of the game's pieces contain four segments)
First entertainment software exported from the USSR to the U.S. and published for Commodore 64 and IBM PC.
Electronic Gaming Monthly's 100th issue had Tetris in first place as "Greatest Game of All Time".
It has sold more than 70 million copies. In January 2010, it was announced that Tetris has sold more than 100 millio -
Nintendo’s Game Boy
A handheld game console by Nintendo, for $89.95.
The first successful handheld console, and was the predecessor of all other iterations of the Game Boy line.
The Game Boy was originally bundled with the puzzle game Tetris, since Nintendo thought that an addictive puzzle game would get consumers' attention. -
TurboExpress
Most advanced handheld of its time and could play all TurboGrafx-16's games which were on a small, credit-card sized media called HuCard.
Had 8kb of RAM. Sold for $249.99.
The TurboLink allowed two-player play.
Falcon a flight simulator, included a "head-to-head" dogfight only accessed via TurboLink. -
Sonic the HedgeHog
A platform video game developed by Sega.
Commercially successful, increasing the popularity of Sega's 16-bit console and establishing Sonic the Hedgehog as the company's mascot character.
Its success led to the development of subsequent games in Sega's flagship Sonic the Hedgehog series, as well as the creation of a media franchise of spin-off products featuring the character. -
Super Nintendo
Advanced graphics and sound capabilities that compensated for its slow CPU, compared with other consoles at the time.
Additionally, the system's support for numerous enhancement chips (which shipped as part of certain game cartridges) helped to keep it competitive in the marketplace.
Global success, the best-selling console of the 16-bit era despite its late start and the fierce competition it faced in North America from Sega's Genesis console.
Remains popular well into the 32-bit era. -
Sony PlayStation
A 32-bit video game console by Sony.
The original PlayStation was the first of a series of consoles and hand-held game devices, By March 2005, the PlayStation/PS One had shipped a total of 102.49 million units, becoming the first home console to ever reach the 100 million mark. -
Sega Saturn
A powerful machine for the time, but its design, with 2 CPU’s and 6 other processors, made harnessing power difficult.
Biggest disadvantage -both processors shared the same bus and had problems accessing the main system memory at the same time.
From 1995–1997 the Saturn became the "other" system, running a distant third behind the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation. -
Nintendo 64
N64, was Nintendo's third home video game console for the international market.
Named for its 64-bit processor
It was released with two launch games (Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64).
The N64's suggested retail price was $199 at its launch and it was marketed with the slogan: "Get N, or get Out!" -
Sony PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 “PS2” is Sony's second video game console, the successor to the successful PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3.
Its development was announced in March 1999, and it was released after a year in Japan.
As of September 19, 2007, 120 million PS2 units have been sold worldwide. -
Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo's 4th home game console.
The most compact and least expensive, next to the Dreamcast, of the 6th gen. Successor to the Nintendo 64 and the predecessor of the Wii. The Nintendo GameCube, named Dolphin, is shaped roughly like a cube. -
PS4
Gaining favourable previews and plenty of pre-orders, the PS4 looks like the next-gen console to beat, and Sony says it was designed with an overarching theme of a "frictionless and seamless" gaming experience.
We've known that the PS4 will track both the controller in a gamer's hand, as well as their face, since the console's launch in February. But during his GDC talk Norden revealed some interesting ways that this technology will be implemented in games.
