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A.S Douglas
A British Professor by the name of A.S Douglas created the game Noughts and crosses, or also known as TicTacToe. -
William Higinbotham
in 1958 William Higinbotham created a game called "Tennis For Two" on a large analog computer, and opened it for annual visitors day at Brookhaven national Laboratory, Which was located in Upton, New York. -
Steve Russell
Steve Russel Created the game "Spacewar!" a computer based game that focuses on space combat. It was the first game that could be played on MULTIPLE computer installations. -
Sanders Associates, Inc.
Sanders Associates, Inc. led by Ralph Baer, invented a prototype multiplayer game system called "The brown box" which was the first console to be able to be played on a home television. -
Magnavox
Magnavox had started selling a multiplayer game console called "The odyssey" Which is just the alternate marketing name for The Brown Box, because Ralph Baer had sold it off to Magnavox. But, it didn't last too long since the next few years it commercially fizzled out and died. -
Atari's Pong
Atari Took inspiration from the Odysseys 28 games and created a game that goes by the name of "Pong" This was released as an arcade game back in 1972, but then released as a "Home" version of the game in 1975 which was just as successful as its arcade counterpart. -
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Magnavox & Sanders Associates
Magnavox and Sanders Associates would go on over the next 20 years to sue not only Atari, but a lot of more of the things related to the Odyssey and its video game patents for copyright lawsuits. They would win over 100 million dollars worth of lawsuits over the next 20 years. -
Atari 2600
Atari released something called a "Video Computer System" Or what they chose to call it was the Atari 2600. It featured joysticks and interchangeable cartridges that played multi-colored games. -
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Notable Mentions
in the late 70's and early 80's some extra stuff had happened · Space Invaders released 1978
· The Launch of Activision. The First Third Party game dev company.
· Pac-Man Released and becoming hugely popular in Japan and The United States
· Nintendo Creating "Donkey Kong" Which is the first time we see our favorite character Mario in action
· Microsoft Released its First "Microsoft Flight Simulator" -
The Video Game Crash
The North American video game industry experienced a major crash. This is due to the oversaturated game console market and low quality games. This crash lasted a couple years -
Recovery & NES Release
in 1985 The game console market started to recover. This was due to the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) Was released in the U.S. It had improved 8-bit graphics, colors, sounds, and improved gameplay over other consoles. -
Nintendo's Big Three
Nintendo Started off as a playing card manufacturer in 1889, but as of the NES release Three Major game franchises made by Nintendo that are still around as of today. Super Mario Bros. Metroid. Legend Of Zelda -
Handheld Gaming
In 1989 Nintendo popularized handheld gaming with the release of the 8-bit Game Boy video game device, along with being bundled with Tetris. Over the next 25 years Nintendo would release a bunch of successors to the Game Boy, including the Game Boy color in 1998, Nintendo DS in 2004, and the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. -
Console Wars
In 1989, Sega Released its 16-bit Genesis console In North America as its successor to the Sega Master System in 1986, which failed to adequately compete against the NES. With the Genesis have technological superiority to the NES, along with clever marketing and the release of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" game, the genesis made excellent headway to its older rival. but in 1991, Nintendo Released The Super NES console, launching and initiating the first real "console war" -
Videogame Rating Council
Two Games released from the early to mid 90's Street fighter 2 on Nintendo, and Mortal Kombat for Sega. Mortal Kombat depicted blood and gore on the genesis. In response to it, as well as the congressional hearings abt violence in games in general, Sega created Videogame Rating Council in 1993 to provide labeling for every game on a Sega console. -
3D Gaming
In 1995 Sega Released its Saturn system in North America, the first 32-bit console that played games on CD's rather then cartridges, this was to try and beat Sony's new console, the PlayStation, which sold for 100$ less then the Saturn when it launched later that year. The following year, Nintendo released its cartridge based 64-bit system the Nintendo 64. -
Sony Joins the Console war
Both Sega and Nintendo each had great releases on their consoles, but Sony's strong third party support helped the Playstation secure numerous exclusive titles. -
Playstation 2
Sony dominated the video game market and continued to do so into the next generation. the Playstation 2, was released in 2000 and was able to play the original Playsation games, and would become the best selling game console of all time. -
Triple Console
The Playstation 2, which was the first console to use DVD, went against the Sega Dreamcast which was released in 1999, along with the Gamecube in 2001, and Microsofts xbox also released in 2001. -
The Dreamcast
The Dreamcast is considered to be ahead of its time, and one of the greatest console made for several reasons, its capability for online gaming was a big factor. However, it was a commercial flop and that is what ended Sega's console efforts and led to them pulling the plug on the system in 2001, becoming a third-party software company. -
Modern Age of Gaming
Alot of new consoles kicked off in the early to mid 2000's, Microsofts Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 3, and the Nintendo wii Kicked off the modern age of High-Definition gaming. The playstation 3 who at the time was the only one able to play Blu-rays, was successful for obvious reasons. However, Sony for the first time got stiff competition from its rivals. -
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 had very similar graphics with the Playstation 3, however was lauded for its online gaming ecosystem and won FAR more Game Critics awards than it's competitors in 2007. -
The Nintendo Wii
Depite being technologically inferior to the other two systems, the Wii proved itself in its sales. its motion sensitive remotes made game more active then before, and had it appeal to a much larger of the general public. -
Irl To Game
In 2011 Skylanders: spyro's adventure brought video games into the physical world. This game required players to place a plastic toy onto an accessory that reads the NFC tags to bring the characters into the game. Years later we see sequels and other hybrids such as Disney Infinity Which features Disney Characters. -
The new Consoles
The next generation of video games began with the release of Nintendo's WiiU in 2012, which was then followed but the playstation 4, and the xbox one in 2013. Depite featuring touch screen remote control availability, The WiiU was a commercial failure, the opposite of its competition-and was discontinued in 2017 -
The Final Consoles
Early 2017, Nintendo released its Wii U successor, the Nintendo Switch, the only system to allow both TV-based and handheld gaming. Microsoft released its 4k-ready console, the Xbox one X in late 2017, and followed up in 2020, with the Xbox series X, and Series S. In 2020 Sony released the Playsation 5, a successor to the Playsation 4.