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Video Game Consoles
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OXO
OXO is a computer game created in 1952 by Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSAC computer. OXO was the first videogame created ona computer that will run on a video television. The OXO game would have two cirlcle analogues on a boardl the two players would rotate the analot left and right to move the line in the game up and down. -
The Brown Box
The Brown Box is a game console created by Ralph Baer and his collegues at Sanders Associates Inc.The Brown Box has been credited as being the first ever proper games console, even though it was just a concept. The name comes from the brown wood grain that it uses, this was done to make the console seem more appealing to potential customers.TBrown Box" games included ping-pong, checkers, four different sports games, target shooting with the use of a lightgun and a golf putting game. -
Pong
PONG was one of the earliest arcade video games. It was manufactured by Allan Alcorn. The game featured very simple 2D graphics with a ball that players had to hit to one another in a tennis style. The game PONG is now one of the most well known games of all time and has been recreated in several styles across many different platforms. -
Magnavox Odyssey (TV)
The Odyssey was the worlds first commercially released home gaming console. It was also the first games console to use an analogue television to display the games. It was designed by Ralph Baer (the same person that made the brown box). The console was also the first to have the ability to feature alternative expansions, such as a gun that could be used with the television called the shooting gallery. -
Atari 2600
The atari 2600 is widely considered to be the first console that successfully used cartridges to run games. Other consoles had attempted this before but they were never successful and were considered fails. This console was incredibly popular. The console was generally sold with 2 controllers, 2 joint paddle controllers, and 2 games which were Combat and Pacman. -
Space Invaders
The game Space Invaders was created by Tomohiro Nishikado in 1978, and was a huge arcade hit. It was a one of a kind arcade system, because at the time Tomohiro had to create his own custom hardware and development tools to create the game as he wanted it. A problem with this game though was that microcomputers in japan were not powerful enough to run the game, meaning extra hardware had to be developed to allow the game to run properly. -
Pacman
Pacman is an arcade game developed by Namco in Japan. The game turned out to be immensly popular, and is now one of the most well known and played games of all time. It took nine people nearly a year to actually create the game, because at the time the amount of coding required was extremely large. Pacman has become a global phenomenon, with people all around the world recreating it in real life and in other games. -
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong is an arcade game released by Nintendo. It is widely considered to one of the first platformer games, and indeed the first popular platform games. This was also the first game to feature the character Mario, although at that time he was known as Jumpman. The Donkey Kong arcade game was extremely successful and again had been recreated and referenced in lots of todays media. -
Atari 5200
The Atari 5200 was the next gen version of the Atari 2600. The console was originally intended to compete with the Intellivision, but after the Intellivision flopped there was no need for it. Although it was a huge success, the Atari 5200 was not as popular as the 2600. This is quite possibly because of a lack of original games, with the majority of the games just being re-releases of games that you could already get on the 2600 console. -
Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES is a console manufactured by Nintendo. The console was unbelievably popular, and very quickly became the best selling console of it's time. The console in itself helped revitalise the industry after the video game crash of 1983. One of the reasons this console was so popular was because of the addition of the game Super Mario, which is one of the most popular game series of all time to this day. The console also had a wide range of other games on cartridges that no one had ever seen. -
Mario Franchise
Mario is a character that first appeared in Donkey Kong as Jumpman. He then appeared in the game Super Mario, which has been to this day one of the most popular video game series of all time. The character Mario was created Shigeru Miyamoto. Mario soon became Nintendo's mascot, with Nintendo creating many games including super mario bros 1 2 and 3, super mario world, and many many more. It is said that without Mario, Nintendo would have dropped out of the console race after releasing the NES. -
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 is the next gen version of the 5200, and is credited with being the first console that was fully backwards compatible, meaning that all games from the Atari 2600 and 5200 were able to be played on it. Despite this, the console itself was not very popular. This is considered by many to be because of the delayed release date, cancelled peripherals and the fact that it was considered a glorified way of playing Atari 2600 games. -
Game Boy
The Nintendo Game Boy was one of the first hand held consoles to be a huge success, and it was the smallest hand held console of it's time. It was also the first hand held consoles to allow the use of cartidges, although there were issues with dust and other things getting into the slot of the device meaning it needed to be cleaned regularly. It was also the first hand held console to feature a 3.5mm input meaning users could plug headphones in and listen through them. -
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The SNES is the next gen version of the NES. This console was very popular, as it featured backwards compatibility with the NES but also a very large series of new games including hits such as Super Mario World, which is to this day one of the most popular mario games of all time. The console became the most sold console of it's time, quickly overtaking the NES. It is also one of the first consoles that began to have people making their own custom games in cartidges for it. -
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat was first published by Midway Games. The game is to this day one of the most popular fighting games of all time, due to the redulousness of the games themselves, but with many players enjoying the "fatality" features. The game was originally released onto 4 consoles, the SNES being by far the most popular version. This was because the SNES version was cheaper than versions for other consoles. -
Tetris Mobile
Tetris was an arcade game originally designed by Alexey Pajitnov. The game was hugely successful with people competing all around the world to get the highest scores. Originally the game was only released to the Atari and the Game Boy, but since has been released on pretty much every platform due to it's popularity. -
Playstation
The Sony Playstation was one of the first game consoles to use a disc to play the games. It was not the first, but it was definitely the first to actually be successful. The console was also the first console ever to ship over 100 million units, which it took 9 years to achieve. The console was extremely popular mostly due to the fact that discs provided much more oppertunity for extremely complex games with better graphics and more processing power. -
Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 was Nintendos third home game console. It was unfortunately nowhere near as popular as the SNES or the Playstation, mostly because the playstation came out at a similar time and featured discs, whereas Nintendo decided to stick with cartidges. This meant the games could be less complex with worse graphics, and it also meant a less wide variety of games that could actually be played. -
Playstation 2
The Playstation 2 was the next gen version of the Playstation. It was the first ever games console that had the ability to be played while it was standing vertically or horizontally. This along with it's slim design meant it was very easy to fit in almost any location. The Playstation 2 is to this day the best selling game console of all time, having shipped over 155 million copys. This is also probably due to the fact that not many consoles were actually released after it for years. -
Nintendo Gamecube
The Nintendo Gamecube was Nintendos first games console that used discs, although they weren't full sized discs, they were microdiscs. This didn't matter though, as the Gamecube was praised for featuring very popular games including super mario sunshine. It was discontinued in 2007, but still managed to ship 22 million units, the quickest time for any console at that point, -
XBOX
The XBOX was Microsofts first games console. It generally had mixed reviews. It was the first console that featured a seperate function called XBOX Live, which allowed players to play online with each other through ethernet cable. Because of this the console had many great games released onto it, including the hugely popular Grand Theft Auto series. The console was discontinued in 2008. -
Nintendo DS
The DS was a hand held console from nintendo. It is to this date the most popular hand held console of all time, and also the highest selling. There have been many versions of the Nintendo DS including the DS Lite, DSi, DSiXL, 3DS, and 3DSXL. The consoles used cartridges, but they were extremely small meaning they were easy to carry around in your pocket, which is one reaon they were so popular. -
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 was released on 22nd November 2005 by Microsoft. The Xbox 360 features Xbox Live which is an online paid for service which features many different events like watching tv, listening to music, downloading arcade games and sending messages and talking directly to other players online. -
Playstation 3
The Playstation 3 was Sonys third games console, and was the first console with the ability to read Blu-Ray discs, for extra added resolution and quality. This meant the console had better graphics than it's competetor, the XBOX 360. This didn't help much however, as the XBOX 360 was still more popular and sold more copys. The Playstation 3 also unveiled with it Sony's answer to XBOX Live, The Playstation Network. An advantage of it was that it was free, unlike Xbox live's service which charged. -
Nintendo Wii
The Nintendo Wii was released in 19 November 2006. The Wii introduced a new type of technology in games consoles, a Wii Remote controller which can be used as a handheld pointing device as well as a controller for games. For the first 3 months of release the Wii was in the lead for most copies sold in competition with the PS3 and Xbox 360 -
Nintendo Wii U
The Nintendo WiiU was released in November 30th 2012. It is the first Nintendo console to support high definition graphics. The controller has a screen in the centre to help assist the player, and not use the tv. The WiiU is backwards compatible for the Wii only, not any predecessors like the GameCube -
Xbox One
The Xbox One was released on 22nd November 2013 by Microsoft. The Xbox One features a new and improved Kinect sensor bar with more detailed movement detection and more abilities like the use of the camera for skypeing and pictures. The Xbox One has great live features like streaming and sharing online copies of video games to your other profiles. -
Playstation 4
The Playstation 4 was released on the 29th November 2013 by Sony. The controller is a Dual Shock 4 with a built in two point capacitative touch pad on the front centre of the controller. You can enhance the gameplay by using smartphones and tablets as a second screen.
