-
Earliest introduced video game!
In 1940, Edward Condon designed a computer for the Westinghouse display at the World’s Fair that played the traditional game Nim in which players tried to avoid picking up the last match. Later named "Nimatron," tens of thousands of people played it, and the computer won at least 90% of the
games, it is difficult to pinpoint the first video game ever created. One of the earliest known games include Bertie the Brain (1950), a tic-tac-toe game on display at the Canadian National Exhibition -
Period: to
History of Video Games
-
Computer Space
Computer Space is a video arcade game released in 1971 by Nutting Associates. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would both later found Atari, Inc., it is generally accepted that it was the world's first commercially sold coin-operated video game of any kind, predating the Magnavox Odyssey's release by six months, and Atari's Pong by one year. It was first location tested at The Dutch Goose in August 1971, then debuted at the MOA show on October 15, 1971, and then officially released -
Early arcade video games (1972–1980)
Bushnell and Dabney founded Atari, Inc. in 1972, before releasing their next game: Pong. Pong was the first arcade video game with widespread success. The game is loosely based on table tennis: a ball is "served" from the center of the court and as the ball moves towards their side of the court each player must maneuver their paddle to hit the ball back to their opponent. Allan Alcorn created Pong as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell based the idea -
Second generation consoles (1976–1982)
In the earliest consoles, the computing logic for one or more games was hardwired into microchips using discrete logic, and no additional games could ever be added. In other words, these consoles were single-purpose computers, not programmable computers; there was no software, only hardware, so no change of software was possible. This was an obvious issue for developers; customers would have to buy a new device to attach to their TV sets in order to play different games. -
Golden age of videogames!
The arcade game industry entered its golden age in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders by Taito, a success that inspired dozens of manufacturers to enter the market.The game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants and convenience stores during the golden age. The game also became the subject of numerous articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. -
Gaming computers
Following the success of the Apple II and Commodore PET in the late 1970s, a series of cheaper and incompatible rivals emerged in the early 1980s. This second batch included the Commodore VIC-20 and 64; Sinclair ZX80, ZX81 and ZX Spectrum; NEC PC-8000, PC-6001, PC-88 and PC-98; Sharp X1 and X68000; and Atari 8-bit family, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, and MSX series. -
First handeld devices
In 1979, Milton Bradley Company released the first handheld system using interchangeable cartridges, Microvision. While the handheld received modest success in the first year of production, the lack of games, screen size and video game crash of 1983 brought about the system's quick demise.[87] In 1980, Nintendo released its Game & Watch line, handheld electronic game which spurred dozens of other game and toy companies to make their own portable games, many of which were copies of Game & Watch -
Early online gaming
Dial-up bulletin board systems were popular in the 1980s, and sometimes used for online game playing. The earliest such systems were in the late 1970s and early 1980s and had a crude plain-text interface. Later systems made use of terminal-control codes (the so-called ANSI art, which included the use of IBM-PC-specific characters not part of an ANSI standard) to get a pseudo-graphical interface. -
PC gaming
The increasing computing power and decreasing cost of processors such as the Intel 80386, Intel 80486, and the Motorola 68030, caused the rise of 3D graphics, as well as "multimedia" capabilities through sound cards and CD-ROMs. Early 3D games began with flat-shaded graphics (Elite, Starglider 2 or Alpha Waves[100]), and then simple forms of texture mapping (Wolfenstein 3D). 1989 and the early 1990s saw the release and spread of the MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) codebases DikuMUD and LPMud, leading -
Mobile phone gaming
Mobile phones began becoming video gaming platforms when Nokia installed Snake onto its line of mobile phones in 1997 (Nokia 6110).[102] As the game gained popularity, every major phone brand offered "time killer games" that could be played in very short moments such as waiting for a bus. Mobile phone games early on were limited by the modest size of the phone screens that were all monochrome and the very limited amount of memory and processing power on phones, as well as the drain on the batter -
2010s
The new decade has seen rising interest in the possibility of next generation consoles being developed in keeping with the traditional industry model of a five-year console life cycle. However, in the industry there is believed to be a lack of desire for another race to produce such a console.[140] Reasons for this include the challenge and massive expense of creating consoles that are superior to the current generation, with Sony and Microsoft still looking to recoup development costs
