| History of Video Gaming |
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came out for your system?
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came out for your system?
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games available for each system.
Contents
1 Origins
2 1960s
3 Circa 1970
3.1 Golden age of video arcade games
3.2 Dawn of Console Gaming
3.3 University mainframe computers
3.4 Home computers
3.5 1977
3.6 Second generation (1977–1983)
4 1980s
4.1 Early online gaming
4.2 Handheld LCD games
4.3 Video game crash of 1983
4.4 Third generation (1985–1989)
5 1990s
5.1 Decline of arcades
5.2 Handhelds come of age
5.3 Mobile phone gaming
5.4 Fourth generation (1989–1996)
5.5 Fifth generation (1994–1999)
6 2000s
6.1 Mobile games
6.2 Sixth generation (1998–2006)
6.2.1 Return of alternate controllers
6.2.2 On-line gaming rises to prominence
6.2.3 PCs go casual, consoles go hardcore
6.3 Seventh generation (2004–Present)
6.3.1 High altitude power, high altitude budgets
6.3.2 Nintendo capitalizes on casual gaming
6.3.3 Motion controls revolutionize game control
6.3.4 Questions arise about what a generation is
6.3.5 PC as gaming platform spurned by publishers
7 See also
8 References
8.1 Literary
9 External links
Origins
Main article: First video game
A device called the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device was patented in the United States by Thomas T.
Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann.[1] The patent was filed on January 25, 1947 and issued on December 14,
1948. It described using eight vacuum tubes to simulate a missile firing at a target and contains knobs to adjust
the curve and speed of the missile. Because computer graphics could not be drawn electronically at the time,
small targets were drawn on a simple overlay and placed on the screen.
Tennis for TwoIn February 1951, Christopher Strachey tried to run a draughts programme he had written for
the NPL Pilot ACE. The program exceeded the memory capacity of the machine and by October, Strachey had
recoded his program for a machine at Manchester with a larger memory capacity.
OXO, a graphical version of tic-tac-toe, was created by A.S. Douglas in 1952 at the University of Cambridge, in
order to demonstrate his thesis on human-computer interaction. It was developed on the EDSAC computer,
which uses a cathode ray tube displaying memory contents as a visual display. The player competes against
the computer (which incorporates basic Artificial Intelligence) using a rotary dial.
In 1958 William Higinbotham created a game using an oscilloscope and analog computer.[2] Aptly titled Tennis
for Two, it was used to entertain visitors of the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.[3] Tennis for Two
showed a simplified tennis court from the side, featuring a gravity-controlled ball that needed to be played over
the "net," unlike its successors. The game was played with two box-shaped controllers, both equipped with a
knob for trajectory, and a button for hitting the ball.[2] Tennis for Two was exhibited for two seasons before its
dismantlement in 1959.[4]
1960s
Spacewar! is credited as the first widely available and influential computer game. The majority of early
computer games ran on university mainframe computers in the United States and were developed by
individuals as a hobby. The limited accessibility of early computer hardware meant that these games were small
in number and forgotten by posterity.[citation needed]
In 1961, a group of students at MIT, including Steve Russell, programmed a game titled Spacewar! on the DEC
PDP-1, a new computer at the time.[5] The game pitted two human players against each other, each controlling
a spacecraft capable of firing missiles, while a black hole in the center of the screen created a large hazard for
the crafts. The game was eventually distributed with new DEC computers and traded throughout the then-
primitive internet. Spacewar! is credited as the first widely available and influential computer game.
In 1966, Ralph Baer created a simple video game named Chase that displayed on a standard television set,
the first to do so. With the assistance of Baer, Bill Harrison created the light gun and developed several video
games with Bill Rusch in 1967. Ralph Baer continued development, and in 1968 a prototype was completed
that could run several different games such as table tennis and target shooting.
In 1969, AT&T computer programmer Ken Thompson wrote a game called Space Travel for the MULTICS
operating system. This game simulated various bodies of the solar system and their movements and the player
could attempt to land a spacecraft on them. AT&T pulled out of the MULTICS project, and Thompson ported
the game to FORTRAN code running on the GECOS operating system of the General Electric GE 635
mainframe computer. Runs on this system cost about $75 per hour, and Thompson cast about for a smaller,
less expensive computer to use. He found an underused PDP-7, and he and Dennis Ritchie started porting the
game to PDP-7 assembly language. In the process of learning to develop software for the machine, the
development process of the UNIX operating system began, and Space Travel has been called the first UNIX
application. [6]
Circa 1970
At this time, computer and video game development split to many areas, such as arcade machines, university
computers, handhelds, and home computers.
Golden age of video arcade games
Main article: Golden Age of Video Arcade Games
In September 1971, the Galaxy Game was installed at a student union at Stanford University. Based on
Spacewar!, this was the first coin-operated video game. Only one was built, using a DEC PDP-11/20 and vector
display terminals. In 1972 it was expanded to be able to handle four to eight consoles.
Also in 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar! and called
it Computer Space. Nutting Associates bought the game and manufactured 1,500 Computer Space machines,
with the release taking place in November 1971. The game was unsuccessful due to its long learning-curve, but
was a landmark, being the first mass-produced video game and the first offered for commercial sale.
Bushnell and Dabney felt they did not receive enough earnings by licensing Computer Space to Nutting
Associates. Atari was founded in 1972. The first arcade video game with widespread success was Atari's
PONG, released the same year. 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 bat to hit the
ball back to their opponent. Atari sold 19,000 PONG machines, creating many imitators.
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. In 1979, Atari released Asteroids. Color
arcade games became more popular in 1979 and 1980 with the arrival of titles such as Pac-Man. The Golden
Age saw a prevalence of arcade machines in malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants and convenience stores.
Dawn of Console Gaming
1972 saw the launch of console based videogames with the original Magnavox Odyssey system in the USA.
This had no gaming cartridges, but only a few programmed games in the console. The games featured a
plastic sheet overlay, that was placed on the television picture tube and held by static electricity, which would
define the gaming space such as a basketball court or tennis court.
Philips bought Magnavox and released a different game in Europe in using the Odyssey brand in 1974 and an
evolved game that Magnavox had been developing for the US market. In all the Odyssey system achieved
sales of 2 million units.
University mainframe computers
University mainframe game development blossomed in the early 1970s. There is little record of all but the most
popular games, as they were not marketed, or regarded as a serious endeavor. The people, generally
students, writing these games often were doing so illicitly, making questionable use of very expensive
computing resources, and thus were not anxious to let very many people know what they were doing. There
were, however, at least two notable distribution paths for the student game designers of this time.
The PLATO system was an educational computing environment designed at the University of Illinois and which
ran on mainframes made by Control Data Corporation. Games were often exchanged between different PLATO
systems.
DECUS was the user group for computers made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), and distributed
programs, including games, that would run on the various types of DEC computers.
A number of noteworthy games were also written for Hewlett Packard minicomputers such as the HP2000.
Highlights of this period, in approximate chronological order, include:
1971: Don Daglow wrote the first computer baseball game on a DEC PDP-10 mainframe at Pomona College.
Players could manage individual games or simulate an entire season. Daglow went on to team with programmer
Eddie Dombrower to design Earl Weaver Baseball, published by Electronic Arts in 1987.
1971: Star Trek was created, probably by Mike Mayfield on a Sigma 7 minicomputer at MIT. This is the best-
known and most widely played of the 1970s Star Trek titles, and was played on a series of small "maps" of
galactic sectors printed on paper or on the screen. It was the first major game to be ported across hardware
platforms by students. Daglow also wrote a popular Star Trek game for the PDP-10 during 1971–1972, which
presented the action as a script spoken by the TV program's characters. A number of other Star Trek themed
games were also available via PLATO and DECUS throughout the decade.
1972: Gregory Yob wrote Hunt the Wumpus for the PDP-10, a hide-and-seek game, though it could be
considered the first text adventure. Yob wrote it in reaction to existing hide-and-seek games such as Hurkle,
Mugwump (game), and Snark.
1974: Both Maze War (on the Imlac PDS-1 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California) and Spasim (on
PLATO) appeared, pioneering examples of early multi-player 3D first person shooters.
1974: Brad Fortner and others developed Airfight as an educational flight simulator. To make it more
interesting, all players shared an airspace flying their choice of military jets, loaded as desired with weapons,
fuel and the desire to shoot down other players. Despite mediocre graphics and slow screen refresh, it became
a popular game on the PLATO system. Airfight was the inspiration for what became the Microsoft Flight
Simulator.
1975: Will Crowther wrote the first text adventure game as we would recognize it today, Adventure (originally
called ADVENT, and later Colossal Cave). It was programmed in Fortran for the PDP-10. The player controls
the game through simple sentence-like text commands and receives descriptive text as output. The game was
later re-created by students on PLATO, so it is one of the few titles that became part of both the PLATO and
PDP-10 traditions.
1975: Before the mid-1970s games typically communicated to the player on paper, using teletype machines or
a line printer, at speeds ranging from 10 to 30 characters per second with a rat-a-tat-tat sound as a metal ball
or belt with characters was pressed against the paper through an inked ribbon by a hammer. By 1975, many
universities had discarded these terminals for CRT screens, which could display thirty lines of text in a few
seconds instead of the minute or more that printing on paper required. This led to the development of a series
of games that drew "graphics" on the screen.
1975: Daglow, then a student at Claremont Graduate University, wrote the first Computer role playing game on
PDP-10 mainframes, Dungeon. The game was an unlicensed implementation of the new role playing game
Dungeons & Dragons. Although displayed in text, it was the first game to use line of sight graphics, top-down
dungeon maps that showed the areas that the party had seen or could see, allowing for light or darkness, the
different vision of elves and dwarves, etc.
1975: At about the same time the RPG dnd, also based on Dungeons and Dragons first appeared on PLATO
system CDC computers. For players in these schools dnd, not Dungeon, was the first computer role-playing
game.
1977: Kelton Flinn and John Taylor create the first version of Air, a text air combat game that foreshadowed
their later work creating the first-ever graphical online multi-player game, Air Warrior. They would found the first
successful online game company, Kesmai, now part of Electronic Arts. As Flinn has said: "If Air Warrior was a
primate swinging in the trees, AIR was the text-based amoeba crawling on the ocean floor. But it was quasi-real
time, multi-player, and attempted to render 3-D on the terminal using ASCII graphics. It was an acquired taste."
1977: The writing of the original Zork was started by Dave Lebling, Marc Blank, Tim Anderson, and Bruce
Daniels. Unlike Crowther, Daglow and Yob, the Zork team recognized the potential to move these games to the
new personal computers, and they founded text adventure publisher Infocom in 1979. The company was later
sold to Activision. In a classic case of "connections", Lebling was a member of the same D&D group as Will
Crowther, but not at the same time. Lebling has been quoted as saying "I think I actually replaced him when he
dropped out. Zork was 'derived' from Advent in that we played Advent … and tried to do a 'better' one. There
was no code borrowed … and we didn’t meet either Crowther or Woods until much later."
1980: Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman and Ken Arnold released Rogue on BSD Unix after two years of work,
inspiring many roguelike games ever since. Like Dungeon on the PDP-10 and dnd on PLATO, Rogue
displayed dungeon maps using text characters. Unlike those games, however, the dungeon was randomly
generated for each play session, so the path to treasure and the enemies who protected it were different for
each game. As the Zork team had done, Rogue was adapted for home computers and became a commercial
product.
Home computers
While the fruit of development in early video games appeared mainly (for the consumer) in video arcades and
home consoles, the rapidly evolving home computers of the 1970s and 80s allowed their owners to program
simple games. Hobbyist groups for the new computers soon formed and game software followed.
The Tandy TRS-80, the first Tandy computer and one of the machines responsible for the personal computer
revolution.Soon many of these games (at first clones of mainframe classics such as Star Trek, and then later
clones of popular arcade games) were being distributed through a variety of channels, such as printing the
game’s source code in books (such as David Ahl’s BASIC Computer Games), magazines (Creative Computing),
and newsletters, which allowed users to type in the code for themselves. Early game designers like Crowther,
Daglow and Yob would find the computer code for their games—which they had never thought to copyright—
published in books and magazines, with their names removed from the listing. Early home computers from
Apple, Commodore, Tandy and others had many games that people typed in.
Another distribution channel was the physical mailing and selling of floppy disks, cassette tapes and ROM
cartridges. Soon a small cottage industry was formed, with amateur programmers selling disks in plastic bags
put on the shelves of local shops, or sent through the mail. Richard Garriott distributed several copies of his
1980 computer role-playing game Akalabeth in plastic bags before the game was published.
[edit] 1977
In 1977, manufacturers of older obsolete consoles and Pong clones sold their systems at a loss to clear stock,
creating a glut in the market and causing Fairchild and RCA to abandon their game consoles. Only Atari and
Magnavox stayed in the home console market.
[edit] Second generation (1977–1983)
Main article: History of video game consoles (second generation)
In the earliest consoles, the computer code for one or more games was hardcoded into microchips using
discrete logic, and no additional games could ever be added. By the mid-1970s video games were found on
cartridges. Programs were burned onto ROM chips that were mounted inside plastic cartridge casings that
could be plugged into slots on the console. When the cartridges were plugged in, the general-purpose
microprocessors in the consoles read the cartridge memory and ran whatever program was stored there.
Rather than being confined to a small selection of games included in the box, consumers could now amass
libraries of game cartridges. The first of these consoles to use the ROM cartridge format was the Fairchild
'Video Entertainment System (VES)', released in 1976.
Three machines dominated the second generation of consoles in North America, far outselling their rivals:
In 1977, Atari released its ROM cartridge based console called the Video Computer System (VCS), later called
Atari 2600. Nine games were designed and released for the holiday season. It would quickly become by far the
most popular of all the early consoles.
Intellivision, introduced by Mattel in 1980. Though chronologically part of what is called the "8-bit era", the
Intellivision had a unique processor with instructions that were 10 bits wide (allowing more instruction variety
and potential speed), and registers 16 bits wide. The system, which featured graphics superior to the older
Atari 2600, rocketed to popularity.
ColecoVision, an even more powerful machine, appeared in 1982. Its sales also took off, but the presence of
three major consoles in the marketplace and a glut of poor quality games began to overcrowd retail shelves
and erode consumers' interest in video games. Within a year this overcrowded market would crash.
In 1979, Activision was created by disgruntled former Atari programmers. It was the first third-party developer of
video games. Many new developers would follow their lead in succeeding years.[citation needed]
1980s
In the early 1980s, the computer gaming industry experienced its first major growing pains. Publishing houses
appeared, with many honest businesses (and in rare cases such as Electronic Arts, successfully surviving to
this day) alongside fly-by-night operations that cheated the games' developers. While some early 80s games
were simple clones of existing arcade titles, the relatively low publishing costs for personal computer games
allowed for many bold, unique games, a legacy that continues to this day. The primary gaming computers of
the 1980s emerged in 1982: the Commodore 64, Apple II (although the Apple II started in 1977) and Sinclair ZX
Spectrum. The ZX Spectrum was mostly used and known only in the UK, whilst the USA had the Apple II,
Commodore 64, and Atari 800. Over the run of 15 years, the Apple II had a total of almost 20,000 programs,
making it the 8-bit computer with the most software overall.
The Golden Age of Arcade Games reached its full steam in the 1980s, with many technically innovative and
genre-defining games in the first few years of the decade. Defender (1980) established the scrolling shooter
and was the first to have events taking place outside the player’s view, displayed by a radar view showing a
map of the whole playfield. Battlezone (1980) used wireframe vector graphics to create the first true three-
dimensional game world. 3D Monster Maze (1981) was the first 3D game for a home computer, while Dungeons
of Daggorath (1982) added various weapons and monsters, sophisticated sound effects, and a "heartbeat"
health monitor. Pole Position (1982) used sprite-based, pseudo-3D graphics when it pioneered the "rear-view
racer format" where the player’s view is behind and above the vehicle, looking forward along the road with the
horizon in sight. The style would remain in wide use even after true 3D graphics became standard for racing
games. Pac-Man (1980) was the first game to achieve widespread popularity in mainstream culture and the first
game character to be popular in his own right. Dragon's Lair (1983) was the first laserdisc game, and
introduced full-motion video to video games. Journey Escape, a videogame developed by Data Age for the
Atari 2600 console, and released in 1982, stars the rock band Journey, one of the world's most popular acts at
the time, and is based on their album of the same name.
With Adventure establishing the genre, the release of Zork in 1980 further popularized text adventure games in
home computers and established developer Infocom’s dominance in the field. As these early computers often
lacked graphical capabilities, text adventures proved successful. When affordable computers started catching
up to and surpassing the graphics of consoles in the late 1980s, the games' popularity waned in favor of
graphic adventures and other genres. The text adventure would eventually be known as interactive fiction and
a small dedicated following has kept the genre going, with new releases being nearly all free.
Also published in 1980 was Roberta Williams' Mystery House, for the Apple II. It was the first graphic adventure
on home computers. Graphics consisted entirely of static monochrome drawings, and the interface still used
the typed commands of text adventures. It proved very popular at the time, and she and husband Ken went on
to found Sierra On-Line, a major producer of adventure games. Mystery House remains largely forgotten today.
The Commodore 64 systemIn August 1982, the Commodore 64 was released to the public. It found initial
success because it was marketed and priced aggressively. It had a BASIC programming environment and
advanced graphic and sound capabilities for its time, similar to the ColecoVision console. It also utilized the
same game controller ports popularized by the Atari 2600, allowing gamers to use their old joysticks with the
system. It would become the most popular home computer of its day in the USA and many other countries and
the best-selling single computer model of all time internationally.
At around the same time, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was released in the United Kingdom and quickly became the
most popular home computer in many areas of Western Europe, and later the Eastern bloc due to the ease
with which clones could be produced.
SuperSet Software created Snipes, a text-mode networked computer game in 1983 to test a new IBM PC based
computer network and demonstrate its capabilities. Snipes is officially credited as being the original inspiration
for Novell NetWare. It is believed to be the first network game ever written for a commercial personal computer
and is recognized alongside 1974’s Maze War (a networked multiplayer maze game for several research
machines) and Spasim (a 3D multiplayer space simulation for time shared mainframes) as the precursor to
multiplayer games such as Doom and Quake.
The true modern adventure game would be born with the Sierra King's Quest series in 1984. It featured color
graphics and a third person perspective. An on-screen player-controlled character could be moved behind and
in front of objects on a 2D background drawn in perspective, creating the illusion of pseudo-3D space.
Commands were still entered via text. Lucasarts would do away with this last vestige feature of text adventures
when its 1987 adventure Maniac Mansion built with its SCUMM system allowed a point-and-click interface.
Sierra and other game companies quickly followed with their own mouse-driven games. For more on the history
of adventures games, see Adventure games, history of
With Elite in 1984, David Braben and Ian Bell ushered in the age of modern style 3d graphics in the home,
bringing a convincing vector world with full 6 degree freedom of movement and thousands of visitable planetary
systems into the living room. Initially only available for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, the success of this
title caused it eventually to be ported to all popular formats, including the Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum,
Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and even the Nintendo Entertainment System, although this version only received
a European release.
The IBM PC compatible computer became a technically competitive gaming platform with IBM’s PC/AT in 1984.
The new 16-color EGA display standard allowed its graphics to approach the quality seen in popular home
computers like the Commodore 64. The primitive 4-color CGA graphics of previous models had limited the PC’s
appeal to the business segment, since its graphics failed to compete with the C64 or Apple II. The sound
capabilities of the AT, however, were still limited to the PC speaker, which was substandard compared to the
built-in sound chips used in many home computers. Also, the relatively high cost of the PC compatible systems
severely limited their popularity in gaming.
The Apple Macintosh also arrived at this time. It lacked the color capabilities of the earlier Apple II, instead
preferring a much higher pixel resolution, but the operating system support for the GUI attracted developers of
some interesting games (e.g. Lode Runner) even before color returned in 1987 with the Mac II.
In computer gaming, the later 1980s are primarily the story of the United Kingdom’s rise to prominence. The
market in the UK was primely positioned for this task: personal computer users were offered a smooth scale of
power versus price, from the Sinclair ZX Spectrum up to the Amiga, developers and publishers were in close
enough proximity to offer each other support, and the NES made much less of an impact than it did in the
United States, due to the enormous popularity of personal computers there, even though it outsold all the other
home consoles (such as the Sega Master System)
The arrival of the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga in 1985 was the beginning of a new era of 16-bit machines.
For many users they were too expensive until later on in the decade, at which point advances in the IBM PC’s
open platform had caused the IBM PC compatibles to become comparably powerful at a lower cost than their
competitors. The VGA standard developed for IBM’s new PS/2 line in 1987 gave the PC the potential for 256-
color graphics. This was a big jump ahead of most 8-bit home computers but still lagging behind platforms with
built-in sound and graphics hardware like the Amiga, causing an odd trend around '89-91 towards developing
to a seemingly inferior machine. Thus while both the ST and Amiga were host to many technically excellent
games, their time of prominence proved to be shorter than that of the 8-bit machines, which saw new ports well
into the 80s and even the 90s.
The Yamaha YM3812 sound chip.Dedicated sound cards started to address the issue of poor sound
capabilities in IBM PC compatibles in the late 1980s. AdLib set an early de facto standard for sound cards in
1987, with its card based on the Yamaha YM3812 sound chip. This would last until the introduction of Creative
Labs' Sound Blaster in 1989, which took the chip and added new features while remaining compatible with
AdLib cards, and creating a new de facto standard. However, many games would still support these and rarer
things like the Roland MT-32 and Disney Sound Source into the early 90s. The initial high cost of sound cards
meant they would not find widespread use until the 1990s.
Shareware gaming first appeared in the mid 1980s, but its big successes came in the 1990s.[citation needed]
Early online gaming
Dialup bulletin board systems were popular in the 1980s, and sometimes used for online game playing. The
earliest such systems, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, had a crude plain-text interface, but later systems
made use of terminal-control codes (the so-called ANSI art, which included the use of IBM-PC-specific
characters not actually part of an ANSI standard) to get a pseudo-graphical interface. Some BBSes offered
access to various games which were playable through such an interface, ranging from text adventures to
gambling games like blackjack (generally played for "points" rather than real money). On multiuser BBSs
(where more than one person could be online at once), there were sometimes games allowing the different
users to interact with one another; some such games of the fantasy role-playing variety were known as MUDs,
for "multi-user dungeons". These games eventually evolved into what are known today as MMORPG.
Commercial online services also arose during this decade, starting with a plain-text interface similar to BBSs
(but operated on large mainframe computers permitting larger numbers of users to be online at once), and
moving by the end of the decade to fully-graphical environments using software specific to each personal
computer platform. Popular text-based services included CompuServe, The Source, and GEnie, while platform-
specific graphical services included PlayNET and Quantum Link for the Commodore 64, AppleLink for the
Apple II and Macintosh, and PC Link for the IBM PC, all of which were run by the company which eventually
became America Online; and a competing service, Prodigy. Interactive games were a feature of these services,
though until 1987 they used text-based displays, not graphics.
Handheld LCD games
Nintendo's Game & Watch line began in 1980. The success of these LCD handhelds spurred dozens of other
game and toy companies to make their own portable games, many being copies of Game & Watch titles or
adaptations of popular arcade games. Improving LCD technology meant the new handhelds could be more
reliable and consume less batteries than LED or VFD games, most only needing watch batteries. They could
also be made much smaller than most LED handhelds, even small enough to wear on one’s wrist like a watch.
Tiger Electronics borrowed this concept of videogaming with cheap, affordable handhelds and still produces
games in this model to the present day.
Video game crash of 1983
Main article: North American video game crash of 1983
At the end of 1983, the industry experienced losses more severe than the 1977 crash. This was the "crash" of
the video game industry, as well as the bankruptcy of several companies that produced North American home
computers and video game consoles from late 1983 to early 1984. It brought an end to what is considered to
be the second generation of console video gaming. Causes of the crash include the production of poorly
conceived games such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. It was discovered that
more Pac-Man cartridges were manufactured than there were systems made. In addition, so many E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial cartridges were left unsold that Atari buried thousands of cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico.
Third generation (1985–1989)
Main article: History of video game consoles (third generation)
In 1984, the computer gaming market took over from the console market following the crash of that year;
computers offered equal gaming ability and since their simple design allowed games to take complete
command of the hardware after power-on, they were nearly as simple to start playing with as consoles.
The Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom.In 1985, the North American video game console market was
revived with Nintendo’s release of its 8-bit console, the Famicom, known outside Asia as Nintendo
Entertainment System (NES). It was bundled with Super Mario Bros. and instantly became a success. The NES
dominated the North American and the Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the
early 1990s. Other markets were not as heavily dominated, allowing other consoles to find an audience like the
Sega Master System in Europe, Australia and Brazil (though it was sold in North America as well).
In the new consoles, the gamepad took over joysticks, paddles, and keypads as the default game controller
included with the system. The gamepad design of an 8 direction Directional-pad (or D-pad for short) with 2 or
more action buttons became the standard.
The Legend of Zelda series made its debut in 1986 with The Legend of Zelda. Around the same time, the
Dragon Quest series debuted with Dragon Quest (1986), and has created a phenomenon in Japanese culture
ever since. Shortly thereafter, the Japanese company Square was struggling and Hironobu Sakaguchi decided
to make his final game, titled Final Fantasy (1987), a role-playing game (RPG) modeled after Dragon Quest,
and the Final Fantasy series was born as a result. Final Fantasy would later go on to become the most
successful RPG franchise. Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear series also made its debut with the release of Metal Gear
(1987) on the MSX2 computer, giving birth to the stealth-based game genre. Metal Gear was ported to the NES
shortly after. In 1989, Capcom released Sweet Home (1989) on the NES, which served as a precursor to the
survival horror genre.
In 1988, Nintendo published their first issue of Nintendo Power magazine[citation needed].
1990s
If the 1980s were about the rise of the industry, the 1990s were about its maturing into a mainstream form of
entertainment. The 1990s saw the beginning of a larger consolidation of publishers, higher budget games,
increased size of production teams and collaborations with both the music and motion picture industries.
Examples of this would be Mark Hammil's involvement with Wing Commander III or Quincy Jones' introduction of
QSound.
With the increasing computing power and decreasing cost of processors as the Intel 80386, Intel 80486, and
the Motorola 68030, the 1990s saw 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[7] ),
and then simple forms of texture mapping (Wolfenstein 3D).
In the early 1990s, shareware distribution was a popular method of publishing games for smaller developers,
including then-fledgling companies such as Apogee (now 3D Realms), Epic Megagames (now Epic Games),
and id Software. It gave consumers the chance to try a trial portion of the game, usually restricted to the game’
s complete first section or "episode", before purchasing the rest of the adventure. Racks of games on single 5
1/4" and later 3.5" floppy disks were common in many stores, often only costing a few dollars each. Since the
shareware versions were essentially free, the cost only needed to cover the disk and minimal packaging. As the
increasing size of games in the mid-90s made them impractical to fit on floppies, and retail publishers and
developers began to earnestly mimic the practice, shareware games were replaced by shorter demos (often
only one or two levels), distributed free on CDs with gaming magazines and over the Internet.
1992 saw the release of real-time strategy (RTS) game Dune II. It was by no means the first in the genre
(several other games can be called the very first RTS, see the History of RTS), but it set the standard game
mechanics for later blockbuster RTS games such as Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Command & Conquer, and
StarCraft. The RTS is characterized by an overhead view, a "mini-map", and the control of both the economic
and military aspects of an army. The rivalry between the two styles of RTS play—Warcraft style, which used
GUIs accessed once a building was selected, and C&C style, which allowed construction of any unit from within
a permanently visible menu—continued into the start of the next millennium.
Alone in the Dark (1992) while not the first survival horror game, planted the seeds of what would become
known as the survival horror genre of today. It established the formula that would later flourish on CD-ROM
based consoles, with games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Adventure games continued to evolve, with Sierra’s King's Quest series, and LucasFilms'/LucasArts' Monkey
Island series bringing graphical interaction and the creation of the concept of "point-and-click" gaming. Myst
and its sequels inspired a new style of puzzle-based adventure games. Published in 1993, Myst itself was one
of the first computer games to make full use of the new high-capacity CD-ROM storage format. Despite Myst’s
mainstream success, the increased popularity of action-based and real-time games led adventure games and
simulation games, both mainstays of computer games in earlier decades, to begin to fade into obscurity.
It was in the 1990s that Maxis began publishing its successful line of "Sim" games, beginning with SimCity, and
continuing with a variety of titles, such as SimEarth, SimCity 2000, SimAnt, SimTower, and the wildly popular
day to day life simulator, The Sims in 2000.
In 1996, 3dfx released the Voodoo chipset, leading to the first affordable 3D accelerator cards for personal
computers. These devoted 3D rendering daughter cards performed a portion of the computations required for
more-detailed three-dimensional graphics (mainly texture filtering), allowing for more-detailed graphics than
would be possible if the CPU were required to handle both game logic and all the graphical tasks. First-person
shooter games (notably Quake) were among the first to take advantage of this new technology. While other
games would also make use of it, the FPS would become the chief driving force behind the development of new
3D hardware, as well as the yardstick by which its performance would be measured, usually quantified as the
number of frames per second rendered for a particular scene in a particular game.
Several other, less-mainstream, genres were created in this decade. Looking Glass Studios' Thief and its
sequel were the first to coin the term "first person sneaker", although it is questionable whether they are the
first "first person stealth" games. Turn-based strategy progressed further, with the Heroes of Might and Magic
(HOMM) series (from 3DO) luring many main-stream gamers into this complex genre.
The 90s also saw the beginnings of Internet gaming, with MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) in the early years. Id
Software’s 1996 game Quake pioneered play over the Internet in first-person shooters. Internet multiplayer
capability became a de facto requirement in almost all FPS games. Other genres also began to offer online
play, including RTS games like Microsoft’s Age of Empires, Blizzard’s Warcraft and StarCraft series, and turn-
based games such as Heroes of Might and Magic. MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying
Games), such as Ultima Online and EverQuest freed users from the limited number of simultaneous players in
other games and brought the MUD concept of persistent worlds to graphical multiplayer games. Developments
in web browser plugins like Java and Macromedia Flash allowed for simple browser-based games. These are
small single player or multiplayer games that can be quickly downloaded and played from within a web browser
without installation. Their most popular use is for puzzle games, classic arcade games, and multiplayer card
and board games.
Few new genres have been created since the advent of the FPS and RTS, with the possible exception of the
third-person shooter. Games such as Grand Theft Auto III, Splinter Cell, Enter The Matrix, and Hitman all use a
third-person camera perspective, but are otherwise very similar to their first-person counterparts.
Decline of arcades
With the advent of 16-bit and 32-bit consoles, home video games began to approach the level of graphics seen
in arcade games. An increasing number of players would wait for popular arcade games to be ported to
consoles rather than going out. Arcades experienced a resurgence in the early to mid 1990s with games such
as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat and other games in the one-on-one fighting game genre, and NBA Jam.
As patronage of arcades declined, many were forced to close down. Classic coin-operated games have largely
become the province of dedicated hobbyists.
The gap left by the old corner arcades was partly filled by large amusement centers dedicated to providing
clean, safe environments and expensive game control systems not available to home users. These are usually
based on sports like skiing or cycling, as well as rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution, which have
carved out a large slice of the market. Dave & Buster's and GameWorks are two large chains in the United
States with this type of environment. Aimed at adults, they feature full service restaurants with full liquor bars
and have a wide variety of video game and hands on electronic gaming options. Chuck E. Cheese is a similar
type of establishment focused towards children.
Handhelds come of age
In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, the first handheld console since the ill-fated Microvision ten years
before. The design team headed by Gunpei Yokoi had also been responsible for the Game & Watch systems.
Included with the system was Tetris, a popular puzzle game. Several rival handhelds also made their debut
around that time, including the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx (the first handheld with color LCD display).
Although most other systems were more technologically advanced, they were hampered by higher battery
consumption and less third-party developer support. While some of the other systems remained in production
until the mid-90s, the Game Boy remained at the top spot in sales throughout its lifespan.[citation needed]
Mobile phone gaming
Mobile phones became videogaming platforms when Nokia installed Snake onto its line of mobile phones in
1998. Soon 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 battery.
Fourth generation (1989–1996)
Main article: History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
The Sega Mega Drive (known in North America as the Sega Genesis) proved its worth early on after its debut
in 1989. Nintendo responded with its own next generation system known as the Super NES in 1991. The
TurboGrafx-16 debuted early on alongside the Genesis, but did not achieve a large following in the U.S. due to
a limited library of games and excessive distribution restrictions imposed by Hudson.
The intense competition of this time was also a period of not entirely truthful marketing. The TurboGrafx-16 was
billed as the first 16-bit system but its central processor was an 8-bit HuC6280, with only its HuC6260 graphics
processor being a true 16-bit chip. Additionally, the much earlier Mattel Intellivision contained a 16-bit
processor. Sega, too, was known to stretch the truth in its marketing approach; they used the term Blast
Processing to describe the simple fact that their console's CPU ran at a higher clock speed than that of the
SNES (7.67 MHz vs 3.58 MHz).
In Japan, the 1987 success of the PC Engine (as the TurboGrafx-16 was known there) against the Famicom
and CD drive peripheral allowed it to fend off the Mega Drive (Genesis) in 1988, which never really caught on
to the same degree as outside Japan. The PC Engine eventually lost out to the Super Famicom, but, due to its
popular CD add-ons, retained enough of a user base to support new games well into the late 1990s.
CD-ROM drives were first seen in this generation, as add-ons for the PC Engine in 1988 and the Mega Drive in
1991. Basic 3D graphics entered the mainstream with flat-shaded polygons enabled by additional processors in
game cartridges like Virtua Racing and Star Fox.
SNK's Neo-Geo was the most expensive console by a wide margin when it was released in 1990, and would
remain so for years. It was also capable of 2D graphics in a quality level years ahead of other consoles. The
reason for this was that it contained the same hardware that was found in SNK's arcade games. This was the
first time since the home Pong machines that a true-to-the-arcade experience could be had at home.
Fifth generation (1994–1999)
Main article: History of video game consoles (fifth generation)
In 1993, Atari re-entered the home console market with the introduction of the Atari Jaguar. Also in 1993, The
3DO Company released the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, which, though highly advertised and promoted, failed
to catch up to the sales of the Jaguar. Both consoles, however, ultimately failed, the 3DO due to its high
pricetag, and the Jaguar because of its lack of quality games. In 1994, three new consoles were released in
Japan: the Sega Saturn, the PlayStation, and the PC-FX, the Saturn and the PlayStation later seeing release in
North America in 1995. The PlayStation quickly outsold all of its competitors, with the exception of the aging
Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which still had the support of many major game companies.
After many delays, Nintendo released its 64-bit console, the Nintendo 64 in 1996. The flagship title, Super
Mario 64, became a defining title for 3D platformer games.
PaRappa the Rapper popularized rhythm, or music video games in Japan with its 1996 debut on the
PlayStation. Subsequent music and dance games like beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution became
ubiquitous attractions in Japanese arcades. While Parappa, DDR, and other games found a cult following when
brought to North America, music games would not gain a wide audience in the market until the next decade.
Other milestone games of the era include Rare's Nintendo 64 title GoldenEye 007 (1997), which was critically
acclaimed for bringing innovation as being the first major first-person shooter that was exclusive to a console,
and for pioneering certain features that became staples of the genre, such as scopes, headshots, and
objective-based missions.[citation needed] The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998), Nintendo's 3D debut
for the The Legend of Zelda adventure game series featured innovations such as Z-targeting, used in later
games of similar genres.
Nintendo's choice to use cartridges instead of CD-ROMs for the Nintendo 64, unique among the consoles of
this period, proved to have negative consequences. While cartridges were faster and combated piracy, CDs
could hold far more data and were much cheaper to produce, causing many game companies to turn to
Nintendo's CD-based competitors. In particular, SquareSoft, which had released all previous games in its Final
Fantasy series for Nintendo consoles, now turned to the PlayStation; Final Fantasy VII (1997) was a huge
success, establishing the popularity of role-playing games in the west and making the PlayStation the primary
console for the genre.
By the end of this period, Sony had become the leader in the video game market. The Saturn was moderately
successful in Japan but a failure in North America and Europe, leaving Sega outside of the main competition.
The N64 achieved huge success in North America and Europe, though it never surpassed PlayStation's sales.
The N64 was also successful in Japan, even though it failed to repeat the tremendous success of NES and
SNES there due to stiff competition by PlayStation.
2000s
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removing such elements and incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the article. (January 2008)
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removed. (November 2007)
The most recent decade has shown innovation on both consoles and PCs, and an increasingly competitive
market for portable (handheld) game systems.
The phenomena of user-created modifications (or "mods") for games was one trend that began around the turn
of the millennium. The most famous example is that of Counter-Strike; released in 1999, it is still the most
popular online first-person shooter of all time, even though it was created as a mod for a separate game called
Half-Life by two completely independent programmers. Eventually, game designers realized the potential of
mods and custom content in general to enhance the value of their games, and so began to encourage its
creation. Some examples of this include Unreal Tournament, which allowed players to import 3dsmax scenes to
use as character models, and Maxis' The Sims, for which players could create custom objects.
Mobile games
Mobile gaming interest was raised when Nokia launched its N-Gage phone and handheld gaming platform in
2003. While about two million handsets were sold, the phone line was seen as not a success and withdrawn
from Nokia's lineup. Meanwhile many game developers had noticed that more advanced phones had color
screens and reasonable memory and processing power to do reasonable gaming. Mobile phone gaming
revenues passed 1 billion dollars in 2003, and passed 5 billion dollars in 2007, accounting for a quarter of all
videogaming software revenues. More advanced phones came to the market such as the N-Series
smartphones by Nokia in 2005 and the iPhone by Apple in 2007 which strongly added to the appeal of mobile
phone gaming. In 2008 Nokia revised the N-Gage brand but now as a software library of games to its top-end
phones. At Apple's App Store in 2008, more than half of all applications sold were games for the iPhone.
Sixth generation (1998–2006)
Main article: History of video game consoles (sixth generation)
The sixth generation of video game consoles saw a changing of the guard, as Sega exited the hardware
market, Nintendo fell behind, Sony solidified its lead in the industry, and Microsoft entered the scene.
The Dreamcast, introduced in 1998, opened the generation but failed to become a hit, and faded from the
market before the subsequent consoles appeared, and Sega retreated to the third-party game market. Sony
opened the new decade with the PlayStation 2, which would go on to become the top-selling game console to
date. Nintendo followed a year later with the GameCube, their first disc-based console. Though more or less
equal with Sony's system in technical specifications, the GameCube suffered from a lack of third-party games
compared to Sony's system, and was dogged by a reputation for being a "kid's console" and lacking the mature
games the current market appeared to want.
The Xbox, Microsoft's entry into the videogame console industry.Before the end of 2001, Microsoft Corporation,
best known for its Windows operating system and its professional productivity software, judged the console
market ripe for entry with the decline of Sega and Nintendo, and introduced the Xbox. Based on Intel's Pentium
III CPU, the console leaned heavily on PC technology in order to leverage its own internal development
knowledge. In order to maintain its toehold in the market, Microsoft reportedly sold the Xbox at a significant loss
[8]and concentrated on drawing profit from game development and publishing. By the end of the generation,
the Xbox had drawn even with the GameCube in sales globally, but since nearly all of its sales were in North
America, it pushed Nintendo into third place in the American market.
Nintendo still dominated the handheld gaming market in this generation. The Game Boy Color, in 1998, and
then the Game Boy Advance in 2001, maintained Nintendo's market position. Finnish cellphone maker Nokia
entered the handheld scene with the N-Gage, but it failed to win a significant following.
Return of alternate controllers
One significant feature of this generation was various manufacturers' renewed fondness for add-on peripheral
controllers. While novel controllers weren't new -- Nintendo featured several with the original NES, and PC
gaming has previously featured driving wheels and aircraft joysticks -- for the first time, console games using
them became some of the biggest hits of the decade. Konami brought home its Dance Dance Revolution
franchise in 1998 with the introduction of soft plastic mat versions of its foot controls. Sega bundled controllers
that looked like maracas with Samba de Amigo. Nintendo introduced a bongo controller for a few titles in its
Donkey Kong franchise. And publisher Red Octane scored a surprise hit with the introduction of Guitar Hero
and its guitar-shaped controller for the PlayStation 2.
On-line gaming rises to prominence
As affordable broadband Internet connectivity spread across the globe, many publishers turned to on-line
gaming as a way of innovating. Massively-multiplayer on-line role playing games (MMORPGs) featured
significant hit titles like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI. While these games were primary PC-based, the
Xbox shared in some of the action with its integrated network interface. While the PlayStation 2 and GameCube
lacked on-line connectivity out of the box, both had add-ons available.
PCs go casual, consoles go hardcore
Beginning with PCs, a new trend in so-called "casual gaming" -- games with limited complexity that were
designed for shortened or impromptu play sessions -- began to draw attention from the industry. Many were
puzzle games, such as Popcap's Bejeweled and Diner Dash, while others were games with a more relaxed pace
and open-ended play. Of these, the biggest hit was The Sims by Maxis, which went on to become the best
selling computer game of all time, surpassing Myst.[9].
On the other side of the industry, console gaming continued the trend established by the PlayStation toward
increasingly complex, sophisticated, and adult-oriented gameplay. Games rated T and M by the ESRB took up
the lion's share of hits on consoles in this generation, including many now-classic gaming franchises such as
Halo, Resident Evil, and Grand Theft Auto, the latter of which was notable for both its success and its notoriety.
Grand Theft Auto III was banned in some countries, including Australia, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
was found to have hidden sexual content which could be unlocked by downloading a patch from the Internet,
resulting in a temporary re-rating of AO in the United States until its publisher, Take Two Interactive, could
issue a revised version. Even Nintendo, widely known for its aversion to adult content, published its first M-
rated game, Silicon Knights's Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and the GameCube was the temporary
exclusive platform for Capcom's Resident Evil 4.
Seventh generation (2004–Present)
Main article: History of video game consoles (seventh generation)
A major rift opened in console gaming philosophy and design in the seventh generation, with some calling the
identification of video game "generations" questionable and arbitrary, while PC gaming began to go into relative
decline as major publishers steered their efforts to consoles.
The generation opened early for handheld consoles, as Nintendo introduced their DS and Sony premiered the
PlayStation Portable (PSP) within a month of each other in 2004. While the PSP boasted superior graphics and
power, following a trend established since the mid 1980s, Nintendo gambled on a lower-power design but
featuring a novel control interface. The DS's two screens, one of which was touch-sensitive, proved extremely
popular with consumers, especially young kids and middle-aged gamers, who were drawn to the device by
Nintendo's Nintendogs and Brain Age series, respectively. While the PSP captured a significant portion of
veteran gamers, the DS allowed Nintendo to continue its dominance in the handheld realm. Nintendo updated
their line with the DS Lite in 2006, and the DSi in 2008 (Japan) and 2009 (Americas and Europe), while Sony
"updated" the PSP in 2007. Nokia withdrew their N-Gage platform in 2004 but reintroduced it in late 2008.
In console gaming, Microsoft stepped forward first in November 2005 with the Xbox 360, and Sony followed in
2006 with the PlayStation 3. Setting the technology standard for the generation, both featured high-definition
graphics, large hard disk-based secondary storage, integrated networking, and a companion on-line gameplay
and sales platform, with Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, respectively. Both were formidable systems that
were the first to challenge personal computers in power while offering a relatively modest price compared to
them. While both were more expensive than most past consoles, the Xbox 360 enjoyed a substantial price
edge, selling for either $300 or $400 depending on model, while the PS3 launched with models priced at $500
and $600. The top-of-the-line PS3 was the most expensive game console on the market since Panasonic's
version of the 3DO, around $700.
Nintendo was not expected to compete credibly at all, with most industry analysts predicting a distant third place
finish for its new Revolution console, later renamed Wii, introduced a couple weeks after the PS3, and one
even going so far as to predict a market exit similar to Sega. Instead, Nintendo pulled off one of the more
stunning industry turnarounds in business. While the Wii's power was greater than that of last generation's
consoles, it was clearly behind Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, and Nintendo themselves refused to publish or
confirm technical specifications, instead touting the console's new control scheme, featuring motion-based
control and infrared-based pointing. Many gamers, publishers, and analysts dismissed the Wii as an
underpowered curiosity, but were surprised as the console sold out through the 2006 Christmas season, and
remained so through the next 18 months, becoming the fastest selling game console of all time in most of the
world's gaming markets.
High altitude power, high altitude budgets
With high definition video an undeniable hit with veteran gamers seeking immersive experiences, expectations
for visuals in games along with the increasing complexity of productions resulted in a spike in the development
budgets of gaming companies. While many game studios saw their Xbox 360 projects pay off, the unexpected
weakness of PS3 sales resulted in heavy losses for some developers, and many publishers broke previously
arranged PS3 exclusivity arrangements or cancelled PS3 game projects entirely in order to cut losses. Even so,
high definition graphics and multi-core CPUs provided gamers with some of their most breathtaking experiences
to date, including games like Gears of War 2, Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4, all of which were
rated nearly perfect by game reviewers.
Nintendo capitalizes on casual gaming
Meanwhile, Nintendo took cues from PC gaming and their own success with the DS, and crafted games that
capitalized on the intuitive nature of motion control. Emphasis on gameplay turned comparatively simple games
into unlikely runaway hits, including the bundled game, Wii Sports, and Wii Fit. As the Wii took off, many
publishers were caught unaware and responded by assembling hastily-created titles to fill the void, leading one
gaming web site to coin the term shovelware to describe the burst of stopgap casual games produced by
established developers and new start-ups alike. Although some so-called "hardcore games" continued to be
produced by Nintendo, many of their classic franchises were reworked into "bridge games", meant to provide
new gamers crossover experiences from casual gaming to deeper experiences, including their flagship Wii title,
Super Mario Galaxy, which in spite of its standard-resolution graphics dominated critics' "best-of" lists for 2007.
Many others, however, strongly criticized Nintendo for its apparent spurning of its core gamer base in favor of a
demographic many warned would be fickle and difficult to keep engaged.
Motion controls revolutionize game control
The way gamers interact with games changed dramatically this generation, especially with Nintendo's wholesale
embrace of motion control as a standard method of interaction. The Wii remote implemented the principles well
enough to be a worldwide success, but Sony also experimented with motion in its Sixaxis controller for the PS3,
and Microsoft continually mentions interest in developing the technology for the Xbox 360. While the Wii's
infrared-based pointing system has been praised widely, and cited as a primary reason for the success of
games such as Nintendo's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and EA's Medal of Honor Heroes 2, reliable motion
controls have been more elusive. Even the most refined motion controls fail to achieve 1-to-1 reproduction of
player motion on-screen. Nintendo's 2008 announcement of its MotionPlus module was intended to address
critics' concerns.
Alternate controllers are also continuing to be important in gaming, as the increasingly involved controllers
associated with Red Octane's Guitar Hero series and Harmonix's Rock Band demonstrate. Nintendo has
produced a couple of add-on attachments meant to adapt the Wii remote to specific games, such as the Wii
Zapper for shooting games and the Wii Wheel for driving games. They also extended control capabilities to
players' feet with the introduction of the Balance Board with Wii Fit, with third party titles from THQ, EA, and
others that will integrate foot control coming in late 2008 and early 2009.
Questions arise about what a generation is
With the stark contrast between Microsoft's and Sony's take on the seventh generation, high power and high
resolution graphics, versus Nintendo's direction emphasizing a new control scheme, many analysts, reviewers,
and gamers have begun to question the validity of grouping video game consoles into generations. While many
Microsoft and Sony devotees dismiss the Wii as not "next-generation", a suggestion that even creeps into the
speech of Nintendo-based reviewers, others see Wii as a legitimate alternative view of gaming evolution. Still
others point out the lack of generational terminology in PC gaming as an indication of its declining usefulness.
[citation needed]
PC as gaming platform spurned by publishers
A surprising development in the seventh generation is the apparent decline of public perception of the personal
computer as a primary gaming market. While personal computers remain more powerful in theory, the new-
found processing power of the Xbox 360 and PS3 have helped steepen the decline in PC game sales and
publishing. Many top game publishers, such as Take Two Interactive, publish few games on the PC other than
a few specialized titles (such as Firaxis's Civilization series), and early in 2008 Electronic Arts announced it
would not release PC iterations of its EA Sports line of sports simulations. Even among role playing games and
first-person shooters, genres that PCs have traditional strength, prominent titles such as Halo 2 and Resident
Evil 4 have been ported to PCs only months, or in some cases years, after their console counterparts.
See also
Chronology of console role-playing games
Game On (exhibition), a touring exhibition detailing the history of video games.
Home computing (the 8-bit era)
References
This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it
has insufficient inline citations.
You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate.
^ US patent 2455992, also available from http://www.jmargolin.com/patents/2455992.pdf
^ a b John Anderson. "WHO REALLY INVENTED THE VIDEO GAME?". Atari Magazines. Retrieved on
November 27, 2006.
^ Unknown. "The First Video Game". Brookhaven National Laboratory. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
^ Unknown. "Video Games – Did They Begin at Brookhaven?". Office of Scientific & Technical Information.
Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
^ "1960: DEC PDP-1 Precursor to the Minicomputer". CED Magic. Retrieved on 2008-12-04.
^ Ritchie, Dennis. "Yes, A video game contributed to Unix Development". Retrieved on 2007-04-05.
^ Christophe de Dinechin. "The Dawn of 3D Games".
^ Cole, Vladimir (2005-09-26). "Forbes: Xbox lost Microsoft $4 billion (and counting)". Joystiq. Retrieved on
2007-07-18.
^ Walker, Trey (2002-03-22). "The Sims overtakes Myst". GameSpot. CNET Networks. Retrieved on 2008-03-
15.
Herman, Leonard (3rd edition - 2001). Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames. Rolenta Press. ISBN 0-
9643848-5-X. [1]
Kohler, Chris (2005). Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. Brady Games.
ISBN 0-7440-0424-1.
Forster, Winnie (2005). The Encyclopedia of Game Machines - Consoles, handheld & home computers 1972-
2005. Gameplan. ISBN 3-00-015359-4. http://www.gameplan-books.com/gameplan_01.5_NA/.
DeMaria, Rusel (2 edition (December 18, 2003)). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games.
McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. ISBN 0-07-223172-6.
Day, Walter. The Golden Age of Video Game Arcades (1998) - A 200-page story contained within Twin
Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. ISBN 1-887472-25-8
The Video Game Revolution (2004) is a documentary from PBS that examines the evolution and history of the
video game industry, from the 1950s through today, the impact of video games on society and culture, and the
future of electronic gaming.
Video Game Invasion: The History of a Global Obsession (2004) (Documentary. Press Release, IMDb)
The First Video Game a description at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Leonard Herman, Jer Horwitz, Steve Kent, and Skyler Miller (2002). "The History of Video Games". Gamespot.
CNET Networks International Media.
Ars Technica's The evolution of gaming: computers, consoles, and arcade
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/data/928520.html "Guitar Hero Info" details the Release Date and
Credits of Guitar Hero
[2]"MGS4 boosts PS3 sales in Japan" - GameSpot
Literary
Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames by Leonard Herman
The first quarter: A 25-year history of video games by Steven L. Kent
From Sun Tzu to Xbox: War and Video Games by Ed Halter
Game Over: the maturing of mario by David Sheff
High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games by Rusel DeMaria and Johnny Wilson (McGraw-Hill
Osborne Media)
Joystick Nation by J.C. Herz
Masters of Doom by David Kushner
Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution by Dean Takahashi
Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture by TL Taylor
SMARTBOMB: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution by Heather
Chaplin and Aaron Ruby.
The Video Game Theory Reader edited by Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernard Perron.
Videogames: In The Beginning by Ralph Baer
The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent
Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life by Chris Kohler.
This information was from Wikipedia
Wikipedia's History of Gaming
| Xbox 360 November 22, 2005 |
| Playstation 3 November 11, 2006 |
Nintendo Wii
November 19, 2006
November 19, 2006
Playstation 2 Slimline
September, 2004
September, 2004
Playstation 2
March 4, 2000
March 4, 2000
XBox
November 15, 2001
November 15, 2001
Nintendo Gamecube
November 18, 2001
November 18, 2001