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Early History
The true definition of a video game involves a video signal being transmitted to a cathode ray tube, resulting in an image on a screen. Games that preceded this technology would technically be called electronic or computer games. The first such game ever written was a chess game called Turochamp. It was created in 1948 by Alan Turing, often called the father of the modern computer. Unfortunately, it was never actually implemented on a computer. -
Early History II
Two custom built machines, Bertie the Brain and Nimrod, played tic-tac-toe and Nim. They were actually implemented in 1950 and 1951. Neither used a cathode ray tube.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/400890804306448770/ -
First Use of a Monitor
In 1952 two games using the cathode ray tube were created. One was a checkers program and the other was a tic-tac-toe program called OXO. The display for these programs was basically a static display of the current status of the game board.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OXO -
Updating Graphics
The first game that used actual graphics that updated real-time was a pool game created by William Brown and Ted Lewis to demonstrate the MIDSAC computer located at the University of Michigan. -
Game for Entertainment Purposes
The first game created just for entertainment rather than to demonstrate the power of some technology, train people, or aid in research was Tennis for Two, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958. This is a video showing what Tennis for Two looked like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2E9iSQfGdg -
SpaceWar!
As computers became more available, Steve Russel, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with several friends, worked on a game that involved two spaceships in a dogfight while also fighting the gravitational pull of a nearby star. SpaceWar was introduced to the public in early 1962 and became highly popular. It was the first video game to be played on multiple computers and was the direct inspiration for many electronic games to follow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L1HeZ2kPck -
Decade of the 60s
After SpaceWar!, an increasing number of college students were interested in and able to create a variety of simple sports, card, logic puzzle and board games. Some of these programmers began to sense that there would be commercial possibilities for such games, but through the decade of the 60s, these creations were not available to the general public because they were basically trapped in university computer labs. This was the only place one could use such large, extremely expensive machines. -
Atari and Pong
In 1972 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney incorporated their partnership as Atari. In March 1973 Atari released Pong, which created new craze for this type of game in the coin-operated amusement industry. Pong did not replace traditional arcade games like pinball, but did lay the foundation for a successful video arcade game industry. Around 70,000 video games, mostly ball-and-paddle types, were sold in 1973 by a combination of recent startups like Atari.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it0sf4CMDeM -
First Generation Consoles
Toward the middle of the 1970s, the ball-and-paddle craze in the arcade created great public interest in video games. Continued advances in integrated circuits resulted in large-scale integration (LSI) microchips cheap enough to be built into a consumer product. Dozens of companies got on board. Sales in the U.S. went from 350,000 in 1975 to a peak of 5–6 million in 1977. A similar boom hit the United Kingdom. -
Second Generation Consoles
Early video games appeared in video arcades and home consoles. Home computers started to appear in late 1970s and quickly evolved into the 1980s. Owners programmed simple games. Hobby groups began and PC game software followed. Many of these games were soon being distributed by printing the game’s source code in books, magazines and newsletters. This allowed users to type in the code for themselves.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-to-be-cool-according-to-a-video-game-magazine-from-1982 -
Gaming Computers
After the success of the Apple II and Commodore PET in the late 1970s, several cheaper and incompatible rivals appeared in the early 1980s. This second group included the Commodore VIC-20 and 64, the Atari 8-bit family, and more. These rivals helped to drive both the home computer and game markets by creating awareness of computing and gaming through their competing advertising campaigns.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II -
The Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 was released August 1982. Its initial success was due to aggressive marketing and pricing. It had a BASIC environment and advanced graphic and sound abilities for its time,. It also used the same game controller ports the Atari 2600 used, permitting players 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. -
Early Online Gaming
Dial-up bulletin board systems became popular in the 1980s and were sometimes used for playing games online. These early user interfaces were plain-text but they were on big mainframe computers, and larger numbers of users could be online at once. When the decade ended, inline services had completely graphical environments using software specific to each personal computer platform. -
Video Game Crash of 1983
Home computers were becoming a new and better gaming system and by the end of 1983, the industry experienced a severe downturn, bankrupting several companies and basically ending what was known as the second generation of console video gaming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983 -
Third Generation Consoles
While the US was having a downturn in video games, Japan produced Nintendo and Sega games that began to be popular in the US as well. This was the time when gamepads took over for joysticks, The Legend of Zelda and others became popular and the market for cartridge based console games was huge. This generation ended in 1995 with the discontinuation of the NES.
https://goo.gl/images/Of9h9h -
Fourth Generation Consoles
A 16-bit generation of video gaming consoles started in the late 1980s. Sega and Nintendo continued to compete and market different systems and games. Sonic the Hedgehog became one of the most recognizable video game characters in video game history, rivaling Mario. This generation actually spanned the time from 1987 to 2003.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(1991_video_game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros. -
Handhelds
Although handhelds had been created before, they were never very successful. In 1989, however, that changed when Nintendo created the Game Boy. Although they tried, no one could really compete with the Game Boy line until 15 years later when Playstation Portable was released in 2004 to compete with the Game Boy DS. -
Fifth Generation Consoles
During this time period, Atari, Nintendo and Sony competed to take over the market. In 1996, Nintendo released its 64-bit console, the Nintendo 64 and Super Mario 64 became a defining title for 3D platformer games. By the end of this period, Sony had become the leader in the video game market. This generation ended with the discontinuation of the PlayStation in March 2005 -
Mobile Phone Gaming
When Nokia installed Snake onto its line of mobile phones in 1997, mobile phones were introduced as gaming platforms. As the game gained popularity, all phone brands began offering games that could be played in short time frames, such as waiting for a bus. These early games were limited by the modest size of the monocrome phone screens, limited memory and processing power on phones, and the drain on the battery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr9r2_jVrHk -
Sixth Generation Consoles
In the sixth generation of video game consoles, Nintendo fell behind, Sega left the hardware market, Sony firmed up its lead in the industry, and Microsoft created their first gaming console. The generation began in 1998 when Sega launched Dreamcast and ended in January 2013 when Sony announced that the PlayStation 2 had been discontinued worldwide.
https://www.polygon.com/2016/9/9/12863124/dreamcast-new-games-homebrew-vmu -
Seventh Generation Consoles
In this generation, Nintendo not only secured its dominance in the handheld video game market, but also successfully regained total dominance on both the home video game market and the entire video game industry with the release of its home console, the Wii. the Wii became a global success and the runaway market leader of the seventh generate of consoles. As of September 2013, the Wii has sold 100.3 million units worldwide and is currently Nintendo's best selling home console. -
Eighth Generation Consoles
Nintendo introduced the Wii U in 2011. The console released in North America on November 18. This was the official beginning of the the "eighth generation" of video game consoles. Play Station 4, which was launched by Sony on November 15, 2013 and the Xbox One, which was launched by Microsoft in November 22, 2013, are also part of the eighth generation. Will we enter a ninth generation soon?
http://n4g.com/news/2023575/9th-generation-consoles-who-should-make-the-first-move
