History of Video Game Consoles

Edd Vanterpool

IT Essay

Technology Timeline Report

History of Video Game Consoles

The Brown Box (1967)

Ralph Baer, a German born television engineer, co workers and himself decided to create the first video game console that was compatible with the standard television set of that time. Basically Bear and his co workers designed 12 games for their system including the game where two squares chase each other on the screen. Hence the name of the game was the Chase Game.

The Odyssey (1972)

Baer and his co worker made a name for themselves by creating the previous system. So they were hired to create another system named the Magnavox Odyssey the first commercial video game console. The system was marketed in the Magnavox TV dealership. The console Featured 12 games, but the console’s popularity was stooped because of two reasons. TV dealers didn’t see the importance of the console. Two there was a rumor that the system is only compatible with the Magnavox TV set.

The Pong (1975)

Noland Bushnell founded Atari in 1972 which had a hit in the arcade. In 1975 he made a home version in Sears’s stores. The most popular game on the Atari is a    similar to ping pong.

Atari (1977)

 Since a single-console game’s popularity cannot last forever, Bushnell created a cartage based system. It became such a great hit with games like space Invaders, breakout, Missile Command, and Combat just to name a few.

Intellivision (1980)

Mattel introduced the intellivision to counter Atari’s popularity. In the early 80s there was a rivalry named the console wars between Atari and Mattel. The intellivision has slightly better graphics. Both consoles attract third party game developers like Coleco and Activision. The Vectrex another major industry lead in the crash in 1983-1984 which many gaming companies went bankrupt.

 NET (1985)

Nintendo, which was at first a Japanese card company, released the Nintendo Entertainment System which is known as Famicom in Japan. Relaters weren’t   sure about marketing the product because of the video game crash. In the end NET became the bestselling video game console in video game history.

Game Boy (1989)

Nintendo hit the top charts again with the release of the game boy. It was the first major handheld game console. It featured an 8 bit CPU just like the NET. Because of the release of the game Tetris sales went even higher. The game Boy went through some changes like the game boy pocket in 1996 and Game boy color in 1998.

Playstation (1995)   

Made by Sony, this system this was the most popular system in the 32 bit era of video games. Because of its three dimensional game-play it out lasted the other 2 dimensional consoles. With CD ROM technology the price of playstation games dropped dramatically compared to cartage based games.   

Nintendo 64 (1996)

This system was the last mass marketing system to operate with cartage based games. The cartage eliminated the need for memory cards. Nintendo lacked the broad range of games unlike the playstation but still remained popular with games like Super Mario 64.

Playstation 2 (2000)

The first 128 bit system but was still compatible with the original play station. It could also be used as a DVD player. It became the most popular 128 bit system.This system marked the rise of high speed internet connection systems.

Xbox (2001)

Microsoft made its first independent system with its release of the Xbox. The company used PC technology which allowed better performance compared with Playstation. One of the Xbox’s greatest hits is halo combat evolved.

Xbox 360 (2005)

Microsoft Xbox 360 was released on November 5th, 2005 A HD Drive drive was later available as an accessory; however, with this accessory's production has been ceased by Microsoft.^[4] The Xbox Live service allows the Xbox 360 to connect to the internet via a built-in Ethernet port or a wireless accessory.

Playstation 3 (2006)

Sony PlayStation 3 was released in Japan on November 11, 2006, in North America on November 17, 2006 and in Europe on March 23, 2007. All PlayStation 3s come with a hard drive and are able to play Blu-ray Disc movies and games out of the box. The PlayStation 3 was the first video game console to support HDMI output out of the box, utilizing full 1080p resolution. Up to seven devices (including controllers, with tilt-sensing capabilities) connect to the console using Bluetooth.

Nintendo Wii (2006)

Nintendo Wii was released in North America on November 19, 2006, in Japan on December 2, 2006, in Australia on December 7, 2006, and in Europe on December 8, 2006. It is bundled with Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort in all regions except for Japan. Unlike the other systems of the seventh generation, the Wii does not support an internal hard drive, but instead uses 512 MB of internal Flash memory and includes support for removable SD card storage.

Cited Sources:

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050523/console_timeline/