Video Games History Research Paper

Like most things throughout history, video game consoles started out clunky, rough, and unrefined. Of course this to be expected of new technologies, especially in the 60’s where everything except automobiles weren’t all that great. It all started in 1967, halfway through the Vietnam War with no signs of letting up. On that fateful day Ralph H. Baer built the most rectangular piece of machinery that you’ve ever seen. With it came two controllers in the form of smaller rectangular boxes attached to the console. There weren’t many games available for play on this console, but surely the gameplay was remarkable (he said with a sarcastic tone in his voice). 5 years later in 1972 Magnavox decided they wanted in on this new industry and licensed

In that same year Magnavox released two new iterations of the Odyssey through the Magnavox Odyssey 100 and 200. Over the next couple years Magnavox put out new consoles frequently with only slight improvements over their predecessors. At around the same time Atari released it highly praised Atari 2600, securing the companies place in videogame history. A new company joined the scene in 1976 by the name of Coleco, here was the first ever use of color for home consoles and varying difficulty levels. Things continued like this for a few more years until what is considered to be “The Golden Age of Gaming” by most people who are around then. The 80’s brought innovation to the industry with games such as Pac-man, Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, and Golden Axe. The impact that this era had on gaming, let alone consoles cannot be overemphasized. Around this time console gaming was still inferior to the cabinets found in the arcades. (Where most people were playing videogames) Throughout this time videogames were moving from being built in to consoles to being in cartridges that would be inserted into the console – think of them as primitive

Microsoft took a big hit with the Xbox though, losing money for every unit sold, many people theorize that the only reason the Xbox wasn’t a complete failure was due to the release of Halo alongside the consoles launch. Halo alone might’ve saved Microsoft from creating a console that would’ve destroyed their reputation. Of course within this same generation of consoles there is one more contender that must not go unnoticed. This console sold more than 155 million units, had the arguably the best line up of games any console had ever had up until that point, and is the reason that people know the PlayStation. Sony’s ever so popular PlayStation 2 was released as the successor to the PlayStation and was a part of the 6th generation of consoles. The PS2 could not have come out at a better time for Sony. There were no other new generation consoles yet and there wouldn’t be any competition for at another year until Nintendo put out the GameCube, which wasn’t met with great reception, selling a meager 22 million units compared to Sony’s 155