Gaming came into existence in the 1950s, and since then, the gaming industry has undergone major developments and bloomed to be highly profitable. Continued technological advancements have revolutionized the industry and come about with new generations. Video Games have been around for many years, and with them, various gaming systems have emerged. Today, gaming has been integrated with modernity, and you can download video games on different devices. Let’s go down the gaming memory lane.
The Early Days of Video Games
Video game creation started in scientists’ research labs. For example, professor A. S Douglas created OXO in 1952, William Higginbotham created tennis for Two in 1958, and Steven Russell invented SpaceWar! in 1962.
The Development of the Home Console
The year 1967 came with Brown Box, a multi-player prototype playable on a television invented by Ralph Baer and his Sanders Associates Inc. team. In 1972, it was licensed to Magnavox and sold to consumers as Odyssey.Atari released ahome renditionof Pong in 1975. Pong was an Odyssey game inspiration. The period between 1972 and 1975 saw the discontinuation of Magnavox.
In the year 1977, Atari 2600 was released. It was a home console withinterchangeable cartridges that could play multicolored games and joysticks. The second video game console generation started.
The late 1970s and the early 1980s came with the arcade video games growth with Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong titles, and the home console’s flourishing. 1979 came about with the start of Activision (a third-party game developer), and Microsoft’s first Flight Simulator game was released in 1982.
The Crash
There was a major crash of the North American video game industry in 1983 due to an oversaturated market forconsoles, computer game competition, and the oversupply of atrocious and overhyped games.
The Recovery
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) gotto the U. S IN 1985, and the industry recovery began. NES introduced improved colors, 8-bit graphics, gameplay, and sound compared to previous consoles, concepts such as a pad controller,and authentic reproductions.
Nintendo released franchises like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros, and Metroid. To fight against poor software, Nintendo also placed regulations on its third-party game systems. As a result, the third-party developers released franchises such as Castlevania, Mega Man, Final Fantasy,andDragon Quest. In 2003 Square Enix was formed after the Enix and Square merge.
Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989.
The Console War
Nintendo and Sega created the console war competition to fight for the United States market share- Sega released the Genesis in 1989, and in 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was released while Nintendo released the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
3D Gaming
The 90s had CD-ROMs introduction and the ability to create 3D graphics. The Saturn system by Sega was released in 1995 which played on CDs, and in 1996 Nintendo 64 was released.
The Modern Age and Mobile Gaming
Since the 2000s and the 2010s, a major shift was experienced as mobile gaming replaced handheld consoles, and casual gaming also increased.
This Era was kicked off by Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii in 2005 and 2006.
In 2007, gaming underwent a revolution, with app stores and smartphones hitting the market. Previously,several companies monopolized the industry, but Google and Apple have sneaked their way up.
The present-day era of video gamingstartedin 2012 when Nintendo Wii’s U was released and the 2013 release of Xbox One and the PlayStation 4. Finally, in 2016, PlayStation Pro 4 was released and became the first console to handle a 4K video output.
However, the Wii U was discontinued in 2017, and in the same year, Nintendo Switch, the successor, was released.
In 2020, graphic cards with hardware support for Ray tracing were introduced by Nvidia and AMD.November 2020 came with the release of and Xbox series X/S and the PlayStation 5
Significant improvements included high-quality bandwidth storage options, high resolutions, photorealism, and the elimination of loading times, especially in game streaming.
The next chapter for video games is still unclear, but it will certainly be filled with entertaining progress with everyday technological advancements.