History of Video Games

1. History of Video Games From Pong to Wii

2. Introduction • This presentation will cover the history of video games, from their modest origin to the present, covering the timeframe between 1947 to now. • It will tell you about certain events that happened to the video gaming industry. • It will also show you various consoles created during their times.

3. The Early Years • The first video game was believed to be made in 1947. • The game was a simulation of a missile being fired at a target. • This game was inspired by radar screens used during World War II.

4. The 1960’s • In 1961, a group of students at MIT programmed a game called Spacewar! • Two human players played against each other and each controlled a space ship that fired missiles. • This game was soon distributed with the new DEC computers. It was the first widely available videogame.

5. The 70’s: Dawn of the Arcade Games • In 1971, Nolan Bushnell created a coin operated version of Spacewar! • The game was not a success because it was very difficult. • So, in 1972, Bushnell founded his own company… Atari.

6. A little bit on Atari • Atari was the pioneer for home video games. • Their most popular game was PONG (based on table tennis). • Other notable games Atari created include Asteroids, Millipede, and Missile Command.

7. 1978-1980: The Golden Age for the Arcade • This was the era that Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac Man were created. • Arcade games became more popular with the addition of color graphics. • The Golden Age was capped off with arcades appearing in popular teen hang outs such as malls and convenience stores.

9. The 1980’s: The 1st major setback for the Arcades. • Overnight businesses began appearing to compete with honest businesses and performed operations that cheated the games’ developers. • An example of this would be making games that were simple clones of already existing arcade games for relatively lower publishing costs. • To battle this, the gaming industry decided to focus more on making personal computer games.

10. Handheld Games • Also appearing in the 1980’s were the handheld games. • These were very popular because they could be taken anywhere and were also cheaper. • Such examples include Game Boy and Tiger Electronics.

11. The 3rd Generation of Games • Pong (1st) and Atari (2nd) had been the uncontested leaders of their generations respectively. • With the 3rd generation, there was finally competition in the video game industry. • The 3rd generation introduced consumers to Nintendo and Sega. These were also the 1st systems to use 8-bit graphics.

12. 3rd Generation Gaming Devices

13. The Early 90’s • During the early 90’s, the video game industry was starting to be operated like all of the other big businesses. • This means that the bigger corporations were starting to crush or absorb the little guys to maximize profits and lower risks. • The early 90’s also brought in the 4th generation of games.

14. Early 90’s Games • The 4th generation games improved from 8-bit to 16-bit. • This generation introduced us to the first person shooters and survival horror genres with Wolfenstein and Alone in the Dark, paving the way for classics like Doom and Resident Evil. • Oh yeah, let’s not forget Sonic the Hedgehog.

15. Start of Video Game Controversy • The 4th Generation of games brought something else to the 90’s: Violence and blood. • In 1992, there was a Senate investigation into video game violence, with Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton speaking out against the games. • This actually gave a few games, like Doom and Mortal Kombat, more commercial success with all of the free publicity they were receiving.

17. The Peak of Handheld Games • Handheld games also reached their highest point of popularity in the early 90’s. • Several Rivals to the Game Boy debuted during this time, including Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. • The Game Boy remained #1 thanks to the help of the popular puzzle game Tetris.

18. 1995: Start of the 5th Generation • In 1995, Sega introduced Sega Saturn, while Sony made its debut into the video gaming industry with the Playstation. • Both consoles upgraded from 16 to 32-bit. • During this time, Playstation made the role playing game (RPG) and stealth-based games popular with the classics Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid.

19. Death of the Arcade • With the consoles switching from 16-bit to 32-bit, home video games began to approach the looks of arcade games. • Most people would wait for the games to appear on their home consoles rather than going out. • Also, by this time, arcades had earned a reputation for being unsafe places. • Many arcades were forced to shut down.

20. A year later… • After many delays, Nintendo released the first 64-bit system, the Nintendo 64, in 1996. • The decision to skip the 32-bit phase and jump right into 64-bit apparently paid off; it sold more than 1.5 million copies in just 3 months. • It was bundled with Super Mario 64, which became a defining title for 3D platform games.

21. 2000 – 2003: A few things that happened • 2000: The Sims is released. It becomes the #1 selling computer game of all time, passing Myst. • 2001: Microsoft enters the video game industry with the release of Xbox. • 2002: Sega becomes a 3rd party developer for Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. • 2003: Halo becomes the best selling Xbox game.

22. Handheld Games Make a Strong Comeback • In 2004, Nokia entered the handheld market with the N-Gage game-phone hybrid. • Also in 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS. • In 2005, Sony released the Playstation Portable (PSP).

23. Generations 5-7

24. 2006-??? • Earlier this month, Nintendo released their newest video game console, the Wii, which features a new remote-control shaped controller. • The controller is based around direct motion control; whatever you do with your hands affects what happens on the screen. • Who will know what the future has in store for video games? • I guess we’ll just have to wait and see to find out…

25. Work Cited • www.gameinformer.com • www.google.com • www.juegomania.org • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15734058 • http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/history • http://ratemyeverything.net/post.aspx?post=201 • www.wikipedia.org • www.yahoo.com