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The History of Video Games
By Cindy | August 18, 2007
1951 – The Nimrod computer is shown at an exhibition in London England. Ralph Baer wants to make a game to play on TV. His idea is thought of as ludicrous.
1958 – “Tennis for Two” game is created on an oscilloscope by American physicist Willy Hinginbotham.
1962 – Spacewar game is completed and is shown at the annual Science open house at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It’s a game for two. Each person has a joystick to control their spaceship and can shoot at the others spaceship. To make it more interesting the player must avoid the gravitational pull of the central star.
Ralph Baer begins to develop his idea to play games on TV.
1967 – Ralph Baer tests his simple block chase game on a standard TV. Bill Rusch modifies the game to become a paddle and ball game.
1968 – Ralph Baer applies for a patent of his TV game.
1969 – The game is shown to numerous television makers. No one is interested.
1970 – Magnavox agrees to manufacture and distribute Ralph Baers TV game.
Nutting Associates agrees to market Nolan Bushnells Computer Space video game – formerly known as Spacewar. This was actually the first commercial video game – though it wasn’t very popular. Bushnell only made about $500 in royalties.
1972 – Magnavox releases the Odyssey video game system. It includes hockey, tennis and maze games. It cost about $100 US dollars.
Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn each invest $250 for their new company “Atari”. Bushnell describes a ping-pong video game to Alcorn whom designs and builds it … And the Atari Pong is born! Pong is the first commercially successful video game.
1973 – The TV version of Pong is released.
1975 – At Atari, an in-house version of the Tank video game is modified so that when a player’s tank is hit and explodes, that player receives an electric shock. The legal department does not allow the version to be released.
Sears sells the Tele-Game Pong video game system made by Atari. People had to stand in lines to pre-purchase these games if they wanted them for Christmas.
1976 – Steve Jobs leaves Atari to found Apple Computer.
A new game is released by Exidy … the objective of the Death Race video game was to run down gremlins. The National Safety Council called it “sick, morbid, and insidious.”
1977 – Atari introduces the Atari 2600 – Video Computer System (VCS). The system cost $190. Game cartridges were $20. You might think that’s not a bad price … but you have to consider the times. Gas cost 50 cents a gallon. A new home cost about 40 or 50 thousand. Minimum wage was $2.25/hour.
Video Game technology now enables on screen characters to move and interact.
Nintendo releases it’s color TV video game system. You had your choice of six versions of paddle and ball games. Over one million were sold.
1979 – Atari develops Asteroids.
Milton Bradley releases a handheld video game system. Game cartridges included Yahtzee and Hangman.
1980 – Midway Manufacturing releases Pac-Man. (It was put in the Guiness Book of World Records in 2005 for being the most successful coin operated game in history.)
The city of Mesquite, Texas issued an ordinance barring children 17 years and younger from playing video games with out their parents being present. The US Federal Appeals Court ruled that playing arcade video games is an activity protected under the First Amendment.
1981 – Nintendo develops “Donkey Kong” and “Mario”.
Video games are banned in the Philippines because of parent and teacher complaints.
Oakland, California bans minors from arcades during school hours and after 10PM weeknights.
9% of US homes have video game systems – 80% of them are Atari systems.
1982 – Quote by Raymond Kasar, chairman of Atari: “It’s a ridiculous notion that [the video game market] is going to burn out.”.
The first TV commercial for a video game – promoting Sega Enterprise’s Zaxxon.
Sega releases the first video game that uses full motion video clips overlaid with computer graphics.
Atari upgrades to the Atari 5200.
The first video game with a built in vector monitor is introduced by General Consumer Electronics.
1983 – Atari comes out with the “My First Computer” keyboard. It has 8kb ram.
1985 – Nintendo releases “Super Mario Bros”.
1986 – Atari introduces the Atari 7800. The Sega Master System (SMS) and Nintendo NES are released.
1987 – Atari introduces the Atari XE Game System, with 64 kb RAM.
Nintendo now has about 70% of the market share of video games in the US.
1988 – By the end of this year Nintendo had 90% of the market share. Sega had 5%. I guess that means the original system – Atari had less than 5%.
1989 – The first CD based game is released, as well as handheld games like the Nintendo Gameboy and Atari Lynx.
1991 – Nintendo Super NES released. Sega Enterprises debuts the Game Gear portable video game system.
1994 – Sony Playstation released.
1998 – Sega’s Dreamcast video game is released. The console uses Windows CE operating system.
Since the turn of the century Playstation seems to be leading the way above Nintendo. They both offer a lot to their players.
Controversies continue over what type of games are suitable for minors …
More on that subject later.
Topics: Video Games | 1 Comment »
August 21st, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Very interesting! I had never really thought about where or when it all started, I just know we have been through a few of them, lol.