History of video games: What was the first and how have they evolved since its inception?

If we take a trip to the past and say in the 70s that videogames will be one of the most money-moving industries in the world fifty years later, possibly they believe us to be complete psychopaths. The history of video games has gone through many ups and downs.

However, it has managed to get up and develop to the point that today we can create games that offer an experience as close to reality as possible. A reality in which we can fulfill our fantasies avoiding the dangers that it represents.

In this article we are going to show you the most important facts of the interesting history of video games that today entertain you on your computer, PS4 or mobile. At the end you will be a cult expert in this multi-million dollar industry.

What was the first video game in history and for what console?

The first known video game was developed in 1952 and would be known as OXOwhich would be a digital version of the game “Three in a row”, a project that was headed by Alexander Douglas, a professor at the University of Cambridge. Douglas used the principles of Turing’s research to give his game artificial intelligence, so that the user could compete against the machine.

History and evolution of video games in each decade since its birth

Although for many there is some confusion about the origin of video games, it must be recognized that based on what many games are today, this has to be linked to the beginnings of artificial intelligencewhich is used by all titles on the market.

In that sense, the first character we should mention is Alan Turing, a British mathematician and programmer who after World War II began working on a way to make a computer reason like a human. In this attempt, created what would become known as a Turing machinewho had the ability to play chess and even won a game against his wife in 1952.

50’s-60’s; the first steps

Although Turing’s work was never commercializedand his intention was not to entertain but to make a machine think like a person, this was quoted and used for basically all the video games that were developed next. The first of them would be the aforementioned OXO in 1952, which was also not mass produced as such.

The following years would pass slowly for an industry that until then did not even have a shape, and nobody seriously considered its development.

To see the next trailer we would have to wait until 1958when the American engineer William Higinbotham, who worked on the Manhattan Project from which the first nuclear weapons were born, created the Tennis for Twoa game on a huge computer that simulated a game of tennis.

The latter would also not be commercial. Until then, what had been produced were prototypes in which the enormous potential that these programs had at the market level was barely visible. The 60s practically went blank and no one else mentioned video games again.

70´s: the birth of the genre

The 70s were completely different from the previous ones. The researchers understood that the development of video games was linked to the development of devices that could run them. Then, in 1971 the American Ralph Baerwho spent years researching the work of Turing and Higinbotham, develops the first video game console in history, the Magnavox Odyssey.

This was a very primitive system that didn’t even use memories or capacitors, so it wasn’t capable of keeping track of the game and players had to score points manually. It had six cartridges containing a different game each, and templates to stick to the TV screen to improve the experience.

This console can be considered a commercial success, since it raised more than 10 million dollars for the time with the sale of 100,000 units. This caught the attention of the capitalists who saw how a new industry for the entertainment of people was born.

That same year Atari was born., which is one of the most representative brands in the history of video games. This was founded by the Americans Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who wasted no time and launched pong, a huge arcade machine that contained an improved version of pin pong that contained the Magnavox.

This machine worked by inserting a coin, what would officially start the video game market in the United States. The success of PONG it was total, and by 1974 Atari had grown from a warehouse to a huge Cylicon Valley company with over 10,000 machines across the country. However, this growth could have been much greater were it not for the large amount of competition that was born replicating the concept of PONG.

However, this decade Atari was by far the most important video game company. In 1974 they innovated with the idea of ​​bringing a new game console to American homes that would improve on the Magnavox.. This would be the legendary PONG for Your Home TVwhich would be a commercial success that would sell more than 150,000 units only during Christmas of that year.

PONG for Your Home improved the Magnavox considerably, with higher quality graphics and a much more fluid gameplay than it had up to that time. All this was possible thanks to an agreement between Atari and the SEARS company, which supplied them with a microprocessor for their consoles.

Atari’s success was undeniable and it was already one of the most wealthy companies in America.. Its owner, Nolan Bushnel, makes the decision to sell it to Warner Communications for $26 million in 1976. This gave Atari a huge budget, which went to work developing another super console.

In 1977 the Atari UBSS was born., a powerful console with a controller consisting of a lever and two buttons, giving a new gameplay experience. It would sell hundreds of thousands of copies the year of its release and would be replicated by Mattel with its Intellivision and by as many other companies, which would make more than 50% of American homes have a game console.

In 1978 another historical event occurs because a Japanese company called Taito would create space invadera video game for Atari and Mattel consoles that it would be a viral phenomenon with millions of copies sold all over the world, because by then it was not only being talked about in the United States but also in Europe and Asia.

At this time, information technology and computing was also growing by leaps and bounds, an industry that would always be linked to video games.

80’s; the arcade age

The 80’s arrived with Space Invaders as the best-selling video game in history. However, in 1980 this would come to an end with the birth of the first icon of the gammers; Pacman.

Pacman was a game unlike anything that had been produced to date, when everyone only thought about space invasions and laser shots in 8bits. This instead was a labyrinth in which there was a yellow head eating and running so that some viruses do not infect it.

By the end of that year it had become so popular that it overtook Space Invaders as the world’s best-sellingand to this day it continues to be one of the ones that has sold the most copies in history.

Pacman would be what the whole world needed to realize the enormous potential of video games on a commercial level, and would even get to have its own television series. A year later, in 1981, another resounding success would come to light; King kong.

Donkey Kong It was a platform game in which you had to dodge the huge barrels that a bad-tempered gorilla was throwing at you. DK was the first video game created by the Japanese company Nintendo, which would later launch other legendary games on the market such as Super Mario Bros or The Legend of Zelda throughout this same period.

In 1982 a group of four engineers who worked for Warner at Atari created Activision, which would be one of the first companies to independently manufacture video games for Atari. That same year, this company launched Pitfall, a very successful adventure video game as well..

Nevertheless, the market began to become saturated with bad competition that manufactured low-quality games and it would cause the company to fall into a huge pothole due to the mistrust it generated in the public. This would start the first black age of the industry, which would end in 1982 with Warner selling Actari, which would later disappear.

In Japan, the one that was beginning to grow was Nintendo, which to date created Family Computer in 1983, a console that contained the main successes of the company. This would be so successful that it would allow the Japanese to be imported and arrive two years later in the United States.

Nintendo’s FC would be redesigned and later renamed for the US market, and would reach homes in 1985 with the name of NES or Nintendo Entertainment System. This console is one of the most legendary in history and would once again position video games as one of the main entertainment industries in the world.

The NES attracted attention mainly because it included the company’s own games, which guaranteed the public that they would be enjoying a quality product. The most representative video game of the console was Super Mario Broswho would become as famous as Pacman at the time, and even for children he became more famous than Disney’s Mikey Mouse himself.

It is because of all this, and the fact that they saved the American video game industry, that for the whole world both NES like Super Mario Bros are the most important console and video game in history. In addition to this, they innovated with their official license chip that allowed you to have other level titles such as Pokemon, Kirby or Predator.

The NES knew that it could not make the Atari mistake and allow third parties to develop games without quality control for its console. Thus equipped the console with a recognition chip that was also on the cartridge with the title in question. If the console did not detect the chip in the cartridge it was not initialized.

In this way, the perfect vaccine for piracy was found, which burst the bubble in 1983, and forever changed the business model of the industry. With this, Nintendo began to monopolize the industry as it required the best developers to only produce titles for its console..

By 1986 we already had such legendary titles as The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy or Punch Man, which dominated the market for years. In addition, during these years other renowned production companies were born, such as Capcom, creator of the legendary fighting arcade street-fighter either Megaman, as well as Konami with his Against, or the popular SEGA.

SEGA was so successful producing titles for Nintendo that it released its own console in 1985 called Master System, which although it was more powerful than the NES, could not overcome the tremendous fame of this in all markets. However, SEGA has a position as one of the best video game developers in history that continues today.

By 1988 SEGA was Nintendo’s main competitor worldwide, starting a legendary rivalry. For that year, the 16-bit SEGA Genesis console would reach the market, which would be positioned by far as the best of the moment. However, its catalog was very short and soon after, users ended up returning to the NES. since this had more titles that were renewed.

That year the industry briefly stagnated but in 1989 another revolution would occur. Nintendo develops the first commercial portable console; the first black and white Gameboy. With her, as expected, another title is released that would be remembered for all eternity; Tetris.

SEGA would not waste time launched the Game Gear, a much more powerful portable console with color games like Coloms. However, in all markets this console and game they lost against the Gameboy Tetris, a much less powerful black and white console.

At this time, there was also a growth in the development of video games for desktop computers, which were already considered appliances as necessary as a television. The first graphic adventure games were created that were also very successful, such as Indiana Jones or Monkey Island..

90’s; first step into the future

The 90s begin with the SEGA vs Nintendo rivalry at its peak; Nintendo widely dominated consoles and portable games with its Gameboy, while Sega increasingly positioned its Megadrive Genesis better. The table was set for another historical event.

Sega realizes it needs to deliver a gimmicky blow to Nintendo, and hires the CEO of Mattel, who was already world-renowned for his success with Barbie. The intention was to create a mascot that could compete directly with Mario, the global icon of Nintendo, and they succeeded.

In 1991 SEGA launched on the market sonic the hedgehog, a game that will completely revolutionize the platform genre. This was an improved version of Super Mario Bros, with a much richer story and smoother, more exciting gameplay. The sales success was historic for the industry.

Nintendo saw how its hegemony in Europe and the United States was falling to the ground, so it decides to advance the launch of its 4th generation console; the super nintendo. With it would come revolutionary games like F-zero and Super Mario Cartwhich revolutionized the racing genre.

Both games took advantage of a new console feature called mode 7which was a graphic system that allows you to create first motion effects 3D in video gamesthanks to a movement of the camera that made him scale a plane that ended up creating another perspective of the track.

The Mode 7 of the Super Nintendo would later be promoted by the software industry, who finished perfecting the technique and created much more powerful games. ID Software would be the most representative brand in this sector, with titles like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D.

Both games used a graphics processing system that allowed the first person player to explore an environment in three dimensions. This was a complete revolution for the market, and would lay the foundation for the future of graphics in video games..

By the end of 1993, the optical CD support began to be developed., since they realized that the most powerful games needed more space, and a CD was better in that sense than a cartridge or cassette. In this sense, the company that invested the most was SONY.

By 1994 Nintendo had regained its lead in world markets and it seemed that SEGA’s time was up. Nevertheless, that year SONY would appeara rookie who would change everything in December when he released his PlayStation that swept the market.

Legendary titles for the history of the racing genre were developed for this console, such as Wipeout or Destruction Derbywhich broke sales records of all kinds. 1995 brought us other titles in the fighting genre What Battle Arena Thoshinden 2which allowed the fighters to move in a three-dimensional environment with high-level graphics for the time.

SEGA had been the first to try to compete against SONY and it did not go well at all. Then Nintendo decides to get serious and releases in 1996 the legendary Nintendo 64 console, with a 64bit processor and high level graphics processing in which the pixels were not noticeable. It was far superior to the PlayStation.

The console is launched on the market together with the game Super Mario 64. This title would revive the famous plumber and redefined the platform genre for 3D games. This is considered by many to be one of the best video games in history.. In addition, that year they also launched Super Mario Kart 64which would be just as successful as the previous one, as well as the mythical crash bandicoot.

Despite the success of these two games, the Nintendo 64 couldn’t beat the PlayStation because the latter had a much larger catalog of titles that were constantly updated. This was due to the superiority of the CD over the cartridge, which was still preferred by Nintendo for its consoles.

So the following years of this decade served to finish establishing SONY as the new king of the video game industry, and Nintendo would almost fall into oblivion. The final blow occurs in 1997when Square Software, which developed Nintendo’s Final Fantasy titleswent over to SONY and launched Final Fantasy VII, which was the first of the saga in 3D, and a worldwide success.

However, Nintendo did not say goodbye quietly and before closing the millennium launched Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye 007which for many is considered the best FPS ever developed.

2000-2010; PlayStation vs. Nintendo vs. Xbox

Nintendo’s answer to the PlayStation was the Gamecube, which would be a complete flop. So SONY takes advantage of this to launch a second blow with its PlayStation IIwhich at the time of its launch became the best-selling console in the history of the industry.

The PlayStation2 would bring with it numerous legendary titles such as God of War either bloodyroar. But again the world realized that the life of video games was short. SONY released new level titles every year but people got bored of these fast.

On computers things were different.. The obvious technical superiorities of these allowed the development of very interesting titles such as call of duty, Devil either age of empiresbut the final blow would occur in 2004, when Blizzard introduces the world to World of Warcraft.

This game would become a viral phenomenon as it allowed players from all over the world to interact and compete in a huge world with different scenarios, maps and creatures to defeat. They literally gave people the chance to have a second life online.

The World of Warcraft phenomenon would launch other online games to fame, especially the so-called MMORPGs. New games began to come out that imitated the model of this one like Mu, Silkroad, or Metin2. People openly preferred this genre since, in addition to being free, it gave the user many more possibilities.

We also saw the birth of genres like battle royalewith Rakion from Softonic or the Gunz which was open source and hundreds of dedicated servers were created. The Internet completely changed the way the game was played, but more importantly, it made the life of the video game longer, and sagas were born that would last for years, with millions of active players per month.

In 2006, the consoles were stuck, and SONY launches its Playstation 3, which would be another bestseller for the company. However, for this occasion it would be much more difficult to compete against Microsoft and its Xbox360but especially with the nintendo wii.

The Nintendo Wii was what Nintendo needed to be reborn. The innovative gameplay by the user’s movement detection system would be a successand although the games were quite basic, like simulators of golf or tennis games, they had a lot of appeal among people.

A feature of all these consoles is that they had WiFi to connect to the internet and had their own storage. This is when the use of STEAM becomes popularcreated in 2003, a platform that allowed you to play online with other users and buy games that are downloaded directly to your console.

The industry spent all its time improving the graphics of video games, and they forgot to innovate with revolutionary titles. Until EA Sport launches Fifa07 in the middle of 2006. For many, this is the game that began to position EA Sport as a reference brand in the sports genre.

Fifa07 was not only available for PlayStation, but also for computers and it was a real blast. The level of graphics and gameplay gave the feeling of controlling real players. The best thing about this was the way in which they respected the laws of physics to provide an experience as real as possible..

Konami, who had been in this business for years with his Pro Evolution Soccerwhich had been successful at the time, started a real war that would define the industry for the following years; PES vs FIFAthe two best soccer games of the moment.

For this time, Call of Duty also explodes as one of the best FPS sagas. The internet connection of the consoles allowed users to compete with each other and each installment was more anticipated than the other.

By 2007, computers had largely displaced consoles in the video game industry, and hardware manufacturers focused on creating more powerful graphics cards, processors, and RAM, launching the gaming computing industry.

On PC, the genre of free action-adventurewith titles like Prince of Persia or Assassin’s Creed, the latter being one of the best-selling sagas in history, just like God of War. Without forgetting the explosion of the racing genre with the mythical saga of need for speedconsecrated with the jewel of Need for Speed ​​Most Wanted (2004).

At the end of the decade, two games would be born that would largely define the following years; Minecraft and League of Legends. Created by Mojang AB and Riot Games respectively.

2010-present: Birth of eSports

By 2010 the Internet was already deeply linked to video games. Fifa and PES continued with their competition in football, Call of Duty was still the best FPS and World of Warcraft was still at the top of the MMORPG genre. However, the previous year two games had been released that had been very popular.

Minecraft became one of the biggest viral phenomena for children. This simple simulation game with 8Bit graphics quality became addictive beyond belief, and its developers at Mojang AB didn’t even understand it. It is without a doubt the most played Sandbox in history so far.

For its part, League of Legends was completely crazy in Asia, especially in Korea, Japan and China, where they had more than a billion users in just one year. Later they expanded to the west and the madness would be the same.

LOL exploited a previously presented gameplay by Blizzard in their Warcraft III Frozen Throne; a map called Defense of the Ancients (DOTA), which featured a map with three lanes and hidden areas with turrets that players had to destroy until they reached the core of the enemy base and breached it, in an epic 5v5 mode.

This genre was known as MOBA either online multiplayer battle arena, a term previously coined in DOTA. This would send Warcraft itself into the abyss, or to the brink of it.

The problem with online multiplayer games to date is that everything depended a lot on the level of the pj and the items that he had. Namely, if you were a level 30 player, with normal equipment, you will never win at level 40 with better armorhowever much your skills in the game are superior.

With MOBAs this does not happen, since in each game the players start with an epic hero at level 1, and the result of the game depends on the skills and mastery of the game that they have.. So a person with a week of practice could beat someone with more time.

Blizzard did not sit idly by and renewed his Defense of the Ancients in 2010, which would become known as DOTA2, focusing their efforts on this and leaving aside his mythical World of Warcraft. But this was not the only idea of ​​the company, but also to create a tournament in which the best players in the world would meet to compete in teams.

The idea of ​​eSports was not new, professional unions existed in korea since 2000, but in the West it was a utopia. However Blizzard gets down to work and organizes The International, the first professional DOTA2 tournament in 2011.

For 2013, both DOTA and LOL were two of the most powerful video game franchises, and his professional tournaments were the ones that distributed the most money in the world of professional gaming. What made other big companies jump on the bandwagon like Call of Duty or the legendary Counter-Strikewithout forgetting the FIFA, which was already vastly superior to PES.

During these times, mobile games also began to become popular.with Candy Crush Saga as one of the most viral that is remembered. Mobiles began to be taken into account by developers who created quite interesting games, starting a new sector in the industry dedicated to mobiles.

In 2015 eSports were a realityY The International of DOTA was the most important of all, distributing up to 25 million dollars in prizes, followed by The World of LOL and Counter Strike Global Offensive. Every child’s dream of being a millionaire playing video games was a reality.

For 2017, another viral title was born, Fortnite, which in a short time would also position itself as one of the most played eSports in the world, and the main online FPS in the world. Currently, eSports are the sector that moves the most money in the video game industry, with a market of more than 500 million dollars and a growth of up to 40% per year..

What is the future of video games? What can we expect for this decade

A few months ago Riot announced that it would launch a version of its League Of Legends for mobile devices called Wild Rift. First impressions of the app were very good and there was one noteworthy comment from beta testers: “It looks better than on the computer“.

Mobile phones are becoming more powerful and allow the creation of more complex applications, which is being greatly exploited by certain developers. In addition, there is no doubt that the smartphone is the device that we use the most on a daily basis, so the economic benefits are guaranteed.

Not to mention the fact that we already have mobile video games that are competitive at a professional level like SuperCell’s Clash Royale, and Free Fire has had a growing popularity as the main online mobile FPS.

On the other hand, there is the fact that virtual reality technology is becoming more and more advanced, so a game completely in VR that allows us to immerse ourselves in a new world like in the Tron movies or the SAO anime, can be more Close to what we think.