If we make a trip to the past and say in the 70s that video games will be fifty years later one of the industries that move the most money in the world, possibly create us complete psychopaths. The history of video games has gone through many ups and downs .
However, he 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 by avoiding the dangers it represents.
In this article we will 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 multimillion dollar industry .
Index:
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 OXO , which 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 Cambridgue. Douglas used Turing’s research principles to give artificial intelligence to his game, and so the user could compete against the machine.
History and evolution of videogames in each decade since its birth
While for many there is some confusion about the origin of video games, we must recognize that based on what many games are today, this has to be linked to the beginnings of artificial intelligence , which is used by all market titles.
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 as a human. In this attempt, created what would be known as the Turing machine , which had the ability to play chess and even won a game against his wife in 1952.
50’s-60’s; the first steps
While Turing’s work was never marketed , and his intention was not to entertain but to make a machine think like a person, this was quoted and used basically for everyone the video games that developed below . The first of these would be the aforementioned OXO in 1952, which was not mass produced as such.
The following years would go slowly for an industry that until then had no form, and nobody seriously considered the development of this.
To see the next breakthrough we would have to wait until 1958 , when the American engineer William Higinbotham, who worked on the Manhatham Project from which the first nuclear weapons were born, created the Tennis for Two , a game on a huge computer that simulated a game of tennis.
The latter would not be commercial either. Until then, what had been produced were prototypes in which the enormous potential that these programs had at market level was barely visible. The 60s went practically blank and nobody 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 execute them. Then, in 1971 the American Ralph Baer , who had been researching the work of Turing and Higinbotham for years, developed the first video game console in history, the Magnavox Odyssey .
This was a very primitive system that did not even use memories or condensers, so it was not able to keep track of the game and players had to score points manually. It had six cartridges that contained a different game each, and templates to paste 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 was born for the entertainment of people.
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 a huge arcade machine that contained an improved version of the pin pong that contained the Magnavox to the market. PONG.
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This machine worked by inserting a coin , which would officially start the video game market in the United States . The success of PONG was total, and by 1974 Atari ceased to be a warehouse to become a huge company in Cylicon Valley that had more than 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 by 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 video console to American homes that would improve Magnavox . This would be the legendary PONG for Your Home TV , which would be a commercial success that would sell more than 150,000 units only during Christmas of that year.
PONG for Your Home significantly improved the Magnavox , with higher quality graphics and a much more fluid gameplay than it had until then. All this was possible thanks to an agreement of Atari with the company SEARS, which provided them with a microprocessor for their consoles.
The success of Atari was undeniable and was already one of the companies with the greatest assets in the United States . Its owner, Nolan Bushnel, makes the decision to sell it to Warner Comunnication for $ 26 million in 1976 . This gave Atari a huge budget, which got to work to develop another super console.
In 1977, the Atari UBSS was born , a powerful console with a control consisting of a lever and two buttons, giving a new gameplay experience. This would sell hundreds of thousands of copies the year of its launch and would be replicated by Mattel with its Intellivision and by many other companies, which would make more than 50% of American homes have a video game console.
In 1978 another historical event occurs because a Japanese company called Taito, would create Space Invader , a video game for Atari and Mattel consoles that would be a viral phenomenon with Millions of copies sold worldwide, because by then it was not only spoken in the United States but also in Europe and Asia.
By this time, computer science and computing were also growing by leaps and bounds, an industry that would always be linked to video games.
80’s; the era of Arcade
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 gammers icon ; Pacman.
Pacman was a game different from everything that had been produced to date , when everyone only thought about space invasions and laser shots in 8 bits. This instead was a maze 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 surpassed Space Invaders as the best selling in the world , and today it continues to be one of the most commercialized copies in history.
Pacman would be what the entire world needed to realize the enormous potential of videogames on a commercial level, and even have its own television series. A year later in 1981 another resounding success would come to light; King Kong .
Donkey Kong was a platform game in which you had to dodge the huge barrels that a bad character gorilla threw at you. DK was the first video game created by the Japanese company Nintendo, which would later launch other legendary games 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 in Atari created Activision, which would be one of the first companies to manufacture video games independently for Atari. This company launches that same year Pitfall, a very successful adventure videogame too .
However, the market began to become saturated with bad competition that manufactured low quality games and would cause the company to fall into a huge bump because of the distrust it generated to the public. This would start the first black era of the industry, that would end in 1982 with Warner selling Actari, which would later disappear .
In Japan, who was starting to grow up was Nintendo, who created Family Computer in 1983 , a console that contained the company’s main successes. This would be so successful that it would allow the Japanese to import and arrive two years later in the United States.
Nintendo FC would be redesigned and later renamed for the US market, and would arrive at homes in 1985 under the name of NES or Nintendo Entertainment System . This console is one of the most legendary in history and would reposition video games as one of the world’s leading entertainment industries.
The NES called attention mainly because it included the company’s own games, which guaranteed the public that it would be enjoying a quality product. The most representative video game on the console was Super Mario Bros , which would become as famous as Pacman at the time, and even for children became more famous than Mikey Mouse himself Disney .
It is for all this, and for the fact that they saved the American video game industry, that for the whole world both NES and 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 them to have other level titles such as Pokemon, Kirby or Predator.
The NES knew that it could not make the mistake of Atari and allow third parties to develop games without quality control for its console. Therefore gave the console a recognition chip that was also in the cartridge with the title in question . If the console did not detect the chip in the cartridge it was not started.
In this way the perfect piracy vaccine was found, which exploded the bubble in 1983, and forever changed the industry’s business model. Nintendo with this began to monopolize the industry as it required the best developers to only produce titles for their 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 producers such as Capcom, creator of the legendary arcade of Lucho Street Fighter or Megaman, as well as Konami were born with its Contra, or the SEGA population.
SEGA was so successful producing titles for Nintendo that it launched 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 16bit SEGA Genesis console would arrive on the market, which would be positioned by far as the best of the moment. However, its catalog was very short and soon the users ended up returning to NES as it had more titles that were renewed.
That year the industry stagnated briefly but in 1989 another revolution would occur. Nintendo develops the first commercial portable console; the first Gameboy to black and white. With it, as expected, another title is released that would be remembered for all eternity; the Tetris .
SEGA wouldn’t waste time launching the Game Gear , a much more powerful portable console with color games like Coloms. However, in all markets this console and game lost against the Tetris of the Gameboy, 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 as necessary appliances as a television. The first graphic adventure games were created that were also very successful as Indiana Jones or Monkey Island .
90’s; First step towards the future
The 90s begin with SEGA vs. Nintendo rivalry at its peak ; Nintendo widely dominated consoles and portable games with its Gameboy, while Sega increasingly positioned its Megadrive Genesis. The table was served for another historical event.
Sega realizes that he needs to give Nintendo an effective blow , and hires Mattel’s CEO, who was already recognized worldwide for his success with Barbie. The intention was to create a pet that could compete directly with Mario, Nintendo’s world icon, and they got it.
In 1991 SEGA launches 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 history and a more fluid and exciting gameplay. Sales success was historic for the industry.
Nintendo watched as its hegemony in Europe and the United States fell on the ground, so it decided to advance the launch of its 4th generation console; the Super Nintendo . With it would come revolutionary games like F-zero and Super Mario Cart , which revolutionized the racing genre.
Both games took advantage of a new console feature called Mode 7 , which was a graphic system that allows you to create the first movement effects 3D in video games , thanks to a camera movement 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 powered by the software industry , which finished perfecting the technique and created many more powerful games. ID Software would be the most representative brand in this sector, with titles such as Doom and Wolfenstein 3D .
Both games used a graphic processing system that allowed the first-person player to explore a three-dimensional environment. This was a complete revolution for the market, and would lay the foundations for the future of graphics in video games .
By the end of 1993 the CD optical support begins to be developed , as 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.
In 1994 Nintendo had regained its leadership in world markets and it seemed that the time was SEGA was over. However, that year would appear SONY , a rookie who would change everything in December when he launched his PlayStation that swept the market.
For this console, legendary titles were developed for the history of the racing genre such as Wipeout or Destruction Derby , which broke sales records of all kinds. 1995 brought us other titles in the fighting genre like Battle Arena Thoshinden 2 , which 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 didn’t go well. Then Nintendo decides to get serious and launches 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 with the game Super Mario 64 . This title would revive the famous plumber and redefined the genre of platforms 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 64 , which would be just as successful as the previous one, as well as the mythical Crash Bandicoot .
Despite the success of this two games, the Nintendo 64 could not beat the PlayStation because the latter had a much richer 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 consolidating SONY as the new king of the video game industry, and Nintendo would almost be forgotten. The final hit occurs in 1997 , when Square Software, which developed Nintendo’s Final Fantasy titles , went to SONY and launches Final Fantasy VII, which was the first of the 3D saga, and a worldwide success.
However, Nintendo did not say goodbye silently and before closing the millennium launched Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye 007 , which for many is considered the best SPF ever developed .
2000-2010; PlayStation vs Nintendo vs Xbox
Nintendo’s response to the PlayStation was the Gamecube, which would be a complete failure. Then SONY takes advantage of this to launch a second effect hit with its PlayStation II , which at the time of its launch became the best-selling console in the history of the industry.
The PlayStation2 would bring with it many legendary titles such as God of War or Bloody Roar . 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 the thing was different . The obvious technical superiorities of these allowed to develop very interesting titles such as Call of Dutty , Diablo or Age of Empires , but the final blow would occur in 2004, when Blizzard introduces the world of World of Warcraft .
This game would be a viral phenomenon because 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 .
