1. Timeline
1950s
Wink Dinky and you – 1953 – This was the start of Interactive TV. This was interactive because you
put a screen overlay and then you draw on the screen overlay. This was interactive because it le you
interact with your television.
Tennis for two – 1958 – This was the first PC game designed, developed and published by William
Higinbotham. This game was done on the Donner Model 30 Analoge computer
1960s
Spacewar! – 1961 – This was a game developed in 1961 by Steve Russell, also it was credited as
being the first widely available computer game. This game was developed on a mainframe
computer. It was done using punch tap.
Ralph Baer – 1966 – The prototype of the Magnavox Odyssey (Brown Box) had started being
developed.
1970s
1971 – Computer Space – A game designed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was the first coin-
operated video game to be commercially sold
1972 – Pong – A game made by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. This game got done by Baer
because his version of Pong which was made before Baer’s Pong was patented.
1977 – Mattell Football – A handheld games console designed by Mattell, this handheld device
didn’t have an exchangeable cartage. This game mostly had dots on the screen due to the bit rate.
1979 – Milton Bradley Microvision – This handheld console had interchangeable cartage
1979 – Ninetndo Game and Watch – it had a duel screen and it had a D-pad. This console was
significant because it had a directional pad which made the gaming experience easier. Also it had a
duel screen which made it so that more stuff can be displayed on the screen at a time.
1980s
Atari Lynx – 1989 – the first handheld games console with a colour LCD. Lynx it is a 16 bit handheld
console, but this console wasn’t that popular due to the fact that the games wasn’t that good in
comparison to the games on Nintendo’s GameBoy, like on the GameBoy it had Tetris and other
games they developed.
1990s
Sega Game Gear – 1990 – A 8-bit handheld console, and received mixed criticisms over its battery
life, praises for its full-color backlit screen, and uneven reception over the quality of its game library.
Sega Saturn – 1994 – Tried to be the first 64-bit console but was 32 bit because it tried to use 2 32-
bit processors.

2. Playstation – 1994 – this console had an external storage device, it was the first computer
entertainment platform to shop 100 million units, it achieved 102 million sales by the time it was
discontinued in December 2004.
Gameboy Colour – 1998 – 8-bit coloured console which as the name suggested it had colour in the
games.
Sega Dreamcast – 1998 – pioneering online console gaming; it was the first console to include a
built-in modem and Internet support for online play
2000s
Nintendo Game Cube – 2001 – this console allowed connectivity with Gameboy using a connector,
and was praised for high quality games.
Xbox – 2001 – which got its name from DirectX box, this is the console which got Microsoft into the
game console market. This console was significant because it was the second console which
supported online gameplay. The Xbox had a wide verity of games from many genres like Halo, Fable
and Max Payne.
Ngage – 2003 – Had capabilities of a smartphone, was made to out show Nintendo’sGameBoy. They
tried to do this by making be able to play games and also having phone capabilities but however this
wasn’t so successful because of its shape the shape of the device was more like a taco shape than
anything.
Nintendo DS – 2004 – was the first handheld console which had a touch screen which was used in
video game playing. And it used duel screen and it also had a inbuilt microphone that was also used
in games.
2004 - Playstation Portable – 2004 – first handheld console to use optical disc format, which
included wireless connection on it
Nintendo Wii – 2006- First console that had wireless controller which contained a motion sensor.
2010s
Wii U – 2012 – first Nintendo console to support HD graphics and it also contains a gamepad which is
motion sensed with a touch screen on it. And this is an 8th generation console not a 6th or 7th.