Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
Interactive video and TV games
In 1953 a children’s television programme called Winky Dink and You, this is the first
interactive TV show and the way the kids reacted to the show was through a special
transparent sheet to place of the TV screen and with the help of the sheet it gave the kids
the illusion of aiding the TV character on his journey but the kids ended up drawing directly
on the TV screens so the show was discontinued.
The beginnings of game development
in the 1960 many of the earliest computer games ran on university mainframes in the United
States and were developed by individual users who programmed them in their idle time.
However, the limited accessibility of early computer hardware meant that these games were
few and easily forgotten
In 1961, a group of students at MIT, including Steve Russell, programmed a game
called Spacewar. The game pitted two human players against each other, each
controlling a space ship capable of firing missiles. A black hole in the center created a
large gravitational field and another source of hazard.
early development
1971
In 1971, students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated
version of the Spacewar video game. This is the earliest known instance of a coin-
operated video game. Later in the same year, Nolan Bushnell created the first mass-
manufactured game, Computer Space for Nutting Associates.
First generation games consoles

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
1972
In 1951 Ralph Baer got the Idea of building a home console,
his vision was for an interactive TV but the Idea was way
ahead of its time. Until 1966 they had got nowhere. But in
1966 he had managed to build a two-player video game
using a standard television set where two dots chased each
other around the screen and once that he made this
breakthrough he continued development for a few more
years and then he made a new prototype had two
controllers, a light gun and sixteen switches that selected
the game to be played. These first generation games were
actually built into the unit. And then in 1969 Baer signed
with Magnavox and with the prototype being released as
the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, some 21 years after the
concept was imagined.
First generation game consoles like the Magnavox Odyssey
used removable cartridges, which were nothing but
jumpers to activate the games already wired in to the
console.
also in 1972 Atari was formed by NolanBushnell and Ted Dabeny. Atari created a
coin operated video game called game pong which was the first sucessfull electronic
ping pong game.
The early years of handhelds
The idea of handheld video games with interchangeable cartridges wouldn’t take hold for
about another decade. But Mattel managed to pry video games away from quarter-
swallowing arcades and dim televisions with their successful line of LED-based.
In 1974 Both Maze War and Spasim appeared, pioneering examples of early multi-player 3D
first person shooters.

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
And then in 1975 Will Crowther wrote the first text adventure game as we would recognize
it today, Adventure. It was programmed in Fortran. The player controls the game through
simple sentence-like text commands and receives descriptive text as output
Second generation games consoles
1976
The second generation of video games
sometimes referred to as the early 8
bit era, this began with the release of
the Fairchild channel f. This period of
this generation saw the release of
several consoles as various companies
decided to enter the market later; the
releases were in direct response to
the earlier consoles. The Atari 2600
was the dominant console for much of
the second generation and this
second generation came to an abrupt
end with the video game crash of
1983.
The Fairchild was the first console to use the cartridge as the storage medium. Fairchild released their
console in August 1976.
lazerdisc
In 1978 a invention called the laserdisc and lazerdisc players cam out and the
tecnological advancees with this was the fact that you could select the chapter that
you wanted to start at.
also in 1978 space invaders proved to be the first blockbuster arcade video game it
was so poupular that it began to pop up every where, in Japan and other countries
during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Space Invaders, Galaxian, Pac-Man,

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
Battlezone, Defender, and Donkey Kong were especially poplar. By 1981, the arcade
video game industry was worth $8 billio
Milton Bradley Microvision
1979
in 1979 the company that made the game hungry
hungry hippo had a go at making a handheld console
and their handheld was full of problems. The system
had only a handful of games and was plagued with
problems from the start, including a 16x16 pixel LCD
screen that was prone to rotting and cartridges that
could be permanently damaged by even a relatively
small static charge.
Nintendo’s Game & Watch Series
1980
Upping the ante from Mattel’s LED handhelds, Nintendo introduced their first Game
handheld in 1980 and would go on to produce dozens more throughout the decade, offering
a small glimpse of what was to come from the company. As the name suggests, the
handhelds featured a clock and alarm but the real attraction was the games, which included
titles like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. even to day the nintendo handheld are the
most popular.
Third Generation Game Console
1983
The third generation referred to as the
8-bit era began on July 15, 1983, with
the Japanese release of both the
Nintendo Family Computer.
This generation marked the end of the
North American video game crash of
1983, a shift in the dominance of home

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
video games from the United States to Japan, and the transition from single-screen
or flip-screen graphics to scrolling graphics, which was a pivotal leap in game design.
Nintendo Game Boy
1989
It’s almost impossible to understate the impact of Nintendo’s
Game Boy is the most successful video game system
ever handheld. Part of its success is likely due to its reasonable
price $109 US at launch, but most of it is a result of the games
and, in particular, the drop dead brilliant move of bundling Tetris
with the system.
nintendo make some improvements to ist designe they
replace the original green screen with a regular grayscale
display and there was also a game boy light which had a backlit screen but it was
only avaliable in japan.
also in 1989 there was a chalanger for the nintendo game boy which was the Atari
lynx and this system had far better graphics than the game boy but the problem with
this unit was that it was much bigger than the game boy and it also was much more
expensive. Then Atari remade the unit in 1991 but it still was not a match fo teh
nintendos game boy.
DVD gaming
In the 1990 the DVD tv games were developed. However, DVD-based game consoles like
the Playstation 2 popularized DVD-based gaming, and also functioned as a DVD video player.
In addition, the format has been used to import some video games to the DVD format,
allowing them to be played with a standard DVD player rather than requiring a PC which for
the less well of people could still at least have a digital gaming experiance.

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
Fourth generation games consoles
1991
The fourth generation games consoles were faster and more advance using a 16bit
processer. Nintendo had a significant presence in the fourth generation. Having the
great success with their first console. With their second console having a 16bit
console they were to be a big contender in the console war. Before ending
production Nintendo had sold over 70 million units. Even though Sega had the more
power full console the game developers were too lazy to spend the time to learn the
code for the extra processor.
One of the most popular games to take the advantages of their advance graphics
was sonic the hedgehog.
fifth generation games consoles
1992
The fifth generation consoles were powered but 32 and 64 bit processors which meant that the
colour and the graphics were a huge improvement over the previous generations. The major player of

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
this generation were SONY even though they were new to the market they rose to the top with their
first entry and they managed to sell over 100 million units before being replaced withe the
PlayStation 2.
Sega released the Sega Saturn and after modest sales, released their last console in 1998, the Sega
Dream-cast. While the Dream-cast sold well, Sega did not feel they could compete against Microsoft
and SONY and pulled out of the hardware market forever.
Nintendo, while losing out to SONY, still managed to eek out 30 million units.
While significantly lower than SONY, it was significant enough to provide enough funds to stay in the
market. Nintendo also continued development on the handheld market where they achieved
significant sales figures.
Interactive TV games
1994
In 1994 visiware had authorised it self as creating coustom TV users experiance for
gamers.
Interactive TV allows people to play games through the TV remote that comes with their
digital TV. Initial games included platform based games such as lunar lander and expanded
to puzzle games. As interactive TV developed further the red button became a popular
feature of modern TVs. Broadcasters saw an option to provide viewers with a new level of
interactivity by providing play a long games, quizzes and competitions linked to popular TV
shows. even in 2014 (20 years later) you can still paly games on you tv using your
remote and the red button.

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
game boy colour
In 1998 the company nintendo rerelease there game boy but this game boy was in
colour and this meant that the screen had colour on it and this game boy had better
graphics and it was also backwards compatible so you could use the original game
boy titles.
nintendo ds
2004
The nintendo ds with its dule screen was first thought as a step back and the styles
were novolties but games were soon wone over. what else help the popularity of the
nintendo ds was the arguably some of the most innovative titles on any system, and
because of teh popularity of the DS they went on and released a lighter version of
the same device and in 2010 the 3DS came out.
playstation portiable
2004
The most technically advanced handheld system to date, Sony’s PlayStation Portable
seems to be holding on to its comparatively smaller piece of the market in the face
of Nintendo’s array of handhelds, despite its high price tag and relatively few stand-
out games. Sony also keeps pushing the UMD format for movies, although many
users have opted for more practical means of viewing content on their PSPs.
Sixth Generation Game Console
1978- 2006
The sixth-generation era is
characterized by 32-bit processors or
cores. The Nintendo GameCube is the
most compact sixth generation console,
but its graphics and power are more like
to the fifth generation console. It's
biggest strength was that it focus on
family friendly gaming and social
interactions in the home rather than
over the networks.

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1
The PS2's Graphics Synthesizer has fast dedicated video memory, though it is limited in the
amount of data it can hold. Consequently, many of the PS2's games have reduced textures
compared with versions for other consoles.
Seventh Generation Game Console
2006
The seventh generation is marked with the fewest number of
game consoles of any generation. This is attributed to the large
cost to develop, market and subsidies.
Most of these consoles, except the Wii,
lose money for the first several years until
technology consolidation reduces costs
and component parts drop in price.
Each new console
introduced a new type of
breakthrough in
technology. The Xbox 360
offered games rendered
natively at HD resolutions,
the PlayStation 3 offered, in addition to HD
gaming, HD movie playback via a built-in Blu-ray
Disc player, and the Wii focused on integrating
controllers with movement sensors

Hayden Parkes Assignment 1