Video Gaming History.
Rebecca Lavin

1960’s
This is the first console of the 60’s it was a brown box named “The Brown
Box” which consists of two attached consoles. It was invented by Ralph
H. Baer also known as “The Father of Video Games.” There were only six
simple games for the console, namely ping-pong, tennis, handball,
volleyball, chase games and a light-gun game.

1970’s
The demonstration of the "Brown Box" The Fairchild Channel F system came out in 1976, the
led to the licensing of the year before the Atari 2600. It was the first console
technology by Magnavox in 1972, to use cartridges that contained game code, earlier
resulting in the release of the first consoles, like the Magnavox Odyssey, had
official home video game console –
Magnavox Odyssey. Just as the cartridges that did nothing but unlock games that
earliest films do not feature were already programmed into the system. This
recorded sound, the first video game meant that the console had a theoretically limitless
console is silent as well, with supply of games. Unfortunately, for the Channel F,
graphics which we would consider instead of being known as a pioneer of home video
very primitive by today’s standard. gaming, it ended up as a more of a footnote, when
it became the first video game console to be
destroyed in the market by a rival with better

1978-1980
Nintendo, the company which eventually became a major player in the video gaming industry for
the next three decades, delivered their first series of video game console from 1977 to 1979.
The Color TV Game Series were only for sale in Japan. These consoles essentially followed
in the footsteps of Atari and featured Pong-style games.
Once again, there were a few newcomers to the market but they were met with limited success.
Bally Astrocade came about in 1977 and was celebrated for its superior graphic capabilities.
For some reason, it did not last long. Mattel introduced its Intellivision console in 1979,
which actually intimidated Atari 2600 with its exceptional capabilities.
Coleco continued with its line of consoles of all sorts, in an attempt to pit against the mighty
Atari 2600. Coleco had consoles for playing shooting, car racing and pinball games.
Similarly, Magnavox persisted on with a few more upgraded consoles of its own, but they
were inherently Pong consoles that play Pong-based games. Philips, having bought
Magnavox in 1974, developed some variations of Magnavox Odyssey’s models as well.
Regardless, Atari 2600 remained at the top owing to its cartridge-based console equipped
with better graphics and games.

1991-1993
In the first few years of 1990s, there is a notable shift in the medium used for storing
games from cartridges to compact discs. What this meant was that there were
increased capacities for video gaming, prompting as well a transition of 2D graphics
to that of 3D. The first CD console was launched by Philips (1991) – the CD-i.
Regrettably, the console was more commonly recognized as a failure for its sub-
standard games and frustrating controllers.
In 1992, NEC TurboGrafx-16 was upgraded to the TurboGrafx-CD to meet the demands of
CD-based consoles. But again, it lost itself to Sega Genesis/MegaDrive with its latest
add-on, the Sega CD. Atari made its last console appearance with their CD-based Atari
Jaguar in 1993, which was meant to contest against the other 16-bit consoles like the
Sega Genesis and SNES. It then found itself losing the console battle with more
advanced next generation console like the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation a year
later.
Commodore, a US-based home computer manufacturer, gained entry into the market with
its very own Amiga CD32 (1993). Sadly, it was only for a brief few months before
Commodore declared bankrupcy in 1994, thus prematurely ending the sales of a video
game console with some potential.

1994-1997
In 1994, Sony finally made its entrance with the leading Playstation. Sega At the same time,
Sega with its immense success of its MegaDrive/Genesis system, went on to expand it
into a series, with the Genesis 2 (1994) and Genesis 3 (1997). It also developed an
entirely new console, Saturn, to rival against the rest of the CD-based consoles.
Nintendo, on the other hand, stuck to its cartridge system for its new Nintendo 64.
SNK Neo Geo moved on with a CD-based console in 1994. Having learnt their lesson for
putting a costly tag for their console and games, the Neo Geo CD console costed $300
while its games costed around $50, which were sharp drops from its previous AES
system. NEC now exhibited its new PC-FX, which looked more like a desktop CPU than
a console. The technology they utilized was outdated when compared to that of Sega
Saturn and Sony Playstation, hence what followed was that the console was phased
out and NEC no longer produced home consoles.
During this time, there were also many other consoles which most of us would not have
heard of. Bandai, Casio and even Apple came up with their own consoles. The Virtual
Boy by Nintendo, launched in 1995, consisted of a head-mounted display to view 3D
graphics.

2005-2011
Sega Saturn was not a major success, so Sega thought of another new console
for the next generation – the Sega Dreamcast (1998). In terms of providing
internet support via its built-in modem for online playing, Dreamcast was the
pioneer back in 1998. Two years later, Sony progressed on with the next
Playstation, the Playstation 2. In 2001, Nintendo switched its cartridge-based
Nintendo 64 to a DVD-ROM GameCube. That very same year, we saw
Microsoft entered in the video game console industry in 2001 with its well-
received Xbox, which featured online gaming service as well, the Xbox Live.
Now that the industry is stabilized after three decades of experimenting with all
sorts of consoles, there were rarely any entry attempts by fresh companies.
Interestingly enough, there is one XaviXPORT in 2004 that is relatively
unheard of. The console uses cartridges and have controllers which looked
like sports equipments to interact with on-screen games. It was basically used
for working out and keeping fit. Kind of reminds us of the existing Nintendo
Wii, doesn’t it?