Computer games are often referred to
as video games, because they usually involve a video display to
manifest the gaming world in which they represent.
The earliest computer games were developed in the 1950’s and
1960’s. But did you ever wonder who invented video games? Willy Higinbothom designed a very basic tennis game on
an oscilloscope, and around the same time Steve Russel created
Space Wars on a DEC PDP-1 mainframe computer. Space Wars is
usually credited as being the first video game ever made. The
1970's saw the rise of the arcade gaming industry. Some of the
popular titles that were initially created, such as Pong, and
Space Invaders, were really just modified variants of the games
made by Higinbothom and Russel.
The end of the 1970’s also saw the beginning of the home-based
console video game systems. Video game consoles are computers
designed solely for the purpose of gaming, and usually connect
to a television for the video display. There were three
significant consoles in the late 70’s and early 80’s, but the
only one that achieved large scale and widespread success was
the Atari 2600. These consoles are often referred to as ‘1st
generation’ consoles. Today, with the release of the Xbox 360,
and the upcoming release of the PlayStation 3, we are witnessing
the beginning of the 7th generation of console gaming. It's hard
to believe Games have come so far!
In the early 1980’s, the PC, or personal computer, became
popular, and video games designed for use on this platform were
also very popular. Today the video game market is dominated by
the consoles made by Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, and also by
the games made for the PC. The market is divided into three
basic categories; consoles, PC, and handhelds, handhelds being
portable video game consoles first made popular by Nintendo’s
Gameboy.
Within each market, there are many different types of video
games. Some types include adventure, action, role-playing, first
person shooters, third person shooters, turn based strategies,
real-time strategies, and simulations. Often times, different
versions of the same game are available on the PC.
Since the 1970s, the video game market has boomed and steadily
grown in magnitude. Now we can look back and say the person who
invented video games was a genius! Today, it is the largest entertainment
industry in the world, having surpassed the movie business in
terms of revenue in 2004. With new PC games coming out every
week, and new consoles being designed constantly, it appears as
though the video game industry has plenty of room for growth
left in it. We could go on for days about each console and all,
but future research and new technology will certainly move
faster than ever before. Clearly video games are going to be
popular for generations to come! |
