Week Three - Rise Of the Machines

So Computer games had effectively been invented, but now it was time for the home video games to have a shot at the market. This started with Ralph Bear’s ‘Magnavox Odyssey’. This had a few games playable on it around the ideas of dots and lines and the like, but due to a number of reason didn’t sell all that well, but all was not lost.

Atari came into the picture and in 1972 release there ping pong influenced game, Pong. When this game was first released on arcade machines it did phenomenally well taking over the world at lunch time. It too was then released into the homes of civilians’, but because it did so well, so many company’s wanted a bit of the action, and there ended up being that many different incarnations no one could keep track. Towards the end of the 70’s the whole video game idea seemed to be declining with the novelty wearing off, the only reason I can see this happening is because everyone one was sick of all this super pong and ultra pong (do you ever think this will happen to Mario party…).

Pong in all is glory!

But the in the early 80’s there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel as home console’s were given another serious go at. Atari made the Atari 2600 which was the home for space invaders, and all time classic, which introduced the whole concept of high scores which I do actually love and find games don’t have them enough these days, I mean especially with online stuff, the Wii should utilize high score boards for every game, it is suppose to connected to the inter net 24/7. Anyway back to the light at the end of the tunnel, a couple of other company’s released home console’s such as Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, which was British, and the market leader, just thought I’d say they were British… anyway this light at the end of the tunnel was suddenly closed off in 1983 with the big video games crash.

Apparently this crash is really famous, first I’ve heard of it, and as far as I can tell it’s all ET’s fault, which I think is a little harsh, he only wanted to phone home, not inevitable cause most game company’s to go into bankruptcy because they made more game cartridges’ than consoles and had to put a load in a landfill, apparently.

Anyway I was pleased to find out it was good old Nintendo that brought games out of the dark ages with NES (or famicon as it was also known as). Nintendo had now set the standard for games companies, and were bringing out games that’s are still going strong today, to name a few, Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid, Metal Gear, and countless other classics. And then also there was Sega (with the Mastersystem) in the running which sparked off possible one the greatest rivalries ever, between Mario and Sonic, of which to this day is still going on, but now there on the same games, madness I tell you. Nintendo also in 1989 stormed the handheld market with the game boy, which was a huge success and always has been with it’s many incarnations. This third generation of 8-bit machines end in about 1992 with the launch of new consol’s such as the super Nintendo and the Sega mega drive. To be honest not too much happened over the next few years, one thing worth mentioning is that Sony would not be around if it had not been for Nintendo. Nintendo approach sony in order to make a console using cd-roms, but the very night before the revealing of the work they had done (which was a snes with cd’s) Nintendo pulled out and all was right with the world again. Then after the snes and mega drive, there was the N64, Sega Saturn, and the Playstation.

Mario and Sonic in there new game, wars will be fought!

So there we go a glimpse look at the history of games, yes I know glimpse, but there really is stacks and stacks of stuff, and the main problem is that it’s not all documented properly, especially in early times. I actually reckon even if someone spent an entire year trying to write a good history of games, there would be countless oddities, and it would be really boring, I mean I’ve just read mine back, and I applaud you if your still reading, anyway not too sure where I’m going with this, so ill stop and leave you awaiting my next post….well I’m sure one person will be looking forward to it, surely.