Early video games were thought of as the latest technology, yet they are no comparison to the games we have today. With all the different types and systems there were to choose from, the earlier models such as Atari seem like a silly comparison. Although these games at one time when released to the public were very popular.
The Magnavox Odyssey was the very first game system to be released in the United States. The prototype was called the brown box; it was a crude version of what was going to become the Odyssey. The design of the odyssey was to use cartridges which altered the circuits inside the box.
Plastic sheets were needed to attach onto your television screen. These sheets added more graphics to use in conjunction to the images that the game system would project onto your screen. This was released in 1972.
This first video game and the ancestor of the many that are available today cost $100 when released and sold over 100,000 units in the first year of production. The beginning of the home console gaming system had begun, although it was quite primitive compared to the standards today.
Nolan Bushell founded Atari in 1972. The company’s name was supposed to be Syzgy, but the name had already been taken so they settled on the name Atari. When developer, Al Alcorn joined Atari the game “Pong” originated at that time. The sales from pong alone were impressive in 1975, when it went on the market. The game was the video game version of ping pong.
Many games including hand held games were released in 1976 and 1977. Coleco entered the video gaming craze with the introduction of Telstar in 1976. The Atari 2600 home game system was released in 1977, along with a baseball game in 1978 by Mattel. In 1979, Microvision another gaming system put out by Milton Bradley was released. This had cartridges that could be changed with different games. This was the first hand-held game that used cartridges for their games.
Mattel in 1980 was ready to launch their response to Atari-the intellivision game system. The Nintendo at this time was on the horizons. Mario brothers came out in 1981 and the world was ready for something different. Popularity hit nearly instantly with this new release.
Sega was another new gaming system that was released in 1981, which their game turbo was released. This was one of the first simulation games that were as close to reality as possible back then. The only other game that was to compare it to was Atari’s Night driver game which was not realistic at all.
The Atari 5200 super system released in 1982, replaced Atari’s 2600 system. Atari’s intention was to have this system in competition with the intellivision, but in all reality it became Coleco’s competition. The 5200 was just not as big of a hit as they had hoped because there were many design flaws.
The early games and systems were not nearly as sophisticated as today’s. The arrival of the Nintendo systems, Play Station systems and the Xbox in 2001 made yesterday’s game little more than children’s toys. The Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 are setting the trend for further technological advances today.
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