The History of Video Games

The History of Video Games

The creation of video games has been around for over half a century. In nineteen forty at the World’s Fair, Westinghouse had a game display that over tens of thousands of people played. Video games progressed through the years as computer technology continued to evolve. Video games as a source of entertainment did not reach the main stream until the nineteen seventies. The first official commercial arcade game was Computer Space which was created by Nutting Associates. The creation of video games has not stopped but has grown into a phenomenon.

The nineteen seventies

During the seventies, many computer video game creators started to emerge. There was Atari in seventy-two with Pong and in seventy-four Maze war the very first first-person shooter game was introduced by the founder of nCUBE. Later in the seventies the introduction of the Atari twenty-six hundred game console; that would propel the making of millions of games with other consoles to follow. The Japanese craze of large-scale arcade games like Space invaders would creep into America and suck up billions of quarters.

The nineteen eighties

The nineteen eighties would prove to be the brick and mortar arcade decade. Masses of people would gather at conventions and arcades and play the likes of Namco’s Pac-Man, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and Disney’s Tron. In eighty-five Nintendo came out with their first console called the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES for short. Nintendo continues to develop and grow their gaming empire today with new games and consoles rolling out continuously. Later in the eighties, you have the role playing game creations like the Legends of Zelda and the sports empire of John Madden games with his release of Gridiron.

The nineteen nineties

The nineteen nineties with the newer technologies saw an overabundance of video games being created. The early nineties had Sega release Sonic for their Genesis system, and the Mortal Kombat craze began. The release of Blizzard’s War Craft: Orcs and Humans took off, and Sony releases their first gaming system the PlayStation which is still another gaming empire today.

The Video Games of the Twenty-First Century

Microsoft would roll out their first gaming system during the early part of the twenty-first century with their Nintendo Xbox phenomenon. Nintendo has a strong hold on the gaming industry to this day even though other systems were released sooner. World of War Craft came along in two thousand and eight which would draw massive players. Social gaming is big with the introduction of mobile app gaming like the Candy Crush Saga and Farmville. Angry birds and Minecraft are all the rage as well.

The history of video games is long in its creation, but we gamers are forever thankful for the creators who provide them. Video Games have grown into a vast empire worth trillions of dollars. Gaming will forever be a favorite source of entertainment for kids, teens and adults alike so the craze will continue to grow and the developers will adapt as technology changes.

Great read, I love history and I love video games. Those two things combined bring a great thing to read.

Man.. After reading this you realize just how much video games have influenced our society. It's nuts.. I've played a lot of these systems. I'm personally a Sony PlayStation fan. Always have been. I think as long as we need distractions... Video games will be around.