Gaming platforms and Games
Gaming
platforms have been around for many years and has provided people with plenty
of entertainment, when the first gaming platform came out it was the start of
something new. There are still people who don’t know what gaming platforms are,
this timeline will explain to people what gaming platforms are and how they
have evolved throughout the years. We are now up to the 8th
generation of computer platforms. Gaming platforms can vary from mobile games
to computer and console games. Below is a timeline of key events which led up
to gaming and events that have happened.
1940-1949
In the 1940’s
Thomas T. Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann created the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement
Device which allows the user to turn knobs which displays artillery shells
shooting towards the user. There is a debate on who actually created the first
video game as some people don’t class the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device as
a video game, this is a debate which has gone on for many years and is still going on now.
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| This is the design of the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device |
1950-1959
In 1950 the
first video game came out and was the bouncing ball created by Charly Adama
this game was one of the first games to be played, although there was no such
thing as home video game consoles they still managed to play the game, the only
way the game could be played was on a computer. After the bouncing ball games
there were many more games to come like Bertie the brain, nimrod, OXO and
tennis for two these were also played on computer, the games created were not
for retail as computers was not popular. In 1951 Ralph H. Baer came up with the
idea of home video gaming at the time he thought of this he knew he needed help
of people to make a home video game console. Ralph Baer worked on his idea for
a home video game console and created many sketches for consoles and games. In
the 1959 the first computer was created and was known as PDP-1 with the first
computer built it paved a way for computer gaming.
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| This is the PDP-1 computer with the creator of Spacewar! Steve Russell |
1960-1969
By 1960 Ralph
Baer had many different ideas for what he wanted the console to look like; he
also had many different ideas for games. 1960 Ralph H. Baer created the many
different video game consoles with one of them having the nick name brown box,
during the making of the consoles there were more games created like
Tic-Tac-Toe and chase. There was one famous game created in 1962 by a Steve
Russell known as Spacewar! This was a multiplayer game and the users had to try
and shoot each other down Spacewar! was only playable on a computer known as
PDP-1. In 1966 Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison finally created the first video
game Chase which would be played on TV all they needed now was a console to
play it on. In 1967 one year after the first Video game for TV was created
Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison had their prototype TV console known as the Brown
Box which had games such as Tennis and Target practice.
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| The Brown Box was the first Prototype Console |
1970-1971
1970 consoles
was still under production and prototypes were still being produced as they
wanted the console not to have any problems when it was released, while they
were creating the games they also needed games for them so people will be able
to use them.
There were
competition for gaming consoles as there was also the creation of arcade games,
these were coin operated games which meant that the user had to put money in to
play the game. At Stanford University a group of students created a coin
operated game based of the 1962 game Spacewar! Called Galaxy game in 1971.
Although
interactive TV wasn’t big there was something coming through something that
would change people and the way they do things this would be known as Teletext
this allowed people to buy holidays and look at the news.
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| Spacewar! being played on the PDP-1 |
1972-1974
1972 was the
start of home video gaming with the first console being released known as
Magnavox Odyssey, the console had 5 games for people to play like Tennis and
Volleyball with these games you usually
got cards with it to make the game more interesting, games which came out for
the Odyssey usually had no sound. Odyssey had a big problem as not many TV
companies seen the potential that the console had there was also a rumour about
the console that it would only work on Magnavox TV’s this was later discovered
to be false but in the process hurt the sales and popularity of the console.
1972 was not
only the start of home video gaming consoles but also the start of arcade games
with newly created gaming company Atari making their debut with a coin operated
game called Pong and little did Atari know how popular this game was going to
be. Pong was really successful with many people wanting to play the game.
In 1973-1974
there were many companies seeing how popular video games were and decided to
get in on the act the only problem was that they had little or no knowledge at
all about the gaming world
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| Magnavox Oddyssey the first offical console to be released |
1975-1979
Magnavox
decided to improve and upgrade their console Odyssey, and re-released the
console in 1975 called Odyssey 100, Magnavox improved and upgraded there
console every year, there were 8 Odyssey consoles made with each console
getting new games and being slightly better than the last console. With the
massive success that Atari was having with Pong Atari decided to create a Home
gaming console with Atari pong making its debut in households in 1975, the
household version of Pong came with on screen score and sound unlike the first
version of Odyssey. The only problem which the Atari Pong
had was that there was only on game which could be played which meant that
people was starting to get bored of it as it was the same thing over and over
again. Two years after Atari pong made its debut, Atari created a console which
was able to play different games this was known as the Atari 2600. The Atari
2600 had many games with most of the games being based on arcade games with the
most popular being Space Invaders and breakout. Although gaming consoles were
popular Arcade games was on the rise as many people started to play them
instead of buying the consoles as they cost too much money. 1978 saw one of the
most popular games to hit Arcade games known as Space Invaders, the user must
destroy the little aliens before they reach earth. Space invaders became very
popular as it was fun to play and there was a score system which was saved this
gave people the determination to beat other people’s scores, with this is was
difficult to beat some scores as you only had a certain amount of lives to do
it in. In 1979 Atari released a very popular game known as Asteroids this
became Atari’s second best-selling game and knocked space invaders of the
number 1 game in the US.
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| Space Invaders one of the most popular games of the 1970's and 1980's |
1980-1984
1980 is also
known as the Golden Age of Arcade video games as it was time for a change time
to experiment. As Space Invaders paved a path for Arcade Games it became clear
that Arcade Games wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, anywhere you went
whether it be a shopping centre or a restaurant. 1980 showed a good time for
arcade games with more popular games coming out like Pac-Man and Defender.
Pac-Man was one of the most popular games to play in the 80’s as it was fun to
play but could be difficult, Pac-Man was also popular because you got your
money’s worth as there were over 200 levels for the user to play but like most
arcade games you only had a certain amount of lives.
Although
Arcade Games were popular there were still companies trying to create the
perfect console and in 1980 Nintendo coming on the scene with their hand held
console the game and watch which could only contain one game. Companies decided
that now was a time for a change they needed to stop making games like Pong and
in 1982 Atari created the game E.T. the Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600
which was based on the film, the game was created in 4 weeks as Atari wanted it
out for Christmas, it turned out that the game was a big flop and it gave Atari
a bad name and E.T was known as the worst game in history.
Nintendo created
their first console in 1983 known as Nintendo entertainment system which
featured games such as Donkey Kong, The legend of Zelda and Mario, these three
games are the most iconic games that Nintendo have created. Nintendo
entertainment system came out first in Japan in 1983 are for everyone else
1985.
In 1981 the
first gaming PC was created by Don Estridge for people to buy and would cost
people about £1,083, as it was the first gaming PC created there wasn’t many
games but there was a few like Ultima, Wizardry and Castle Wolfenstein.
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| The first official console by Nintendo |
1985-1989
With the
world wide release of the Nintendo entertainment system proved well for
Nintendo as they sold over 61 million units. As the on-going battle continued
with Nintendo and Sega only one console could come out victorious of the
generation. As Sega came late with their console Sega Master System they would
need something big to try and compete with Nintendo. With the Nintendo and Sega
competing for top spot of the console war, Atari was still around and although
they weren’t as popular as they use to be they still brought a new console out the
Atari XE Game System hoping that it will be able to compete with the big names.
During this
era there was a gaming company called Square (now Square Enix) which supplied
Nintendo and PC’s with games and after a few bad games was about to become
bankrupt and decided before they become bankrupt to create one last game called
Final Fantasy and little did they know how much of a success this game was
going to become.
Arcade games
were still going strong and there were even some tournaments to see who was
better at the game this brought people together. There were still more games
being released but arcade games were slowly becoming unpopular due to the
gaming consoles as people didn’t need to leave their house to play video games
anymore. In 1989 Nintendo brought out one of the most popular handheld consoles
with the Game Boy. At the end of the generation it was clear that Nintendo
ruled the console war as the Nintendo entertainment system was the best-selling
console of that generation.
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| One of the most popular hand held consoles of its time |
1990-1994
During the
early years of there was not a noticeable change with Nintendo still ruling the
console war against Sega, the only noticeable thing to happen is the change
from using a cartridge for the game to using a CD, there were consoles released
but they didn’t really compete with the Nintendo or Sega until the latter end
of 1994 with Sony coming on the scene releasing the PlayStation, although it
was only released in Japan it shown much potential.
There were
other platforms which games could be played on and one of these was mobile with
the first game for mobile coming out in 1994 and was a re-release of the
popular arcade game Tetris.
1995-1999
In 1995 Sony
announced the worldwide release of the PlayStation and proved to be the
beginning of Sony’s success. Within the first 6 months of the console being
released it sold over 2 million units and had games such as Rayman, Gran
Turismo and Grand Theft Auto (GTA). Sony was now competing with the big names
like Nintendo and Sega, in 1996 Nintendo created there 3rd
generation console the NINTENDO64 (N64). As the years went on Sega gradually
declined popularity and the console war changed with Sony’s PlayStation
competing against Nintendo’s N64 but it would be PlayStation leading the
console war. With PlayStation becoming more popular companies started to remake
some games which were popular for the PlayStation this also meant that with
each game remade the graphics would be improved. PlayStation ended up ruling
the console war for the generation. By the endo of the generation it became
clear that arcade games were becoming less popular as they wasn’t as exciting
as the console games that were out at the time.
In 1997 Nokia
created one of the most popular mobile games called Snake this was on over 350
million phones, the user control a snake and must eat to get bigger. The game
was in black and white.
In about 1998
sky brought out sky interactive which allowed the user to play games, this
became popular as it gave people something to do when they were bored, the most
popular game that sky interactive had was Beehive Bedlam this game had so many
levels which the user had to try and beat, after the user had either finished
the game or failed a level they would then be put on to a leaderboard.
With all the
consoles coming out coming out it meant that there needed to be an easier way
for companies to showcase there consoles so the entertainment software
association created E3 this allowed companies to showcase there consoles but
not only did they showcase consoles they also showcased games.
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| The first official console made by Sony |
2000-2004
In 2000 Sony
re-released the PlayStation and made it slimmer and renamed it the PSone and in
the same year brought it its successor the PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 2 was
backward compatible which meant that it was able to play PlayStation 1 games,
this allowed user to play classic games such as Final Fantasy. As Microsoft
watched the console war go on they knew that it was time for them to create a
console and in 2001 created the first Xbox with games such as Halo. With
Microsoft having a console it meant the start of a new console war between Sony
and Xbox. At the time Sony still ruled the console war. Still trying to compete
Nintendo brought out another console the Nintendo Game Cube. Each one of these
consoles were better than the last as they were all 128 bit.
It wasn’t
just consoles getting upgrades but there were also computer hardware created to
make computer gaming more advanced this meant the computer gaming would have
better graphics. In 2003 valve set up a website which would see a change of how
people could buy games this was called Steam; this allowed users to be able to
buy games without leaving there home.
There were
many games which were being released and to try and win the Console war Sony,
Microsoft and Nintendo all had games which were exclusive to them like
PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, Microsoft’s Halo or Nintendo’s Mario, this was done
to try and persuade people to buy there console. With PlayStation and Microsoft
leading the console war Nintendo was still trying to come up with a console
which would compete and in late 2004 Nintendo brought out there new hand held
console the Nintendo DS which had games such as Pokémon and Mario. This would
be one of the best handheld consoles around that time but it still wasn’t good
enough to compete with Sony and Microsoft.
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| PS2 the greatest selling console of all time |
2005-2009
In 2005
Microsoft released their new console the Xbox 360 with this being released a
year before the PlayStation 3 this gave Microsoft a firm lead in the console
war. Although the PlayStation 2 was the fastest selling console to reach 100
million units Microsoft had already brought in a new generation of gaming. In
2006 Sony released their new console the PlayStation 3, this was to be the
console which was going to compete with Microsoft’s Xbox but the PlayStation
had a little advantage over the Xbox as they made one of their models backward
compatible this would be the 60GB model.
Xbox was still in front as they had Xbox live and as Xbox live had been
around since 2002 it meant that Sony needed something to be able to allow
people to play with each other and at the same time the PlayStation 3 was
released they released PlayStation network (PSN) but unlike Microsoft, Sony
made there online free. Nintendo was still trying to find a console which would
compete and they did in 2006 creating the Wii, this was a console which used motion
sensor for people to play the game.
In 2007
Activision brought out another Call Of Duty (COD) with Modern Warfare this was
one of the most popular games that Activision would bring out. Because the game
was so popular they decided that they would bring another one out this would be
Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2.
By this time
consoles started to bring back the old games which people loved and enjoyed
this meant that people was able to replay their favourite old games which they
loved without buying the old console and game again.
Mobile gaming
started to become more popular as apple brought out their new phone the iPhone
this would make it one of the most powerful phones in years and with the
iPhones app store it meant that their was thousand of games for the iPhone.
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| The Start of a rivalry |
2010-2014
With newer
versions of the PlayStation 3 coming out it meant that the PlayStation 3 was
more powerful than the last. The console war was still going on between
PlayStation Xbox and Nintendo with arguments starting on the internet with
people trying to stick up for their console.
In 2011 Sony
brought out the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play this allowed user to play games while
they are out, the phone is based of the 2004 hand held console the PSP but the
Xperia was an all in one phone which allowed user to be able to everything a
normal phone does but also allows the user to play games.
With the
success that the Wii had it meant that Nintendo needed a new console with an
idea in mind they started to brain storm idea and finally coming up with the
Wii U this was a handheld console with it though you could connect it up to the
Wii and play the Wii U games on the Wii console. In the same year Metal Gear
had been out for 25 years
2013 brought
us the PlayStation 4 the 4th generation console from Sony and the
Xbox one the 3rd generation from Microsoft. These console were like
no other we seen both consoles were powerful. When each company announced their
console their was a lot of controversy as Microsoft wasn’t letting users borrow
games from other people after a lot of bad comments about it Microsoft took it
back and allowed people to borrow games from each other.
In 2014 the
creator of the first ever gaming console Ralph H. Baer passed away at the age
of 92, without his idea of gaming consoles who knows what might be there may
never have been any consoles.
TV’s was becoming more advanced with the new smart TV this was a touch screen TV it also allowed people to use the TV to play the games that are already on and allows the user to download more games from its app store.
TV’s was becoming more advanced with the new smart TV this was a touch screen TV it also allowed people to use the TV to play the games that are already on and allows the user to download more games from its app store.
PC gaming at
this time was so powerful with thousand of games to choose from and the superb
graphics that it had it was a something like no other, with Gaming PC’s having
two sources of buying games this would be Origin and Steam it meant that they
had loads of games to choose from not only that but PC users could go on the
internet and get games cheaper.
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| Provides better graphics than consoles |
2015-2019
With no major
announcement for any consoles coming out and with updates for consoles and
games 2015 was a quite year for any announcement for consoles, but the gaming
part was exciting with the announcement from be Bethesda announcing a new game
from the popular franchise Fallout, the Witcher 3 and a new Grand Theft Auto
game.
For PC gaming
2015 was a big year with the new Operating System (OS) windows 10 being
released it was also big with the announcement and release of the Steam
Machine, this is a PC gaming console which used Steams OS.
In 2016
Microsoft announced that they wanted to do Cross Network Play and even though
they never said specifically with what console we all knew that they wanted to
do a cross network play with Sony’s PlayStation, with this happening it could
be the end of the console war Between Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox.
Even though
we don’t know what is going to happen in the next couple of years all we know
is that games will be getting released with better graphics and better stories
and who knows we might see another new console in the next couple of years.
At this time
we are up to the 8th generation of consoles we have gone from the
first ever console the Magnavox odyssey which was just lines to the PlayStation
4 and Xbox one which are more powerful and have better graphics with games that
have stories and actual characters.
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| The on going battle continues |
Pros and cons of gaming platforms
Below are the
pros and cons for each platform of gaming.
Arcade games Pros
Provided
a lot of fun for a low cost
Got
people socializing and meeting new people
One
go could last a long time
Prizes
from 1P machines
Arcade games cons
Graphics
wasn’t very good
Had
to travel to play
Some
people didn’t like socializing
Queue’s
for some of the most popular games
No
saves and depending on the game can finish quick
Mobile platform Pros
Can
play anywhere
Can
play with other people
Some
of the older arcade games can be played on mobile
Graphics
are okay
Many
game choices
Communicate
with other people (ringing and Texting)
Mobile platform cons
Games
use a lot of battery
Games
can be quite slow
Games
can take up a lot of memory
Need
a good phone to play most games
PC gaming pro
Graphics
are good
Easy
to use
Games
can be cheap
PC Gaming cons
Expensive
to get a high end PC
Can
encounter many errors
Some
games won’t work depending on spec of computer
You
need internet to download games
Console Pros
Cheaper
than PC gaming
Many
people use and play consoles
Games
made for the console will work
Good
Graphics
Console
cons
Games
are expensive
Can
require memberships to play online
Graphics
not as good as PC
TV Pros
Can
be used for apps such as YouTube and Netflix
Smart
TV’s now have games on
TV cons
Can
be expensive
Short summery
Ralph
H. Baer is the father of home video gaming
Arcade
gaming was popular through 1970’s and 1980’s
PlayStation
2 is the world’s most sold console
Each
generation of gaming platforms became more powerful than the last
Games
became longer
Games
become more emotional
Graphics
become better
Gran
Turismo became the bestselling game for Sony
Atari
messed up
Mobile
gaming can be poor
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| The creator of the first ever console the Brown Box Prototype Ralph Baer. |
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