The History of Video Games

First there was Pong: released in 1972 by Atari, this was one of the earliest forms of what would become a global sensation even today - video games. Although computers and other electronic games  were developed previously, they served a limited purpose or were far too expensive for public entertainment.

Then, video game arcades began to emerge as different genres were released, such as racing games, one vs one dueling games, and target shooting games, transitioning into the so called "golden age of arcade video games" from the late 1970's to the early 1980's. Concepts such as "lives", and tracking of hi scores were introduced in games such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man.




From there, generations of consoles shifted focus towards home entertainment, as cartridges were introduced, followed by the use of CD's and 3D, and ultimately the release of "modern" consoles, including the Nintendo GameCube and Sony's PlayStation 2 which dominated the market in the 2000's until the release of the Nintendo Wii which was global success with its new motion control. Finally, we reach the present generation of consoles such as the Wii U, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Comparing modern video games which can even be run on mobile devices with games such as Pong shows just how far the industry has come and introduces the question of how will video games continue to evolve in the future?

-William