Justin Dady

3/17/16

The History of Video Games

Early History
In 1947, the first electronic game was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. It
was titled Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device. It was never released to
market because it was very expensive. The first commercially available video
game was Bertie the Brain, which was created in 1950. It was an arcade
game of tic-tac-toe. The first video game created for entertainment was
Tennis for Two, which was created in 1958. In 1962, SpaceWar! was created
by Harvard and MIT employees. It was copied to many computers in other
colleges, so it was the first video game available outside of one research
institute.
1st Generation (1972-1980)
In 1972, the Magnox Odyssey was released, which was the first console of
the first generation. There was also Atari Home Pong, Coleco Telstar series,
and the Nintendo Color TV-Game series. All of these systems were very
simple and only had small blocks and dots as the players objects, and the
games were only one screen. They had very few colors. The best-selling
system in the U.S. was the Magnavox Odyssey, which sold 330,000 units.
The best-selling system worldwide was the Nintendo Color TV-Game series,
which was Japan-only and sold 3 million units.
2nd Generation (1976-1992)
Three of the consoles of the second generation were the Atari 2600,
Magnavox Oddyssey2, and Mattel Intellivision. The 2nd generation was the
first time consoles had game cartridges, microprocessors, basic colors, and
games that spanned more than one screen. They had a screen resolution of
160 192 pixels. The best-selling console of this generation was by far the
Atari 2600, which sold 30 million units. This generation led to the North
American Video Game Crash of 1983.
Causes of the North American Video Game Crash of 1983
This was a massive recession of the video game industry. It occurred from
1983-1985. Video game revenues fell from $3.2 billion in 1983 to $100
million in 1985. There were many causes of this crash. One was there were
way too many consoles. There were about 10 consoles available for sell.

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Other causes are competition from home computers, inflation, and loss of
publishing control. The main cause of this crash is terrible third-party games.
E.T., the Extra Terrestrial, for the Atari 2600 is considered the game that
caused the crash.
Short-Term Effects of the North American Video Game Crash of 1983
There were many short-term effects of this video game crash. One was
cheaper games. Stores had a huge surplus of games to sell since no one was
buying them, so they lowered the prices of games. Games that used to sell
for $35 sold for $5. Developers began making rushed-to-market, low-budget
games. Another effect is bankruptcies. Many video game developers went
bankrupt because of the crash, including Magnavox and Coleco. A third effect
is the rise of Nintendo in the United States. Nintendo called their Famicom
system an Entertainment System rather than a console, used terms such
as control deck and Game Pak, and introduced R.O.B., a toy robot that came
with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) to convince toy retailers to
buy their product. By 1988, 70% of the video game market was dominated
by Nintendo.
Long-Term Effects of the North American Video Game Crash of 1983
There were many long-term effects of this video game crash. One was the
dominance of the video game market moved from the U.S. to Japan. After the
crash the NES was by far the dominant console, and the Sega Master System
was the 2nd most dominant console. Sega is also from Japan. Another effect
was more control of third-party games. Nintendo started a strict licensing
policy for the NES that equipped all of the game cartridges and consoles with
lockout chips. They were region-specific and had to match for the game to
work. Nintendo also controlled third-party games by limiting most third-party
publishers to only five games per year. A third effect was better games.
Nintendo issued their golden seal of approval on all of the games for the
NES. This protected the public from poor-quality games.
Golden Age of Arcade Games (1978-1989)
This was the era of greatest popularity and technological innovation for
arcade games. Space Invaders, released in 1978, started the Golden Age of
Arcade Games and is the 2nd best-selling arcade game ever with 360,000
units sold. This era introduced many popular video game characters today,
such as Pac-Man, Mario, and Donkey Kong. In 1982, the arcade game
industry made $8 billion, more than Hollywood movies and pop music

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combined. The best-selling arcade game ever is Pac-Man with 400,000 units
sold. The 3rd best-selling arcade game ever is Donkey Kong with 132,000
units sold. In 1983, the arcade game industry began to decline. In 1986,
arcade games only made $4 billion. By 1991, arcade games made even less
with only $2.1 billion. The causes of arcade games decline are the
improvements made to home consoles and personal computers.

3rd Generation (1983-1995)

This generation is sometimes called the 8-bit era because most of consoles
used 8-bit processors. It began in 1983 with the release of the Nintendo
Famicom in Japan. Nintendo also sold its first handheld device, called the
Game & Watch, during this generation. This was also the first time consoles
had D-pad controllers. Nintendo dominated during this generation. Their
console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), sold 61.91 million
systems worldwide. The NES introduced some of the best known video game
characters, such as Mario, Link (from the Legend of Zelda), and Samus Aran
(from Metroid). The NESs best-selling game was Super Mario Bros., which is
the 2nd best-selling game of all time. The Sega Master System was a distant
2nd for sales, and the Atari 7800 came in 3rd for sales.
4th Generation (1987-1999)
This generation is sometimes called the 16-bit era. Nintendo dominated in
this generation once again. Their console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment
System (SNES), sold 49.1 million systems worldwide. Their new handheld
device, the Nintendo Game Boy, would go on to become the 3rd best-selling
video game system of all time with 118.69 million systems sold worldwide.
Nintendo faced competition from the Sony Genesis, which sold 30.75 million
systems worldwide. There was also a console called the Philips CD-i. It had
Nintendos permission to make games with Nintendo characters in it, so they
made some of the worst games ever made. Two of these games are Hotel
Mario and Link: The Faces of Evil. It only sold 1 million systems.
5th Generation (1993-2006)
This is the first generation where consoles had 3D graphics. The best-selling
system of this generation was the Sony PlayStation, which sold 102.49
million units. It is the 4th best-selling console of all time. The 2nd best-selling

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console was the Nintendo 64, which sold 32.93 million units. Its best-selling
game and the best-selling game of the generation was Super Mario 64, which
sold 11.62 million units. The Sega Saturn came in 3rd with 9.26 million units
sold. Nintendo also introduced the Game Boy Color, which was the bestselling handheld of the generation.
6th Generation (1998-2013)
The best-selling console of this generation by far was the PlayStation 2,
which sold 155 million units. It is the best-selling console of all time. The
Microsoft Xbox came in 2nd with 24 million units sold. The Nintendo
GameCube came in 3rd with 21.74 million units sold. This is the only time
Nintendo did worse than 2nd in sales, and the GameCube is Nintendos worst
selling system, except for the Wii U and the Color TV-Game series. Sega
came in 4th with the last console it ever made, the Sega Dreamcast. It only
sold 9.13 million units, so Sega become a third-party game developer. The
best-selling handheld system of this generation was the Game Boy Advance.
7th Generation (2005-present)
In this generation, motion controllers were used for the first time and were
very popular. The best-selling console was the Nintendo Wii, which used
motion controls. It sold 101.63 million units, which makes it the 5th bestselling console of all time. Sony and Microsoft copied the Wiis motion control
idea and made the PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect. Neither one sold as
well as the Wii. The Xbox 360 came in second with 84 million units sold, and
the PlayStation 3 came in 3rd with 83.8 million units sold. This is the only time
Sony did worse than 2nd in sales. This is also the first time Sony made a
handheld system, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), which sold 82 million units.
However, Nintendo was able to beat the PSP with their handheld system, the
Nintendo DS. It sold 154 million units, barely below the PS2, which made it
the 2nd best-selling system of all time.
8th Generation (2012-present)
This is the generation that is happening today. The new gimmick is having a
second screen for your console. The Nintendo Wii U did this first, and the
PlayStation 4 and Xbox One copied them. The Wii U has a screen in it
controller. The PS4 uses your phone or the PlayStation Vita. The Xbox One
uses your phone or computer. So far, the PS4 is winning with 35.9 million
units sold. The Wii U is in 2nd with 12.6 million units sold. The Xbox One is in
3rd with 10 million units sold. Nintendo and Sony also made new handheld

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systems. The Nintendo 3DS is winning with 57.94 million units sold, and the
PlayStation Vita is far behind with 4 million units sold.
Arcade Games Today
Today arcade games are much less popular. A successful arcade game today
only sells 4000 to 6000 units worldwide. Many arcade games are just arcade
version of old consoles games. There are arcade versions of the Dreamcast,
PS2, GameCube, and the Xbox. There are also many arcade classics on smart
phones today. One of the most popular arcade games on phones is Pac-Man.
5 Best-Selling Games of All Time (single platform)
The best-selling game of all time is Wii Sports. Second is Super Mario Bros.
Third is Mario Kart Wii. Fourth is Tetris. Fifth is Wii Sports Resort.

7 Highest Rated Games of All Time

The highest rated game of all time (the one that is considered the best) is
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Second is Chrono Trigger. Third is Final
Fantasy VII. Fourth is Super Mario 64. Fifth is Street Fighter II. Sixth is The
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Seventh is Metal Gear Solid.
5 Best-Selling Game Series of All Time
The best-selling game series of all time is Mario. Second is Pokmon. Third is
Call of Duty. Fourth is Grand Theft Auto. Fifth is the Wii video game series.
7 Highest Rated Game Series of All Time
The highest rated game series of all time is The Legend of Zelda. Second is
Mario. Third is Pokmon. Fourth is Assassins Creed. Fifth is Grand Theft Auto.
Sixth is Super Smash Bros. Seventh is Halo.
5 Best-Selling Consoles of All Time
The best-selling console of all time is the PlayStation 2. Second is the
Nintendo DS. Third is the Nintendo Game Boy/Game Boy Color. Fourth is the
PlayStation. Fifth is the Wii.
5 Best-Selling Video Game Companies
The best-selling video game company is Nintendo. Second is Sony. Third is
Microsoft. Fourth is Sega. Fifth is Atari.

Justin Dady

3/17/16