subject: A look back at the computer games industry [print this page] A look back at the computer games industry
It is difficult to visualize what folks did with their hands and minds during the time prior to home computers, Nintendo game consoles and other types of digital entertainment. Human hands appear completely shaped to fit joysticks and computer mice -- or could it be the other way around?
Both the PC and video game industries have seriously modified home entertainment. Now, these two industries are quickly becoming one thing.
Have you been told of the Magnavox Odyssey? Released in 1972, it was actually the very first publicly released game console. Though it was a few more years prior to a bouncing-ball game titled Pong made the globe to fall madly in love with PC games and launched Atari to the peak of the home gaming marketplace.
In the late seventies, home PCs debuted, and soon, archaic computers similar to the Commodore 64 as well as the Tandy colour computer began contesting with game consoles for the cash and time of game addicted consumers. Although some houses had both a PC and a games console, that was unusual. Money-conscious customers were forced to make a choice between the flexibility of a home PC and the improved controllers and graphics of gaming consoles.
Finally, companies such as RCA, Intellivision in addition to Nintendo entered the video game market whereas Apple, IBM and a spread of clones went into home computing. Speed and graphical quality improved on computer game systems and computers over time, and new game releases would temporarily position one group in front of the others until one more new improvement modified the playing field once more.
Home computers reached notability in the late Nineties, once the vast majority of houses posessed 1 computer, and they have revealed zero indication of decline. Game consoles have not attained that level of proliferation, but they continue to gain in popularity notwithstanding temporary blips in the market.
Whilst game consoles were for dozens of years dependent on their control pads and PCs contingent on mice or infrequent touch pads and trackballs, the twenty first century arrival of the Nintendo Wii sophisticated games machines on their way to an eventual controller-less experience. Gaming console manufacturers have also added ethernet connections and the ability to surf the internet to their consoles, getting rid of the necessity for a computer in households where PCs aren't required for business purposes.
As well as video games that detect movement and do not need controllers, the near future also holds further integration between television, gaming, the web and home computers.
Shortly, one cheap device plugged into a high-tech, fixed on a wall monitor will be offering users a complete entertainment experience. In reality some televisions coming on the market in the next few years will be offering nearly every gaming alternative users can imagine -- and they are ready for ones that do not even exist in the minds of their designers yet.
But don't worry. Retro will alwaysbe in, too. Pong is still free for most gaming formats -- and still selling like it's 1975.
The website playstation portable has more information.
