Origin of the Consoles

Origin of the Consoles

A brief account of the evolution of the home console

Video Games; whether you love them or hate them there is no question that they’ve helped define multiple generations of entertainment starved consumers, and have, over the years, become a showcase of technological progress and achievement.  The evolution of the home video game console in particular has come a long way and in today’s post “next-generation console” world it’s worth taking a look back at where it all began.   So put down that sleek wireless controller, tear your eyes from the hypnotic glare of your high-definition screen and meet some of the grand-pappies of home console gaming and witness the evolution of a cultural phenomenon. 

The year is 1967, war rages in Vietnam, the Beatles are bigger than ever, and German born television engineer Ralph Baer designs the first video game console that works on a standard television set.   Baer and his colleagues started work on what he called a “chase game” at an electronics firm called Sanders Associates, building a vacuum tube circuit that connected to a television and allowed players to control two squares chasing each other on screen.  They would later add a light gun and develop a total of twelve games.  The console became affectionately known as the “Brown Box”.

In 1972 Baer presented his “brown box” prototype to Magnavox and the company began production of the first ever commercial video game console; the Magnavox Odyssey.  Using six cartridges to play up to twelve games featuring on screen dots and lines, the Odyssey was marketed in Magnavox TV dealerships.  A false rumor that it only ran on Magnavox TV’s hurt its popularity though and it eventually dwindled into obscurity.

1972 also saw the founding of Atari by Nolan Bushnell, and in 1975 the company produced its first big hit with (drum-roll please) Pong.  Sold in Sears stores under the Sears Tele-games label, the bulky console featured a single chip that produced both an on-screen score, and the sound the game made when paddle met ball.  Pong is widely regarded as the console to first introduce at-home video games to the masses.

After Pong’s commercial success Atari got to work on a cartridge based system that would play multiple games, affectionately naming the project “Stella”.  Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in ’76 and they enthusiastically backed the new project.  The Atari 2600 gets released in 1977 and becomes a tremendous success with all time classics like Space Invaders, Breakout, and Missile Command, games that are still being reproduced today.

The first real challenger to Atari’s dominance of the console market was Mattel.  The company first unveiled their Intellivision in 1980 and kicked off the early 80’s war between Atari and Mattel.  The Intellivision featured slightly better graphics and the first ever synthesized voices used in video games.  Both consoles attracted third party developers like Coleco and Activision, but an influx of unlicensed games and new home consoles like Colecovision and Vectrex led to a major industry crash in ’83 which resulted in many gaming companies going bankrupt.

Two years later this industry crash was sharply contrasted by the birth of one of gaming’s most influential heavy weights; Nintendo.  Originally a Japanese playing card company, Nintendo released their Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the U.S in 1985.  Known as the Famicom in Japan, the console introduced the world to Super Mario Bros, Metroid, and The Legend Of Zelda.  It also encouraged high quality third party development resulting in epic titles like Contra, Final Fantasy, and Mega Man.  Retailers were skeptical after the ’83 industry crash, but the NES managed to become the best selling console of its time.

Nintendo then went on to release another smash hit in 1989, the Nintendo Game Boy.  The Game Boy was the first major hand held gaming console and featured an 8-bit CPU (like its parent system) and a black and white LCD screen.  Undergoing several makeovers over the years including Game Boy Pocket in 1996 and the Game Boy Color in ’98, thanks primarily to Tetris in the U.S. and Pokemon (or Pocket Monsters) in Japan the handheld console’s sales went through the roof.

In 1989 Sega released their home console; the Sega Genesis.  It’s superior 16-bit technology helped it compete against the NES in the early 90’s and with the strength of Sega’s massive arcade library and hugely popular sports titles from Electronic Arts, as well as the repeatedly delayed introduction of Nintendo’s own 16-bit offering, the Genesis was a pretty big success.  In 1992 the Genesis reached the peak of its popularity with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, a title that was way ahead of its time in terms of visuals and sound.

Before the release of Sonic however, the debut of SNK’s 24-bit Neo-Geo in 1990 brought arcade level quality to home consoles for the first time.  Years ahead of its competitors the Neo-Geo showcased greatly improved 2D graphics, but a steep launch price (about $650) prohibited it from achieving any real popularity.

Nintendo finally released their own 16-bit console in ’91, having been beaten to the punch by the Sega Genesis, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System had a slow start but caught up quickly thanks to slightly superior graphics.  Upgraded existing brands like Super Mario Bros, Zelda, and the graphically amazing (for its time) Donkey Kong Country helped propel the SNES to eclipse the Genesis in the mid 90’s and become the top selling 16-bit system in the U.S.

The launch of Sony’s Playstation in 1995 marked a tremendous change in the way people viewed home consoles.  Before the Playstation, games were mainly 2D and relatively sporadic in terms of visual styles, but Sony’s workhorse console changed all that by stressing 3D gameplay and improved game mechanics.  The console’s CD-Rom technology also allowed the price of games to drop dramatically from those of earlier cartridge based systems.  It introduced us to the likes of Resident Evil, Gran Turismo, Tekken and numerous other popular franchises still being expanded on today.

Nintendo stepped up to the 32-bit plate a year later with the N64, the last mass-market system to utilize cartridges.  Although more expensive to produce, N64 cartridges load much faster than CD-Rom games.  Cartridges also allowed gamers to save their games on the cartridge itself, whereas the Playstation required a memory card.  The N64 lacked the Playstation’s broad range of games but managed to score big with Nintendo mainstays like Super Mario, and Legend of Zelda, not forgetting the immensely popular James Bond shooter; Golden Eye 007 ( a game that has recently been remade for Nintendo Wii.)

The world’s first 128-bit system came in the form of Sony’s, rather unimaginatively titled, Playstation 2.  It featured backwards compatibility and also functions as a DVD player.  The Playstation 2 was integral to the massive rise in video game popularity of the 2000’s, and is seen as a vital part of the beginning of what has been called; the console revolution.  The PS2 goes on to become the best selling console to date (over 147 million units and counting), gets 18 hardware revisions, and three different model releases.

So there you have it, the legends themselves.  Of course it doesn’t end there, console gaming, now more popular and more advanced than ever, continues its unstoppable snowballing towards perfection.  While you wait for that perfection (probably some sort of futuristic neural plug-in or something), think of how far gaming has come, the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 both now have their own motion control devices (the Kinect for XBOX, and Playstation Move for, you guessed it, the Playstation 3), and Nintendo just released the Nintendo 3DS (capable of displaying 3D without the need for glasses).

From here on out anything is possible.