Video games are a huge part of today’s popular culture — well, culture in general. While video games aren’t exactly a new thing, it is a lot bigger now compared to when it started.
Back then, consoles, games, and controls were a lot simpler. Graphics and audio were crude and primitive. Things were a lot different back in the day.
A lot has changed in the video game landscape. The quality of sound and graphics alone require huge memory from a gaming PC build. Games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt require a minimum of 8GB RAM to run its full potential. Atari’s Pac-Man pales in comparison.
Such is the evolution and progress of video game consoles. Let’s take a look at the different consoles over the past several decades it has been in existence.
Video Game Consoles Through the Years
The Brown Box
Known as the first-ever video game console, the Brown Box was created in 1967 to connect to TV sets. It had two simple controllers and came with six games — ping pong, tennis, handball, volleyball, chase, and a shooting game using a light gun.
Magnavox Odyssey
The year 1972 saw the release of the Magnavox Odyssey which, at the time, was the most sophisticated gaming equipment despite its lack of sound.
The Atari 2600 and Coleco Telstar
After Odyssey made improvements on its succeeding consoles, new players Atari and Coleco threatened its domination of the gaming industry by coming up with their own consoles, the Atari 2600 and Coleco Telstar.
The Late 1970s
Towards the end of the decade, Nintendo sprung forth and positioned itself as a major company in the industry. However, its Color TV Game Series was only available in the Japanese Market.
Mattel, yes, the toy company, released its own gaming console in 1979, the Intellivision.
The Golden Era of the Early 1980s
The early ‘80s were known as the golden years of video games because a lot of innovations and developments took place. This period, dominated by Nintendo and Sega, practically shaped the industry as we know it.
War Between Giants: The Late 1980s
The late ‘80s saw the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo take its peak. Both industry giants did their best to outdo each other with upgrades and new game releases.
The Video Game Revolution of the 1990s
The year 1992 was when the first CD-based console was released, the Philips CD-i. Sega followed suit in ‘93 with the release of Sega CD. A few years after, Sega once again released a better console in Saturn while Sony dropped the first-ever Playstation.
Also, 1998 was a monumental year for video games as Sega released the Dreamcast in the market. With its internet support via a built-in modem, it started the online gaming industry as we know it today.
The Turn of the Century
The early 2000s gave us gems such as Sony Playstation 2, the Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft’s Xbox.
Since the inception of video game consoles, the early 2000s gave the industry some sort of stability and identified the brands that will continue to dominate the market.
The Titans Reign Supreme
Industry giants Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all released their new innovations.
Microsoft released Xbox 360 in 2005 and Kinect in 2007. Sony released its Playstation 3 in 2006. Both Xbox and Playstation 3 featured 1080p HD graphics, which up to that time, was an industry breakthrough.
Nintendo, on the other hand, released the Wii in the same period where gamers were introduced to a whole different gaming experience.
The Contemporary Consoles of Today
The heavy hitters of the industry kept dishing out outstanding consoles with highly-improved graphics and state-of-the-art features. Since 2011, we saw the releases of consoles such as Xbox One, Xbox One S, and Playstation 4.
We also saw handheld gaming devices in Nintendo’s Wii U, Wii Mini, 2DS, 3DS, and 3DS XL.
At the rate things are going now, the video game industry will continue to surprise and amaze us with out of this world innovations and developments. The future is bright for this industry.
