45 Years of Joystick Happiness
There are few of us in the new generation of gaming culture who can say that they didn't hold or played a game with a joystick.
Brands like Sega, Atari or Nintendo in every single one of
us awakes sweet memories of the times when we had hours and hours of entertainment.
We owe all of that to an ordinary Brown Box.
FIRST GAMES ON TV
In the year 1967 Ralph Bear and his co-workers developed the first console that allowed you to play games on TV. The name “Brown Box” described the “father” of every single modern console that exists today. The Brown Box was literarily made from two wooden boxes with some electronic parts in it, you could plug it in your TV and the fun could start. The first game for the Brown Box was called The Chase, and as the name implies you needed to chase a small square on your screen. The console was a huge success and in a short time you were able to buy 12 more games for the Brown Box. This small peace of history started a console revolution later on. In the year 1972 Ralph Bear decided to rename his product and the world saw the first commercial console called Magnavox Odyssey.
The console did not have sound and the old wooden design was replaced with modern white plastic. Instead of digital they used analog technology, but because of bad marketing and poor sales the Magnavox Odyssey did not make it big as the first competitor Atari PONG which appeared 3 years later.
SOUND CHIP
At the time Atari already had functional PONG system but it worked on coins. After they saw the potential of Odyssey, engineer Alan Alcorn was convinced that he could convert the PONG system from big arcade saloons to a size of the box that you will not notice at all. And the new PONG was born.
PONG’s unique characteristics were more complicated electronic circuits and the chip that could play a sound, for example, when the ball hits the racket. This allowed Atari to be the ruler of this new fast growing industry.
Soon after the PONG system Atari made their new console called 2600 VCS.
Atari's team figured out that consoles with only one game are not long lasting on the market, so they introduced the first cartridge system that allowed the user to simply switch the game and insert a new one. Games like Space Invaders, Breakout, Missile Command soon became extremely popular on the market.
SUCCESE AND FAILURE
Many companies in the early 80’s made good consoles but a lot of them did not succeed later on as the technology continued to evolve. Only Atari and a few other companies kept on going. Then, in the year 1985, the legendary NINTENDO came on the scene.
Nintendo mad a big success with games such as Super Mario Bros, Contra, Final Fantasy and with their strict licenses. Soon after that, the world was introduced to the CD-ROM, which proved as an ideal solution for game “packaging”.
Early 90’s passed in dominance of black SEGA consoles,
but their plans were spoiled as soon as Nintendo released the Super Entertainment System
and first wonder from Sony called PLAYSTATION.
Thanks to CD technology, Sony Playstation was cheaper and it almost made a bigger sale than Nintendo, but Playstation became the most popular 32-bit gaming console.
THE 3 GIANTS
Soon after the release of the first Playstation, Nintendo tried to make it big with their 64-bit version called Nintendo 64,
but in the year 2000 Sony released the Playstation 2
which became the first 128-bit console.
Soon after that, the biggest software company, Microsoft, realized the potential of the console market. In the year 2001 they released Xbox.
But still they had a lot of work to do to catch up Playstation 2
and Nintendo’s Game Cube.
Still, the game that made Xbox very popular later on was Halo: Combat Evolved, and it became one of the most successful games of all time.
And so, from all the great companies from the early 80’s, to a great “boom” of video games in the early 90’s, the 3 giants remain in today console market, Sony with PS3
Nintendo (Wii)
Xbox 360
Jure "xXDanteXx" Madunic
Old School Hard Core Gamer and gamersbook administrator ! Favorite tool SHOTGUN :)
The latest
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22.05.2012
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5 comments so far...
Lukey1, last year
My first console was Nintendo, I don't remember wich one it was I was too young
But then my father brought PlayStation from Germany when I was 4 years old
I can remember Gran Turismo or Syphon Filter like it was yesterday
And the Driver 2 was the best
xXDanteXx, last year
good memories always come back after seeing these old consoles
i remember Sega Mega Drive 2 and all the games on cartridges
awsome times ;)
alizehennessy, last year
Great article man... Brought me back a lot of memories.. and even though I have owned every single one of those consoles... I didnt know about the BROWN BOX... so I learned something today.. Thanx for that.
xXDanteXx, last year
Yes the Brown Box was the first one that started it all :) Glad you like the article :)
nastygamers91, last year
joystick of happiness? =O
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