History+of+Video+Games

=THE HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES=


 * 1) Introduction
 * 2) The Early Systems (1972-1977)
 * 3) The Modern Systems (1983-Present)
 * 4) Current Generation Systems
 * 5) Sources

1. Introduction Video games have become a huge part of our culture, whether they are viewed as entertainment, an escape from a dull life, or as a threat to society, they have become an everyday topic. Today, video games are multi-million dollar productions that can take years to produce, much like a modern day blockbuster movie. You see commercials for games on TV, hear about competitions on the radio, and can even find clothing and other apparel on just about any game that you want. But it wasn't always so. In the beginning, video games were simplistic, such as PONG or Frogger. At this time, video games were viewed as a small "pick-up-and-play" toy, not the cultural phenomenon that we know today.

2. The Early Systems (1972-1977) The first video game system, the Magnavox Odyssey, came out in 1972, years before the widely known Atari systems. Created by Ralph Baer, the Odyssey died out mainly because of the non-interest of consumers and poor marketing by Magnavox. Following in the Odyssey's footsteps and eager to pick up the new market, many other companies ventured into the production of video game consoles; among these was Atari, which came out with a system that played only one game, PONG. This console quickly became popular among consumers, which drove Atari to create a full-fledged game system, the Atari 2600