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A Brief History of Computing: Part Two - The Middle Ages

We're moving on from Antikythera Mechanisms and audio oscillators and onto home gaming and the rise of the genres and companies we know so well today. This is where the main footing of the industry began.

Flash back to 1970...the year of the Magnavox Odyssey! Released in 1972, this was the first home video console. Pretty awesome huh? A total of 27 games were produced for this machine running over 12 cards. I stumbled across this website whilst researching - once you get past the fact it looks as though it could've been made in a year 8 ICT lesson, there's some really fascinating information on there!

From watching trailers like these, it's easy to see where the inspiration for the learning games 'everyone' (mainly people my age? hmm) played when learning maths among other academic subjects. I recall having a Scooby Doo one which was pretty damn cool.

Moving onto the years I'm supposed to be blogging about...we hit a huge snag in 1983. You may know this as the video game crash! However in Japan they apparently call it 'Atari shock' which sounds like a shot you'd get in a really dodgy bar... Before this, the industry was roaring, so it obviously came as quite a shock to consumers. The crash led to the bankruptcy of a number of companies, including Atari. During this time there was also a vast number of consoles available, and a few disappointing games that ended up in a landfill...mentioning no names ahem E.T. Several million copies were apparently dumped and it was dubbed as one of the biggest failures in gaming of this time.[1]

Ironically, E.T. was listed as number one in the 'Top 10 Worst Games of All Time'.[2]
This event also marked the end of US dominance, and the rise of Japan and Nintendo.

Following on from the crash, things started to look up in the industry with the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985.

Here's another absolutely mental trailer for you. God knows why they don't make houses fly out of the ground in console adverts anymore. I'd be more inclined to buy one if it implied my house could fly. One of the most popular games released for the NES in 1985 would be Super Mario Bros. Yes, the same Mario we all know and love today - what a guy. SMB could also be played with two players, one being Mario, the other being Luigi. This game was extremely influential and has helped to make the side-scrolling theme seen in a variety of games popular once more.[3]

Moving into the 90s, there's a drastic shift in the development of games. 3D you say? How on Earth will that work? Several genres arose during this shift, a few being FPS, real-time strategy, MMO and a personal favourite, survival horror. There's something about sitting on the edge of my chair with my hand covering my eyes that I absolutely adore. This decade also marked the rise of the fifth generation of consoles; the Nintendo 64, PlayStation and the Sega Saturn. The PlayStation and the Sega Saturn marked the introduction of the CD which would change the way we play games forever. In 1999, the sixth generation began with the release of the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast was also able to be used for online gaming, again, something that paved the way for the current gen consoles we know and love today.
However, the release of the PlayStation 2 in 2000 led to the Dreamcast being discontinued.[4]

Looking back, it's easy to see the development of gaming over the years and just how it's paved the way to get us where we are today.

[5]

References:
[1] - http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sy8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA151#v=onepage&q&f=false - "What Went Wrong at Atari?"
[2] - http://www.pcworld.com/article/127579/article.html?page=2 - "Top 10 Worst Games of All Time"
[3] - http://nesguide.com/games/super-mario-bros/ - "NES Super Mario Bros trailer & article"
[4] - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1851/a_detailed_crossexamination_of_.php "...Examination of Yesterday and Today's Best Selling Platform Games"
[5] - http://games.mxdwn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ET-atari-wallpaper.gif - "E.T. Wallpaper"