History of Games

Unit 20 level 3 game design 

The History of Game Platforms

There have been many game console from 1972 with the Magnavox odyssey and later with NES to now with the PS4 Xbox One and

Soon coming Nintendo NX. Console have had 8 generation  

The games "console" was the OXO which was released in 1952 which play simple game of nought and crosses.  

First generation (1972–1976)

The first commercial made was the Magnavox odyssey with games sold like ping pong, cat and mouse, invasion, etc. the controller for odyssey was a simple design it originally for ping pong which just has to go up and down.

Second generations (1976–1983)

The second generations of console saw two console release from Atari with the Atari 2600 and the Atari 5200 which had great sales.

The Atari 2600 was released in September 11th 1977 it was packed with two joystick controller for a two player game, it was packed with Combat then later they sold Pac-Man the console itself was discontinued in January 1st  1992. The Atari 5200 was the second console released by Atari, it had a controller with a joystick and numeric keypad. With that certain controller you had a 360 non-centering which better than the Atari 2600 previous eight way joystick but it was discontinued two year after its release. also the first handheld game systems were released in 1979 which was the Milton Bradley mircovision it had 16 x 16 and is black and white it had a 12 button rubber key matrix and you could insert cartridge overall it sold poorly.

The next handheld was the Entex Select-A-Game Machine it was released in 1981 the handheld allowed two player it was easy to hold it upright somewhat it had seven button on each side 1 to 4 was the D-pad, the Entex released in 1981 only six game including Pac-man, space invaders, etc.

Third generations (1983–1987)

The third generation saw five with two new comers who were Sega and Nintendo. Nintendo sold their first console the NES which had a D pad, start, select, A and B button last info about the console was that it was released in JP July 15 1983. People say that it was a very good and a nostalgia console of nearly all gamers it the three games that were the most popular were Metroid, Mario and legend of Zelda. Sega released two consoles in the third generation SG-1000 and the Sega master system both of Sega's first consoles were somewhat successful. The SG-1000 had a joystick controller it was released in July 15th 1983 later was the Sega master system

Which tried to copy the controller of the NES and was released in 1985. The two other console which were released by Atari, they were the Atari 7800 which was an update of the Atari 5200 which was released in 1986 and the Atari XEGS which had accessories like a keyboard a joystick and a XG-1 light gun both help Atari get out of debt but failed to get more market because of Nintendo which saw less and less production sells.

After the Entex was the Epoch Game Pocket Computer it had a 75 x 64 black and white it also had inter changeable cartridges it failed to take off in japan and only made five games for it, it was released in 1984. 

Fourth generations (1987–1993)

Fourth generation was a battle between Nintendo and Sega with their two new console with the Sega Genesis/Mega drive and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System with Nintendo coming out on top but Sega didn't completely lose. The Super NES was a 16 bit era console but was a bit late to consoles with the Sega Genesis coming out first it was release in November 21 1990. the console still remained popular even when 32 bit games came out and is considered to be favourite to retro gamers and emulation enthusiasts the games is had were Donkey Kong country, Super Mario Kart and Super Mario World; the controller it had was same design as the NES but was made slicker and more attractive. 

the Sega genesis was the first 16 bit game console to be released before Nintendo's SNES the genesis was released in October 29 1988 games it came with were sonic the hedgehog and sonic the hedgehog 2. the Sega Genesis controller was like the last but in had only d pad, start, A, B and a C button and it look more model then the last controller. The next handheld game systems released in 1989 was the Game Boy, it was very successful selling 100 million unit with the original Game Boy line. in the fourth generation of gaming came the first games graphics card the Monochrome Display Adapter. It was used for Grand Theft Auto it was graphics card designed for displaying videos now it has became a PC standard.

Fifth generations (1993–1998)

The fifth generation of console saw one more company trying to get on with console market who were named Sony. There were only 4 console release in the fifth gen the Atari Jaguar was Atari last and overpriced try at the consoles with the controller looking over complicated with the weird looking controller which basically copied Sega controller and added a number pad it was price at $249.99. the next console was the N64 which Nintendo first tries at 3D model instead of just pixels the controller was a three handed control which had it also had a d-pad c-pad and one free moving analog stick and lastly a start button, the that it had were the Super Mario 64 and pilotwings 64 also you could play four players on it. Sega came back with the Sega Saturn but wasn't as good with it complex hardware Sega was also trying compete with Sony new console it was only continue for 4 four years. It was released in November 22nd 1994. It was considered a commercial failure due to other effect like the sonic x-treme. Sony was a new player in the console market which they smashed with the Sony PlayStation it was released in 3rd December 1994 .The controller had a d pad, select, start, two bottom analog sticks and finally square, triangle, circle and X this controller concept was put in all PS console until a design change with the PS4 and lastly something that it did differently was that the games didn't come in cartridges but now disc which other console company copied. Sega also tried to make get into the handheld market by selling the Sega Game Gear it did very well to beat its competitors TurboExpress and the Atari Lynx. It was released in 1990 the game had sonic the hedgehog and also had 300 games that it could play. Sega also released the Sega Genesis Nomad in 1995 which sold poorly but it could play Sega genesis cartridges.

Sixth generations (1998–2005)

The sixth gen of consoles saw one last new company come in the console market to the present which was Microsoft with their new Xbox which release the new online service called Xbox live which was a service you had to pay for to play with other players online the controller was like the PS but the d pad and one of the analog stick. It was released in November 15 2001 and discontinued in June 4th 2006. The GameCube was Nintendo's first try at optical discs, the GameCube wasn't the most successful console on Nintendo part it was criticised for not having enough feature. It was released in September 1st 2001 but discontinued in 2007. The DreamCast was the last console Sega released. It was released in November 27th 1998 and discontinued March 31st 2001 it was the first built-in modem for internet support and online play. Sony came back with their new PS2 which basically had the same controller as the PS and it could use backward compatibility with other PS games. It was released in March 4th 2000 and discontinued in January 4th 2013 its bestselling game was GTA San Andreas. Nintendo came out with the Game Boy color now it had a colour screen however it still had the backlight problem but it kept the price low and made the battery life long and also had backward compatibility with the game boy. it sold well which means that it had dominance in the handheld for a few more years after. 3 years after the release of the Game Boy Color Nintendo release the Game Boy Advance in 2001 it now had 32-bit colour but it still lacked backlight and it also had two other model the SP which was clam shell style and Micro was an ultrasmall version. another 3 years after the Game Boy advanced Nintendo DS first it flopped but then it after sometime the DS sold 113.48 million worldwide it had two screen one normal and the other was a touch screen overall the DS only had two version the DS(2004) and the DS lite (2006). In the same year of 2004 Sony came in with the PSP which had very impressive graphics it tried to compete with Nintendo but lost at ratio of 2:1 it had three major. another leap for PC as the Voodoo1 was the first 3D graphics card it run games like Doom, quake and Duke Nukem 3D. It had four megabytes of RAM and a 50MHz core.

Seventh generations (2005–2012)

The seventh gen saw only three consoles released with Sega's drop out with the Sega DreamCast.

Xbox 360 was Microsoft's second console it continued with Xbox live and you can buy online games the controller for it was different it was more simpler with same sort of buttons except now the Xbox 360 symbol is an button and the select and start buttons between the 360 button. It release date was November 22 2005 and discontinued in April 20th 2016 it also released an accessory called the Kinect which wasn't that popular. The PS3 was the third console Sony console it was release in November 11 2006 and discontinue in September 29th 2015 the controller was the same as the previous two generations but now it allowed wireless play the bestselling game it had was GTA V.

Nintendo fifth console was the Wii which beat the Xbox 360 and PS3. The Wii's controller was a unique design which need you to stand up it had an off button, d pad, a button plus, home, minis a B button on the back with 1 and 2 you could attach accessories for certain game some needed a Nunchuk which had Z and C with and analog stick. It had backward compatibility with the GameCube games and GameCube controllers. Its bestselling game was Mario Kart Wii.

Eighth generations (2012–present)

The eighth and present gen saw three new console's called the next gen. The Xbox one and PS4 (Wii U too) to see which of these consoles were better in the end PS4 got the most sales than the Xbox one. anyway the Wii U is Nintendo's sixth console it didn't do as well as the Wii it was released in November 18th 2012 it had two controller's with the normal Wii controller and the new pad with two analog stick, a D pad, touch screen, home, TV, power X, Y, A, B buttons and start and select with four push button at the back. One thing you can use with the pad is to make game more immersive, lastly it bestselling game was Mario Kart 8. The Xbox one was Microsoft's third console it was released in November 22nd 2013 the controller was a sleeker design of Xbox 360 controller the console also came with the new designed Kinect which came with it. The PS4 is Sony's fourth console it was console who sold the most units of the eight gen consoles the controller that came with it was a redesign of the old PS controller it was made more slicker and looked cool the controls it had were D-pad, share two analog sticks touch pad Sony logo button, start, square, triangle, circle, X and trigger with shoulder button at the back. It was released in November 15 2013. One of the latest graphics card has been the GeForce titan made by Nvidia it had 6GB ram, water cooling and a small shape and comparatively quiet operation but it has price of one thousands dollars.

source;
http://www.pcworld.com/article/183679/evolution_of_portable_gaming.html#slide1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_home_video_game_consoles
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2034487/the-10-most-important-graphics-cards-in-pc-history.html#slide1