The First Video Games

Isn’t it funny to think back when the first video game systems were thought of as the greatest technology? With all the types of systems to choose from, the earlier models are a joke in comparison to the new systems put out today. Although back in the day, these systems were very popular when they were first released to the public.

The Magnavox Odyssey was the very first game system to be released in the United States. The prototype was called the brown box; it was a crude version of what was going to become the Odyssey. The design of the odyssey was to use cartridges which altered the circuits inside the box.

Plastic sheets were needed to attach onto your television screen. These sheets added more graphics to use in conjunction to the images that the game system would project onto your screen. This was released in 1972.

The gaming systems usually went for about $100.00 and always sold over 100,000 units in their first year of production. Compared to standards today the beginning years were primitive, but this was the start of the home console gaming systems.

Nolan Bushell founded Atari in 1972. The company’s name was supposed to be Syzgy, but the name had already been taken so they settled on the name Atari. When developer, Al Alcorn joined Atari the game “Pong” originated at that time. The sales from pong alone were impressive in 1975, when it went on the market. The game was the video game version of ping pong.

Many games including hand held games were released in 1976 and 1977. Coleco entered the video gaming craze with the introduction of Telstar in 1976. The Atari 2600 home game system was released in 1977, along with a baseball game in 1978 by Mattel. In 1979, Microvision another gaming system put out by Milton Bradley was released. This had cartridges that could be changed with different games. This was the first hand-held game that used cartridges for their games.

In 1980, Mattel was getting ready to launch their competition to Atari, the intellivision game system. The Nintendo game system was on the horizon. Mario Brother’s games came out in 1981, starting out as an instant hit. It gained popularity immediately.

In 1981 Sega was yet another video gaming system that got in on the competition with the release of Turbo. This was one of the first driving video games that simulated reality. In comparison, the only driving game up to this point was Atari’s Night Driver and it was not nearly as realistic.

The Atari 5200 super system released in 1982, replaced Atari’s 2600 system. Atari’s intention was to have this system in competition with the intellivision, but in all reality it became Coleco’s competition. The 5200 was just not as big of a hit as they had hoped because there were many design flaws.

Early games cannot be compared to the games we have today. They are not as sophisticated. The arrival of the Nintendo Systems, Play Station Systems, and the Xbox in 2001 has made our early systems look like baby toys. These systems are currently setting the trends for all future technology advances today.

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