Pong to Splinter Cell:

A Documentary of Video Game History

Pong to Splinter Cell is a documentary focused entirely on the video game industry as we know it. It’s a comparative history of where video games were and where they are today. The video game industry saw its humble beginnings in a game called Pong. The success of Pong drove the gears of creativity in many and Atari was formed from this creativity. Once Atari had become popular problems arose with some programmers leaving the company to start their own companies, one of these companies is now the largest in the industry, Activision. It was the golden age of video games, growth was high, money was flowing in, everyone wanted to get their hands on video games of all forms. All good things came to a crashing end though as the video game industry collapsed in on itself among all its success.

Atari Pong

This is a chart showing the relative price of video game consoles over the years. Lower console prices around the time of the crash of 1984 weren’t enough to keep consumers interested in buying video games.

The Crash of 1984

• The early 1980’s saw a flood of games and consoles that flooded the market and left the consumer lost in the flood

• Too many poor quality games were being pumped out to the public leaving a sour taste in consumers mouths and helping to ruin the industry reputation for quality games

• These poorly made games were hurting Atari greatly as they were massively overproduced

• Atari had reached the saturation point with it’s Atari 2600 console and with no new console on the horizon, consumers had nothing new to buy from them

• During this same time, personal computers were gaining in popularity with the Commodore luring consumers away from video games for an “all-in-one” box

• The one game that helped seal the fate of the industry was the complete bomb in sales of E.T. for the Atari

• Millions of copies of E.T. were produced and when the game completely bombed, it nearly wiped out Atari because of the massive amount of money invested in it

The crash hurt many companies financially, some of which can be seen in the pictures below. Some companies such as Magnavox and Coleco ended up never making another console again after the crash. Atari took the hardest hit during the crash with their company being one of the reasons for the crash to begin with. To this day, Atari is still strapped for cash because of the financial damage they took during that time. The crash was one of the turning points of the industry though and is one of the main reasons it is so strong today. Had the crash never happened, the video game industry as we see it today may never have come to be the way it is.

The Saviour of the Industry

The 1990’s to the Present

• Nintendo sees strong sales in both its NES and SNES consoles but falters in sales with the N64 and Gamecube

• Nintendo has had unprecedented success in the handheld games market with the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS dominating

• Sony enters the industry with the PlayStation 1 in 1994

• Sony sells over 100 million PlayStation 1’s with the PlayStation 2 selling over 140 million units

• Sony entered the handheld console market in 2004 with the PlayStation Portable

• Sega sees their glory days in the industry with the Genesis but begins to steadily lose market share with the release of the Saturn and then finally the Dreamcast

• Microsoft enter the industry with the Xbox in 2001

• Currently in 2008, Nintendo is the console leader with the hugely successful Wii, Microsoft is in second place with the Xbox 360 and Sony, despite their huge success last two generations is in last with the PlayStation 3

ConclusionVideo games have come a long way over the years and have much more room to grow. There have been hard times and good times, with the hard times bringing out some of the best qualities the industry has going for itself. People may have cast doubt at one time as to the validity of the industry as a whole and whether it could transcend just being video games. Whether it be a simple game like Pong, a travel through the mushroom kingdom in Super Mario Brothers or sneaking about in Splinter Cell, video games are here to stay as a major part of our culture and society.

Image Links

Slide 1Background Collage: http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/9905/wallpaper2finishedcopyrf6.jpg

Slide 2Pong Image: http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives/pong.bmpAtari Image: http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/atari400.jpg

Slide 3Bar Graph: http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/7998/wager7wr9.png

Slide 5Atari Logo: http://news.filefront.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/atari_logo_3.jpgColeco Logo: http://www.freecorporatelogos.com/thumbs/COLECO.jpgActivision Logo: http://www.collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Activision_logo/activision_logo.jpgMagnavox Logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/Magnavox.gifMattel Logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6a/Mattel-brand.svg/275px-Mattel-brand.svg.png

Slide 6NES Pic: http://www.jandar.net/nes72pin/nes72pin1_big1.jpg

Slide 7 Pie Chart Capped from YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvphEf6cpJo

Slide 8NES: http://cybernetnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/nes-console.jpgWii: http://www.webtvwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/nintendo-wii-console.jpgDS: http://static.emulator-zone.com/gallery/emulators/nds/nintendo_ds_lite.jpgXbox: http://www.joeanderson.co.uk/blog/xbox.jpgXbox 360: http://news.cnet.com/i/ne/p/2005/Xbox360full_500x526.jpgPS1: http://www.vipermods.co.za/res/default/ps1.pngPS2: http://uk.gizmodo.com/ps2%20silber2.jpgPS3: http://www.viralblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/sony_playstation_3.jpgPSP: http://tech84.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/sony_psp.jpgSega Genesis: http://www.vidgame.net/SEGA/Sega/Genesis/gen_sys2.jpgSega Saturn: http://old-wizard.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/saturn_sega.jpgSega Dreamcast: http://www.rombay.com/images/consoles/sega_dreamcast.jpg

Slide 9Splinter Cell Image: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/images/promoimages/d/dime/video_game_heros/splinter_cell_chaos_theory.jpgMario and the Gang: http://yoshi.2yr.net/pics/super-mario-64-ds-all.jpg