A Brief History of Electronic Games

Despite its beginning have occurred in the previous decade, the games area

began to have highlighted in the 70s, with the popularity of arcade machines and the

release of the game Pong, which is considered the first commercially viable success in

video games.

In 1972 the Odyssey was created, It was the first home console to be released

and in 1977, the Atari 2600 was released, giving rise to the second generation of

consoles and becoming very popular at the time.

In 1984, there was a major crisis in the gaming industry, caused by the lack of

innovation and by the competition with computers, which caused many companies

close down, but, with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES, in

1985 the gaming market resumed its forces. The NES led the third generation of

consoles, which also had the Master System.

In the early 90s, with the computers getting more accessible and popular and

with the beginning of the internet, games began to gain space on the computers. At this

time also came the fourth-generation consoles, the Mega Drive, Sega and Super

Nintendo.

The fifth generation of consoles marked the Sony’s entry into the gaming

market in 1994, competing with Nintendo and Sega. At this time, the computer games

have gained much strength because they were more accessible to the consoles.

In 2000, the sixth generation appears with the release of PlayStation 2,

considered the best-selling console in the history of video games. At this same time,

other consoles were released and eventually discontinued because of the success of

the Sony console. Microsoft launches its first console, the Xbox, in 2001.

The seventh generation appears in 2006 with the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and

the Nintendo Wii, which revolutionized the gaming area with motion-sensitive controls

and even games that didn’t need the use of any equipment.

Today we live the eighth generation of consoles, with the Playstation 4 and

Xbox One, whose main improvements are a greater processing power and a higher

power of graphic resolution.

Games for personal computers followed the evolution of the consoles, with titles

being released for both platforms.

With the advancement of internet there was an incentive for the production and

distribution of games made in Flash and Java, opening a new market for casual players

and for the indie games, that are games made by smaller studios and with a limited

budget, the advancement of internet also allowed the popularity of games for mobile

devices.

Today, the gaming market and industry are showing strong growth. The games

are increasingly attracting fans and this entertainment area has shown great emphasis

in the whole world.