A history of gaming

Posts in category Consoles

Magnavox Odyssey

Oct12
2011 Written by allg7590

While other early consoles such as the Fairchild Video Entertainment System and the

Magnavox Odyssey

Magnavox Odyssey

original Atari’s often get the credit for kicking off the home console boom, it was the lesser known Magnavox Odyssey which was the genuine early front runner.

Incredibly Ralph Baer, the developer of the system, began working on the console way back in 1966.  It was a combination of analogue and digital technology and was actually powered by batteries.  It featured a slot in which circuit boards containing different games could be inserted and due to the lack of colour television in the late 1960s, Baer wanted to include translucent coloured sheets to place over the screen to add atmosphere to the games.

By 1968 he had a working prototype which featured additions that predated those of other consoles by many years; these included a basic light gun and a golf game which could be played by attaching a purpose made golf ball to the joystick – the player was then able to hit the ball with a real putter.

The console and it’s innovations impressed Magnavox, a long-standing manufacturer of television sets, who asked for a prototype.  Magnavox demonstrated the console to the general public on May 24th, 1972 and released it onto the market in August of the same year.

Although it had the makings of a success and was some way ahead of its time, the Odyssey suffered from a poor marketing strategy.  Whether it was accidental on behalf of other companies or not, many consumers were under the impression that the odyssey only worked with Magnavox television sets.  In fact some commentators have blamed the Magnavox advertising for the confusion.  Later versions of Pong contained a note on the box which said that the game would work “…..on any television set, black and white or color“.

Note the ‘works on any TV’ message in this 1973 ad.

Still, the Odyssey sold 330,000 consoles and 80,000 light gun packs before a new Odyssey model (Odyssey 100) was released in 1975.  It was a technological marvel which made it’s mark on video game console history.

 

 

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Games Console History – Part Five

Sep09
2011 Written by allg7590

Seventh Generation

The era we are currently in is referred to as the seventh generation of games consoles.  In the last article we referred to the fact that the PlayStation 2 was the only console which continued to be manufactured following the release of its successor.  The XBox was discontinued in 2005 while the Nintendo GameCube ended production in 2007.

Microsoft’s arrival into the console market in 2001 has given Sony something to think

Xbox 30

Microsoft Xbox 360

about – here was a rival with bottomless pockets clearly using their financial muscle to barge their way into the market and ultimately to try and force others out.  Microsoft’s next step was to release their seventh generation console – the XBox 360 – before Sony were ready with their offering.

The XBox 360 was released in November 2005 (a year ahead of Sony) and was undoubtedly an impressive piece of kit.  As with the first XBox it included a hard drive but this time added DVD playing capability, supporting the now defunct HD DVD standard.  Processing power and gaming capabilities were massively increased.

The PlayStation 3 was released almost exactly a year later and both consoles have their

PS3

Sony PlayStation 3

huge legions of fans.  Impartially it has to be said the PS3 is the better console – it includes a Blu-Ray player (Blu-Ray won the DVD standard battle), slightly more powerful hardware, the ability to use removable media via USB and full HDMI compliance.  Early versions also featured an accessible linux-based operating system. Despite these improvements, the Xbox earlier release has allowed it to gain a small market lead over the PS3.

 

 

The third entry into the console market has been the Nintendo Wii.  Nintendo did

Nintendo Wii

Nintendo Wii

not even try to compete with Sony and Microsoft for hardware supremacy, they instead devised a wireless controller which defines the system and the games.  Games are simpler and less graphically intensive which means the Wii is not a genuine seventh gen console. It’s more like a clever upgrade of the GameCube and it features backwards compatibility with the GameCube and other previous Nintendo consoles.

 

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Games Console History – Part Four

Sep06
2011 Written by allg7590

Sixth Generation

The fifth generation of video games consoles established the dominant companies in the 1990s.  Those were companies were Sony and Nintendo, although between these two, Sony was the major player.  Sega had one last attempt at breaking into the console

Sega Dreamcast

market in 1999 with the Dreamcast – the first sixth generation console – and despite a high profile advertising campaign (notably sponsoring English Premier League team Arsenal), the console was discontinued by 2001 following mediocre sales.  The Dreamcast contained a modem – the first console to do so with the ability to play online games.

 

Sony released it’s own sixth generation console – the PlayStation 2 – in 2000 and it was a spectacular success.  It’s powerful hardware and ability to play DVDs ensured it sold in huge quantities;  it has since become the best

Sony PlayStation 2

selling console of all time.  In the decade that followed it’s release, the quality of games improved immeasurably as developers got to grips with the challenging programming environment.  Grand Theft Auto and God of War are two examples of games which introduced jaw dropping graphics and (in the case of GTA) a truly open, explorable environment.  The PS2 also included backwards compatibility – the ability to play PS1 games – and this helped uptake massively.

2001 saw the introduction into the market of Microsoft’s Xbox, an impressive piece of

Microsoft Xbox

hardware which included a built-in hard drive and an ethernet connection for online gaming.  It lacked the PlayStation’s DVD player but what helped it gain a foothold was Halo – the first person shooter which has since become a successful franchise.

Nintendo was still trying to sustain a foothold in the console market and in 2001 released the GameCube which, although completely overshadowed by its competitors, managed to retain loyal Nintendo supporters, of which there were no small number.  The GameCube just about counted as a success, although Nintendo never really managed to compete for the more mature gamer, as the PS2 and Xbox did.

The PS2 completely dominated the era and was still being manufactured in 2010, five years after the launch of the PlayStation 3.  The Xbox was discontinued in 2005 and the GameCube in 2007.

 

 

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Games Console History – Part Three

Aug19
2011 Written by allg7590

Fifth Generation

With Nintendo and Sega effectively dominating the market, as the lifecycle of the SNES and the Sega Megadrive/Genesis  gradually came to a close, several other manufacturers began to produce consoles which we regard as the fifth generation iterations.

In 1993 the 3DO was launched to mostly positive acclaim – it’s processing power and technological advances far surpassing the existing consoles, not to mention its use of the CD as a medium.  At $700 though, the price was just too expensive for consumers and by 1996 the project had been discontinued.

The other contender for the first fifth generation success story was the Atari Jaguar, also released in 1993.  It was the first 64 bit console and sold for a much more respectable $249.99.  Sales were not as high as expected however and they never reached the levels required to persuade games developers that there was a viable future for the hardware. Programming was also a challenge.  It’s interesting to note however, that the Jaguar is regarded now as something of a cult console – it has a huge fan base still and homebrew games are still produced for it by enthusiasts.

The real nail in the coffin for the Jaguar was the entry into the market of the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn in 1994 and the Nintendo 64 in 1996.  The PlayStation in particular was a massive success, squeezing out the Saturn and to date selling more than 150 million units.  The PlayStation was actually a result of a breakdown of a business agreement between Sony and Nintendo.  Sony had been developing a CD add-on for the SNES but Nintendo reneged on the agreement, reaching a deal with Phillips instead.  Sony took their technology away and developed the PlayStation.

The Sega Saturn sold moderately well but could not compete with the success of the PlayStation (and then the N64).  It was a little awkward to program for,  containing a dual chip processor and Sega realised this too late.  Skilled programmers could produce amazing results but there were not enough with those skills.  Sega’s next project, the Dreamcast, ended the life of the Saturn in 1998.

The Nintendo 64 was also a success, although its total sales of around 33 million units never came close to the PlayStation.  It was more technologically advanced but its cartridge system limited its game storage capacity.  Like the Jaguar, it retains a loyal fan base around the world.

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Games Console History – Part Two

Aug10
2011 Written by allg7590

Third Generation

Following the 1983 crash, virtually all console manufacturers either got our of the industry of went bankrupt.  By 1984 the only survivor was the Intellivision.  However across the Pacific, the Japanese were by now busy developing their own console in the form of Nintendo.

The Nintendo Famicom (Family Computer) was the result of Nintendo’s efforts but it almost

Nintendo Famicom

failed before it had got off the ground.  A motherboard issue caused mass recalls and fixes in Japan in 1983 but confidence in the console meant that after this initial blip, it was a commercial success.

It was released as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States in 1985 into a market which the Americans felt was dead. Nintendo realised something extra was needed and the console came complete with a light gun and the Super Mario Bros game. Super Mario Bros was the game which once more ignited the interest of the U.S. market and ensured the revival of the console market.  In subsequent years the console was introduced to Europe, South America and Australia with equally successful results.  Other countries produced their own clone systems.  By the end of 1985, Nintendo had produced 18 other titles, including some famous names such Duck Hunt, King Fu and Tennis.

Sega now entered the console market with the Sega Master System, a respectable effort from the Japanese company which was successful in many countries, but which failed to ever really threaten the dominance of the NES in the United States.  For Sega, it proved that they could compete with Nintendo on a commercial level.

Fourth Generation

Sega Mega Drive

In 1988, Sega manoeuvred itself into a position where it was able to release the first Fourth Generation console, the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.  It stole a march on the Super NES by two years in each territory in which it was released.  Both consoles were a major commercial success and effectively dominated the global market, squeezing out the newer, but equally capable products from SNK (Neo Geo) and NEC (TurboGrafx).

Part Three follows…..

 

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Games Console History – Part One

Aug02
2011 Written by allg7590

It’s been a long, forty year journey and we’ve come a long way but of course the road goes ever on in the world of videos game consoles and it’s anyone’s guess where we’ll be in another forty years.  So anyway let’s have a brief look back at the past forty years and find out how we got from there to here.

First Generation

We’re taking as our starting point Ralph Baer’s Magnavox Odyssey. Released at a time

Magnavox Odyssey

when there was no games market, the Odyssey was the first console to plug into your television.  It was not particularly successful until Atari released the arcade game Pong that consumers started to take notice of this emerging industry.  Maganavox responded by designing the Odyssey 100 which only played Pong and Hockey.  Atari followed suit, along with a number of other entrants and we were on our way.

Second Generation

The Fairchild Video Entertainment System was released in 1976, the first console to use cartridges in the way in which we are now familiar.  The Atari 2600 and RCA Studio II followed suit with similar designs.

1977 brought the first video game crash however, caused by large numbers of unsold

Atari 2600

consoles being cheaply sold into the market.  The only survivors from this era were Atari and Maganavox.  Atari’s development of a console version of the arcade hit Space Invaders injected some life back into the market in 1980, demonstrating that consumers would buy a console just for one game.  Space Invaders was also the first game in which the importance of exclusive rights to develop arcade version became important.

Ataris early success enabled it to dominate the video games market until the early 1980s, even though technically superior consoles such as Mattel’s Intellivision were also available.

The video games industry suffered another, more serious crash in 1983.  Perhaps believing that consumers would now buy anything,  Atari as well as other games developers introduced a glut of low quality games onto the market.  Retailers lost faith and consumers lost interest – tempted away also by the new generation of home computers.  The console market, for the time being, was dead.

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