History of Computer Games In One Place

  Everybody likes playing games that may be for children or for adults, intellectual or sports, hazardous or not. After the computer appearance, games came into our lives to stay forever. Nowadays millions of people play them.They gave the possibility to abstract from problems and stress, to have a good time or even to earn a million dollars. May be that world is really better than ours.

Somebody divides the notions "computer" and "video" games. And it is reasonably to say that there is no serious matter how to call them. Only one distinction: computer gamers use computers, video gamers play special TV devices. But when did this nonproductive activity appear? When did it start to attract millions of people making them waste time? This museum of computer games in Berlin will certainly tell us.

The first attempts to create computer games were made about 50 years ago. British scientist A. Douglas is considered to be the father of a video game. He showed computer possibilities and a game system OXO ( ouths and crosses). As this system didn't become a game in the standard understanding, the creation of the first video game is ascribed to another researcher, to an American physicist V. Higinbotham, that in 1958 developed a game "Tennis for two". In an oscilloscope screen a ball rebounded from the horizontal line in the lower part and was returned by the short line in the upper part. The control panel with buttons "left" and "right" was used for its direction.

In 1961 a group of Massachusetts students created the first interactive game "Spacewar". Computers were very expensive then, that is why developers didn't patent their game. In 1972 Americans Nolan Bushnell and Tad Dabney founded the company Atari, that was the first firm producing video games. The first its product was a tennis game "Pong".

After Bushnell's and Dabney's success games and devices started to be produced in many other companies. In 1980 the popular game "Pac-Man" appeared. By the 80s the computer games leader changed. "Nintendo" proposed more high quality games.
And the flowering time for video games was in the 90s when different game devices were practically in every house. The youth spent all time before computers.
New game genres like RPG (role-playing games), strategies, RTS (real time strategies), shooters and simulators also appeared.

The Japonese device SEGA.

The American 16-bits device Super Nintendo.

The first Sony PlayStation, 1994.

Dreamcast is the last game device of SEGA.

Nowadays the giants of devices production are Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. And the last trends are using of 3D, new carriers (Blu ray, HD DVD), wireless controllers and others.

The game device "Computerspace", 1971.



The modern "Pong" in Playstation 2001.

Rivals stand before opposite sides of a device. One hand is in this red zone, another directs the game. If a player doesn't return a ball, a rubber strip hits him.

The game exercise bicycle.
via gavailer