Many members of the current generation enjoy playing video games, but how many of them actually know where this interactive entertainment art form started? This is where Syzygy, now Atari, comes in. At its height, Atari almost single-handedly started and sustained the video arcade and home console markets, but was also a major contributor into the downfall of this same market in 1983.
Atari started video game history with their video arcade games. Although they did not actually start the video arcade, Atari did make the first commercially sold and commercially successful arcade games. Their first game, made in the 1960’s, was Computer Space and it was a flop. It only sold about 1,500 units as it was expensive to produce and it required players to actually have to read detailed instructions so they actually knew what to do. Nolan Bushnell, the creator, even said, “You had to read the instructions before you could play, people didn’t want to read instructions. To be successful, I had to come up with a game people already knew how to play; something so simple that any drunk in any bar could play.” This showed him that his dream could be fulfilled and exactly how to do it (Pong-Story “Beginning”).
In 1972, Baer’s dream was realized with the development of Pong, the first massively successful video arcade game. All it was was a ball and two paddles, yet its popularity rose exponentially. Originally placed in a local bar, the game soared above all of Atari’s expectations, making well over $100 (over $600 today) in quarters alone in the first two weeks of its test period. This data shows that the game could get “a hundred thousand turns per month” (Alcorn). Pong eventually sold an upwards of 19,000 game cabinets, further supplanting i...
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An examination of videogames in popular culture is a complicated one. There is a large debate as to what is the very first video game. The supposed earliest known video game was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann on a cathode ray tube in 1947. The game was a missile simulator similar to radar displays from World War II, and overlaid sheets of paper were used for targets since graphics were unknown at this time. On May 5, 1951, the NIMROD computer was presented in Britain. It used a panel of lights for its display and was used to play a game called “NIM”. Later, in 1952, Alexander S. Douglas made the first compu...
Atari, a name synonymous with video games. The makers of such hits as Pitfall!, Adventure, Centipede, and Asteroids. Atari’s name and moniker will forever be written down as one of the first, successful video games companies in America. But, how successful? It’s regarded among the gaming community as one the most scandalous and ludicrous actions in gaming history and, in recent years, has taken on a title of urban legend.
...nsoles, gaming hardware, and the uses of video game that were conceived in the 1970s. These innovative concepts have allowed the video game industry to improve to where it is today. The design of the gaming consoles from the 1970s have lead to the sleek, lightweight, video game consoles of today that act as home entertainment systems. The way computer hardware was first used in video game consoles from the ‘70s has paved the way for the small, powerful components we have today that allow better graphics, more interaction, and more complex controllers. Video games have been used for health treatment, education, and training all around the world thanks to the branching out of its uses in the 1970s. These events in video game history has dramatically shaped the way our world is today. A world where we can be ordinary people by day and orc slaying sorcerers by night.
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Atari was the first commercial video game company with hits like ‘break out” and “pong”. For many people pong was the first video game they have ever played. The idea of pong is that there is two rectangles that only move up and down and a little square that bounces around the screen until one of the rectangles miss, once the rectangle miss’ the game is over. This game may seem simple now but it sold 19,000 units so you can say what you want but back then this was the greatest game ever.
(Attention Getter) Since 1972 with the creation of pong, video games have been one of the leading ways to spend free time around the world. (Link to Audience) With the creation of all sorts of different
“The History of Video Arcade Games.” BMI Gaming. BMI Worldwide, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.
Video games started as arcade machines with simple graphics and even simpler stories, soon evolving into home gaming with The Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first home-gaming console. It invaded living rooms in 1972, selling 300,000 units. Since then there has been many consoles and games released, some have been huge commercial successes which
3. “Video Games” by Chris Jozefowics. Published by Gareth Stevens Publishing 2010. Pleasantville, NY 10570-70000 USA. Produced by Editorials Directions Inc.
Video games have come a long way. They have evolved from the simple game of Pong into a complex, multi-platform, multi-genre, multi-billion dollar industry.
Society in the 1980s saw games as distraction and a waste of time. Arcade games in 1981 were regarded as a reason for cutting classes. Children and the youth were banned from playing arcade games during school hours and past ten in the evening on weekdays, and past midnight on weekends. Laws against children playing in arcades during the banned hours were implemented in order to prevent further disturbances in their studies (Kent 152). Games to the people in the 1980s were merely forms of entertainment that brought about many video game addicts. However, in the early 1980s video game consoles and personal computers were globally popular. This was because most of the machines that had enough power to...