Development of Video Games
The Development of Video Games Electronics have rapidly grown over the past couple of decades. ... The most popular benefits seen today from this is the common use of computers, video games, and the Internet. For most people, computer use and video game play is integrated into their lives in a balanced healthy manner. For others, time spent on the computer or video game is out of balance, and has taken over work, school, friends, and even family. It is unfair to say that video games are targeted at one specific age group. Video games have quickly developed into numerous different categories as the years have passed, and will continue to. The content found in video games today is so enormous that rating systems have been put into place. The organization that rates video games today is called the “Entertainment Software Rating Board”. Their labels are found on every video game that is released. ... Video games have truly developed into more sophisticated and user-friendly hobbies. Old classics such as pong, and Pac-man, which were played on large computer screens, have now evolved into more complicated games that are playable on devices as small as cell phones. At the same time, video games have evolved from nice kiddy games into gruesome and violent adult themed games. With the evolution of the graphics engines in video game systems, it has allowed for more realistic feels to games. Allowing video game developers to create realistic environments and video games. With the enhancement of graphics has come the enhancement of more and more violent video games due to the realism. Video games go as far back as the late 1940’s. To give you an idea of how video games have evolved I will go over a brief video game history. Keep in mind that I’m only going to go over the key years of video game development, due to the fact that there is so much information to go over and I am only given so much time. Video Game History 1949 The first idea to create a video game starts here. ... 1958 Physicist Willy Higinbotham invents the first "video game" at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. ... 1967 Finally, Ralph Baer and his team are successful in creating two interactive TV games—a chase game and a tennis game. ... 1971 Computer Space becomes the first video arcade game ever released. 1972 Magnavox releases the first home video game system, called the Oddessy. ... Al Alcorn is hired by Atari to program video games. ... 1976 Coleco releases its first home video-game console called Telstar. 1977 Atari introduces its first cartridge-based home video system called the Video Computer System, which later becomes known as the Atari 2600. ... Activision becomes the first third-party video game vendor. The company is created by Atari programmers who want to receive individual credit for creating Ataris video games. ... 1983 Dragon Lair, the first video game to feature laser-disc technology makes it’s debut. ... It is the most powerful video-game console at the time and the least expensive. ... It is the first example of a video game stored on a compact disc. ... Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin launch a Senate investigation into violence in video games, hoping to initiate a ban on violent games. ... Ratings are now given to video games and are marked on the games packaging to indicate the suggested age of players and violent content.