History  of  Gaming  

James  Batcheler  

What  are  Computer  Pla:orms?  

•  Computer  Pla:orms  are  computers  /  consoles  that  weren’t  just  built  for  gaming.  

•  An  example  of  a  Computer  Pla:orm  would  be  a  PC,  which  is  used  for  other  things  such  as  Gaming.  

The  1960s  •  The  first  game  to  be  released  on  a  computer  was  in  1961  when  a  group  of  

students  programmed  a  game  called  ‘Spacewar’.At  the  Nme  it  was  released  on  a  new  computer  called  the  DEC  PDP-­‐1.  

•  In  1967,  Bill  Harrison  created  the  first  Video  Game  to              be  played  on  a  TV  Screen.    •  In  1968  the  first  Video  Game  Console  Prototype  was              completed  to  allow  several  games  to  be  played  on  the  same  console  such              as  Table  Tennis  and  Target  ShooNng.  •  A  clip  of  Spacewar  in  acNon  can  be  seen                here  hWp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1V7jBACLQE      

The  1970s  •  The  1970s  saw  the  start  of  Video  Arcade  games.  •  A  Coin-­‐operated  Arcade  Game  of  ‘Spacewar’  was  created,  it  was  called  

‘Computer  Space’.  •  In  1972  the  game  ‘Pong’  was  created  –  it  would  become  on  of  the  most  

famous  Video  games  in  the  World.  •  Other  Arcade  games  were  created  in  the  1970s,  such  as  the  Atari  Night  

Driver,  which  was  created  in  1976.    

The  1980s  •  The  80s  saw  the  beginning  of  the  Personal  Computer  (PC)  

which  would  become  one  of  the  first  Computer  Gaming  pla:orms.  

•  It  also  saw  the  start  of  many  famous  Video  Games,  such  as  Pac-­‐Man.  

•  A  clip  of  the  Video  Game  Pac-­‐Man  can  be  seen  here  hWp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswzriFIf_k    

The  1990s  •  The  1990s  saw  the  start  of  purpose-­‐built  game  consoles  such  

as  the  Nintendo  64  and  PlaystaNon.  •  It  also  saw  the  start  of  many  more            famous  video  games  such  as  Mario            Kart  and  Gran  Turismo.  •  The  Nintendo  64  was  released  in  1996  and  was  part  of  the  

Fourth  GeneraNon  of  Video  Games.    

Sixth  GeneraNon  of  Game  Consoles  •  The  start  of  the  21st  century  saw  the  start  of  development  of  the  

sixth  generaNon  console.  •  In  2002,  Microsoi  released  their  first  console  –  the  Xbox.  Xbox  Live  

was  launched  in  the  same  year,  which  saw  people  playing  games  online.  

•  Sony  launched  their  second  console  –  the  PlaystaNon  2,  which  was  a  predecessor  of  the  PlaystaNon.  The  PlaystaNon  

           2  was  released  in  2000.  

Seventh  generaNon  of  Game  Consoles  

•  Aier  the  Xbox  came  the  Xbox  360,  which  was  released  by  Microsoi  in  2005  and  it  was  part  of  the  Seventh  generaNon  of  game  consoles.  

•  Released  in  2006  was  the  Nintendo  Wii,  unlike  the  other  game  consoles,  the  Wii  detects  movements  –  which  means  that  a  controller  was  not  needed,  only  the  movement  of  the  player.  

Eighth  generaNon  of  game  consoles  

•  The  eighth  generaNon  of  Game  consoles  began  in  the  2010s.  The  first  console  of  the  eighth  generaNon  to  be  released  was  the  Nintendo  3DS,  which  was  released  in  2011.  

•  Released  in  2012  was  the  PlaystaNon  Vita.  •  Both  the  Nintendo  3DS  and  the  PlaystaNon            Vita  are  handheld  consoles.  

Handheld  Consoles  •  Handheld  games  were  first  introduced  in  the  1970s.  •  The  first  handheld  console  was  the  Microvision,  which  was  

released  in  1979.  •  Nintendo  released  their  first  handheld  console  –              the  Game  Boy,  released  in  1989.  •  Since  then,  the  Game  Boy  has  become  a            series  of  different  consoles,  developing  more            in  recent  years.