Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Its that time again...week three task..
1971 the start of arcade gaming as we know it, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created the first arcade version of Spacewar called Computer Space although not a commercial success Bushnell would go on to start his own company the legendary Atari the following year...
The following year Atari developed a commercial hit in the form of pong the classic table tennis game which sold 19,000 units which to Atari's joy brought about the start of the arcade craze..
What is interesting about this era is that the micro chip was yet to be invented so games like Pong where made using small scale intergrated circuits consisting of 4-16 line decoders which would limit the software it wasn't until 1976 that the first microchip was developed...
Also in 1972 the first commercial video game console became available in the form of Ralph Baer's Odyssey this would come with 12 games programmed its hard to believe that in the short time from Spacewars! we would start to see two separate marketplaces opening up but as with most new technologies it takes a while to regain the momentum after the initial buzz not really until 1978 when Taito would release Space invaders along with Atari's Asteroids the market began to heat up to the point that other companies were wanting to get in on the act. The good times kept rolling with the likes of Pac-Man and the arrival of color screens well into the mid eighties until people lost interest and companies lost lots of money, its funny how an industry that runs on new technology is prone to boom and bust while people wait for the next leap and how this has always been the same for the game industry even from the start...
In a strange twist affordable home computers became available as the price of microchips went down, this hurt the arcade industry because people could get arcade conversions at home without having to pay for credits this prompted the likes of Sega and Atari to look at the home market and this would ultimately move us to the next chapter in video game history...
Until next time .....
The following year Atari developed a commercial hit in the form of pong the classic table tennis game which sold 19,000 units which to Atari's joy brought about the start of the arcade craze..
What is interesting about this era is that the micro chip was yet to be invented so games like Pong where made using small scale intergrated circuits consisting of 4-16 line decoders which would limit the software it wasn't until 1976 that the first microchip was developed...
Also in 1972 the first commercial video game console became available in the form of Ralph Baer's Odyssey this would come with 12 games programmed its hard to believe that in the short time from Spacewars! we would start to see two separate marketplaces opening up but as with most new technologies it takes a while to regain the momentum after the initial buzz not really until 1978 when Taito would release Space invaders along with Atari's Asteroids the market began to heat up to the point that other companies were wanting to get in on the act. The good times kept rolling with the likes of Pac-Man and the arrival of color screens well into the mid eighties until people lost interest and companies lost lots of money, its funny how an industry that runs on new technology is prone to boom and bust while people wait for the next leap and how this has always been the same for the game industry even from the start...
In a strange twist affordable home computers became available as the price of microchips went down, this hurt the arcade industry because people could get arcade conversions at home without having to pay for credits this prompted the likes of Sega and Atari to look at the home market and this would ultimately move us to the next chapter in video game history...
Until next time .....
# posted by CMB @ 8:32 AM 
