Skip to main content

History in Pictures - Video Game Consoles

 Video Games Through History



Shown above are a few of the most popular arcade cabinets: Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig-Dug, and Donkey Kong. While not technically a "console," the arcade cabinet was the original way to play video games. The first cabinet, Computer Space, based on Spacewar!, was released in 1971, but the most commonly known "original cabinet" was PONG, which was released in November 1972. This was everyone's first impression of commercial video games, and this is where the history of video games truly begins.

Link to Betson Enterprises' Arcade Cabinet History, a well-known arcade cabinet company.





Shown above is the Atari 2600. Though the Magnavox Odyssey was technically the first home console in 1972, and the Atari Home Pong was released in 1975, the Atari 2600 was the first truly popular gaming console. This was the first popular product for at-home gaming, and really started the medium of consoles as we know them today, with interchangeable cartridges for games.

Link to Long Island Retro Gaming's Console Timeline. This will likely be referenced more during this post.




Jumping ahead past a few smaller releases to 1985, the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, was released. This became the gold standard for video games, with more in-depth experiences like The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., and Kirby's Adventure, which all felt like a much more succinct and story-driven experience, rather than a mini game based around high scores, as Atari and arcade games were built around. Most of these games are still well known today and stand as the baseline for their genres, such as RPGs, 2D platformers, etc. This also solidified Nintendo as the household name they still are today.

Link to Long Island Retro Gaming's Console Timeline, as well as the Nintendo Official website.




Moving past many notable releases such as the SNES and Sega Genesis, Sony released the first PlayStation in 1995, which was a huge success for Sony, and the first huge commercial success for 3D games. This grew the games industry massively, and changed videogames as a whole from what they had been before. Games on this system were huge improvements on previous ones in story and gameplay, with releases such as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy 7, and Crash Bandicoot. Without this system, games would be nowhere near what they are today.

Link to Long Island Retro Gaming's Console Timeline, as well as the Sony PlayStation wbsite.



Finally, we make it past several upgrades to consoles, like the PS2, PS3, Xbox, and Xbox 360, where we get the Nintendo Wii in 2006. While this console did not perform as well as the Xbox 360 or PS3 in terms of visual quality and power, the Wii was a unique case. The Wii was a console marketed towards people of all ages, those who play video games and those who don't, and it succeeded in its role. With games like Wii Sports, it brought people together in a way that game consoles had never done before, and opened the market to a much wider audience of people, even those who didn't like videogames.

Link to Nintendo's website section about the Wii hardware.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sources and APA

APA Sources for Kickstart Gottfried, J., & Park, E. (2025, November 20). Americans' Social Media Use 2025 . Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 20, 2026, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/ This article from Pew Research seems like a very useful collection of information about social media use amongst Americans in 2025. This can be easily used to influence choices from our group, as we can see what forms of media are working, as well as what forms are not working anymore. An immediate example from this article is the fall off of Twitter, now known as X, which is only receiving 21 percent of people who say they use it. Health Benefits of Social Media Use in Adolescents and Young Adults . (2025, August 15). PMC. Retrieved February 20, 2026, from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12356748/ This could be an extremely interesting article to pull from, especially when thinking about the broader effects of social media. For ...
Post a Comment
Read more

KickBack - Sprint Review 1

KickBack - Sprint Review 1 My name is Kyle Ramser, and I am currently working as a 3D artist on the game KickBack. We just finished up our first sprint, which means I was able to finish some of the early models to be implemented into the game. So far, this production has been one of the most interesting for me personally, and the team I am working with is a bit larger than I am used to. The art style for this game is low-poly models with a very simplistic texture style, reminiscent of something like Risk of Rain 2 or Solar Ash. I have never worked on a project with this type of style before, so it has been a learning curve for me, and I am still trying to find helpful information for texturing in these kinds of games. So far, I think the models have turned out quite well, and I am definitely getting the hang of the art style as it has become more natural for me to create these lower-poly models. As for the work I have completed this sprint, like I said before, I completed several model...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Future of the Music Industry

The Music Industry - The Future of Listening I truly believe that the entirety of music will be switching to streaming. With how quickly streaming has advanced, and how much music is now streamed compared to other sources, I believe that eventually everyone will be transferring to streaming for its ease of access and its improving audio quality. Even now, according to the IFPI Global Music Report, 69 percent of music listeners are using streaming services, which I think will only grow with time. Additionally, I believe that it is possible that at some point in the somewhat near future, cars will remove both AM and FM radio, and will adopt an Apple play style smart screen for all streaming. This is obviously not a guarantee as people have been upset at the removal of AM radio in cars, but with how popular and used music streaming has been, I feel as though Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming software will be built into cars. With how easy to use Apple and Android Car Play are, I f...
Post a Comment
Read more