January 29, 2018
Through out the years Videos games and consoles have developed, with each year they are improved greatly with new features added every time. But what is a Video game console? its a electronic device that is able to output a video signal or image to display a video game that one or more people are able to play. Back when they were first made they weren't not as advance as technology was still new and less popular as it is today.
Arcade The first arcade machine was built in 1971 before home consoles were even made. The game it plays is apparently a one on one version of "Asteroids" without the debris. Shortly after the well known game today "Pong" was made in 1972, it was the first successful electronic "ping pong" video game.It proved to be popular but imitators held back the company from dominating the new market. Although today they have been switched out for hand held consoles they too have evolved. With motion controls and built in motor bikes in racing games they have slowly become popular, although you can only find the machines in arcades you can still find people who sell them on sites such as Ebay. One thing that differentiates arcades to home consoles is the coin slots, typically you buy the console for a lot of money and take it home but with arcade machines you put a pound into the slot and play the game for a short amount of time and if you win you get tickets. Although the tickets only get you a pen depending on how often you play but you see them at holiday sites or at the beach, they are not as common as they used to be anymore due to development in technology taking over.
Consoles Video game's are by far the most popular types of game machine today, with 1.8 billion users in the world. The first game console was the Magnavox Odyssey made in September 1972. However with only three games which included table tennis, Submarine and Analogic. It was not a big hit with only 350,000 units sold in its life time. Therefore it was discontinued in 1975.
Nintendo Nintendo is one of the most popular gaming entertainment companies worldwide, rivalling Xbox and PlayStation every year with new releases. They first started in 1977 with the Colour TV Game.
The Colour TV Game series includes five different pieces of hardware each a different colour that came with its only individual game. It did not have interchangeable cartridges, so each console could only play a single game. Although it was only released in Japan it sold over three million units in the first four models and one million units of the first two models. So it was a big success compared to the Magnavox Odyssey.
Moving on to one of the most beloved gaming consoles of all the time is the GameCube.
Released in September 2001 the GameCube had over 21.74 million units sold worldwide before it was discontinued in 2007. It was praised for its controller, extensive software library and its high quality games (Super Smash Bros, the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Animal Crossing) but was heavily criticised for its exterior and lack of features.
Going down the time line to a more recent generation is the DS which is the second best selling console of all time falling behind the PlayStation 2 with 154.02 million units sold world wide with the Game Boy coming just behind with 118.69 million units sold. The original DS coming out in 2004 had a 4MB RAM along with a cartridge save and WiFi connection. This was a big improvement especially with WiFi connection which was a big development compared to Nintendo's previous Handheld consoles. As Nintendo developed the DS with each generation it became more advanced with multiplayer and new features such as Youtube and even its own online play store. A recent console in the DS family is the 3DS (not that recent but still) it was the first console with 3D features that nobody used because it messed up your eyes. Compared to the first DS the 3DS has a 1GB of internal flash memory and 128MB of FCRAM along with 2GB of removable memory (SD card.) It was beginning to look like the end of the line for the DS family as Nintendo couldn't do any better than this. Then in 2013 they released what I personally believe to be the most pointless gaming console of all time, the 2DS. Exactly the same as the 3DS with the same memory but with the 3D feature and you cant close it. They took away the best feature so now it takes up even more space and you can possible damage the screen if you drop it. They could've been using that time wasted making this on the Switch.
Lastly in the Nintendo line is their most recent console and by far the best one the Nintendo Switch, its a hybrid of portable gaming systems. It features a portable console screen that can be docked to display on larger screens, it comes with modular controllers that can reattach for multiplayer. It was released in March 2017 with Breath of the Wild (an amazing game) at a staggering price of £279.99 it sold 14.7 million copies world wide outselling the lifetime of the Wii U. With 32 GB of internal memory and 2TB of removal storage. Unlike the Wii U with a poor 2GB of memory the Switch has a overwhelming development in technology in the Nintendo line. With new amazing games such as Mario Odyssey and Splatoon the Switch was sure to be a success.
Xbox/ Microsoft Xbox is one of the newer gaming companies compared to Sega and Nintendo who have been around since before the 90's. However, that did nothing to counter its popularity, the companies first console the Xbox was released in 2001 with its owners being Microsoft its was their first time in the gaming industry. As the sixth generation of gaming the Xbox competed with the Play Station 2 and the GameCube. The Xbox Live was introduced in 2002 allowing players to use multiplayer online with or without broadband connection. One downside to the Xbox Live was its subscription which the Play station 2's online service didn't have. However Xbox soon won over the players with the better servers and new features such as the buddy list it was also graphically superior at the time due to its standard PC's 733 MHz Intel Pentium III processor, it was also the first console ever to have a built in hard disk. It included violent (boring) games such as Halo 2 which is the best selling Xbox game and was for many more years. It had 64MB of memory which at the time was good and sold over 24 million units world wide but was beat out by PlayStation 2. Xbox 360 It the successor to the Xbox and the second out of three consoles on the series currently. Released in 2005 it sold 84 million units world wide. With the new addition the company Microsoft had added new features such as DVD's and CD's. Its memory was upgraded to 512 MB and included detachable hard drives with up to 250GB of storage. On the other hand the response was not all positive, the earliest version of the console suffered a high failure rate due, indicated by the "Red Ring of Death" as players named it. In response Microsoft released the Xbox 360 S and the Xbox 360 E. Xbox One The currently last console in the Xbox family is the Xbox One (such creative names.) Following its initial release in 2013 within the first hours over one million units were sold, the latest count was in 2014 with 10 million units sold as Xbox said they will no longer publish their units sold, theory's say that due to the PlayStation 4 outselling them Xbox were embarrassed. However, the current estimate is around 30 million. As usual with the newest console Microsoft once again added new features like the Kinect Sensor to track motion controls but that was released a year later, its said to be the most well received console with its multimedia features and voice navigation. Its cooler design was praised for making the console more reliable on launch compared to the 360, but was critiqued on its lower graphics than the Play Station 4.
PlayStation/Sony First introduced in 1994 PlayStation is a gaming brand with currently four consoles in its family as as well as a media centre and online services. The first console Sony released The PlayStation sold over 100 million copies within nine months of its release beating Xbox by a long way. It had 2GB RAM once again beating out Xbox even though they came into the market a few years later, it additionally came with its own brand memory card. Its wide success was helped due to Sony's approach to third party developers unlike Nintendo who took the isolationist approach. PlayStation 2 Known as the most popular gaming console in the world the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000 with a new slimmer model, having sold over 155 million units as of 2012 the PS2 became the fastest console to reach 100 million units shipped. Upgraded to 4GB of eDRAM and a 40GB Hard Drive along with 8 MB of removable storage Sony had really developed the new console. PlayStation 4 The most recent (but not really) console in the PS family is the PS4, released in 2013 over 73.6 million units have been sold world wide as of December 2017. Following its release was the heavy debate of Xbox One or PS4, looking at the units we know who won that debate. 8GB GDDR5 along with 256MB RAM for background tasks, Sony has once again stepped up in the technology department. Additionally it comes with 500GB Hard Drive with up to 1TB (if upgraded.) With the addition of HDMI and custom graphics the PS4 is certainly advanced.
Phone games/apps Back before iPhone's was the first mobile phone the Motorola, the handheld phone was released in 1973 with no apps and no games. Its only feature was to call and you couldn't take it with you due to its massive size. Even if you did call someone there was no guarantee you'd get through due to poor connection (hence the massive antenna that extends.) Compared to the iPhone's we see today the Motorola is useless in today's society, it has a tiny screen to see what number your calling, no Google maps or even texting. Furthermore the phones today are much more slim and manageable with touchscreen and WiFi.
Following on with developments, the first mobile game was Tetris, the most known game in the world that every person has played at least once in their lives. It made its first appearance in 1994 on the MT-2000 which was also the first phone to feature soft keys. Although the game wasn't as colourful as the one we know today it was still the same, once again showing how far we've come. Whereas Tetris was already pre-installed on the phone, today we can easily go into the app store and find any games we want and as many as we want (depending on how much storage you got.) The second game that got released was Snake on the Nokia 6110. however, now you can find it on over 440 million phones world wide making it the most played game on the planet.
Looking at the images of the quality change in Snake bring the attention of how well the graphics and quality of phones got over time. Although the iPhone is quite recent it still is a good example of evolution (and how a company can rip you off.) Introduced in 2007 by Apple the iPhone instantly became a hit, and as consumers brought the phone it had a mixed response but still those who hate the brand still kept buying every version that came out due to Apple's promise of a higher resolution and more storage. The first iPhone sold 1.2 billion units worldwide, most would have called it a game changer in the phone market. On some level i can agree, with up to 256 GB of storage and the new iTunes it still had its many, many faults. Although the phone did get tremendous praise even Apple and many of its customers have said it has faults with constant low battery and many have had issues with the screen constantly freezing. It even has trouble with WiFi which in today's world shouldn't be an issue. Back on track, although even in today's society where technology is flourishing it still has its issues (that Apple doesn't fix) but that's to be expected, compared to when the first phone was developed the graphic were literal pixel blocks that you could make out. Whereas you compare it to even the first iPhone and its flawless. Finally lets talk about features. When the first mobile phone was made it had no features aside form calling people, that was its only features. Present day, phones come with all kinds of features such as the camera, texting and Google. Although not all of them are useful and once again some you can even download from the app store. Another example of a failed feature is Apples facial recognition, which didn't work at the reveal with a live audience. Features like this are the ones that will never work and nobody will ever use, whereas when texting was invented it was revolutionary, 748 billion messages are being passed around today proving how texting has influenced our lives. Over all, looking at when apps and features were first being made they were the only ones that became useful and truly influenced technology, whereas today we have useless apps being invented by children who can sell them online.
Computers
The first personal computers were introduced in 1975 costing £1982.01, which today is quite expensive considering how limited it was. over 1000 units were sold in the first month after being shown on the front cover of a magazine. However, its fault was that you had to pay for certain parts like the memory board and interface board which were not cheap. it had a 4096 word memory compared to today which we don't have anymore. Its 4K memory board used dynamic RAM and it had several design problems and the computers only purpose was the basics of today's if you had a hard drive or floppy disk. Compared to the computers and laptops you can buy today the first computer would be useless and definitely not as expensive, you can find computers built for handling computationally demanding video games. For example the StormForce Geo Core, with a Intel Core i7 7700k Processor, Gerforce GTX 1080 Graphics card and a 3TB Hard Drive with 256GB SSD. Its practically a god compared to the basic first computer which could never do anything of that. But not only has the hardware changed but so has the exterior, the look is transparent with a more sleek and appealing design compared to the bland, brown and bulky look of the first computer.
Graphics Cards More common known as GPU by Nvidia who popularised the word in 1999, who marketed the GeForce 256 as the worlds first GPU although the term has been used since the 1980's. They were not even the first people to use graphic chips, they ere first introduced in the 1970's when arcade system boards started using them. In the early video game hardware, the RAM for frame buffers were expensive, so video chips compiled data together as the display was being scanned out on the monitor. Moving to present day GPU's are commonly used for cars as well as computers. Two popular consoles that use GPU's are the PS4 and Xbox One, they both use GPU's based on AMD's Radeon HD 7850. GPU's are much more common compared to when they were mostly used for arcade machines and they have advanced with more capacity that cars can even use them.
Input Devices
An input device is a hardware device that sends data to your computer, one example would be your mouse which the most common input device. The first mouse was invented in 1970 and was even made out of wood, unlike today's mouse it didn't have two buttons instead it was a large, wooden, rectangle with a red button up the top.
In comparison by design the mouse's we use today are black and are shaped to fit our hands comfortably. We can also purchase wireless mouse's instead of one that goes directly into your computer, these are more common now due to the cable breaking and going thin.
Adding on is another popular input device, the keyboard. Although a type write could be considered the first keyboard I am going to be focusing on the one made specifically for computers. Although I cannot find the exact date the keyboard was made it was guessed to be after the 1930's.
As you can see in comparison the first keyboard is very large and bulky and the layout of the keyboard is different to today's. Whereas the Razer keyboard its once again sleeker and more aesthetically pleasing to look at. Hardware wise, it has fully programmable keys and anti - ghosting. On the other hand the older keyboard wouldn't be able to do anything like that.
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