Talk:Group 5: Anjelika Evangelopoulos, Seyed-Arash Hosseini, Britney Luimes, Kathryn Parker

A BRIEF HISTORY ON VIDEO GAMES In 1958, the first video game was created by an American nuclear physicist, William Higinbotham who worked for a government science lab. Realizing that most science exhibits were boring and rigid, William decided to “liven things up” by developing a game called “Tennis for Two”. The electronic game was first played at the Brookhaven National Laboratory during the annual Visitor’s Day. It featured a small analog computer with an oscilloscope and two separate controllers. Hundreds of visitors to Higinbotham’s lab lined up to play his video game. Higinbotham could never imagine that his idea would trigger an entire industry, with sales well over 20 billion dollars in the U.S. alone and over 2 billion dollars in Canada annually. Much later, Ralph H. Baer who became known as “the father of video games” was the brainchild behind the first home video game console by Magnavox. Introduced in 1972, the Odyssey could play 12 different games, including the historic hit, “Ping Pong”. In 1975, Atari’s founder, Nolan Bushnell, sold his version of a video game console through the Sears catalogue. His hit video game was coincidently called “Pong”, which propelled the home video game systems into stardom. It seemed that consumers were hooked onto the idea and the market was flooded with inferior manufacturers and products that had poor quality. In the next year the extremely controversial arcade game, “Death Race” was launched, enticing players to kill zombie pedestrians with cars. It is not the first game which used violence but the first to be protested when the video game was released in 1990, thus stirring debate and dissention among parents, youth and society. By 1978, Magnavox still lead the market with its computer inspired keyboard console named, Odyssey 2. Close by was Atari who had employed Activision, a band of four former Atari employees who began creating games for Atari’s 2600 game console. The most popular animated game of the early 80’s was introduced as Pac-Man instead of its original name, “Puck-Man”. A milestone in the video game industry occurred with, Nintendo’s release of “Donkey Kong”. The creator of the game, Shigeru Miyamoto, introduced “Mario”, a character which will later be synonymous with God. It was Nintendo’s pride and joy, also the first game that had four play levels. By 1983 the video game market suffered a major crush, sending most of the smaller inexperienced companies into bankruptcy. This led Americans to believe that like all fads, the era of the video game had passed.

Showing tenacity, perseverance and true grit and almost two years later, Nintendo made a huge comeback with its Nintendo Entertainment System. With a new console and front loading cartridge port, similar to a VCR, the video game market was once again rehabilitated. Equipped with color graphics, elaborate sound effects and quick game play it was the one to beat. Sales soared and Nintendo continued making history with its sequel video game, “Super Mario Brothers”. In the same year, Russian mathematician Alexey Pajitnov developed the quite addictive game, “Tetris” which became one of the most popular games in history when it was resurrected again in 1989, by Nintendo’s handheld Game Boy version. In 1989, creator Will Wright singlehandedly published “Sim City”, a game that allowed users to create and run a city. Other popular “Sims” games followed and became the top selling PC game in history. It’s no wonder that the top video companies kicked themselves for not publishing them instead. Almost simultaneously in 1991, both Nintendo and Sega revealed their 16-bit systems and games such as “Street Fighter II” and “Civilization” fighting for top sales. Another controversy surrounding violence in video games occurred with the release of “Mortal Kombat” in 1992. The game used digital images of real actors and users were crazed by bloody moves such as ripping their opponent’s heart out. By the next year some states in America launched an investigation into video game violence. This prompted the Entertainment Software Association to form and establish a ratings code on video and computer games content. In 1992, video game consoles were all the rage with the top contenders being Nintendo, Sony Playstation and Sega’s Saturn. By the mid 90’s Nintendo’s “Mario 64”and the “Legend of Zelda” and Microsoft’s “Age of Empires” dominated the charts.

The late 90’s, Nintendo unleashed a virtual pet that you could take care of, named “Pocket Pikachu”, a character from its popular game, “Pokémon”. With all fears of the Y2K computer bust put to rest, Sony released the Playstation 2 on October of 2000, using DVD technology and 128-bit capability. Just in time for another controversy, the game “Grand Theft Auto 3” crashed into stores with players having the option to pick-up prostitutes, steal cars and money as well as kill people. In the wake of New York’s September 11th terrorist attacks, many of the video game giants either edited video games or abandoned some altogether because of the sensitivity issues surrounding the attacks. In the hopes of enlisting more young men, the U.S. army developed and distributed free of charge, the game “America’s Army” which went on to become the country’s most played online game. Since its launch in 2002, the game has been hailed for it’s training and educational value. More controversy arises when Washington State becomes the first state to prohibit the sale of the game, “Cop-Killers” to under agers.

Late in 2001, Microsoft releases XBOX and the first of the trilogy video game, Halo. Sales soar but are still far behind Sony’s Playstation which is also a DVD player. Nintendo finally introduces a no cartridge console named, GameCube and is the first to support online play. All 3 giants competed for their share in the multi billion dollar video game market and all three have developed top sellers. With over 3 billion video games sold, Nintendo has been the forerunner in both the hand held game systems such as Game Boy and Nintendo DS and its most popular thus far, the Wii games. Game Boy and DS use full colour LCD screens and touch technology not to mention the ease and convenience of their pocket size. Nintendo has outsold the competition with such mammoth hits such as “Super Mario Brothers”, “Pokémon”, “Nintendogs”, “Wii Play”, “Tetris” and “Brain Age”. In 2008, Microsoft’s Solitaire game was named the most popular among computer players, after all it is included with every copy of Windows. The most surprising success of video game history came in 2005, with the release of a music video game called “Guitar Hero”. With controllers shaped as guitars the players rocked and Playstation 2 reported a whopping 2 billion dollars in sales. Sequels to the original “Guitar Hero” soon followed and in 2007, Microsoft’s XBOX 360 console offered “Guitar Hero II” and “Guitar Hero III” video games. Playstation has continued to offer their version of “Guitar Hero” sequels as well and the video game can be played on a PC. Continuing in the tradition, the three video game super powers are Nintendo, Microsoft and Playstation. Since its launch in 2006, Nintendo’s Wii has been the leader in the market in interactive video games, winning many awards. Its Wii fit exercise videos featuring yoga, strengthening and aerobics have been acclaimed world wide and hailed as beneficial and fun.

Some 50 odd years later since William Higinbotham’s first video game, technology has grown in leaps and bounds and video games are as hot as Macbooks and iPhones. While Higinbotham’s original motive was to add some fun to science exhibits, he also expressed that scientific work was meaningful and it had aim, purpose and relevance for our society. Indeed no one can dispute society’s need for leisure, socializing and play. The relevance of video games is clear, humans play games for the challenge, curiosity and the mere fantasy. Surely, and if nothing else video games can help us escape the challenges and stress of everyday life.