You may not know it but video games have done so much to promote much growth in the media. To get a little more technical video games are a form of mass medium (mass media). Merriam-Webster defines mass medium as a medium of communication (as newspapers, radio, or television) that is designed to reach the mass of the people. And what do video games do. They are intended to provide a fun digital experience through a console or handheld device. There are many different types of video games from survival-horror such as Dead Space to puzzle games like Portal 2. Games cater to many different types of audiences. Developers and companies may change their style just to cater to a certain audience to either make more money for expand their horizons. The purpose of this essay is to inform you of the growth of video games throughout its arcade beginnings to now.
I chose to start out with arcades because that is how true video games where first mass produced before most home consoles. If you wanted to go and play your favorite games you had to scrounge out as many quarters as possible and go wild after school or on the weekend. The arcade was a place where you could live out your fantasies outside of your mind during that time period. Arcades began in the early seventies. One of the earliest known coin operated arcade games was “The Galaxy Game”. Galaxy Game was first installed at the Stanford University in theTresidder
Union building, two months before the release of Computer Space. Computer Space was the first mass-produced video arcade game. One thing both Galaxy Game and Computer Space both had in common was that both games were just another version of SpaceWar!. SpaceWar was one of the first computer games to be made. Galaxy Game cost 20,000 dollars to build and cost 10 cents for one game and 25 for three games. The usual wait time for the game was an hour. That was just the beginning of arcade games. In 1972 the arcade game PONG was created and it was the first commercially successful arcade game.
During this time there were a few home consoles out such as the Brown Box that later turned into the Magnavox Odyssey, in the 1971. During this time home consoles were just too expensive and if someone did in fact own one, they might not even have two controllers for it. At the Arcade there were plenty of two player games that you and a friend could tag team on. The Arcade games soon became more interactive. Boos were heard if you missed or crowd cheered you on if you’re doing well. During the mid seventies was when the arcades hit their Golden Age. Because the arcade games reached new level. They looked better graphically, responded better and sounded better than before . Due to the early success of certain developers, dozens of
other companies looked to get into developing games. So there came a plethora of different arcade games. Sports fiends could go play Atari Football, Racers could play Atari Night Driver and the avid gamer could try and take down the high score in Donkey
Kong or Space Invaders. With the arrival of Pac Man Arcade games soared into the stratosphere. But just like all good thing everything comes to an end. In the late seventies the arcades was affected by a huge video game crash due to so many clones of the same games being out. Even though arcades fell off they helped shape how the video game industry is today. The power of media helped fuel the arcade to its fullest potential. What if all the kids at Stanford University said they hated The Galaxy Game and it was just a huge distraction and too expensive and stupid. What if the industry just said screw it if the kids don’t like why invest the money into interactive computer games. Our world would be a lot different today.
Home consoles where (and still are!!) expensive and many families couldn’t afford them until games and computers fused into one, such as the commodore 64. Mommy and Daddy could get work done on the computer and then you could get one and play games with your buddies afterwards. This was during the time when it was getting more and more necessary to have a computer in your home. It was not quite as essential as today or even as essential in the nineties. But more and more people needed a computer and kids wanted a home console it would have been stupid to not combine the two. But the real game changer for home consoles came from one hanafuda card/toy company. Not ringing any bell? That company is called Nintendo. Many may think that the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) was the n companies’ first home console. But they started in the mid seventies with Color TV 6. Nintendo success started with the hiring of the genius Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the mastermind behind Mario, The Legend Zelda series, Donkey Kong, Star Fox, F-Zero and Pikman. You may
have heard of all these games but without these franchises Nintendo would be nonexistent. Nintendo released the “The Nintendo Famicom” as Japanese only. It was the system that introduced the world to the Super Mario Brothers. A few years later Nintendo released to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) which will go down in time as one of the most popular game consoles of all time. The NES introduced us to a young green protagonist named Link, a space bounty hunter and our favorite plumber was back for more action. Did you get those references? The NES introduced us to The legend of Zelda series and the Metroid series. And Super Mario Bros 2 came out. At this point you may ask well where Sony or Microsoft is. They aren’t creating games at this time. Microsoft is creating windows and Sony is still just an electronics company. AT the time the only competition that Nintendo had was Sega. Sega created the Genesis after years of creating video games for various video game companies. The Genesis ( known as the Mega Drive in Japan) was off to a slow start due to Nintendo absolute dominating the market but when more games such as Madden was released it began to pick up steam to the point when Nintendo has to retaliate with release of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). With the release of the SNES and Super Mario Bros 3 Nintendo thought they had Sega on the ropes but Sega had an ace up their sleeves called Sonic.
With the home consoles released video games were able to become even more family oriented. With games like Madden a son could take on his father on the gridiron
without leaving the couch. College students all gathered in a friend’s dorm bring any extra controllers they could find and link up and race each other in a 4 way battle in Mario Kart on the SNES. This generation introduced us to multiplayer. Online comes much later down the line. But during this time it didn’t get much better than a four way race in Mario kart.
With the Genesis and SNES out home consoles were out and games where coming out for each system regularly. Now game stores could open and flourish during these times. Comic stores could also now hold the latest Mario and Sonic adventures on paper and on screen. Speaking of Sonic during this time he was the only other game character that could rival Mario (it’s funny because now they regularly hold Olympic games with each other). Time wise it is the early nineties. Games are rapidly changing, growing just overall becoming a better, faster and newer experience. As Arcades slowly die out due to home consoles, the handheld generation begins. Nintendo released the Game Boy with Tetris included and Sega went with the Game Gear. The Gameboy was the home to popular franchise such as Pokémon which allowed for local multiplayer with the assistance of a link cable. The Game Gear was home to Sonic and more infamously Shaq Fu.
The next generation of video games to come out became much more graphically powered. In 1995 Sony releases the Playstation in Japan and 1996 it arrives on American shores. Unlike any system before it the Playstation used CD’s instead of cartridges. The Playstation catered to a more mature audience with games like Medal
Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. It was a hit with all audience introducing even more mascots to deal with Mario and Sonic. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon were unleashed to us, we ate it all up and enjoyed every minute of it. Not to be out done the Big N ( Nintendo) released Virtual Boy in 1995. Never heard of it…..there is reason for that . Virtual Boy is widely considered to be the biggest video game console ever. Within a year of being on selves it was yanked off. Still sore from the Virtual disaster Nintendo released the Nintendo 64. Again Nintendo out did themselves. With masterpieces like Super Mario 64 and Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time the 64 was well off.
With all the new eye candy out these video games reached a whole new height. Everyone was playing them from your teacher to your girlfriend. Who didn’t want to play as Cloud Strife in Final Fantasy or as Crash and spin until your heart’s content and curses were spewing from mouths when you got hit the a blue shell in Mario kart 64. Video games were being played by everyone not just the nerd in the back of class or the 37 year old living with his mom. Even a jock stayed up too late playing Pokémon and it was natural at the time everyone was doing it.
We have almost caught up to the present day. To start off the next generation the one we all very familiar with, Sega gets a jump start on everyone. With the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast came out hard with beautiful games like Sonic Adventure and wild fun games like Crazy Taxi. But sadly the Dreamcast was shot lived. It was discontinued in 2001 due to lack of sales and the over whelming hype for the Playstation 2. But the Dreamcast is credited as the first console to usher in online
console gaming as it was the first console to include a built-in modem and internet support for online play. But the system that perfected online play was Microsoft’s first console the Xbox. In 2001 the Xbox was released and it targeted a much more mature audience with games like Halo: Combat Evolved. The Xbox was the first video game system to incorporate Downloadable Content for any game. This was made possible by Xbox Live another first held by Xbox. Microsoft game out guns blazing for their first console. But even with all their guns Xbox couldn’t stand up to the monster that is Playstation 2. Playstation 2 released in 2001. The Playstation 2 had big names behind it. It revolutionized the video game industry with its games. It popularized open world games such as Grand Theft Auto III. Until the pS2 such freedom had never been felt by players. In Grand Theft Auto a player could go on a killing spree and twenty minutes later go on a date within the game ( granted that you lost the police). Things like that have never been seen before. The first Playstation introduced dual analog sticks and the Playstation 2 perfected them. One of the best things the Playstation 2 had going for it was the major third party support. It has the largest game library we have seen so far. It had really did have games for everyone in the family. BUZZ: The Mega Quiz
for the adults, Ratchet and Clank for the teens and Guitar hero for the teens, and God of war for the hardcore gamers. On top of all that it had a built in DVD player to make the deal even sweeter it had built in parental controls to monitor the content you kids watched. Lastly Nintendo had a rather lackluster performance with this generation. The Gamecube didn’t far too well against it competitors because Nintendo didn’t have much third party support and only catered to a few groups of people. Again Nintendo
dominated the handheld generation with the Gameboy Advance. It boasted better graphics and a larger library of games. With hits like Pokémon, Mario remakes and Golden Sun it had a lot going for it.
In 2004 Nintendo realsed their brand new handheld system called the Nintendo DS. It boasted new graphic and two screens The bottom screen was a touch screen opening a brand new ways to play games. It could also interact with other DS’s through local wireless connection or over Wi-Fi. But this time Nintendo had competition from Sony. Sony came up with their own handheld called Playstation Portable (PSP). It had much better graphics than the DS. Its graphic rivaled the PS2. It also had movies come out for it so you could play the latest movies on your PSP. The PSP had the capability to surf the internet via Wi-Fi. You could also store MP3 files on it and play them back. The PSP was a better system but lack the library that the DS has . The DS had games from Cooking Momma to New Super Mario Bros.
Now we have reached the present. I can play anyone in the world if I want as long as they have the same system as me. The Playstation 3 is capable of HD graphics and playing Blu-ray discs or you can download movies from the Playstation Store to your system. You can watch your favorite show and movies provided you have a Netflix or Hulu Plus account. You can sync both with your PS3 The Nintendo Wii works around a motion control scheme. If I want to bowl I’m going to have to do the motion with the controller. If I want to swing a sword I going to have to get off my butt. But you can still use a regular controller if you want but what is the fun in that. The Wii also had Netflix built in to stream whatever movies available on Netflix. The Xbox 360 also is capable of HD graphic not quite as good as the PS3 but HD none the less. If you have 9.99 to pay for Xbox Live each month you can enjoy Netflix, Hulu, ESPN, Online multiplayer and more. The Xbox 360 is capable of playing DVD but not Blu-ray discs. The Nintendo 3DS shows off that you don’t need glasses to enjoy playing games in 3D. This machine is like a time machine you can play games of the future and many games from the past. You can play Mario’s latest adventure Super Mario 3D land or play Super Mario 3 for some nostalgia. Upcoming is the Playstation Vita which is coming to be yet another game changer hopefully Sony learned from past mistakes.
I hope through this you learned a lot about video games consoles past and how it shaped the ones we have today. Maybe you can call them mass media machines they keep us connected to many people worldwide. Did you ever think there would be a time where you could hit someone with a blue shell but they were all the way in India? If things have advanced this far within 40 years I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years have in store for us.
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