The Magnavox Odyssey was the very first game system to be released in the United States. The prototype was called the brown box; it was a crude version of what was going to become the Odyssey. The design of the odyssey was to use cartridges which altered the circuits inside the box.
This game was based on plastic sheets that were attached to the television screen with tape. The sheets added the graphics that were used in conjunction with the images projected onto the screen from the game system. This was released in 1972.
The gaming systems usually went for about $100.00 and always sold over 100,000 units in their first year of production. Compared to standards today the beginning years were primitive, but this was the start of the home console gaming systems.
In 1972, Nolan Bushnell founded Atari. At first they wanted to have the company name Syzgy, but the name was taken. They later settled on Atari as their company name. Al Alcorn was a developer that joined Atari, and soon the birth of PONG was originated. This was a game very similar to the table game, ping pong. The popularity of this game was outstanding when it hit the markets in 1975 for the home version of Atari.
Many games including hand held games were released in 1976 and 1977. Coleco entered the video gaming craze with the introduction of Telstar in 1976. The Atari 2600 home game system was released in 1977, along with a baseball game in 1978 by Mattel. In 1979, Microvision another gaming system put out by Milton Bradley was released. This had cartridges that could be changed with different games. This was the first hand-held game that used cartridges for their games.
Mattel in 1980 was ready to launch their response to Atari-the intellivision game system. The Nintendo at this time was on the horizons. Mario brothers came out in 1981 and the world was ready for something different. Popularity hit nearly instantly with this new release.
Sega released yet another gaming system in 1981. Their release of turbo was very popular. It was the first simulation driving game that seemed close to reality. Up to this point the only other game that was similar was Atari’s night driver game, but was not even half as realistic as turbo.
In 1982 the Atari 5200 Super System was the replacement for the Atari 2600. The original intention was for the 5200 to be the competition for Intellivision however, it ended up as competition for Coleco. The 5200 was not the hit that it was thought it would be due to design flaws.
The early games and systems were not nearly as sophisticated as today’s. The arrival of the Nintendo systems, Play Station systems and the Xbox in 2001 made yesterday’s game little more than children’s toys. The Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 are setting the trend for further technological advances today.
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