Introduction Video Games have changed in many significant ways over the 30+ years of their existence.

At a first glance someone might say that the only change has been the amount of pixels, colours and sounds that a game can handle and the form of media that they are distributed on (cartridges, discs, downloads, etc). But this is far from the case. Not only have video games changed based on the technology they use but in many other ways that people don't often consider. For example, how have video games moved on from a niche little hobby to a part of everyday entertainment? Why have video games become so mainstream that games like Call of Duty are now outselling other forms of media entirely? When did video games even become a form of media and a multi-billion dollar industry? Why are some games so violent that they are completely banned in certain countries? Are video games a form of art? The point of this essay is to address and try to answer questions like this. The video game industry is much more complicated then it first may seem as there have been a significant amount of changes that have shaped it to be what it is today. This essay will take you through the entire history of video games, give you an insight as to what the industry is like and mark the major changes, improvements and turning points in video game history. Throughout this essay I will mainly talk about a number of main companies that particularly played a large role in shaping the video game industry as well as minor companies. These main companies are: Magnavox, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony and Microsoft. I believe that the main turning point in video game history was the transition between the fourth and fifth generation. The leap into the third generation and the improvement of graphics, sound and just the overall way that games were made showed the most amount of progress and since then it has just been about tweaking and fine tuning video games. Also, the fifth generation was when video games became fully embraced as a mainstream industry. This will be explained more in depth in the Fifth Generation section. Pre-First Generation Prior to the invention of video games there were other types of games that provided the same sense of enjoyment and amusement to the player in similar ways. The two forms of entertainment that most resembled video games before video games were pinball tables and board games. Despite not being presented to the player the same way a video game is they share many similarities with video games. Pinball tables were introduced as early as the late 1700s with the invention of the spring launcher. However, it was not until the 1930s/40s when electrification, active bumpers and flippers were introduced. This became the contemporary basis of what was considered a pinball table. The aim of pinball is to use your hands to activate the flippers at the bottom of a pinball table to keep a ball in play and to earn points or to carry on for as long as possible. This stimulates the same sense of enjoyment in the player as early video

games did where the main aim would be to earn high scores. Board games also share similarities to video games in terms of multiplayer. Board games have been around since as early as 3500 BC. Board games are played by using a number of pieces on a board in different ways but generally involve the same objectives to beat the opponent. These include: having more points than your opponent (Scrabble); winning position (Snakes & Ladders); and ridding the player of their pieces (Chess). Like pinball, board games are a type of game presented and played in a different way but still stimulate a similar sense of enjoyment in the player as video games. Later board games such as 1974s Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing board games try to emulate a feeling of going on an adventure to the player similar to role-playing video games introduced in the third generation.

Video game generations are generally defined by the life cycle of a set of video game consoles and end when the successor of those consoles is released. However, video games did not start with the first generation of consoles and a big debate is what is considered the first video game. It is very hard to come to a solid answer because it depends on what people consider a video game is. The earliest electronic game was by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. in 1947 and was known as the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device. It was a missile simulator inspired by radar displays during World War II. However, at this time graphics were not even possible and it used screen overlays as targets. Therefore there isnt any video in this video and cant really be considered a video game. A much more likely candidate for the first video game is 1959s Tennis for Two. The plans for Tennis for Two were constructed in only two hours and the actual game in three weeks. The game was only shown off at Brookhaven National Laboratories and was never made commercially available. This game used an oscilloscope in order to project the vector graphics to the player. The game has no objective but involves the player hitting a tennis ball over a net. The player used a button to hit the ball and a knob to alter trajectory. This could be considered the first ever video game because it actually involves an image being powered electrically and input from the player is required. However, the game has no objectives and presents the player with no sense of progression or achievement and therefore lacks fundamental attributes of video games. The first video game to introduce this was Spacewar! It was created by Steve Russell only three years after Tennis for Two. This game included two players controlling spaceships trying to shoot down enemy spaceships. This game can be considered the first true video game as it involved all of the core elements of video games and was also the first multiplayer game as well as the first game of the shooter genre.

First Generation The first generation of games began in 1972 with the Magnavox Odyssey. The Magnavox Odyssey was the first games console of all time and was created by Bill Rusch and Ralph Baer. Their vision began in 1951 while Ralph Baer was constructing a Television from scratch. He wanted to focus on somehow creating an interactive television and carried on work on it until 1966. Baer created a simple two-player video game that could be displayed on a standard television set called Chase, where two dots chased each other around the screen. Bill Rusch was appointed to the project in order to speed up the process. A third machine-controlled dot was used to create a Ping-Pong style game (most commonly referred to as Pong. Further funding was pushed to this project in order to create more games. Originally Magnavox were trying to partner with TV companies in order to distribute the games on the television set and use a switchboard to switch between games something that they named Brown Box. However, during the 1960s and 1970s the cable television industry wasnt doing well and a lack of funding meant Magnavox had to change their approach. They made alterations to Brown Box. Games were now stored onto a type of removable printed circuit board card that inserts into a slot similar to a cartridge slot. Also, to reduce manufacturing costs they opted to use black and white graphics rather than colour graphics but included coloured overlays which are placed over the TV to give the screen a colour tint. After all these alterations the Magnavox Odyssey was released unto the public as the first video game system of all time.

One of the main turning points that the Magnavox Odyssey presented to the gaming industry was interchangeable cartridges. A lot of video games released in this generation plugged straight into the television and only included one game. Even though many games released for the Odyssey were clones of the ping pong style game it showed the possibilities that could come with consoles with interchangeable cartridges. However, the data for the game was not actually stored on the cartridges themselves but on the console. The cartridges were merely coded to start a specific game on the console. Also, the Magnavox Odyssey introduced the first video game peripherals. A video game peripheral is a form of equipment that you use with a video game that changes the way you play. The peripheral released with the Magnavox Odyssey was the light gun used for shooting games. It is known as the light gun as it uses light detection in order to see where the player is aiming. This alters the way the player would play as normally you would only play the Magnavox Odyssey using the included two paddle controllers.

The Magnavox Odyssey was not released to much success due to poor marketing. Many consumers were under the impression that the Magnavox Odyssey only worked on Magnavox television sets. However, other companies saw the potential of video games and so decided to capitalise on the idea and made their own version of Pong. The most successful of these being Atari/Sears Tele-Games Pong and the Coleco Telstar. These gained more success than the Magnavox Odyssey and soon many more companies created their own Pong clones including big toy and television companies such as Philips, Commodore, Mattel and Nintendo. This led to many lawsuits between Magnavox and other companies all ending in favour of Magnavox.

Second Generation The second generation is a very important generation in the history of video games due to many factors. The second generation displayed a massive rise and fall in the popularity of video games mainly in the United States. Due to technological advances and developers becoming more familiar with creating games more original games could be created which branched into new genres which is a big difference from the first generation where a video game was typically a Pong clone. The first video game console released in the second generation was the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. This console did not introduce much into the video game industry and did not sell very well compared to other consoles only selling 250,000 units. The console could only display basic graphics for the time and had a pretty basic processer. However, it did introduce a few things into the industry. The main one being actual game cartridges. Each game cartridge sold separately housed one or several games each and became a staple in the video game industry where all big game consoles afterwards had cartridges or another form of interchangeable media. It also introduced computer controlled opponents (often referred to as A.I.). Prior to this opponents could only be controlled by human players. The most popular console of this generation was the Atari 2600 (first known as the Atari VCS). The Atari 2600 was the first mainstream home video game system and sold 30 million units. Atari really pushed the Atari 2600 and flooded America with advertisements to try and get as many Atari 2600s into as many homes as possible. It became so popular that the name Atari became the associated word with video games. You couldnt hear video games without hearing Atari. This was also when the term joystick was coined because of the Atari 2600s controller. It included a single button and a vertical stick used for movement and other things. The Atari housed a multitude of popular games such as Asteroids, Space Invaders and Combat. Initially games were

only developed by Atari and Sears (under their Tele-Games brand). However, after the growth in popularity of the console it became the first console to acquire thirdparty support. A wide range of developers began developing for the Atari 2600 one of the most famous being Activision who made some of the best games for Atari 2600 including Pitfall and the first ever Action/Adventure game Adventure. Due to the large success of the Atari 2600 the video game industry became a much more mainstream thing. The Atari 2600s success still stands today as even now independent companies are making homebrew games in 2012 and releasing them unofficially for Ataris 1976 console. However, after the rise in popularity of video games it declined until a large crash in the video game industry known as the Video game crash of 1983. There are many factors that led to this crash. Firstly, due to the success of the Atari 2600 other companies also tried to create video game systems. Some of these systems gained a slight amount of success such as the Magnavox Odyssey 2, Mattel Intellivision and ColecoVision. However, other systems did not gain as much success and the complete oversaturation of game consoles confused consumers and they didnt know which consoles to buy as each had a separate library of games. Even Atari were trying to push their new console the Atari 5200 while still supporting the Atari 2600.

Also, too many games were coming out in too little time that a lot of them were being passed over and ended up costing companies much more money than they would make in return. One of the main reasons for the crash was the plethora of bad games released by Atari the main culprits being Pac Man and E.T. Extra Terrestrial on Atari 2600. Pac Man was one of the most successful arcade games of that time and Atari were severely advertising it in attempts to make the home version of Pac Man sell Atari 2600s. In fact, they were so confident that this game would sell systems that they created more cartridges of Pac Man than amount of Atari 2600 units sold at the time. It did end up being the best selling game on the Atari 2600 selling over 7 million copies. However, the game was so bad that consumers complained and became very angry that it was so far off from the arcade version. E.T. Extra Terrestrial was another story of false promises. It was advertised as a close adaptation of the very popular Steven Spielberg film. It was far from it. The development team were only given five weeks to make the game in order to get it out for Christmas 1982. The game was so bad that it is often classed as the worst video game of all time and was a commercial failure. Another embarrassment for Atari were a number of pornographic games released for the Atari 2600 the most famous being Mystiques Custers Revenge. The game involved the player controlling General Custer (a famous American general during battles fought against the Native Americans in the 1800s). The objective was to cross the screen and rape a Native American female in order to score points. This game caused massive protest by both womens and Native Americans groups. Atari successfully sued Mystique for this game. Atari, as well as other video game companies, were losing massive amounts of money during this time and thus the North American

video game crash of 1983 occurred. One advancement in the video game industry during this generation was Milton Bradleys Microvision. It was the first handheld to include interchangeable cartridges. Also, during this generation computers became a popular source of video games and many games were made exclusively for computers. Popular computer/gaming systems included the Apple II and Commodore 64. Third Generation After the North American video game crash of 1983, video game and console development shifted to Japan. A company called Nintendo tried their hand at making a video game console and marketing towards a more Eastern audience. They created the Famicom which became one of the greatest-selling video game systems of all time. In order to sell the Famicom in North America they were unable to label it as a video game system as stores were unlikely to stock them due to a lack of interest created by the video game crash. To get around this they cunningly bundled the video game system in with a peripheral called R.O.B. the Robot and marketed it as a robot system rather than a video game system and called it the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES received much success and was later advertised as a video game system and bundled with Super Mario Bros. (one of the best selling games of all time which sold over 40 million units) which drew more success. Japanese development was clearly embraced worldwide seeing as the NES outsold Ataris Atari 7800 (a competing console during this generation) 17/1. In terms of graphic and sound quality the Famicom was superior to the Atari 2600. However, one of the biggest changes was that the Famicom could handle screen-scrolling graphics as opposed to just static screens. This gave birth to one of the most popular genres, especially during this generation, the Platformer. The general idea of most Platformers is to traverse from the left side of a side-scrolling screen to the right while jumping or shooting to avoid obstacles and enemies. There were an abundance of Platformers during this generation. Some of the most popular include: Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Contra and several others. The NES also popularised the traditional controller. Rather than a joystick it featured a 4-way directional pad, 2 face buttons and a start/select button. This became the standard for controllers and has only been improved since. Controllers rarely used joysticks after this was introduced. Not only was this generation the introduction to Nintendo but it was also the introduction to Sega. In 1985 they released the Sega Master system. In terms of capabilities it was generally on par with the NES, however, its success in certain regions of the world led to the beginning of what are known as the console wars that still have not ended today. Console wars are when there is not one dominant video game console in the market, but two or more that are competing against each other. The NES greatly outsold the Sega Master system in North America and Japan, however it failed to capture an audience as well as the Sega Master System did in

Brazil and Europe. Therefore, the console war mainly took place in these territories as Nintendo tried new ways to get the NES to outsell the Sega Master System.

Another change during this generation was that games began to tell stories. This mainly occurred in Adventure games or RPGs and helped form these two genres. Some examples of games that were heavily focused on stories are: The Legend of Zelda; Final Fantasy; Dragon Quest and Phantasy Star. Some of these games focused heavily on using in game text in order to tell and expand these stories. A strong argument for the debate whether or not video games are a form of art stems from these early RPGs since their stories are similar to literature which is considered a form of art. Another improvement was the ability to save game data to the cartridge. Since games were becoming much lengthier some taking several hours to complete one sitting was not enough to complete some games and so the ability to save game data was introduced so that players could resume from where they last left off. Again, this feature was mostly used in Adventure games and RPGs. Fourth Generation In the fourth generation of video games a new era started known as the bit wars. This was first started because of NECs new console the Turbografx-16 (known in Japan as the PC Engine). It was the first 16-bit console released on the market while both Nintendo and Sega only had 8-bit consoles. The bit wars were more of a marketing strategy than anything as average consumers wouldnt truly know what it means if a console has more bits apart from that they are capable of better graphics. Despite the Turbografx-16 having superior graphics to both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Master System the console was built around an 8-bit microprocessor and therefore couldnt reach the same quality of graphics as the Sega Megadrive and Super Nintendo Entertainment System that came later. One game in particular on the Turbografx-16 changed the video game industry: Splatterhouse. This was one of the first violent games released and caused a lot of controversy. In 1988 Sega released the Sega Megadrive (known as Sega Genesis in United States). While the console was not released to major success at the start it became much more popular in 1991 with the release of its best selling game Sonic the Hedgehog. This game really showed off one of the Sega Megadrives unique and most marketable feature blast processing which allowed games to run at a higher speed than other

consoles and was shown off best in Sonic the Hedgehog. The Sega Megadrive also housed more arcade games than other consoles.

In 1990 Nintendo released the successor to their popular Nintendo Entertainment System in the form of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (known as Super Famicom in Japan. For the first time in gaming history two systems had almost an equal share of the market and this was the first time that the term console wars could be used. Unlike in the previous three generations where there was one leading console in terms of sales (Magnavox Odyssey, Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System for first, second and third respectfully) this generation had two leading consoles which led to a very different generation of gaming and has remained the same ever since. Both Sega and Nintendo had to work harder in showing the differences in the consoles and how one is better than the other. For the most part the SNES had better graphics than the Sega Megadrive and had something that they called Mode 7. Mode 7 was a type of 3D mode that was used in some games on the SNES most notably in F Zero and Final Fantasy VI (known in United States as Final Fantasy III).

The main improvements that were seen during this generation were in visual and audio quality. As well as Mode 7 and the introduction of 3D sprites another big improvement in graphics is being able to include sprites rendered using CG. This is shown in games such as Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct and Mortal Kombat. Also, a lot of genres were introduced or made popular during this generation. One in particular was the fighting genre. Two of the most popular fighting franchises had their most popular games during this generation: Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II. As well as console wars during this generation there were also rivalries between franchises in certain genres one of the most famous being Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter II. Another example being Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Super Mario World

in the platforming genre. Another genre introduced during this generation was First Person Shooters. Examples of this genre are: Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. One of the big problems introduced during this generation is violent video games and have earned a lot of controversy. Generally video games werent aimed at mature audiences but that has particularly been pushed during this generation with games such as Splatterhouse, Mortal Kombat and Doom. One thing about these games that particularly makes them violent is the inclusion of blood. During this time that was especially frowned upon since video games were generally aimed at a younger audience. Nintendo particularly stressed this by getting the blood removed from the SNES version of Mortal Kombat whereas it remained in the Sega Megadrive version. Another thing that only really occurred during this generation and then died down was the Sega Channel and Nintendo Satellaview. These were add-ons for the Sega Megadrive and Super Famicom. Rather than reading data from a cartridge to play a game they received it from an antenna just like television channels. The service provided a number of games and would change periodically. What is interesting is that these were quite popular services but when they ended they were never tried again. However, they could be considered as very early forms of downloadable content which will be discussed further in a later section. Another thing that saw a rise in this generation was import gaming. This is where gamers would import a game from another country usually because of availability issues. A lot of the time this was because of RPGs that were never released in Europe such as Final Fantasy IV, VI, Earthbound, Dragon Quest and others. SNKs Neo Geo was also released in this generation. The great achievement that this console had was its amazing graphical and process power. It was home to a lot of perfect ports of arcade games such as Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug and King of Fighters to name a few. It was clearly the most advanced system of this generation. However, because of the very large price of $650 for the console and upwards of $200 per game it was not much of a commercial success.

One thing introduced in this generation which wasnt much of a success was the many games using full-motion video. Sega released the Sega Mega CD and Sega 32X as add-ons for the Sega Megadrive. The Sega Mega CD could run games on a CD format which allowed games to have more data and to have much higher sound and graphics quality. The Sega 32X meant games could have higher graphical quality and was another way for Sega to best the competition in the bit wars. (However, neither of these add-ons were very popular.) Phillips and Nintendo were working together to produce a CD add-on for the SNES to compete with Segas Mega CD. Due to disagreements Nintendo and Phillips ceased work together and Nintendo disbanded the idea. However, Phillips created their own CD based console the Phillips CD-i. The CD-i, Sega Mega CD and Sega 32X had a lot of games that used full-motion video which was recorded video using live actors. Most of these games werent very good and received poor sales and poor reviews. Some examples of games that did this

are: Night Trap, Make My Video: Marky Mark and Slam City with Scotty Pippen. One of the biggest things during this generation was the huge success of handheld gaming thanks to the Nintendo Game Boy. It was released in 1989 and has sold over 110 million units. It could only be played in black and white but had similar power and capabilities to the NES. One of the main reasons for its success was the pack in title: Tetris. Tetris is one of the best selling games of all time and is regarded as one of the best games of all time. As well as this it launched with Super Mario Land which was also very popular. Other handheld consoles were released during this generation but didnt have anywhere near the success that the Nintendo Game Boy had and didnt really stand out much. Apart from the Sega Game Gear which was the first handheld console which played in colour.

Section 6: Fifth Generation What could be considered perhaps the biggest turning point throughout the History of Video Games occurred during this generation. The leap from into the third dimension. Prior to this video games were predominantly only able to be created in 2D. Of course, there were some grand examples of 3D games previously, such as Doom. However, the biggest difference between previous 3D games was that they could only use pixels to create the game and therefore most objects came out looking flat. Also, 3D was only used in first-person view. The biggest difference in 3D that occurred during this generation was the increased use of polygons. Whereas objects were previously made up of large numbers of little squares; polygons can be of any shape and can be stretched and manipulated in a vast number of ways. 3D objects are made up of numbers of different polygons that can be bent at different angles to give an object depth. This is similar to netting in real-life where a number of 2D surfaces are placed together to make a 3D object.

The first console that was released with these fully functional 3D capabilities was the Sega Saturn in November 22nd 1994 in Japan and along with the Sega 32x was considered one of Segas biggest failures due to several reasons. Firstly, it was released merely 6 months after the Sega 32x. Consumers were confused at the actual point of the console and how it differentiated from the Sega 32x. They were both marketed as 32-bit consoles and the 32x clearly showed with games such as Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racer that it

could handle 32-bit polygons. Secondly, the lack of first party titles and not enough decent exclusive titles made the Sega Saturn much less appealing than the recently released Sony Playstation. Arguably, one of the main reasons for the Sega Megadrives success was Sonic the Hedgehog and the Sega Saturn did not release with a Sonic title. In fact, the planned 3D Sonic title, Sonic Xtreme, was cancelled. Thirdly, the Sega Saturn was much harder for developers to develop multi-platform games for. The Sega Saturn used quadrilaterals as its basic geometric primitive compared to the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 that used triangles. This faced developers with a problem as it would be a much harder task developing games for both Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn which therefore led many developers to choose Sony Playstation/ Nintendo 64 as their platform to develop for. Some developers tried to released games that used triangular 3D polygons on both Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn but ultimately led to a distorted look of some 3D objects in the Sega Saturn versions (an example being Tomb Raider). However, this sometimes gave Sega Saturn versions of some games an advantage and made them look better over their Sony Playstation counterpart (e.g. Wipeout and Destruction Derby). Despite the Sega Saturns commercial failure, it actually had merits that made it a valid competitor to the Sony Playstation. Firstly, it was the only console that housed many exclusive games that could easily compete with other system exclusives such as Guardian Heroes, Panzer Dragoon Saga, The Shining Force Series, and NiGHTS into Dreams. Secondly, due to the unique system specs of the Sega Saturn it could handle much better versions of 2D games such as X-men Vs. Street Fighter and Metal Slug.

In fact, this led many developers to choose to develop exclusive titles on the Sega Saturn (Capcoms Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge). The Sega Saturn was also the best console to develop for if you wanted to make arcade ports as the motherboard of the Sega Saturn more closely resembled that of an arcade motherboard compared to the other consoles. This was used to create the arcade perfect port of After Burner. These merits however did not give enough consumers a reason to choose a Sega Saturn over the Sony Playstation and thus it only sold 9.5 million and was discontinued in 1998 in North America and Europe only 3 years after it was released. The Saturn was much more popular in Japan and lasted until 2000. After Sony disbanded work on the SNES-CD with Nintendo, like Phillips, they decided to create their own CD based video game console. The end result of this was the extremely popular 32-bit video game system Sony Playstation. The Sony Playstation was one of the most successful consoles of all time and sold over 102 million systems worldwide making it the 4th best selling system of all time. One of the biggest advantages that the Sony Playstation had over the Nintendo 64 (its main competitor) was the format that the games were stored on. Although Compact discs did not begin on the Playstation its huge success led to the demise of the cartridge. Due to the increasing complexity of games (in terms of amount of content, graphics

and sound) storage on cartridges were being pushed to their limit. CDs could hold over 650 MB worth of data compared to a Nintendo 64 cartridge that could only hold 64 MB worth of data. This made the Playstation a much more desirable platform to develop for. And in which case Nintendo lost many exclusive franchises to Sony such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Mega Man and Castlevania. In fact, Square and Enix were initially developing Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII, respectfully, for Nintendo 64. However, due to the quality of these games and the extreme length of these games (Dragon Quest VII being more than 100 hours in length) they required much more memory to make than the Nintendo 64 could offer and in such case had to switch to design for Playstation. Not only that but many games that came out in this generation were so large that they required multiple CDs to store them on even if they werent extremely long games. Metal Gear Solid required two discs; Final Fantasy VIII required 4 discs. Even Fear Effect which is less than 10 hours in length requires 4 CDs. This is due to the game constantly looping full-motion video for the backgrounds (known as FX technology) rather than using pre-rendered 2D backgrounds which was usually the case. This shows how much of a leap video games took form the fourth generation of consoles to the fifth generation of consoles. The largest games on the SNES were Tales of Phantasia and Star Ocean which were 48 MB. This pales in comparison to games of this generation which were exceeding 2 GB (2000 MB). Despite the qualities that CDs had to offer they also had some drawbacks. One big problem was that it made piracy much easier. Due to the growing popularity of CD burners it was much easier to copy a Playstation game than it was to copy any cartridge-based games. This was when illegal piracy became a big issue in the video game industry and has been a big problem ever since. The Playstation had many games that clearly showed off the capabilities of video games and in some ways changed how games were made. Many Playstation games presented things that were first for the industry. For example, Final Fantasy VII was the first game to introduce full pre-rendered 3D CG cut scenes and for the time it was visually stunning and impressed gamers and critics everywhere. Since then it has only been improved upon further and made to look even better. What is more impressive, however, is some games managed to integrate 3D CG cut scenes in the background while still allowing the in-game engine to run in the foreground. Most notable use of this is within the games Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX. Another game that received critical acclaim and is one of the first for its time is Metal Gear Solid. This game had a huge impact on the industry as it was a video game that very closely resembled a movie. The game included some of the most realistic looking characters that could be achieved at the time and used a full cast of exceptional voice actors. Previously, it would tend to only be games of the RPG genre that truly focused on storyline. However, Metal Gear Solid an action game, focused heavily on the narrative and delivered a very story driven experience that was filled with believable characters, thousands of lines of dialogue and exciting plot twists. The game very closely resembled an action movie which no games at the time even attempted. After this it wasnt just RPGs and Adventure games that attempted to add in a story but most genres began to do it.

The Playstation also popularised many new genres. One example of this being the survival horror genre that mainly resided on PC. Two games that particularly drew attention to this genre were Silent Hill and the Resident Evil franchise. The survival horror genre had been attempted previously and had been done well such as Sweet Home on the NES and Ghost House on the Sega Master System. However, these games did not receive much popularity. Horror games that did receive popularity such as Castlevania and Splatterhouse were much more action-oriented and therefore cannot be considered survival horror. Resident Evil and Silent Hill were much more focused on puzzles and building up tension; closely resembling Alone in the Dark on PC. These games were very popular and so it can be argued that this was the golden age of survival horror. The Playstation also helped popularise the traditional Music/Rhythm genre. The game that did this was Dance Dance Revolution (known as Dancing Stage in Europe). This genre had previously received success in Japan in the arcades through games such as Guitar Freaks. Dance Dance Revolution was one of the first games released in the West that used a peripheral in order to play it. This genre became very popular afterwards and its popularity continued until much later. The third main console of this generation was the Nintendo 64. It was released in June 1996 in Japan and despite its format flaws and less popularity it was superior to the Sony Playstation in a number of ways. Firstly, the Nintendo 64 was in the lead in the bit wars as it was a 64-bit console as opposed to the Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn which were only 32-bit consoles. The Nintendo 64, however, was not the first 64-bit console but it was in fact the Atari Jaguar which was released in 1993. Atari attempted to jump from making 8-bit consoles straight to making 64-bit consoles. Their main advertising campaign was that the consumer could jump past 32-bit and immediately began playing in 64-bit. This console failed and was the final attempt from Atari in the console market. It had very few good games (Alien vs. Predator and Tempest 2000 are the only notable exclusives). Therefore, due to the failure of the Atari Jaguar the Nintendo 64 was the only 64-bit console on the market. The main advantage that the Nintendo 64 had over the Sony Playstation was the uniqueness of the graphics processor. The Nintendo 64s graphic chip was capable of trilinear filtering unlike the Sega Saturn and Sony Playstation. Trilinear filtering

meant that textures could look smooth unlike the Saturn and Playstation where games looked much more pixelated. Therefore, generally Nintendo 64 games had better graphics (strong examples of this are The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask, BanjoTooie, Perfect Dark).

The Nintendo 64 was much better to produce 3D games for. However, the downside of this is that it was much harder to produce 2D games for. Almost all Nintendo 64 games used polygonal objects as opposed to pixelated sprites which were often used in Saturn and PlayStation games. That is why big selling games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night were not also created for Nintendo 64. The only 2D games that appeared on Nintendo 64 that worked well were ones that used 3D backgrounds such as Kirby 64.

The Nintendo 64 also introduced many things into the gaming industry that still stand today. The first of which being the analogue stick. Up to this point controllers tended to use digital pads as directional buttons and could only be used in four directions: up, down, left and right. The Nintendo 64s analogue stick could be used in eight directions including each diagonal. The Nintendo 64 did not introduce the analogue stick. A few months before the release of the Nintendo 64 a controller with an analogue stick known as the 3D controller was released for the Sega Saturn and bundled with the game NiGHTS into Dreams. Even though this was the first use of an analogue stick it did not achieve commercial success unlike the Nintendo 64s controller. Another first for the games industry that the Nintendo 64 achieved was controller vibration through the use of the Rumble Pak. The Rumble Pak was bundled with the game Lylat Wars (the first game to use controller vibration). The Rumble Pak plugged into the controller and provided haptic feedback to the player through the use of vibration. These inventions had a great impact on the games industry because after the release of the Nintendo 64, Sony revised their controller and released the Dualshock controller which included both vibration and dual analogue sticks. Another thing that the Nintendo 64 achieved was popularising the First-Person Shooter genre particularly the multiplayer aspect. The main game that did this was Rares Goldeneye 007. This game is often praised as one of the best multiplayer games of all time and

started off a trend that continued into future generations. In terms of handheld video game systems not much was achieved in this generation. Nintendo released the Game Boy Colour which was the first colour handheld released by Nintendo. However, this had already been achieved by the Sega Game Gear but the Game Boy Colour was much more popular. Nintendo became the dominant name in the handheld market as there were no rival systems released in this generation. However, Nintendo did release what was one of the biggest failures in the video game industry: Virtual Boy. It was released in 1995 when the idea of virtual reality and 3D technology was the latest craze. Nintendo tried to capitalise on this idea and released the Virtual Boy. It used a combination of a pair of screens and mirrors to project an image that appeared to be proceeding towards the player. This was a first for the gaming industry as it was the first console to fully embrace 3D. Despite this it failed for many reasons. The 24-bit 3D red graphics were not appealing and many players claimed that it gave them headaches after just 30 minutes of play.

Sixth Generation Sega kickstarted the sixth generation quite early with the 1998 release of the Sega Dreamcast. Sega hoped that the Sega Dreamcast would restore Segas reputation which had been damaged by the Sega Saturn, 32x and MegaCD. With early games such as Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur and The House of The Dead 2 it was clear that thr 3D graphics were superior to the Nintendo 64s. However, there was not much hype created for the Dreamcast because most people were waiting for the Playstation 2 which was to be released in 2000. Consequently, the Dreamcast sold poorly and was discontinued in 2002. Despite the Dreamcasts somewhat imediate failure it did have some merits. As with most Sega consoles, it was the best console to develop arcade games and 2D fighters for. Pixelated games were quickly dying down but games such as Marvel Vs. Capcom showed that they could still be done very well. Although, the demand for these games was rather niche and didnt contribute much to sales. The Dreamcast also had the first true free-roaming game in the form of Shenmue (pre-dating Grand Theft Auto 3 which is considered one of the best) which became an instant cult classic. One of the biggest contributions that the Dreamcast introduced was online play with other people using an internet connection.

Although it was not greatly popular, games like Phantasy Star Online and Bomberman Online showed the potential of online play which later became a huge success. After the Dreamcast Sega began devoloping for other consoles. One of the biggest shocks of the time was when Sonic Adventure 2 Battle was released on the Nintendo Gamecube. In 2000, Sony released what is currently the best selling console of all time: the Sony Playstation 2. It sold over 154 million units. One of the biggest contributing factors to the Playstation 2s success was that its proprietory Media were CD-ROMs and DVDROMs. DVDs were significantly larger than CDs and could store much more data allowing for even larger games. However, I dont believe that the allowance for larger games is what sold the console to consumers. The Playstation 2 could also play movies stored on DVDs and music CDs. Therefore it was a multi-media/multipuropse machince. People would bo longer have to buy three systems in order to watch films, play games and listen to music. This was a major selling point for the Playstation 2 and is one of the main reasons I believe it sold as well as it did. After this almost every system released was a multi-media system or built even more on the concept.

This generation saw the introduction of a massive computer company into the world of video games. Microsoft released the Xbox. Whereas Segas consoles hardware is modelled towards Arcade boards, Microsofts consoles are modelled towards PCs which is why some games like Splinter Cell and Max Payne can achieve better graphics on Xbox compared to Playstation 2. Microsofts biggest success was the launch game Halo which some may argue is the sole reason that the Xbox was successful. It reintroduced the First-Person Shooter genre to consoles and followed the legacy of games such as Goldeneye before it. Like Goldeneye, Halo included a multiplayer mode which saw much success and can also be considered the sole reason that LAN (Local Area Connection) parties became popular. A LAN party is when you connect several Xboxes together in order to play multiplayer on several TVs with more than 4 players. A year after the Xbox was released Microsoft released Xbox Live which was an online service for the Xbox. Like the Dreamcast, allowed players to connect their consoles online using an internet connection and play against people around the world. This service gained great popularity compared to Segas online service which could be due to a few reasons. Firstly, the Xbox simply had better games that were more popular such as Unreal Championship and Halo 2. Secondly, Xbox Live offered

more social aspects such as a Friends List and voice chat.

Shortly after the Xbox was released Nintendo released the Nintendo Gamecube. The Nintendo Gamecube was very similar to the Playstation 2 and Xbox and didnt offer many contributions to the video game industry. However, one that was introduced later after its launch was wireless controllers in the form of the Wavebird wireless controller. It used radio frequency to communicate and could reach 20 feet away from the console.

Not much happened in terms of handheld gaming during this generation. Nintendo released the Game Boy Advance which was very popular and was essentially a portable SNES with slightly better capabilities. However, one thing to note during this generation was Nokias N-Gage. It was a phone that was also a full-fledged handheld gaming system. It wasnt very popular as mobile gaming wasnt very popular. However, it was the first of its kind which will see a grow in popularity in later generations.

Seventh Generation There are 4 things that this generation is particularly known for: HD graphics and extremely realistic graphics; a massive push for online gaming; downloadable games and Mobile gaming; and motion gaming. Firstly, lets talk about the introduction of HD graphics. The Xbox 360 was released in 2005 and was the first console released that offered HD graphics. HD graphics were of better quality, clearer, smoother and overall just better looking than anything that had been seen previously. The PlayStation 3 followed soon after in 2006 and offered similar specs to the Xbox 360 although was slightly more powerful and

boasted a Blu Ray drive which allowed it to read Blu Ray discs which were significantly larger than DVDs in terms of storage. Thanks to the power of these two consoles developers were able to make games look very realistic and as close as possible to real-life. Games that particularly show off this realism are Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted and Heavy Rain.

One game to particularly note for realism is L.A. Noire. L.A. Noire features Depth Analysis's newly developed technology for the film and video game industries called MotionScan that utilizes 32 cameras to record an actor's every wince, swallow, and blink which is then transferred to in-game animation. The game also incorporates real actors in the game rather than just their voices. This is the closest a game has ever come to a film. Games were just generally becoming more like film. Developers no longer cared much about censorship in terms of swearing, violence and sex or nudity In fact, a lot of games were fuelled by this. HD graphics didnt only make games look more realistic but they also improved the look of games that used more cartoony styled graphics.

Video games in this generation also try to take a much more artistic approach and create stories, worlds and unique experiences that can only be seen in the video game industry. These games tend to be rather niche but often acquire cult followings. Some examples of games that take this approach are El Shaddai and Catherine.

This generation saw a massive push in online gaming where so many games were incorporating it in some way. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 both had online services that boasted millions of active users. A lot of the success of online gaming is due to popular games like the Call of Duty franchise, the Halo Franchise and the Gears of War franchise. Most of online gaming is seen in the shooter, sports or racing genre of games but it has branched off into many other genres. In fact, some franchises that were single-player only decided to incorporate versus multiplayer such as Assassins Creed and Uncharted. This can be dangerous as a lot of franchises have

started to shift away from their single player routes (like Shadowrun) and some games are just getting tacked-on online multiplayer because developers are worried that games will not sell without it due to the type of gamers these days.

Due to the massive success of the iPod and iPad mobile gaming has become a dominant part of the market. Many people tend to avoid buying consoles altogether because they can just buy an iPad and download games much cheaper, quicker and have it all stored on the iPad itself. Downloadable games also became a large part of gaming during this generation thanks to the Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network and the Wii Ware. Downloadable and mobile games are generally created by smaller, less known independent companies and are released much more frequently than retail games. Because of the large amount of games coming out for these platforms developers are forced to be much more creative in order to make their games stand out and not lost under the masses. This is strength because it leads to massive indie hits such as Angry Birds and Castle Crashers. However, it is also a weakness as, like with the Atari 2600, it can also lead to an abundance of games of low quality or that just dont sell at all. A lot of the most creative games that are released that are very unique and that sometimes cross genres are released as downloadable games. This is because it is much less of a financial risk to release downloadable games and so independent companies can take more risks with games. Some examples of this are Lostwinds on WiiWare and Journey on PlayStation Network.

The last thing that has really shown an increase in this generation is Motion Gaming. This is where the player is required to do more than just press buttons to play games. The release of the Nintendo Wii in 2006 was the first major step in motion gaming. Unlike the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 the Wii did not have HD graphics. Instead, its major selling point was the controller which was designed like a remote. You operated it by tilting it, waving it, pointing it at the screen and performing several other motions. In 2010 Microsoft improved upon motion gaming with the release of Kinect. In a nutshell, Kinect was a camera that could detect your bodys

movement in order to play games. The Kinect attempted to get rid of the controller and make the player them self the controller. Sony also tried to capitalise on motion gaming with the release of the PlayStation Move although it did not see the same level of success as either the Wii or the Kinect. Motion gaming, in particular, made the divide between Hard-core gamer and Casual gamer much more apparent. A lot of people owned Wiis and Kinects just to play fitness games or party games. The fact that the Wii a less powerful console outsold both its competitors shows that motion gaming and innovation is more important to the masses than HD graphics.

In terms of handheld gaming in this generation, the best selling handheld of all time was released: The Nintendo DS. The DS was the first handheld to fully embrace 3D graphics. But the most innovative thing about the DS was its dual screens, the bottom of which was a touch screen. This allowed for many unique experiences to be created for the Nintendo DS and was a very big influence as most handheld consoles after this point used touch screen technology.

Sony also released the PlayStation Portable. The PSP was the first handheld to use discs as its media format. It used small discs known as UMDs. The PSP focused heavily on graphics and was comparable to the PS2 in terms of graphical and sound capabilities. It was also like the PS2 in that it focused heavily on being a multimedia device and was advertised as such. As well as play games it could play music, play video, view photos and other things. The PSP was also the first handheld console to feature an analogue stick.

Eighth Generation and the Future of Gaming Although this generation has only recently started this generation has already been filled with innovation. So far, mainly in terms of handheld gaming. The first handheld console released was Nintendos 3DS. It included an auto stereoscopic screen which allowed the projection of 3D images without the use of glasses. This was not only a first for the video game industry but was a first for electronic entertainment in general. The 3DS also has a built in gyro sensor for motion controls and augmented reality technology.

Earlier this year Sony released the Sony Playstation Vita. The Playstation Vita had many never-before-seen features. These included dual analogue sticks on a handheld console, a front touch screen and a rear touch pad and HD graphics on a handheld.

So far all that has been shown off in terms of new consoles being released this generation is Nintendos Wii U which is set for release November 30th in Europe. The Wii Us most unique feature is the controller that features a 6.2 inch HD screen built onto it. It features a built-in touch screen, which can either supplement or replicate the gameplay shown on the main display, and can function as a standalone screen without the use of a television screen.

Weve come so far in so little time and I dont believe were going to see as much change in the video game industry in the next 30-40 years as weve seen in the previous 30-40 years. Although its always improving were actually coming to our limit in terms of graphical capability due to technical limitations and what the human eye can handle. This means that companies have to think about new ways to innovate and to sell their consoles which has clearly been shown by the few consoles released already. We have yet to see what Microsoft and Sony are going to offer us in this

generation. One thing that Square Enix have shown us is the potential of graphics on next-gen consoles. One problem with the video game industry nowadays is that competing video game consoles are becoming identical from a technical perspective. Soon one game will be able to be made identically on 4, potentially 5, different consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Playstation Vita and 3DS although perhaps not as its not as powerful as the other 4 consoles.) One of the biggest drawbacks this has is that the Playstation Vita is capable of playing games to a PS3 standard. This has set a trend where Sony release a lot of games on both Vita and PS3. This means that there are less original games on the Playstation Vita and is why, in my opinion, the 3DS is seeing stronger sales than the Playstation Vita at the moment. Because more people own PS3s as it has been out longer and owning a Vita seems pointless as theyre very similar. Despite this, and despite the rise in mobile gaming, handheld sales are still rather strong. Does this mean that Microsoft will try to capitalise and also a release a handheld system similar to Sonys Playstation Vita? This could likely happen as both the Xbox and Xbox 360 were very similar to Sonys Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 respectfully. If this were to happen there would be even more products on the market that are identical and the only factor that would matter when deciding between them would be exclusive games which are becoming less common. Another problem is that eventually (and probably more sooner than later) distribution of games will become fully digital since its cheaper to manufacture and will stop the used game trade. This has a lot of issues. This means that video game shops and used games will become obsolete. Digital distribution is less user-friendly than retail shops. Nothing stops a company from pulling a game from a digital distribution store which means once a game has been pulled it can no longer be purchased by consumers. This has already happened. An example of this is when Rock Band was removed from the iOS store due to licensing issues between Harmonix and EA. Also, this could render some games unplayable which means that content someone has purchased has been lost. To some up, the future of gaming could be very different to what it is now. Not due to changes and innovation in the games themselves, but due to changes in industry as a whole. Could we see another big company dropping out of the console wars like Atari and Sega beforehand? It could happen.