Arcade History:
The first ever arcade machine featured the game pong in 1972 which was developed by the company Atari. This game became incredibly successful and an instant hit with young generations at the time as this was something that they had never seen before and engrossed. This was now the past-time that kids would save their pocket money up for to spend on, making the company massive amounts of money overtime. However the hardware during this era didn't allow for much experimenting or development as this game was incredibly basic with one moving cube (ball) and two lines that would move up and down (paddles). Also the graphics were very blunt with only black and white as the software/hardware (the TV that the machine was using) wouldn't prohibit coloured graphics.
http://pongmuseum.com/faq/
The two next hugely popular arcade games were space invaders (1978) and asteroids (1979). Although with very similar graphics to pong with only being black and white and very pixel heavy, that game mechanics were changing with these games being more difficult with destruction and space invaders having an objective to defeat all of the creatures that were coming down from the sky without being shot and asteroids was just to survive for as long as possible before being hit by an asteroid. These games brought a new aspect to gaming which was a more competitive side to try and get/beat the previous high score that was set by a different player. While playing this it would be entertaining but also give them determination to get the high score and if they didn't then they would feel the duty to play again and again until they could be the person to gloat about having the high score.
Space Invaders: Asteroids:
http://www.unleashthefanboy.com/video-games/5-classic-video-games-that-would-make-great-movies/65295
http://spaceinvaders.mosaic.free.fr/
Next in the history of the arcade machines came revolutionary software/hardware with the game Tempest from Atari in 1980 which brought colour to the gaming screens. However this game was quickly overshadowed by the game Pac-Man which quickly became a crowd favourite as this game appealed to everyone. This game also had colour and a simple objective which was to collect all the orbs whilst avoiding the ghosts at the same time. This was a game of skill and make them concentrate on staying alive but also made players have to figure out the game mechanics as you wasn't given clear instructions about everything (for example when Pac-Man eats a larger orb this allows him to then eat the ghosts for a certain amount of time) but without trial and error it could have taken ages to figure this out. This game started a new era for arcade gaming and attracted many new people into the gaming scene.
In 1991 the arcade era was once changed again with games such as Mortal Kombat and street fighter. The software at this allowed these games to improve the graphics and have a lot more complex and intricate movement to happen on the screen. As these games added that gore factor to games with Mortal Kombat having fatalities, lots of blood and people being dismembered. This became a huge success with mostly male audiences as women weren't as interested in this sort of game. After seeing how popular these games were arcade owners knew what direction to head in and started replacing older machines with fighting games as they were making the most money at the time. However this was the point where the media and parents had something to blame for violent acts that were happening in the country. Gaming began to be seen in a bad light as it was ruining peoples minds and causing them to commit violent acts to imitate the game that they had been previously playing. Shortly after in 1999 the a new technology was shown in arcades in the form of Dance Dance Revolution which allowed the player to use themselves as the controller for the first time as this used touch pads and the weight of a player applying pressure to a certain point and was linked to the game. Even though this was something new it still wasn't as popular as fighting games and was seen as too weird as you would have to attempt to dance in front of random people which meant they never really took off and became popular with the masses. On the other hand this is was the pinnacle of arcades and they then began their slow decent as consoles were released but they kept on fighting coming out with new machines with advanced technology to keep up with the times.
The latest advancement in arcades is with games such as Dark Escape 4D which uses the newest technology to try and bring people back to the arcade by offering things that they wouldn't be able to experience at their own home. This game uses surround sound, 3D effects, blasts of air, vibrations and heart rate monitors to fully immerse the player so that they feel like they are actually there. I personally feel that if technology didn't advance this far then arcades wouldn't be around anymore as people could be doing the exact same thing in the comfort of their own home.
Console History:
Console gaming began in 1967 with the first ever console which was called "The Brown Box". Due to the lack of technology and software this console could only run six simple games such as "Pong" and "Tennis" but this meant that people could now play games that they loved in the comfort of their own homes and invite friends over to play competitively. However the graphics were very basic and bland, not exciting or appealing to look at. Also there was no sound output from the television meaning that the game had no sound effects at all which was another negative of this console.
No other company released a console until 1972 and this console did have any advancements over The Brown Box as this was just a more developed version. This was the Mangavox Odyssey which also had basic graphics and no sound capability at all, the main difference between these consoles was the overall appearance and that the Mangavox Odyssey was the first ever commercial home gaming system to be released onto the market.
http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/13/4520326/magnavox-odyssey-inventor-baer-is-certain-of-his-own-legacy
The next big advancement for consoles was only a few years later in 1975 when Atari released their first home console which you could only play pong on but this soon became the most popular console out there due to the fact that there was an on screen score board and there was finally audio capabilities so you could hear the ball bouncing of the paddles. This was a massive step forward for consoles as this opened a whole new door for what video games could look like and sound like in the future.
After the Atari console was released technology just kept advancing with better graphics cards and the first console to utilize this was the Telstar that was released by Coleco and this home console was revolutionary at the time as with this console you could set the difficulty of the game. The difficulty options were either beginner, intermediate or pro, this meant that the console appealed to a wider variety of "gamers" weather that be people who are just started to play games or people that have been waiting for more of a challenge to come along so they could advance their skills. Alongside the difficulty settings this console also had colour thus was more aesthetically appealing compared to the rival consoles that were on the market.
After the release of the Telstar console there were no advancements in software or technology until 1981 when consumers of video games were growing tired of Pong style games as it was very repetitive and well overused by this point in time. Due to this and advancements in technology companies began to create other game genres such as fighting, platform, adventure and RPG games. This could now happen due to better game engines allowing more assets, better graphics, bigger worlds, more movement and so much more, at this point in time the possibilities were endless and games could now be distinctively different from others to grab their target audiences attention to boost sale profits. However with these new games being created there had to be consoles that had the capabilities of running these games to their fullest potential. The first console to be released after this genre revolution was the Nintendo Entertainment System alongside their game Mario Bros which was a side scrolling platformer that had bright colours, decent graphics and enemy AI. Nobody had seen a game like this before which is why it became extremely popular and customers also had to buy the console as well as this game would only work in this specific console, this is the game/console that made Nintendo such a well known name to millions of people.
The next advancement in console gaming was a tremendous one as the GameBoy was released in 1989 and this was the first handheld console which meant that you didn't have to plug this into a main power source. The GameBoy was incredibly popular as you could now play games no matter where you were, however you couldn't play with your friends on these handheld consoles which was a major downside to this console. This was now accessible due to the fact that better and smaller hardware was now available to big companies such as Nintendo.
In 1990 the compact discs was starting to be used for games and these discs had exceptional memory capabilities meaning that games on consoles could now convert from 2D to 3D. In the year 2000 Sony released their second gaming console the Playstation 2 which was similar to the first console with how the graphics look and how good the gaming capability is. However this console changed how people/friends would play games with each other, due to the advancements in software allowed online potential meaning that friends didn't have to be in the same room to play multiplayer, instead they could connect via the internet and play "online multiplayer". This would have been seen as making people anti-social yet you could meet other people that were playing online too, this console also pushed its capabilities as it was also a DVD player as well as a gaming console. Only 1 year later Microsoft released the XBOX which incorporated PC technology into a console for the first time and this hardware meant that this console had faster processing speed than any other console on the market. This was the start of the "console war" between Sony and Microsoft.
In 2005 Microsoft released their second console the Xbox 360 which was a dominant success over Sony's third console the Playstation 3 which was released one year later in 2006. Xbox 360 was the dominant console because of the amazing graphics it had to offer which made the games look so much better than previous consoles, also they developed their controllers even further to make them more ergonomic (more comfortable in the players hands and easier to use/control). With the Xbox 360 also came Xbox Live with offered exclusive content to people that subscribed to this service.
Also in 2006 Nintendo came back on the market with a new console the Nintendo Wii which appealed to a much wider variety of people as is was seem as a family console which had a lot of party games such as Just Dance which encourages you to play with other people. Also the Wii used motion controls which you would use to control the game that was on the screen, this also made gamers become more active instead of just sitting down playing.
PC History:
Mobile History:
Mobile gaming hit massive popularity when the game Snake first arrived on Nokia phones in 1997, the game was incredibly simple but also challenging as the more cubes you collected the bigger the "snake" would become. However, because this was one of the earliest forms of mobile gaming, the graphics were poor with it only being black squares moving around on a green background so the playable character didn't exactly resemble a snake at all.
The next big step in mobile gaming history was in 2003 when phones now had coloured screens making games more appealing for the people playing them. This also allowed the game developers to express themselves more though the colours that they added into the game. One example of this is Bejeweled which is a game consisting of coloured jewels that you have to match up in a row of 3 or more. This game is only possible because of the advancement of the cloloured screen otherwise this type of game would have been difficult to develop with only black objects on a green background.
After this 3D mobile games began to be available to the mass community in 2005, although 3D games have been around since 2003, the technology in this time didn't allow for these games to be ran smoothly with no hiccups/glitches as the processing power wasn't enough. However in 2005 the processing power on mobiles became massively improved. This allowed games like Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift to be released by the company I-play, the game was massively popular with the mobile gaming community.
Finally in the history of mobile gaming smartphones such as the well-known Iphone was released in 2008 which had dominating graphics, processors, memory and it also introduced the app store making it incredibly easy for developers to share their games to the world and for the costumer to easily buy and download these games if they wanted to. This was a huge success and still is to this day being improved everyday allowing full console and PC games to now be released on mobile such as The Wolf Among Us.
Television History:
When it comes to gaming on a television there isn't much to say however the first ever sort of TV gaming was on Sky when you could press the red button on the remote, go over to the game section and there would be a list of games. These games would be aimed at children, such as Tom and Jerry, Spongebob and Ben 10 games. To play these games you would have to pay for the game and a certain amount of lives, this could be costly over time and is still around to this day updating the graphics and adding more and more game. With more games Sky tried to attract the adult audiences with games such as Golden Balls.
There hasn't been much advancements in TV gaming until recently with smart televisions being produced specifically for gaming and entertainment purposes. One example of this is the Apple TV which has amazing graphics and allows the user to use the IPad or IPhone as a controller instead of everything being on that one small screen.
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