Gaming believe it or not has existed since the late 1940s but just not available commercially. Commonly used for missile defense programs during the start of the cold war on primitive cathode ray tubes. More simple games from these missile defense programs were adapted into new simple games in the early 1950s for large mainframe computers that became more advanced during time. Many credit the creation of the video game as we know it to William Higinbotham in 1958, with his game tennis for two on a ocilloscope for the entertainment of visitors to his lab. Tennis for two is a simplified tennis court from the side perspective with a ball controlled by gravity that had to be hit over a net. The vast majority of early games ran on university mainframe computers for example games like tic tac toe, a mouse maze game, and hax a changable graphical display type game. In 1961 what people credit the first widely available game was created by Steve Russell and a group of students from MIT, this game was titled Spacewar!. Created on the DEC PDP-1 a new computer just out near that time it was more practical than the mainframe computers that it followed. The emphasis of this game had two players both controlling a spacecraft fought against each other with missles, it should also be noted that the center of the screen had a large hazard in the shape of a star that players had to avoid. The game shipped with new DEC computers and could be traded on the early and primitive version of the internet.
In September 1971 the first coin operated video game was installed at a student union at Stanford University, this game was called Galaxy Game. Based on the previous mentioned title Spacewar!, only one was built using a DEC PDP-1 and vector display terminals. In 1971 also another game based on Spacewar! but an arcade version was created, the game was called Computer Space, this was also coin operated like Galaxy Game that came before it. Computer Space was bought by a company called Nutting Associates, 1500 of these machines were manufactured and became the first mass produced video game, and the first available for commercial sale. The game wasn't very successful though due to a steep learning curve.
The creators of Computer Space felt as though Nutting Associates didn't do there game enough justice, so created a company called Atari in 1972. They then created the most widely known early video game that most people think of as the first video game called Pong. This was the first arcade game that had a widespread success selling over 19000 Pong machines. Pong had a simple premise and was based on table tennis, a simple ball and a paddle at either side of the screen the aim of the game was to keep the ball from going out with the use of the moving paddles, this was shown in a top down view. With the creation of Pong many imitators followed suit.
The video game market suffered a crash in 1977 with many selling off there obsolete Pong consoles and systems at a loss. the only two video game companies to continue marketing were Atari and Magnavox even though these companies both suffered losses. The cause of this crash was due to the abundance of Pong clone home systems and arcade market. This came to an end with the introduction of Space Invaders in 1978 by Taito this created a surge in the video game market and created what people refer to as the "golden age of video games". Space invaders sold over 360 000 Arcade Cabinets worldwide and it was not a rare occurance to see one in every shopping mall, restaurant, and convenience store across the globe. And by 1981 generate over a billion dollars from 4 billion quarters. Many games followed suit with the creation of Namco's galaxian in 1979, and Ataris Asteroids in the same year.
Pac Man arrived on the scene in 1980 and was one of the first colour video games released on the market which would go on to sell 350 000 cabinets and generate like its predecessor Space invaders over one billion dollars in quarters.
Due to the vast amounts of money that was to be made in the game market home computer systems or consoles took off. Atari and Pong console dominated this market for years but with the introduction of systems like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 this all changed. With a vast array of games to choose from compared to the early Pong models these home computers were popular. But it wasnt till 1985 when Nintendo who created a game and watch handheld electronic series created the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and shipped it with Super Mario Bros, featuring there game and watch line mascot Mario. This was an instant success and dominated the home console market for nearly the whole of the 80s.
Home consoles from then on improved dramactically over the decades, with the introduction of the 16 bit era during the early 90s with the Sega Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo, the successor to the extremely popular NES. What followed was the 32 bit era during the late 90s with the Sega Saturn and the more popular Sony Playstation with Nintendo following there after with a 64 bit Nintendo 64. Thereafter the latest two generations of video games consoles Playstation 2 and Microsofts first dip into the console market with the Xbox. Both these companies made follow up consoles which is the latest genreration with the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, and Nintendo making there next genration console the Wii.
Games are now moving into a more sociable market due to the online capabilities of today, Especially with the introduction of MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online). These games allows more interactivity with other people over the internet in a whole new world, be it World of Warcraft a fantasy setting MMO which allows players to level up by doing quests with other players on a massive scale world, or Second Life a virtual world where a digital representation of yourself (an avatar) goes about about socialising with other peoples avatars. Second Life has lead to a whole new way of gaming where there is no clear objective and the main aim of the game is socialising in the comfort of your home. It should also be noted that avatars are a common usage in most digital applications nowadays with all home consoles using them on there networks.
