HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES: ORIGINS TO VIRTUAL REALITY - HISTORY - 2025

The history of videogames begins around the 1940s, when the Second World War ended and the first attempts to implement programs of a playful nature, such as chess programs, were presented.

These tests were presented after the construction of the first programmable computers known as Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer or ENIAC by its acronym in English (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer).

Atari console. Source pixabay.com

Video games are all those applications or software created for entertainment in general and based on the interaction of one or more players, through various platforms such as consoles and mobile devices, that have a screen to display video and sound.

This form of entertainment has developed over decades and today it is estimated that nearly two-thirds of American households have members who regularly play video games, settling as an industry that reaches $ 100 billion.

Evolution from the first consoles to 2019

The beginnings of video games could be detected in the writings of the British mathematicians Alan Turing and David Gawen Champernowne, who in 1948 had described a chess program, although it could not be implemented because there was no computer with sufficient power.

A year later, another attempt is detected in a scientific article by the American cryptographer and mathematician, Claude Shannon, who presented various ideas and algorithms that are used today in chess programs.

In parallel, John Bennett and Raymond Stuart-Williams presented a computer capable of playing neem, a strategy game for two people that consists of alternately removing pieces from a series of piles or rows until they all disappear.

The 3.7 by 2.7 by 1.5 meter computer, which was called Nimrod, was sponsored by the Ferranti company for the Berlin Industrial Hall and allowed attendees to play against an artificial intelligence.

In 1952 the program written by Turing and Champernowne could be put to the test, which is why this date is considered the first time that the first chess game is carried out under this modality. This would also contribute to modern chess programs.

That same year, the British professor Alexander Douglas implemented, as part of his doctoral thesis, an electronic version of the tic-tac-toe game, a pencil and paper game between two players who mark the spaces on a 3 × board with O and X 3 alternately.

OXO, as the game was named, is considered by some to be the first video game in history, although there are versions that do not accept it as such because it does not have video animation.

The table tennis simulator created by William Higginbotham as part of the 1958 Brookhaven National Laboratory exhibition, known as Tennis for Two, is also usually located in this phase, which was based on a program for calculating trajectories and an oscilloscope. In the following video you can see this game:

The 60s

The first video game that can be played in multiple computer facilities emerged in 1962 with Spacewar!. Steve Russell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the one who led this development, when the first Programmed Data Processor-1 (PDP-1) arrived at MIT, causing a sensation among its students.

This work was not patented, nor was it commercialized, but it was one of the most copied ideas in the history of video games that would even be included in two of the most famous home consoles: Atari and Magnavox.

In 1967 Sanders Associates, Inc., led by Ralph Baer, ​​developed a prototype multiplayer and multiprogram video game system that was connected to a simple television.

First generation of consoles

The license for the device Baer developed, known as The Brown Box, was given to Magnavox, who sold the first home console in 1972, under the name Odyssey. Although it would soon fail commercially, dying out due to product marketing errors.

Two important milestones in the history of videogames are presented in parallel. On the one hand comes the Pong arcade machine, designed by Al Alcorn in the recently founded Atari. This used to be used in public places like airports, arcades, or bars. The games that stood out on arcade machines were Pacman (Namco), Battle Zone (Atari), Pole Position (Namco), Tron (Midway) or Zaxxon (Sega). Here is a video with the evolution of Pac-Man from 1979 to 2016:

The other milestone was the emergence of Space Invaders, which is presented as the cornerstone of the industry. From that moment on, various technical advances emerged such as microprocessors, memory chips, as well as home systems such as the Atari 2600 or the Video Computer System), which had interchangeable joysticks and game cartridges. Parallel to this arise Intellivision, Colecovision, Commodore 64, Turbografx.

At the end of the 70s, Activision, the first third-party game developer, emerged, developing software but not consoles. In addition, three iconic games are presented on the market: the yellow Pac-man emoticon that eats balls and ghosts, Donkey Kong, which introduced the Mario character to this universe, and the first Flight Simulato r game, by Microsoft.

80s crash

A host of adverse factors played out in the video game industry during the 1980s, leading to the collapse and bankruptcy of several home computer and console companies.

These aspects include the oversaturation of the home console market and the excess of exaggerated or poor quality games, which mainly affected the United States and Canada until the middle of the decade.

At that time, what is considered the worst Atari game in history came out, inspired by the movie ET. In this way, the second generation of consoles came to an end.

Third generation consoles

But the industry began its recovery in 1985 thanks to the arrival of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States, called the Famicom in Japan. Nintendo improved graphics, colors, sound, and 8-bit gameplay. It also imposed regulations on games that third parties developed for its system, which helped maintain the quality of the software.

The company that began as a manufacturer of playing cards the previous century, positioned itself with important franchises that remain today, such as Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda and Metroid. However, in the markets of Europe, Oceania and Brazil, the console that led the sales rankings was the Sega Mark III, launched as Master System.

The third generation of consoles would then have two great leaders differentiated by the region, although in NES numbers it was much higher. In fact, it sold more than 60 million copies worldwide, against almost 15 million for the Master System.

In parallel, other high-profile franchises emerged, including Capcom's Mega Man, Konami's Castlevania, Square's Final Fantasy and Enix's Dragon Quest.

In 1989 Nintendo would mark another milestone in video game history when it released its 8-bit Game Boy device and the game Tetris. For that year, cartridge-based console games surpassed sales of 2 billion dollars, while those of computer disk barely reached 300 million dollars.

Fourth generation and new genres

Although Nintendo would launch a series of successful successors in the next 25 years, in 1995 with the discontinuation of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) it is considered that it opens the way to the fourth generation of 16-bit consoles.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and the Sega Genesis Mega Drive led the market at that time. The games developed were acquiring more RAM, higher quality sound systems, advanced effects support and a higher color palette up to 512 on screen. All of this meant a great technical and graphic quality leap.

During the 90s, three major categories of video games were developed that, beyond the console, are differentiated by their playful dynamics. These genres are action, narrative or adventure and simulation and strategy.

Arrival of 32-bit and 3D games

Also during the 90's, various companies began to work in three-dimensional environments, especially in the field of PCs and on 32-bit consoles such as Saturn and PlayStation. At this stage, the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy sagas were highlighted as two great examples of fully three-dimensional games with pre-rendered scenarios.

With Nintendo 64, the Japanese company tried to match its competition in 1996, but the complexity that was required to program on this console generated many inconveniences. By the late 90s, Playstation, developed by Sony Computer Entertainment, became the best-selling video game console of all time.

At the same time, arcades or arcade video game machines available in public places began a slow decline as more advanced consoles and computers appeared. Also portable game consoles registered a great boom. The descendants of the Game Boy were joined by machines like the Game Gear (Sega), the Lynx (Atari) or the Neo Geo Pocket (SNK), although they were never as popular as the original.

Also in these years, Sega, Nintendo and Atari made their first attempts to provide online games, but the slow Internet capabilities, problems with cable providers and little access to the network due to their initial costs, did not result in a success. righ now.

Online gambling and the move to mobile devices

The launch of the Sega Dreamcast in 2000 represented the first console ready for the Internet and evidenced the irreversible trend that would come in the following years. This made way for the seventh generation with consoles like the Xbox 360, which appeared in the middle of the decade.

In turn, Sony announces the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo the Wii (formerly known as Nintendo Revolution). However, the rapid evolution of PCs was sowing doubts in consoles whose use was exclusively for games.

The well-known massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs (for its acronym in English) had a great boost with the internet, as millions of players from anywhere in the world could interact and compete on the same platform.

Starting in 2007, with the arrival of smartphones, another relevant change occurred in the video game industry. By 2015, the revenue generated by smartphone games had displaced that of consoles by a few million, but it especially meant the death of handheld gaming devices.

The market that was normally dominated by a group of specialized companies, was opened to others such as Apple and Google that began to register profits from their application stores.

Although the sale of consoles has decreased, it does not mean that the industry has declined, only that the range of platforms has expanded, including consoles, PCs, tablets and mobile phones.

Video games in virtual reality and others

Video games in virtual reality. Source: Pixabay

Although the future of the industry is unclear, it is natural to think that virtual reality and artificial intelligence will play a major role. The interactive and immersive 3D world is becoming increasingly tangible with technological developments such as voice recognition and open dialogue. This could result in fully interactive and dynamic "worlds" for MMORPGs.

In recent years, the acquisition of Deep Mind by Google, or AlchemyAPI by IBM, promises great strides in that direction.

Today, most virtual reality video games are possible with mobile phones and the use of devices. Among them, simple lenses made of plastic or even cardboard, such as Google Cardboards, as well as virtual reality helmets make this trend possible.

Among the most prominent virtual reality headsets are: Samsung Gear VR, Oculus VR, PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, among others.

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