Below we provide a brief overview on the development of video games over the years. We divided this development into four successive phases for you to better understand the changes that technology has produced on video games.

1st Phase

We can tell that the first video game appeared back in 1952, and it was created by Alexander S Dougkas. The video game name was Nough and Crosses. A few years later, in 1958, William Higginbotham created a game called Tennis for Two, which was basically a simulation of table tennis. This was mainly based on a program that calculates trajectories. In 1962 the student Steven Russell takes this idea and creates a game which involves spaceships which move in different directions and at different speed. This is when a second player is incorporated. That is, this game required two people. At first, it was known among a restricted college surrounding and later spread widely.

In 1966 Ralph Baer, Bob Tremblay and Ted Dabney conceived a game called Fox and Hounds. The novelty of this game was that it could be played at home, without requiring players to go to a special game club. Four years later, based on this idea, the video game connection was modified allowing recorded games to be used on home television sets. In 1971 a business man called Nolan Bushnell released a game named Computer Space. Thanks to this new invention, video games spread even wider.

However, it was PONG the first entertaining machine that highly consolidated the video game. This game had a lot in common with Tennis for Two, but it was played in public places, such as bars and halls. This game was created by Al Alcom and was the starting point for the video game industry.

2nd Phase

During the 80s the commercial and technological development of video game machines was intense. New brands appeared to start competing among them and, as a result of this competition, improving the quality of products. At this time, the most popular games were domestic video games. Among them we can find Intellivision, Tron, Zaxxon, Atari 5200, Commodore 64, Pacman, Colecovision, Battle Zone, Odyssey 2 and Pole Position.

Video games systems varied by country: for example, as in Japan consoles world developed widely, in other countries from Europe, microcomputers gained ground among game systems. In the late 80s 16 bits consoles appeared, such as Mega Drive, and microcomputers were replaced by PCs.

Super Mario Bros was a game that worked as a decisive factor for the development of electronic games. Unlike previous games that only allowed the player to accumulate points, Super Mario Bros provided a beginning, a development and an ending. At this time, portable video games were also highly developed. This type of games reached its height with the creation of the Game Boy by Nintendo in 1989.

3rd Phase

The 90s was a successful decade for video consoles. This is the result of what it’s called 16 bit generation. This generation gave rise to the creation of consoles with techniques that are similar to those of arcade games. This generated a significant increase in the number of players, and allowed the use of technologies such as the CD-ROM. As regards PCs, the use of three-dimensional environments as in Doom and 4D Boxing, increased. In this way, 3D games spread more and more and as well as the industry.

Inevitably, arcades started to perish as consoles had the top position in the game market. Motivating specific pieces of hardware were created, but their high cost resulted in a loss to this sector of the industry. Portable video games, improved with the help of new technologies, were more and more popular. New machines appeared, such as Game Gear, Lynx, Neo Geo Pocket. PlayStation gained more and more popularity in the late 90s, and names such as Winning Eleven 4, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid were consolidated. Many of these games allowed the interaction of many players at the same time.

4th Phase

2000 found important technological advances, which were used by the most recognized brands to create new products. PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance are a few examples. They all comprised a screen, a keyboard, speakers, and an advanced joystick, an invention of the new century.

A few years later, N-Gage, a device between a cell-phone and a video game appeared in 2003. In 2004 Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable were released. In 2006 the appearance of two new consoles starts: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The former comprises a processor called Cell and the latter a triple-cord PowerPC. The novelty of these games is that the player interacts with the game by means of a wireless system.

Apart from this, a PC personal processor is created. This is mainly featured by its flexibility that allows the incorporation of graphics and sound cards, and other elements such as joysticks, steering wheel and pedals. It also allows constant updates on the games that are released. Today cartridges and DVDs are being replaced by games downloaded from the Internet for consoles.