Video game
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with auser interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device,[1] but in the 2000s, it implies any type ofdisplay device that can produce two- or three-dimensional images. Video games are sometimes believed to be a form of art, but this designation is controversial.
The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to smallhandheld computing devices. Specialized video games such as arcade games, in which the video game components are housed in a large chassis, while common in the 1980s, have gradually declined in use due to the widespread availability of home video game devices (e.g.,PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) and video games on desktop and laptop computers and smartphones.
The input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers includegamepads, mouses, keyboards, joysticks, the touchscreensof mobile devices and buttons. In addition to video and (in most cases) audio feedback, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration or force feedback peripherals.
The video game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD 74 billion annually worldwide, and were the third-largest segment in the U.S. entertainment market, behind broadcast and cable TV.
Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U.S. Patent 2455992.[2]
Inspired by radar display tech, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.[3]
Other early examples include:
The Nimrod computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain
OXO a tic-tac-toe Computer game by Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSACin 1952
Tennis for Two, an electronic interactive game engineered by William Higinbotham in 1958
Spacewar!, written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's on a DEC PDP-1computer in 1961.
Pong, a 1972 game by Atari.
Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim,[4] OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe[5] Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court,[3] and Spacewar! used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other.[6]
Nolan Bushnell at the Game Developers Conference in 2011
In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold, coin-operated video game. It used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 seriesTTL chips.[7] The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green. Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed byRalph H. Baer called the "Brown Box", it also used a standard television.[3][8]These were followed by two versions of Atari's Pong; an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity.[9] The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry.[10]
A flood of Pong clones eventually led to the video game crash of 1977, which came to an end with the mainstream success of Taito's 1978 shooter game Space Invaders,[11] marking the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games and inspiring dozens of manufacturers to enter the market.[11][12] The game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores.[13] The game also became the subject of numerous articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines, establishing video gaming as a rapidly growing mainstream hobby.[14][15] Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS (later known as Atari 2600), becoming the first "killer app" and quadrupling the console's sales.[16] This helped Atari recover from their earlier losses,[17]and in turn the Atari VCS revived the home video game market during the second generation of consoles, up until the North American video game crash of 1983.[18] The home video game industry was revitalized shortly afterwards by the widespread success of the Nintendo Entertainment System,[19] which marked a shift in the dominance of the video game industry from the United States to Japan during the third generation of consoles.[20]
