Personal computers and mass-produced game consoles were introduced in the early 1970s, and game consoles were popular in commercial areas and chain restaurants throughout the United States. In 1975, technological advances, such as Intel’s production of the world’s first microprocessor, opened the door to games such as firefighting, the first multiplayer human-to-human combat game.
While it wasn’t like Call of Duty, the firefight was a big deal when it first came to the arcade. It had a unique approach to gameplay, with one joystick controlling the movement and the other the direction of the shot, something that had never been done before.
The Atari VCS (later known as the Atari 2600) was first released in 1977, but sales were disappointing: only 250,000 units were sold in the first year and 550,000 units in 1978, well below forecasts. The low sales were due to the fact that Americans were still adapting to color TVs at home, that consoles were expensive and that many were tired of Pong, Atar’s most popular game.
When the Atari VCS was first released, it was only able to play ten simple challenge games such as Pong, Outlaw and Tank. However, the system had an external ROM slot for game cartridges that programmers around the world quickly noticed and quickly created games that went beyond the basic structure of the console.
The incorporation of the microprocessor also led to the release of Space Invaders for the Atari VCS in 1980, ushering in a new era of gaming and sales: the Atari 2600 sold more than 2 million units in 1980.
Create games that reach a larger audience
The flood of new companies and platforms was caused by the craze for video games launched by Space Invaders, which led to market saturation. Too many game consoles and new enough games to play on them led to the collapse of the North American video game industry in 1983, when heavy losses and truckloads of unpopular, low-quality games were buried in the desert to get rid of them. . The video game industry was in dire need of a facelift.
At the same time as consoles were invested, home computers such as the Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 64, and Apple II began to gain popularity. These new home computer systems were marketed as a “reasonable” option for the whole family, sold for about $ 300 in the early 1980s (about $ 860 today), and sold as a “low-cost” option for the average American.
These computers have significantly more powerful processors than previous console generations, allowing a new level of commitment to more complex, less linear games. They also gave them the essential techniques for coding games in BASIC. Donkey Kong was designed by Bill Gates (a simple game that involved dodging donkeys on a highway while driving a sports car). Surprisingly, the game was revived as an iOS app in 2012.
Switching to online gaming on consoles
Even before the gaming giants Sega and Nintendo started playing the Internet, many inventors tried to harness the power of phone lines to transfer data between consoles.
William von Meister presented groundbreaking modem transfer technology to the Atari 2600 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in 1982. CVC GameLine allows users to download software and games using a wired telephone connection and a cartridge inserted into the Atari. system.
Users can “download” a variety of games from around the world and play them for free up to eight times; they can also “download” free games for their birthdays. Unfortunately, the device did not receive support from the major game manufacturers of its time and died in the 1983 collapse.
No real advances in “online” gaming will be seen until the release of fourth-generation 16-bit consoles in the early 1990s, after the Internet, as we know it, became public domain in 1993. In 1995, Nintendo released Satellaview software, the Super Modicom satellite modem connector. console. The technology allowed players to download games, news and scams directly to their console via satellites. Although the broadcasts lasted until 2000, the technology was never exported outside of Japan.
