Then vs Now: Game Consoles Then vs Now

What was the first console you had? Do you claim it to be the very first console, making you one of the owners of the very first video game console?

If the answer isn't the Magnavox Odyssey, then it's not.

The Magnavox Odyssey was the world's first commercial home video game console, first demonstrated in April of 1972. This was designed by Ralph H. Baer, assisted by Engineers William Harrison and William Rusch. The idea came up on at least 1950-1951, but work only started on 1966 and it was finished by 1968. It even had cartridges that allowed you to change games. However, the difficulty was finding a television manufacturer that wanted to produce it. Eventually, it didn't quite make it.

What came after?

Nolan Bushnell founded the Atari on the same year the Magnavox Odyssey was introduced, although it gained popularity three years later. It contained a microprocessor that could be programmed so the cartridges only needed one ROM chip to store the microprocessor instructions.

2 years after Atari gained popularity, came the first Video Game crash. Video Game sales were at an all time low, and consoles that came out were abandoned by the companies. In the same year, The Atari 2600 was created.

However, not long after, another Video Game Crash occurred in 1983. Many other consoles were created, but they were of low quality. The games as well, and games made individually by others especially for the Atari 2600. Official games from Atari themselves were poorly received.

Computers also played a role - they were deemed more important because they could do other things than games. By 1984, many console productions were discontinued by companies.

However, in the middle of 1983-1984, Nintendo created the NES. Mario of Super Mario Bros became popular. SEGA then wanted to compete with NES, and success in Europe and South America, especially Brazil. However, it was not popular in Japan. Then, Sonic the Hedgehog made it renowned.

Later, came two other consoles: the 3DO and the Atari Jaguar.

The 3DO gained fame, because it had better performance and could display graphics better, but it was very costly and then failed.

During this time, Nintendo created games that were still popular even now, such as Donkey Kong and Starfox 64.

1994 came, and the Playstation 1 was created. It was followed by the Nintendo64 two years later.

After these, consoles had a more PC-like system and they were more visually appealing, such as the Sega Dreamcast, Gamecube, XBox, and the Playstation 2.