Entertainment takes its brand-new kind. With the development of innovation and its combination to various aspects of our lives, standard home entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural programs is changed by so-called "electronic entertainment". There you have different digital and animated movies that you can see on movie houses or on your house entertainment system, cable system (CTS), and the computer game system, which is popular not just to young and old gamers alike but likewise to video game developers, simply because of the advancement of ingenious innovations that they can use to improve existing game systems.
The computer game system is planned for playing video games, though there are modern-day game systems that enables you to have an access over other types of home entertainment utilizing such game systems (like enjoying DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Internet). Hence, it is frequently described as "interactive entertainment computer system" to differentiate the game system from a device that is utilized for different functions (such as personal computer and arcade video games).
The first generation of computer game system started when Magnavox (an electronics business which produces televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) released its very first computer game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey designed by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's appeal lasted up until the release of Atari's PONG computer game. Magnavox recognized that they can not take on the popularity of PONG games, thus in 1975 they developed the Odyssey 100 video game system that will play Atari-produced PONG video games.
The second generation of video game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild released the FVES (Fairchild Video Entertainment System), that made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to save microprocessor guidelines. Nevertheless, because of the "computer game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted the computer game system market. Magnavox and Atari remained in the video game industry.
The rebirth of the video game system began when Atari launched the popular arcade Area Invaders. The industry was all of a sudden restored, with lots of players made gamesread purchase of an Atari video game system just for Space Invaders. Simply put, with the popularity of Space Intruders, Atari dominated the video game market throughout the 80s.
Video game system's third generation came into seeking the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported full color, high resolution, and tiled background video gaming system. It was at first released in Japan and it was later on given the United States in the form of Nintendo Home entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And just like Atari's Space Invaders, the release of Nintendo's popular Super Mario Brothers was a huge success, which totally revived the suffering computer game system market in the early months of 1983.
Sega meant to take on Nintendo, but they failed to establish considerable market share. It was up until 1988 when Sega released the Sega Genesis in Japan on October 29 of the same year and on September 1, 1989 in the United States and Europe territories. Two years later, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari came back with their new computer game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems could show more onscreen colors and the latter used a CD instead of game cartridges, making it more effective compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, decided to release new games such as Donkey Kong Nation instead of producing brand-new computer game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Several years later, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the fifth generation of video game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The sixth generation of video game systems followed, including Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last video game system and the very first Internet-ready game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Game Cube which is their first system to utilize game CDs), and the beginner Microsoft (Xbox).
The latest generation of computer game systems is now gradually going into the video game industry. These are as follows:
- Microsoft's Xbox, which was launched on November 22, 2005;
- Sony's PlayStation 3, which is schedule to be released on November 11, 2006 (Japan), November 17 of the exact same year (The United States and Canada), and March 2007 (Europe); and
- Nintendo's Wii, which is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2006 (North America), December 2 of the same year (Japan), December 7 (Australia), and December 8 (Europe).
The development of computer game system does not end here. There will be future generations of video game system being developed as of this moment, which will defy the method we specify "entertainment".