Entertainment takes its brand-new form. With the advancement of innovation and its integration to different aspects of our lives, traditional home entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural shows is replaced by so-called "electronic home entertainment". There you have various digital and animated films that you can view on cinema or on your home entertainment system, cable system (CTS), and the computer game system, which is popular not simply to young and old players alike but likewise to video game developers, merely because of the advancement of innovative innovations that they can use to enhance existing game systems.
The computer game system is intended for playing video games, though there are modern game systems that allows you to have an access over other kinds of home entertainment utilizing such game systems (like watching DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Web). Thus, it is often referred to as "interactive home entertainment computer" to distinguish the game system from a machine that is used for different functions (such as computer and arcade video games).
The very first generation of video game system began when Magnavox (an electronic devices business which produces tvs, radios, and gramophones or record players) released its very first computer game system, which is the Magnavox game reviews Odyssey designed by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's popularity lasted till the release of Atari's PONG computer game. Magnavox understood that they can not take on the popularity of PONG video games, therefore in 1975 they produced the Odyssey 100 video game system that will play Atari-produced PONG games.
The second generation of computer game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild launched 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 conserve microprocessor instructions. Nevertheless, because of the "computer game crash" in 1977, Fairchild abandoned the computer game system market. Magnavox and Atari remained in the computer game industry.
The renewal of the computer game system started when Atari launched the popular arcade Space Invaders. The industry was suddenly revived, with numerous gamers made purchase of an Atari computer game system just for Area Invaders. Simply put, with the popularity of Space Intruders, Atari dominated the computer game market throughout the 80s.
Computer game system's 3rd generation entered seeking the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported complete color, high resolution, and tiled background gaming system. It was initially launched in Japan and it was later brought to the United States in the form of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And just like Atari's Space Intruders, the release of Nintendo's famous Super Mario Brothers was a huge success, which entirely revived the suffering video game system market in the early months of 1983.
Sega planned to compete with Nintendo, but they failed to establish considerable market share. It was until 1988 when Sega launched the Sega Genesis in Japan on October 29 of the exact same year and on September 1, 1989 in the United States and Europe territories. Two years later on, Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari returned with their new video game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems might show more onscreen colors and the latter used a CD instead of game cartridges, making it more powerful compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, opted to release brand-new video games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing brand-new video game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Several years later on, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo launched the 5th generation of computer game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The 6th generation of game systems followed, including Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last computer game system and the first Internet-ready game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Game Cube which is their very first system to use game CDs), and the newbie Microsoft (Xbox).
The most recent generation of video game systems is now gradually getting in the game industry. These are as follows:
- Microsoft's Xbox, which was released on November 22, 2005;
- Sony's PlayStation 3, which is schedule to be released on November 11, 2006 (Japan), November 17 of the very 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 (The United States And Canada), December 2 of the exact 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 game system being established as of this moment, which will defy the method we specify "entertainment".