For those who have been gaming from an early age, we have all lived to see the evolution of gaming consoles. From the boxy and heavy gaming consoles all the way to the handhelds and lightweight consoles, many of us had the privilege of using one of them.
The first ever gaming consoles were built inside mainframe computers in the 1950s and the Atari Pong was the pioneer. Coins would be used as tokens in order to play the game of choice. The Atari Pong later came in models which provided a two-player system which introduced co-op and competitive gaming. In 1972, the first home gaming console was introduced with the Odyssey by Magnavox. Coleco, a competitor, introduced the Telstar series, which consisted of an adapter that would decode the signals from the console to the game.
From 1976, the Atari Pong was replaced with the Atari 2600, Atari’s answer to the Magnavox. Gaming companies thought that this would be the future and would allow games to be played in the comfort of their homes.
The 1980s saw the rise of the ‘bit generation’. This refers to the 8-bit and 16-bit games that came into the markets and saw soaring success with games such as Super Mario, Contra, and so on. Brands such as Nintendo and Sega soared in the skies with the release of the NES and Genesis respectively. Although these brands discontinued in 2003, many enthusiasts still had their hands on these golden devices further into the years that came.
In the early 2000s, the infamous PlayStation came to the market. It was at this moment that 3D games started popping up here and there which gave a whole new perspective towards gamers. Games of various genres popped which glued players to the screen with 3D graphics.
The PlayStation (also known as PS) started to overtake other home gaming consoles and in no time, they released the PS2. It was here when games had better and, sometimes, realistic graphics. Upon seeing the success of the PS, Xbox started their journey and, like the PS, became a major competitor. Even to this day, there is a debate on which gaming console is better and best based on an individual’s choice.
