Entertainment takes its brand-new kind. With the advancement of technology and its combination to various elements of our lives, standard home entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural programs is replaced by so-called "electronic entertainment". There you have different digital and animated films that you can enjoy on movie theater or on your home entertainment system, cable television service system (CTS), and the computer game system, which is popular not simply to young and old players alike but also to game designers, simply because of the development of ingenious technologies that they can use to enhance existing game systems.
The computer game system is meant for playing computer game, though there are modern-day game systems that permits you to have a gain access to over other types of home entertainment utilizing such game systems (like watching DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Internet). Hence, it is frequently described as "interactive home entertainment computer system" to distinguish the game system from a maker that is utilized for various functions (such as personal computer and arcade games).
The very first generation of computer game system began when Magnavox (an electronic devices company which makes televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) launched its first video game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey created by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's appeal lasted until the release of Atari's PONG computer game. Magnavox understood that they can not compete with the popularity of PONG games, thus in 1975 they created the Odyssey 100 video game system that will play Atari-produced PONG video games.
The 2nd 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 video 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 industry. Magnavox and Atari remained in the computer game industry.
The rebirth of the video game system began when Atari launched the popular game Space Invaders. The market was all of a sudden revived, with many players made purchase of an Atari video game system just for Space Invaders. Simply put, with the appeal of Space Invaders, Atari dominated the computer game market throughout the 80s.
Video game system's third generation entered being after the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported complete color, high resolution, and tiled background gaming system. It was at first released in Japan and it was later on brought to the United States in the form of Nintendo Home 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 computer game system industry in the early months of 1983.
Sega planned to compete with Nintendo, however they stopped working to establish substantial market share. It was up until 1988 when Sega launched the Sega Genesis in Japan on October 29 of the very same year and on September 1, 1989 in the United States and Europe areas. Two years later on, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari came back 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 video game cartridges, making it game news more effective compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, decided to release brand-new games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing new video game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing followed suit. A number of years later, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the 5th generation of computer game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The sixth generation of video game systems followed, including Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last computer game system and the first Internet-ready video game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Game Cube which is their very first system to use video game CDs), and the newcomer Microsoft (Xbox).
The current generation of computer 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 launched 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 launched on November 19, 2006 (The United States And Canada), December 2 of the same year (Japan), December 7 (Australia), and December 8 (Europe).
The development of video game system does not end here. There will be future generations of game system being established as of this moment, which will defy the way we specify "entertainment".