Entertainment takes its new kind. With the advancement of technology and its integration to various elements of our lives, traditional home entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural shows is changed by so-called "electronic home entertainment". There you have various digital and animated films that you can watch 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 game designers, simply because of the development of innovative technologies that they can use to enhance existing game systems.
The computer game system is meant for playing video games, though there are contemporary game systems that permits you to have an access over other forms of home entertainment utilizing such video game systems (like watching DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Web). Hence, it is frequently referred to as "interactive home entertainment computer system" to identify the game system from a machine that is utilized for various functions (such as personal computer and game games).
The first generation of computer game system started when Magnavox (an electronics company which produces televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) launched its very first computer game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey developed by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's popularity lasted until the release of Atari's PONG video games. Magnavox recognized that they can not compete with the appeal of PONG video games, hence in 1975 they created the Odyssey 100 video game system that will play Atari-produced PONG games.
The 2nd generation of video game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild released the FVES (Fairchild Video Entertainment System), which made use of a game reviews programmable microprocessor so that a video game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to conserve microprocessor directions. However, because of the "computer game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted the computer game system market. Magnavox and Atari stayed in the video game industry.
The rebirth of the computer game system began when Atari launched the popular game Area Intruders. The market was all of a sudden restored, with lots of players made purchase of an Atari computer game system just for Space Invaders. To put it simply, with the popularity of Space Invaders, Atari controlled the video game industry throughout the 80s.
Video game system's third generation came into being after the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported complete color, high resolution, and tiled background video gaming system. It was at first released in Japan and it was later brought to the United States in the form of Nintendo Home entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And much like Atari's Space Invaders, the release of Nintendo's famous Super Mario Brothers was a big success, which completely revived the suffering computer game system market in the early months of 1983.
Sega meant to take on Nintendo, but they stopped working to develop significant market share. It was up 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 areas. Two years later on, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari came back with their brand-new computer 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 more effective compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, opted to launch new games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing new computer game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Several years later on, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the 5th generation of computer game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The 6th generation of game systems followed, involving Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last video game system and the first Internet-ready video game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Video Game Cube which is their first system to use video game CDs), and the newbie Microsoft (Xbox).
The latest generation of video game systems is now gradually going into the video 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 arranged to be released on November 19, 2006 (North America), December 2 of the exact same year (Japan), December 7 (Australia), and December 8 (Europe).
The advancement of video game system does not end here. There will be future generations of game system being established since this minute, which will defy the method we specify "entertainment".