Entertainment takes its brand-new form. With the development of technology and its combination to different aspects of our lives, standard entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural shows is replaced by so-called "electronic home entertainment". There you have numerous digital and animated films that you can watch on movie houses or on your house 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 developers, simply because of the advancement of ingenious innovations that they can use to improve existing video game systems.
The video game system is planned for playing video games, though there are modern game systems that enables you to have a gain access to over other kinds of entertainment using such video game systems (like enjoying DVD films, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Internet). Thus, it is often described as "interactive home entertainment computer" to distinguish the game system from a machine that is used for different functions (such as computer and arcade games).
The first generation of computer game system began when Magnavox (an electronics company which manufactures televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) released its very first video game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey created by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's popularity lasted up until 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 developed the Odyssey 100 computer game system that will play Atari-produced PONG video games.
The second generation of computer game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild released the FVES (Fairchild Video Home Entertainment System), that made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a video game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to save microprocessor instructions. Nevertheless, because of the "video game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted the video game system market. Magnavox and Atari remained in the video game industry.
The renewal of the game reviews video game system started when Atari launched the popular arcade Space Intruders. The market was unexpectedly revived, with numerous players made purchase of an Atari video game system just for Area Invaders. In other words, with the popularity of Area Intruders, Atari controlled the video game industry throughout the 80s.
Video game system's 3rd generation entered wanting the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported full color, high resolution, and tiled background video gaming system. It was initially launched in Japan and it was later given the United States in the form of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And just like Atari's Space Invaders, the release of Nintendo's well-known Super Mario Brothers was a big success, which totally revived the suffering video game system industry in the early months of 1983.
Sega planned to take on Nintendo, but they stopped working to establish substantial market share. It was till 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 territories. Two years later on, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari came back with their brand-new video game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems could show more onscreen colors and the latter made use of a CD instead of video game cartridges, making it more effective compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, decided to launch new video games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing new computer game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing followed suit. Numerous years later, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo launched the 5th generation of video game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The 6th generation of game systems followed, including Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last video game system and the first Internet-ready video game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Game Cube which is their very first system to utilize game CDs), and the beginner Microsoft (Xbox).
The latest generation of computer game systems is now slowly getting in the 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 launched on November 11, 2006 (Japan), November 17 of the very same year (North America), and March 2007 (Europe); and
- Nintendo's Wii, which is set up 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 computer game system does not end here. There will be future generations of video game system being established as of this minute, which will defy the method we define "entertainment".