The gaming world did not always have gaming consoles. They started out with big, long computers, introduced a few consoles, then arcade games, and almost failed once in the business.

1948 – The first ever video game was chess playing algorithm created by Alan Turing and colleague D.G. Champernowne. There was not a computer powerful enough to sustain the chess playing algorithm. The algorithm game was also tested twice against humans. The game lost one and won once.

1950 – Claude Shannon had created and put together a chess playing program that actually worked on the computer. It also appeared in the paper “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess” published in Philosophical Magazine.

1955 – Nakamura Manufacturing was founded by Masaya Nakamura in 1955. Based in Tokyo, the company started out by running rides for children on the roof of a department store in Yokohama. Nakamura reorganized in 1958 and later changed their name to Nakamura AmusementMachine Manufacturing Company, which forms the acronym “NAMCO”.

1959 – 1961 –

Mouse in the Maze was a game where people could place maze walls and for a prize, bits of cheese, and sometimes other prizes for the mouse.

The early version of Tic-Tac-Toe was made using the light pen to play against the computer. It wasn’t very popular back then. Although today we play it as a game with a pencil and paper.

1961-

Spacewar! was the first influential computer game that was widely available. It was played on a PDP-1, a new computer at the time.

Computer Games to Early Arcade Games

1971-1979

In September 1971, Galaxy Game was installed at Stanford University. It was based on Spacewar! and was the first ever coin operated machine. Using a DEC PDP-11, only one copy of the game was built.

In 1972, Atari Inc. was founded by Bushnell and Dabney. This was before they released their gaming Pong. Nineteen thousand Pong machines were made.

First Generation Consoles

Ralph Baer made the first ever home console system. They called it the “Brown Box” because it was brown. The development began in 1966 and a working prototype was finished in 1968.

Mainframe Computers

1971 – StarTrek was invented, although we don’t know who, (probably Mike Mayfield), on a Sigma 7 minicomputer.

1975 – Daglow, then a student at Claremont Graduate University, wrote the first role play game

called Dungeon for the PDP-10 mainframes. This game was an unlicensed version of Dragons and Dungeons.

Video Game Crash of 1977

Manufacturers of older, obsolete consoles and Pong clones sold their systems at a loss to clear stock in 1977.

The Golden Age of Video Arcade Games

The arcade game industry entered its golden age in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders by Taito. This inspired dozens of to enter the market. Video gaming was a rapidly growing mainstream hobby. By 1982, generate a revenue of $2 billion in quarters, equivalent to $4.6 billion today. In 1979, Namco’s Galaxian arrived and sold over 40,000 cabinets in the U.S., and Atari also created a new game, Asteroids, selling over 70,000 cabinets. In 1979 and 1980, Pac-Man arrived. It sold over 350,000 cabinets, and it made over 10 billion quarters ($2.5 billion) during the 20th century, equivalent to over $3.4 billion today.

Resources

Wikipedia: History of Video Games – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games

Wikipedia: History of Namco – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco

Wikipedia: History of Atari – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari

If you were only one inch tall,
The grass would be ten feet tall.
You couldn’t even bounce a ball!
It wouldn’t really hurt to fall.
You would use a water droplet for a bath.
You wouldn’t even have to do math!
And you could use a pebble as a path.
If you were one inch tall.

On a clear sunny day in May, a wolf was running with a pair of shoes on. This wolf”s name was Thunder. Thunder didn’t know what was on his foot. He asked himself, “Why am I running with shoes on my feet? How did they get here?” Looking back to the past, he saw himself carrying a pair of sneakers in his mouth while running from the angry shoe store clerk. He set the pair of shoes down on the sidewalk after he had ran for a bit and put them on his back paws. Thunder remembered now why he had stolen the shoes. He wanted to be human. He wanted to be part of a human family that actually loved and cared about him. Thunder quickly tore the shoes off of his paws and placed them in a broken net on the beach. His human dreams were now crushed apart into a million pieces, because he realized that he had everything he needed and wanted right in front of him: his own family at home in the woods where he belonged.

“It’s Easter! Get up! Get up!” the little kids scream to the parents. They think it’s all about the Easter bunny and Easter eggs, but it’s not. Easter is about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave three days later. It’s about God’s love for us to send his one and only son Jesus to die on the cross. When Easter comes around this coming up Sunday, remember that it’s not just about the Easter bunny and pretty colored eggs, it’s about Jesus’ love for us.

Catherine arrived in Russia from Germany in 1744 to marry a 16 year old Grand Duke Peter. She proclaimed herself sole ruler of Russia. She ruled as an autocrat and suppressed Polish nationalists. Was Catherine really that great?

Spring break, a whole week off from school, is just around the corner. The perfect spring break would be sleeping in everyday, but that’s not what I’m going to do. I will be going to Hot Springs, Arkansas to camp with my family at Robin’s Lake. Swimming with my family and friends on a humid, spring day, is what I’m going to do. If it rains, then we’ll go to my mom’s friend’s house to see their family. I haven’t seen Will and his two younger brothers since I was about six or seven, and if I get to see him and his brothers again, I would be overwhelmed with joy. Also, if it doesn’t rain, we will still get to see Will and his brothers, so this will be the best spring break ever if I get to do this.