A Brief History of Game Console Warfare 53
conq writes "BusinessWeek has a gallery on the history of console wars. Starting with the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey, all the way to the 2006 Wii. The details on the Magnavox Odyssey:
'This is where it all began. Game guru Ralph Baer's invention for Magnavox brought video gaming out of the arcades and into the living room. As the first home video game console, the Odyssey had no audio output and could only display black and white images. But the system came with translucent TV screen overlays to simulate full-color graphics in games like tennis and hockey. The Odyssey's sales were less than impressive: Magnavox had sold about 350,000 units by 1975.'"
Cotton Candy, get yer Cotton Candy! (Score:5, Informative)
I mean, how can you write an article *supposedly* about video game warfare, but so completely miss the Video Game Crash of '83/84?!? You're far better off checking out Wikipedia's article [wikipedia.org] on the same thing.
That being said, someone behind the scenes seemed to know what they were doing. the Tron Deadly Discs cartridge was a hilarious backslap at both Atari and this article.
A list of systems oddly missing:
All of those were supremely important to the history of video game "warfare". Yet not a one in sight. How odd.
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Re:Cotton Candy, get yer Cotton Candy! (Score:5, Interesting)
The VirtualBoy.
I left out a bunch of consoles that simply weren't relevant in the market. Otherwise I would have droned on and on about the Bally Astrocade, the Emerson Arcadia, the Neo-Geo, the SG-1000 (Mark I, II, & III), the APF Imagination Machine, the Wonderswan, the Apple Pippin, the...
Um... I'm droning on, aren't I?
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Re:Cotton Candy, get yer Cotton Candy! (Score:4, Informative)
I could go on, thus revealing the nostalgic fanboy that I am -- eh, too late -- but suffice it to say that the Lynx was as far above the 2600 as the XBox is above the Super NES. Yeah, that's right, I said it! Let the flame wars begin!
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Re:Cotton Candy, get yer Cotton Candy! (Score:5, Interesting)
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As is the NeoGeo/NGCD/Pocket Color.
To riff on PA (Score:5, Funny)
[Criticism of modern gaming and gamers]
[Self-deprecating witticism]
[Trite conclusion]
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I remember playing Star Trek on my S100 computer (Score:1)
*shakes head* (Score:2, Informative)
That was 2001 they were talking about... I remember having microsoft controllers for my PC prior to xbox. I distinctly remember having them in my apartment which was before November '01... Wait... did I just admit to having microsoft hardware on
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My family bought a computer through a purchasing deal at his work, w had an IBM XT Clone with a Microsoft mouse (And Windows 2.0) in 1988.
Still have the mouse somewhere I expect.
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Re:*shakes head* (Score:5, Interesting)
I recall Microsoft having designed some specialized cards for early PCs, too, but I don't recall their name.
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Try the 80s... (Score:1)
I used to work for Intellivision (Score:1, Funny)
Steve Wozniak used to work for Intellivision briefly at the beginning of the company and he created the games Enduro, Street Fighter and Double Dribble.
I now find that there are lot of people buying those retro consoles on eBay.
Which is nice.
Mod parent down (Score:1)
"8-bit digital brain for enhanced power" (Score:3, Informative)
Er, so did the Atari 2600 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_6507 [wikipedia.org]
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Would Mario's Mansion have improved sales instead? (Score:1)
Re:Would Mario's Mansion have improved sales inste (Score:3, Insightful)
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If Sony actually lost money on the PS2, why would they bother making a PS3? I mean, PS2 sold more than any console in HISTORY, and it's not done yet. If Sony couldn't at least eke out a profit on it, what possible motivation would there be to release yet ANOTHER console, in what will surely be an even more competitive 2006-2012 gaming environment? Sony is
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My first (Score:1)
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A Real History Lesson (Score:5, Informative)
How ridiculous ... Intellivision game in the Atari (Score:2)
What a poor article. Really.
Re:How ridiculous ... Intellivision game in the At (Score:2, Informative)
Though it did seem odd not to have a standard Atari cartridge in the slot. I don't know if the image came from some stock archive or done in-house, but you'd think there would be far more Atari cartridges around to make the photo with.
Re:How ridiculous ... Intellivision game in the At (Score:2)
http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?Softwa
Re:How ridiculous ... Intellivision game in the At (Score:1)