Entertainment takes its new form. With the advancement of innovation and its integration to different aspects of our lives, conventional home entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural shows is replaced by so-called "electronic entertainment". There you have different digital and animated films that you can enjoy on movie houses or on your home entertainment system, cable television system (CTS), and the video game system, which is popular not just to young and old gamers alike however also to video game designers, merely because of the development of innovative technologies that they can utilize to improve existing game systems.
The computer game system is intended for playing computer game, though there are modern video game systems that enables you to have a gain access to over other forms of home entertainment using such video game systems (like watching DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Web). Thus, it is typically described as "interactive entertainment computer system" to differentiate the video game system from a machine that is utilized for different functions (such as personal computer and arcade games).
The very first generation of computer game system began when Magnavox (an electronics company which makes televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) launched its first computer game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey developed by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's popularity lasted till the release of Atari's PONG computer game. Magnavox understood that they can not compete with the appeal of PONG video games, hence in 1975 they produced the Odyssey 100 computer game system that will play Atari-produced PONG games.
The second generation of computer game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild launched the FVES (Fairchild Video Home Entertainment System), that made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to conserve microprocessor instructions. However, because of the "computer game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted game reviews the video game system market. Magnavox and Atari remained in the computer game industry.
The renewal of the video game system began when Atari released the popular game Space Invaders. The industry was suddenly restored, with many players made purchase of an Atari video game system just for Area Invaders. Simply put, with the popularity of Space Invaders, Atari dominated the computer game industry throughout the 80s.
Computer game system's third generation entered 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 initially introduced in Japan and it was later on brought to the United States in the form of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And similar to Atari's Space Intruders, the release of Nintendo's well-known Super Mario Brothers was a huge success, which totally revived the suffering video game system market in the early months of 1983.
Sega planned to compete with Nintendo, however they failed to develop considerable market share. It was up until 1988 when Sega released 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 Home Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari returned with their brand-new video game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems might show more onscreen colors and the latter utilized a CD instead of game cartridges, making it more effective compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, decided to release new games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing brand-new video game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Several years later, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the fifth 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 very first Internet-ready game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Video Game Cube which is their very first system to utilize video game CDs), and the newbie Microsoft (Xbox).
The most recent generation of computer game systems is now gradually getting in the video game market. 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 exact same year (North America), 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 very same year (Japan), December 7 (Australia), and December 8 (Europe).
The development of computer game system does not end here. There will be future generations of game system being developed as of this moment, which will defy the method we define "entertainment".