Home entertainment takes its brand-new type. With the development of technology and its combination to different aspects of our lives, conventional home entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural shows is changed by so-called "electronic home entertainment". There you have different digital and animated films that you can enjoy on movie theater or on your home entertainment system, cable television system (CTS), and the video game system, which is popular not simply to young and old players alike however likewise to game designers, simply because of the advancement of innovative technologies that they can utilize to enhance existing video game systems.
The video game system is meant for playing video games, though there are contemporary video game systems that enables you to have a gain access to over other types of home entertainment using such game systems (like enjoying DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Web). Thus, it is frequently referred to as "interactive home entertainment computer" to differentiate the video game system from a maker that is utilized for different functions (such as computer and game video games).
The first generation of computer game system began when Magnavox (an electronics company which produces televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) released its very first computer game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey designed by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's appeal lasted till the release of Atari's PONG video games. Magnavox understood that they can not take on the appeal of PONG video games, thus in 1975 they created 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 Entertainment System), which made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to conserve microprocessor directions. Nevertheless, because of the "computer game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted the video game system market. Magnavox and Atari remained in the computer game market.
The rebirth of the video game system began when Atari released the popular arcade Area Invaders. The market was all of a sudden revived, with numerous players made purchase of an Atari video game system just for Area Intruders. To put it simply, with the popularity of Space Invaders, Atari controlled the computer game market throughout the 80s.
Video game system's third generation entered into 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 on brought to the United States in the form of Nintendo Home entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And similar to Atari's Space Intruders, the release of Nintendo's famous Super Mario Brothers was a big success, which totally restored the suffering computer game system industry in the early months of 1983.
Sega planned to compete with Nintendo, but they stopped working to establish considerable market share. It was till 1988 when Sega launched the Sega Genesis in Japan on October 29 of the same year and on September 1, 1989 in the United States video games new and Europe territories. Two years later on, Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Home Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.
Atari returned with their brand-new computer game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems might show more onscreen colors and the latter utilized a CD instead of video game cartridges, making it more powerful compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, chose to release brand-new video games such as Donkey Kong Nation instead of producing brand-new computer game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Numerous years later on, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the 5th generation of computer game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The sixth generation of video game systems followed, involving 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 first system to make use of video game CDs), and the newcomer Microsoft (Xbox).
The latest generation of computer game systems is now slowly going into the video game market. 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 (The United States And Canada), December 2 of the exact 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".