Home entertainment takes its new form. With the advancement of innovation and its integration to various aspects of our lives, conventional entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural programs is replaced by so-called "electronic home entertainment". There you have various digital and animated movies that you can watch on movie theater or on your house entertainment system, cable television system (CTS), and the video game system, which is popular not simply to young and old players alike but also to video game developers, simply because of the advancement of ingenious innovations that they can utilize to improve existing video game systems.
The video game system is intended for playing computer game, though there are modern game systems that permits you to have a gain access to over other types of entertainment utilizing such game systems (like viewing DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Web). Thus, it is often referred to as "interactive home entertainment computer" to distinguish the video game system from a maker that is used for different functions (such as computer and game video games).
The first generation of video game system started when Magnavox (an electronics company which produces televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) launched its very first computer game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey created by Ralph Baer. Odyssey's popularity lasted until the release of Atari's PONG video games. Magnavox understood that they can not take on the appeal of PONG games, hence in 1975 they produced the Odyssey 100 computer game system that will play Atari-produced PONG video games.
The 2nd 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), which made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to save microprocessor guidelines. However, because of the "video game crash" in 1977, Fairchild deserted the computer game system market. Magnavox and Atari stayed in the computer game market.
The renewal of the computer game system began when Atari released the popular arcade Space Invaders. The market was unexpectedly restored, with lots of gamers made purchase of an Atari video game system just for Space Intruders. In other words, with the popularity of Space Intruders, Atari controlled the video game market throughout the 80s.
Video game system's third generation entered being after the release of Nintendo's Famicon in 1983. It supported complete color, high resolution, and tiled background gaming system. It was at first launched in Japan and it was later on given the United States in the form of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And just like Atari's Area Invaders, 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 take on Nintendo, however they failed to develop significant 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. 2 years later on, Nintendo released 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 could show more onscreen colors and the latter used a CD instead of game cartridges, making it more powerful compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, opted to release brand-new games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing brand-new computer game systems. Sega's Vectorman and Virtua Racing did the same. Numerous years later, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the fifth generation of video game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).
The 6th generation of video game systems followed, involving Sega video games new (Dreamcast, which was their last video game system and the very first Internet-ready video game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Game Cube which is their first system to utilize video game CDs), and the newcomer Microsoft (Xbox).
The most recent generation of video game systems is now gradually getting in the video game industry. 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 (North America), and March 2007 (Europe); and
- Nintendo's Wii, which is arranged to be released on November 19, 2006 (North America), December 2 of the 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 developed as of this moment, which will defy the method we define "home entertainment".