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History of Video Games

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday January 20, 2002 @02:24AM from the something-to-read dept.

seer writes "There's a nice history of videogames over at GameSpot. It starts with pre-videogame activity in 1889 with the Marufuku Company (later Nintendo) and stretches to the recently released GameCube-DVD system." Hey, it's sunday. No reason to knock yourself out reading the works of ancient philosophers (unless you're taking Ancient Philosophers 230 and have an exam this week).

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Thanks emu programmers by elcairo · 2002-01-20 02:37 · Score: 5, Informative

Because they saved a LOT of the videogames story. Project like
mame,
uae,
mess is simply amazing,
and thanks to any others that contributes.
Lack of Detail by karmma · 2002-01-20 03:05 · Score: 4, Informative

I was very disappointed by the lack of detail in the article. For example: "Magnavox licenses Baer's TV game from Sanders Associates." That's all it mentions about a critical milestone in video game history. While the article notes that Sanders and Associates was a defense contractor, it doesn't mention that the game was classified as Top Secret by the Pentagon for four years while the military pondered its usefulness for their applications. It also fails to mention that RCA had first dibs on the game before Magnavox, but refused when the terms involved the purchase of Sanders and Assoc. along with the game machine itself.

If you want an informative (albeit poorly edited, IMHO) book about the early history of video games, check out "ZAP! The Rise and Fall of Atari" by Scott Cohen.