History of the video game consoles (first generation)

The Histoire of the video game consoles starts with a first generation, Odyssey in 1972, with Pong in 1975.

Interactive television

The engineer of television Ralph Baer conceives the idea of an interactive television when it builds a Téléviseur for Loral in 1951. He explores this idea later, in 1966 when he is engineer chief and manager of division Equipment Design of Sanders Associates. He creates a simple Video game, for two players, who sets up two points continuing, the whole posted on a standard television set. After a demonstration with the director R & D Herbert Campman, funds are allocated to him and the project is launched officially. In 1967, Bill Harrison embarks on board team. A gun is created starting from a toy. It is used to aim at a target moved by another player.

Bill Rusch joined the project to accelerate the development, and soon a third point appears, controlled by a machine. It is used to create a play of Table tennis. With more funds, other plays are created, Ralph Baer has then the idea to sell the product with companies of Cable television which can transmit static images which are used as Arrière-plan for the plays. A prototype is in demonstration in February 1968 on the telepromptor of the vice-president Hubert Schlafly who signs an agreement with the Sanders company. But the industry of cable television falls at the end of the years 1960. Because of the basic lack, other possibilities must be required. The development continues then on electronic material. The result is the prototype “Brown Box” ( box chestnut ) which has two controllers, a gun and six switches which makes it possible to choose a play. Ralph Baer approaches various American manufacturers of television, an agreement is finally signed with Magnavox in 1969. The principal modifications of Magnavox to “Brown Box” are the use of circuits plugged in to choose the play and the removal of the possibility of having graphics color in favor of superpositions of copies to reduce the production costs. The end result is the Odyssey in May 1972.

First personal video games

The Odyssey is the first indexed video Game console. It contains mainly analogical electronics, this concept comes from the Années 1950. She was not a broad success because of a restrictive Marketing. During a time, the other companies with similar products (as Atari) had to pay rights of the Intellectual property.

The majority of the first plays using of numerical electronics function on host computers of university. They are developed by users at the time of their spare time. In 1961, a group of students of the Massachusetts Institute off Technology program a play called Spacewar on DEC PDP-1. In 1970, Nolan Bushnell sees Spacewar for the first time at the university of Utah. Thinking that there would be a commercial potential in a version arcade, it creates a personalized computer able to make function the play on a television in black and white. The result is a play: Computer Space which is not business success. Nolan then starts to seek new ideas. In 1971 he sees a demonstration of the Odyssey and engages Al Alcorn to produce a version arcade play of table tennis (by using technology TTL), called Pong .

The personal video games are a popular success with a version for the private individuals of Pong at the end of the year 1975. It is sold some more than 13 million specimens. From this popularity is born a hundred from clones, including the Coleco TELSTAR which is a real success.

The first console to have a Processeur is a console of second generation, the Fairchild Chanel F, left in August 1976. It is based on the Fairchild F8. The concept of play on cartridge is introduced by this console, which initiates the concept of interchangeable plays.

See too

History of the video games
History of data processing

; External bonds

Ralph Baer describes the birth of the video games
How the video games were introduced into the family hearth by Ralph Baer.
the first generation of consoles on thedoteaters.com.

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