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Home Video Game Console Generations
The history of video game consoles, both home and handheld, began in the 1970s. The first console that played games on a television set was the 1972 Magnavox Odyssey, first conceived by Ralph H. Baer in 1966. Handheld consoles originated from electro-mechanical games that used mechanical controls and light-emitting diodes (LED) as visual indicators. Handheld electronic games had replaced the mechanical controls with electronic and digital components, and with the introduction of Liquid-crystal display (LCD) to create video-like screens with programmable pixels, systems like the Microvision and the Game & Watch became the first handheld video game consoles. Since then, home game consoles have progressed through technology cycles typically referred to as Home video game console generations, generations. Each generation has lasted approximately five years, during which the major console manufacturers have released console with broadly similar specifications. Handheld consoles have se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnavox Odyssey
The Magnavox Odyssey is the first commercial home video game console. The hardware was designed by a small team led by Ralph H. Baer at Sanders Associates, while Magnavox completed development and released it in the United States in September 1972 and overseas the following year. The Odyssey consists of a white, black, and brown box that connects to a television set, and two rectangular game controller, controllers attached by wires. It is capable of displaying three square dots and one line of varying height on the screen in monochrome black and white, with differing behavior for the dots depending on the game played. Players place plastic overlays on the screen to display additional visual elements for each game, and one or two players for each game control their dots with the knobs and buttons on the controller by the rules given for the game. The console cannot generate audio or track score (game), scores. The Odyssey console came packaged with dice, paper money, and other b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector Display
A vector monitor, vector display, or calligraphic display is a display device used for computer graphics up through the 1970s. It is a type of CRT, similar to that of an early oscilloscope. In a vector display, the image is composed of drawn lines rather than a grid of glowing pixels as in raster graphics. The electron beam follows an arbitrary path, tracing the connected sloped lines rather than following the same horizontal raster path for all images. The beam skips over dark areas of the image without visiting their points. Some refresh vector displays use a normal phosphor that fades rapidly and needs constant refreshing 30-40 times per second to show a stable image. These displays, such as the Imlac PDS-1, require some local refresh memory to hold the vector endpoint data. Other storage tube displays, such as the popular Tektronix 4010, use a special phosphor that continues glowing for many minutes. Storage displays do not require any local memory. In the 1970s, both typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pong
''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game. Bushnell based the game's concept on an electronic ping-pong game included in the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. In response, Magnavox later sued Atari for patent infringement. ''Pong'' was the first commercially successful video game, and it helped to establish the video game industry along with the Magnavox Odyssey. Soon after its release, several companies began producing games that closely mimicked its gameplay. Eventually, Atari's competitors released new types of video games that deviated from ''Pong'''s original format to varying degrees, and this, in turn, led Atari to encourage its sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atari, Inc
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. The company was founded in Sunnyvale, California, in the center of Silicon Valley, to develop arcade games, starting with ''Pong'' in 1972. As computer technology matured with low-cost integrated circuits, Atari ventured into the consumer market, first with dedicated home video game console, home versions of ''Pong'' and other arcade successes around 1975, and into programmable consoles using game cartridges with the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later branded as the Atari 2600) in 1977. To bring the Atari VCS to market, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976. In 1978, Warner brought in Ray Kassar to help run the company, but over the next few years, gave Kassar more of a leadership role in the company. Bushnell was fired in 1978, with Kassar name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnavox
Magnavox (Latin for "great voice", often stylized as MAGNAVOX) is an American electronics brand. It was purchased by North American Philips in 1974, which was absorbed into Dutch electronics company Philips in 1987. The predecessor to Magnavox was founded in 1911 by Edwin Pridham and Peter L. Jensen, co-inventors of the moving-coil loudspeaker at their lab in Napa, California, under United States Patent number 1,105,924 for telephone receivers.Kornum, Rene.The loudspeaker is 100 years old ''Ingeniøren'', 4 November 2015 Six decades later, Magnavox produced the Magnavox Odyssey, Odyssey, the world's first home video game console. On January 29, 2013, it was announced that Philips had agreed to sell its audio and video operations to the Japan-based Funai, Funai Electric for €150 million, with the audio business planned to transfer to Funai in the latter half of 2013, and the video business in 2017. As part of the transaction, Funai was to pay a regular licensing fee to Philips f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol. Early history The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing vacuum tubes. In 1936, the technology was introduced in arcade shooting games, beginning with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite. These games evolved throughout subsequent decades, culminating in Sega's ''Periscope'', released in 1966 as the company's first successful game, which requires the player to target cardboard ships. ''Periscope'' is an early electro-mechanical game, and the first arcade game to cost one quarter per play. Sega's 1969 game ''Missile'' features electronic sound and a moving film strip to represent the targets on a projection screen, and its 1972 game ''Killer Shark'' features a mounted light gun with targets whose movement and reactions are displayed using back image projection onto a screen. Nintendo released the Beam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Table Tennis
Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of two, players take alternating turns returning a light, hollow ball over the table's net onto the opposing half of the court using small table tennis racket, rackets until they fail to do so, which results in a point for the opponent. Play is fast, requiring quick reaction and constant attention, and is characterized by an emphasis on spin, which can affect the ball's trajectory more than in other ball sports. Owed to its small minimum playing area, its ability to be played indoors in all climates, and relative accessibility of equipment, table tennis is enjoyed worldwide not just as a competitive sport, but as a common recreational pastime among players of all levels and ages. Table tennis has been an Table tennis at the Summer Olympics, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanders Associates
Sanders Associates, Inc. was a defense contractor in Nashua, New Hampshire, United States, from 1951 until it was sold in 1986. It is now part of BAE Systems Electronics & Integrated Solutions, a subsidiary of BAE Systems. It concentrated on developing and manufacturing electronic systems, notably aircraft self-protection systems, and tactical surveillance and intelligence systems. Other business areas included microwave, missile and space electronics; infrared imaging; and automated mission planning systems, with both military and commercial applications. The first home video game console was developed as a side project by engineer Ralph H. Baer and several assistants at Sanders. The production of the final product was granted to Magnavox, a home electronics company, and sold under the name Magnavox Odyssey. History The company was founded in Waltham, Massachusetts in July 1951, formed by eleven engineers and scientists from Raytheon. It was named for Royden C. Sanders Jr. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Technologizer
Harry McCracken is a global technology editor for ''Fast Company'' and the founder of Technologizer, a website about personal technology. He was an editor at large for ''Time'', covering technology, from February 2012 to June 2014. McCracken is also a former contributing editor at CNET. Until June 2, 2008, McCracken was the editor-in-chief of ''PC World'' for four years; he had previously held other editorial positions for ten. Biography He was educated in the public schools of Newton, Massachusetts, the Cambridge School of Weston, and Boston University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. McCracken is the son of the late Samuel McCracken, a professor at Boston University and a long-time assistant to BU president John Silber; and Natalie Jacobson McCracken, a retired editor in chief for development and alumni publications at BU. Controversy On May 1, 2007, McCracken resigned abruptly under controversial circumstances. McCracken quit abruptly because the new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcade Game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and include arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games or merchandisers. Types Broadly, arcade games are nearly always considered Game of skill, games of skill, with only some elements of game of chance, games of chance. Games that are solely games of chance, like slot machines and pachinko, often are categorized legally as gambling devices and, due to restrictions, may not be made available to minors or without appropriate oversight in many jurisdictions. Arcade video games Arcade video games were first introduced in the early 1970s, with ''Pong'' as the first commercially successful game. Arcade video games use Electronics, electronic or computerized circuitry to take input from the player and translate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Space
''Computer Space'' is a 1971 space combat arcade video game. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in partnership as Syzygy Engineering, it was the first arcade video game as well as the first commercially available video game. ''Computer Space'' is a derivative of the 1962 computer game ''Spacewar!'', which is possibly the first video game to spread to multiple computer installations. It features a rocket controlled by the player engaged in a missile battle with a pair of hardware-controlled flying saucers set against a starfield background. The goal is to score more hits than the enemy spaceships within a set time period, which awards a free round of gameplay. The game is enclosed in a custom fiberglass cabinet, which Bushnell designed to look futuristic. Bushnell and Dabney designed the game in 1970–71 to be a coin-operated version of ''Spacewar!''. After the pair were unable to find a way to economically run the game on a minicomputer such as the Data General Nova, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ted Dabney
Samuel Frederick "Ted" Dabney Jr. (May 2, 1937 – May 26, 2018) was an American electrical engineer, and the co-founder, alongside Nolan Bushnell, of Atari, Inc. He is recognized as developing the basics of video circuitry principles that were used for '' Computer Space'' and later ''Pong'', one of the first and most successful arcade games. Education and early career Dabney was born in San Francisco, California, to Irma and Samuel Frederick Dabney. His parents divorced while he was young and he was subsequently raised by his father. One of several schools that he attended was John A. O'Connell High School of Technology, where he studied trade drafting, which led to him getting a job with the California Department of Transportation while still a teenager. He eventually got his high school diploma from San Mateo High School; Dabney credited a math teacher named Walker there who got him interested in the electronics and computing areas. He then had a summer position with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
