Evolution of Technology.

Geek Squad Blogs.

Here at Geek Squad we need to keep up-to-date with all the latest technological advances, but sometimes it’s nice to take a look back and see how far things have come. One subject that’s close to our hearts is video games, but they’re actually a pretty good “barometer” when it comes to charting the development of computer technology. The demands of new games are a major factor in the ongoing race to improve things like memory, processor speed and graphics capabilities. Games are also a great visual benchmark that anyone can understand, even if you don’t know what the specs of a PC actually mean you can still see something like a choppy animation or a low-quality image.

Even back in 1962 one of the first video games, Spacewar! , was used as a diagnostic test for newly installed machines. Now, the PDP-1 that ran Spacewar! wasn’t exactly a home PC, they were still some way off and the public’s first experience of home gaming was one of these…

The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972 for the discerning techie who wanted something to go with their new Timex digital watch. Now the Odyssey doesn’t impress much on paper, it didn’t really have any processing power in the same way modern consoles do and it didn’t even use microchips – the whole thing was an analogue circuit made with transistors and diodes. Many of the games were variations on the bat and ball theme (aka “oblong” and “square”) and the graphics were decidedly blocky but it’s where it all started. Even nearly 40 years on the Nintendo Wii is very much a spiritual successor with it’s focus on competitive multiplayer gaming, whilst the visuals have improved and the control method is far more advanced Wii Tennis really isn’t all that different.

The Odyssey spawned a host of imitators, however in 1977 Atari launched the daddy of all consoles, the Atari 2600. The faux wood may make it look primitive, and a little bit like Darth Vader’s letterbox, but this full colour machine with the backup of big-hitting licenses like Space Invaders and Asteroids and dominated the games market for several years.

Now the 2600 wasn’t without its flaws, the joysticks were a bit unresponsive and the handles could be pulled of, although this was a bonus because you could stick them to your forehead and pretend to be a dalek. Not that I ever did that. Despite it’s initial success the machine ultimately fell victim to bad management. A clunky, ugly version of Pac-Man was rush-released and Atari made the rather short-sighted mistake of manufacturing more cartridges than there were consoles in existence.

This was closely followed by the catastrophic release of ET, widely regarded “The Worst Video Game of All Time”. Atari had forked out an astronomical sum of money for the ET license, and the poor sales were nowhere near what was required to prevent Atari from haemorrhaging money. Furthermore affordable home computers that offered a more powerful gaming platform for developers were becoming ever more commonplace and this dealt a hammer blow to the console market that it would take time to recover from.

What is amazing is that despite all this the 2600 managed to limp on and wasn’t officially retired until 1992…pretend wood or not, the 2600 was the Sony Playstation of its day. It also begs the question how much further Games can evolve when you look at some modern games on the PS3 such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and compare this to the likes of Super Mario brothers on the NES

In the next part I’ll take a look at how those educational computer things that all the schools were buying in the early 80’s managed to get subverted into the ultimate big boy’s toy…

Image credits.

• Magnavox Odyssey http://www.pong-story.com/odyssey.htm
• Wii Tennis http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Wii_Sports/Tennis
• Atari 2600 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600
• Pac-Man http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pac-man.png
• ET http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ET2600-Pit.gif
• Metal Gear Solid 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_4:_Guns_of_the_Patriots
• Super Mario Brothers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bowser_(smb1).png