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Join Michael Miller for a trip down memory lane as he details the 30-year history of home video game consoles, from the original, dedicated, single-game units to today's CD-based games.

A History of Home Video Game Consoles

By Michael Miller.

Youngsters reading this might find it hard to believe, but there once was a world without video games. The first home video games didn't appear until the early 1970s and didn't become widely popular until 1975. That was when Atari adapted its PONG game from the electronic arcade version, and video game mania swept the country.

That was just the beginning, of course. That crude ball-and-paddle game launched several generations of innovative electronic entertainment, culminating in today's ultrarealistic, fast-paced console games.

First Generation: 1972–1977

Like many technological advances, the idea for video games originated with the government; the mid-1960s military wanted some sort of device that would develop the reflexes of military personnel. In 1966, Ralph Baer, an employee of defense contractor Sanders Associates, addressed this demand when he came up with the concept of a "television gaming apparatus." This device included both a chase game and a video tennis game, and could be attached to a normal television set.

Magnavox Odyssey

It took several years and numerous false starts, but in 1970, Baer showed the game to Magnavox, which signed a licensing agreement the following year. Then, on January 27, 1972, Magnavox launched Baer's "brown box" technology as the Odyssey video game console—the world's first home video game system. Priced at $100, the Odyssey utilized simple black-and-white graphics, enhanced by plastic overlays for the television screen.

This pioneering game system was not a lasting success, however. The Odyssey was extremely clunky and not very challenging; it also suffered from marketing materials that implied it could be used only on Magnavox-brand television sets. (This wasn't true, but Magnavox hoped to drive related TV sales.) As a result, the Odyssey sold only 200,000 units over its three-year life.

Atari PONG

Also in 1972, inspired by an early peek at Baer's original video tennis game, Nolan Bushnell and his Atari company released an electronic arcade game called PONG, which became a huge success. This game truly launched the electronic gaming revolution; from 1972 through 1976, you couldn't go to a pub or arcade without finding a long line at the PONG machine.

Unfazed by the Odyssey's short shelf life, Atari decided to port PONG to the home. Unable to obtain financing to release the game on its own, Atari partnered with Sears and in 1975 released a home version of PONG under the Sears Tele-Games label. The $100 game system was Sears' best-selling item during the 1975 Christmas season, with sales of more than $40 million.

Sears had an exclusive for about six months. In 1976, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications, which had enough cash to release an Atari-branded PONG unit later that year. It was a further hit and established the Atari name among the general public.

PONG Clones

Following Atari's smashing success, several companies released PONG "clones" using General Instrument's "PONG-on-a-chip" integrated circuit. Chief among these competitors were Coleco's Telstar and Magnavox's Odyssey 100. None achieved the sales levels of the Sears- and Atari-branded games, but all managed to sell a fair number of units during the 1976 Christmas season.

Fairchild Channel F

In August 1976, Fairchild Camera and Instrument leveraged its position as the creator of the microchip to release the first programmable home video game system. Based on Fairchild's own 8-bit F8 microprocessor and displaying 16-color graphics, it was capable of playing a variety of games as programmed by removable ROM cartridges.

The resulting Channel F Video Entertainment System sold for $169 and accepted $20 Videocart game cartridges, which resembled the then-popular 8-track tapes in size and shape. The system was well received by gamers eager for the "next big thing," but, faced with a glut of much-cheaper single-game systems, the Channel F was a major disappointment. Fairchild discontinued the system in early 1978.

RCA Studio III

RCA had been evaluating the video game market for several years; it had been offered a chance to bid on Ralph Baer's original Odyssey technology back in the early 1970s but had passed on the opportunity. Now, seeing Atari's success, RCA decided to enter the video game market on its own with what it hoped would be the first programmable system.

Unfortunately, RCA was a step too slow. RCA's Studio II followed Fairchild to market in January 1977 at a price of $149. Even though the Studio II used the same 8-bit COSMAC 1802 microprocessor that was used in NASA's Voyager and Galileo spacecraft, its chunky black-and-white graphics were notably inferior to those of the Channel F. Interestingly, the Studio II used keypad controllers (built into the main unit) instead of paddles or joysticks, which enabled the playing of some numbers-based games. Too little too late, the Studio II failed in the marketplace and was discontinued in 1979.

Second Generation (Golden Age): 1977–1982
Fairchild had initiated the age of the programmable video game, but its graphics weren't far removed from those of the original PONG game. Customers clamored for higher-resolution graphics, better game play, and more games—which Atari would soon deliver.

Atari VCS

The "golden age" of home video games was launched in October 1977 when Atari released its own programmable video game system. Priced at $199, Atari's Video Computer System (VCS), later known as the Atari 2600, was based on an 8-bit Motorola 6507 microprocessor, with 256 bytes of RAM. On the market through 1990, the Atari VCS went on to sell more than 25 million units over its product life. Over the course of its production run, 40 different manufacturers created more than 200 different games for the system, selling more than 120 million cartridges of popular games such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, and Pac-Man.

Bally Professional Arcade

One of Atari's first competitors in the programmable video game market was Bally, which launched the Bally Professional Arcade in 1977. Even though the Bally unit had better graphics than the Atari VCS, it sold at a much higher price ($350) and failed to catch on beyond a hard-core cult following who appreciated what the system had to offer. In 1981, Bally sold the rights to the Professional Arcade to Astrovision, which in 1982 marketed the then-dying system as the Astrocade.

Magnavox Odyssey2

Magnavox jumped into the programmable video game market with the Odyssey2. Launched in 1978, the Odyssey2 featured an integrated alphanumeric membrane keyboard. The Odyssey2 was more popular in Europe than in the United States, where parent company Philips Electronics marketed it as the Videopac. In the United States, it sold only about a million units—well below the market-leading Atari 2600.

Mattel Intellivision

Atari received a more serious competitor in 1980, when Mattel launched its Intellivision video game system. Intellivision featured better graphics than the VCS and was the first video game system to utilize a 16-bit microprocessor—the General Instruments 1600. Intellivision became known for its proprietary sports titles, such as Major League Baseball, NFL Football, NHL Hockey, and NBA Basketball, even though the lack of third-party games contributed to its second-place showing against the Atari 2600.

Vectrex

Vectrex was a vector-based (as opposed to sprite-based) game system that had its own black-and-white monitor over which plastic colored inlays could be placed to add "color" to games. It had two built-in controllers that were shaped kind of like the future Nintendo NES controllers, but with more buttons. Graphics for some games were superior to sprite-based systems, but only a limited number of games could use vector graphics. Released for the 1982 Christmas season, Vectrex didn't achieve widespread support from a public now accustomed to color game consoles that attached to their living-room television sets, and the system was declared dead less than two years later