{"id":649585,"date":"2017-03-03T08:10:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T08:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2017\/03\/03\/the-videogame-revolution\/"},"modified":"2017-03-03T08:10:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T08:10:07","slug":"the-videogame-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2017\/03\/03\/the-videogame-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The videogame revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video games came of age in the \u201880s<\/strong> \u2014 and defined the players who themselves came of age wearing neon, watching Miami Vice, cringing at their younger siblings\u2019 Mini Pops albums<\/a> and (for a mercifully brief period of time) sporting rat-tails<\/a>. The first honest-to-God computer game launched at the 1940 World\u2019s Fair, according to the National Museum of Play<\/a>, but it wasn\u2019t until Nolan Bushnell and Al Alcorn<\/a> got together in 1972 to create Pong<\/a>, the first modern arcade game and a breakout hit. (The history of Pong is a bit more controversial than that \u2014 true game nerds will want to check out Wired\u2019s How Pong and the Odyssey Console Launched the Videogame Era<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Bushnell and Alcorn founded the company that became known as Atari, turning video games into a popular sensation and planting the seeds of what was a <\/strong>nearly USD 100 bn industry<\/strong><\/a> last year. Video games crept into living rooms around the world with the Atari 2600 (pictured above), which launched in 1977. Space Invaders<\/a> crashed into arcades in 1978, and Intellivision<\/a> challenged Atari with better graphics the next year.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until 1980 that a missing slice of pizza inspired Namco\u2019s Toru Iwatani to <\/strong>create Pac-Man<\/strong>, which was a smash-hit in arcades and, a few short months later, became the first arcade game to cross over to a home console when it made its debut on the Atari 2600. Donkey Kong, Tetris, Tron, Castle Wolfenstein, Q*bert and F-15 Strike Eagle followed, and video games became key sales drivers for 1980s personal computers including the Commodore Vic-20, Commodore 68 and TRS-80 Color Computer.<\/p>\n

Recommended reading: <\/strong>Tap here<\/a>for a brief history of gaming<\/strong>, courtesy TechCrunch or here<\/a> to read about coming of age with video games. <\/strong>Or go read about a new non-profit that\u2019s looking to \u201cpreserve the hidden history of video games\u201d at Polygon<\/a> or Engadget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our favourite video game movie of all time<\/strong> Lara Croft or Wing Commander or Resident Evil. It\u2019s War Games<\/strong>, the 1983 classic starring a young Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, wherein Broderick\u2019s character nearly triggers global thermonuclear warfare IRL when he kicks off a computer game on early dial-up. Watch the Shall we play a game? <\/strong>scene<\/a> (runtime: 2:37)<\/p>\n

Random factoid: A young Steve Jobs was an early Atari employee.<\/strong> He tricked Steve Wozniak, with whom he would later found Apple Computer, into making the prototype for Breakout \u201cin four sleepless nights<\/a> on Atari\u2019s factory floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ultimate Google Easter egg:<\/strong> Search for \u201cAtari Breakout\u201d<\/a> and then click on \u201cImages\u201d to play a game of Breakout with the search results.<\/p>\n

Lite nostalgia fix:<\/strong> Play classic 1980s arcade and home video games here. (Be patient: it\u2019s a bit wonky, but has the widest selection, from Donkey Kong and Pac-Man to Zaxxon.) A handful of other links that run better, but have been re-rendered for modern screen resolutions. You\u2019ll want to run the links in Chrome on a Mac \u2014 most require Flash.<\/p>\n