Toxic Jam

Week Three Task

This is the third time I've had to write this post because Blogger decided that it would screw me over a few times, so sorry its a bit late. It may be a bit blunt because I was getting quite frustrated third time round, but i will read over and add stuff when i have the time.

In 1972 the first video game that could be played in the home was released. This was The Odyssey from Magnavox, it came ready programmed with twelve games. The Odyssey was not a huge success, arcade gaming was still more popular at this time. In 1975 Atari released Pong which began a steady rise in the popularity of console gaming. Fairchild released the Fairchild Entertainment System(Channel F) in 1976. The Gaming industry really took of in the late 1970's and the 1980's. The first games to be registered under copyright laws were 'asteroids' and 'Lunar Lander' both for the Atari, this took place in 1980. Gaming on computers became more popular compared with consoles. In 1984 the Commodore 64, the Apple II and the ZX Spectrum were released. Handheld games were not popular at this time, and didn't take off until Gameboy was released in 1989. The most popular games consoles were the NES in northern America and the Sega in Europe.
In the late 1980's some of the most important and popular games were released. Squaresoft were on the verge of bankruptcy when they released Final Fantasy, which saved there company and went on to become one of the most popular games of our time. NES released legend of Zelda at the same time (1987) which was just as successfully.
Gaming genres were established in the 1980's, low barriers to entry of the market meant there was a wide variety of games available. In the early 1990's the manufacture of games, consoles and computers became more expensive with higher risks. Manufacturers had to focus on maximizing profits, as a result of this there was a decrease in the variety of games , so companies had a lower risk of failure. This time was extremely significant because it caused a knock-out situation, revealing the important players in the gaming market.