XBox 360 Video Consoles

The successor to the XBox, compete online with XBox Live. You can also download arcade games, movies and much more.

Playstation 3 Video Consoles

Competes with the Xbox 360 above as it also has the ability to play online.

Wii Video Consoles

This video console also competes with the two consoles above, but has a motion detector in its remote.

Playstation 3 Video Consoles

Still a good video console which can be bought very cheap.

Nintendo DS Video Consoles

Good quality hand held video console, idea for travel.

History of video Consoles

Video console is an interactive electronic machine that performs by fabricating video display signals that can be operated using a display machine like the monitor and the television to show video game. Video game console is a phrase used to differentiate machine intended for the customers to purchase and utilize for playing video games from the owners computer that is designed for various functions like purchasing then make others pay for the services offered.

The first home video console is the Magnavox Odyssey that was designed by Ralph Baer and was through with it by 1968. It is mostly referred to as Brown Box to standard video game hobbyists. Majority of video game consoles are usually digital but Odyssey’s invention is quite amazing as it is analog unlike the rest even though its graphics and controller responsiveness are normally crude. It was operated using batteries and had no sound capability.

The Odyssey lasted for a short period after which it gave way to poor marketing. The chains using it were not faithful to the clients; they made them believe that the Odyssey would be functional only on Magnavox television. It then proved that consoles for home use could be designed.

Harold Lee an Atari engineer came up with the idea of home PONG unit in 1973. This was after the succession of the original PONG coin-op. He made some changes to the PONG coin-op so that it could be suitable for home use. This brought a new way for the consumer electronics.

Odyssey 100 was then released in 1975 as an analog system which operated by the use of four Texas Instruments chips. The only games played by it were Hockey and Tennis and never used Cartridges. The system was powered by an AC adaptor or six batteries and the games were selected by use of some simple made switch. It was very unique and essential and lacked most of the common features found in other seller PONG systems.

They never had digitals on screen scoring and the players used two little plastic cursors to mark their score. The server was automatic and could not be altered. The Odyssey 300 was the initial Magnavox system to give digital on the screen in 1976.

An improved version of Odyssey 100 called Odyssey 200 was released in 1975. It was an improved version as it had two extra chips adapted from Texas Instruments. It had additional game known as Smash. The players were normally two or four; the scores were displayed on the screen by use of small rectangles which move to the right

In 1976 the Atari Super Pong were introduced. The users could make a choice for four various variations of the games offered for their entertainments. It had attracting rainbow colors and had inbuilt speakers that produced ear catching sound. In 1976 the Wonder Wizard Model 7702 that had a Magnavox Odyssey 300 was sold. Its top was designed in two versions, one had black knobs and entirely covered with wood grain while the other had silver knobs and the wood grain only covered the part with Wonder Wizard name

The History of Video Games

Video games were introduced in the late 1970’s as a commercial entertainment media.  Video games industry later on collapsed in 1983 and later picked up after two years.  There has been sustained growth in the video games industry over the last two decades. Video games industry has brought so much rivalry to the motion picture industry. This has made it the most profitable entertainment business in the world ever.

The first video game was developed in the United States. A device called the cathode ray tube was made. The game tried to reproduce a missile firing at a target. It had knobs to change the bend and the speed at which the missile was fired. Little targets were manually drawn and placed over the screen; this is because computer graphics were hard to be drawn electronically. Most of early computer games were loaded on mainframe computers in the United States. These games came from individuals who developed them as part of their hobbies. Due to limited accessibility of computer components, these games were less numbers.  Later on in 1961 there emerged a collection of interactive computer programs which were created using TX-0 machine in MIT. An example of such games is mouse in the maze, which gave users an opportunity to build maze walls. Hax on the other hand was a game played by adjusting switches on a console; this resulted to graphical pictures and sounds on the screen. Also using a light sensitive pen a person could have played naught and crosses games on the computer.

It was not until 1990’s that the video game industry matured into a typical form of entertainment. This saw the development of major video games. Due to higher computing powers and less cost of processors there was a rise in graphics as well as multimedia technology of sound cards and compact disc ROM’s. The last decade has had an increased market for portable games. In addition, several mobile phone companies launched many handheld games platform. These games had color screens, high memory and better processing power to do good gaming. Phones that are more superior came to the market, which also added more taste to the mobile phone games. In 2001, Microsoft Corporation Company well known for its windows OS introduced Xbox. This did not bring the company much profits and the company decided to try out on games production and publishing. Microsoft developed some games, which were very successful at that particular time.

As the internet became more and more affordable, several publishers turned to online games several multiplayer games emerged like World of Warcraft and Ultima Online. This decade saw the introduction of more sophisticated, complex and adult based games. There are now classical games like Halo, Grand theft auto that are prominent for their success and infamy.  Today’s games features high quality graphics, large memory based storage devices, shared networking and an online gameplay. Today we are experiencing high definition games and the way the player interacted with the games has changed very much.

The release of Xbox was done differently as per the country for instance, in North America it was done on November 15, 2001, in Japan on February 22, 2002 and Australia and Europe on March 14. 2002. The last Xbox game was released in August 2008 after being discontinued in late 2006.

Seamus Blackley one of the Microsoft team was among those who developed the first Xbox edition. The console was delayed by Microsoft which was only realized through an interview conducted by Bill Gate who was then the Microsoft CEO in 1999. He said that a multi media device was needed for multimedia meetings in the recent times. It was then unveiled in 2000 by the CEO at game developers’ conference when Saga’s dream cast was withdrawing and the play station by Sony was also thumping the avenues in Japan.

The launch of Xbox had some crucial errors since it was after pleasing the Japanese consumers. They responded positively which encouraged Microsoft to go hard after the Japanese market which drugged the Europe launch. Some of the Xbox initial members like Kevin Bachus and Seamus Blackley decided to quite the company, the other initial members though are not working with the Xbox project but are with the Microsoft are Ted Hase and Otto Berkes

Microsoft has made great achievement towards the improvement of Xbox; it acquired Bungie and used Halo as the title of the launch. Some of the few FPS hit games was the Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64 that appeared on the console including the Medal of Honor and Perfect Dark. Microsoft overtook Nintendo to acquire a second place in North America where slots in consoles were sold. It had reached majority of people in 2002 which was not as per many people’s expectations. These were some of the notable launch games meant for the console; project Gotham racing, dead or alive 3, Halo: Combat Evolved, Amped: Freestyle snowboarding and Fuzion Frenzy.

Xbox 360 is a version of Xbox which supports a given number of the Xbox’s game library through imitation which gives support for anti aliasing of the standard images. The imitations are occasionally updated to ensure there is a compatibility of old games and are always obtainable at no cost trough Xbox live. The updates are done on a monthly basis as a piece of the presentation disc that is usually accompanied by issues concerning Official Xbox Magazines.

On May 12, 2005, the Xbox 360 was formally disclosed on MTV. The detail of the launch and information about the games was made during the same month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Most of the units had been purchased globally by January 5, 2009. The Xbox 360 is obtainable in the following three configurations: The Elite console, the pro and the Arcade.