The Evolving Scale of Gaming

n ệ EVOLVING SCALE OF GAMING From the birth of simple home gaming in 1972 to the ever immersive experience that we're used to today, video gaming has consistently progressed at an impressive rate. In the very beginning there was the simple novelty of Pong. Nowadays we have the ability to explore huge worlds, interact with intelligent non-playing characters and play with gamers around the world via online gaming. Here's a look at how the scale of gaming and gaming console technology has evolved, from the beginning to the present. (1972-77) First Generation Consoles: The Big Bang Of Home Video Gaming Tennis for Two, the original tennis simulation game, was created in 1958 by Nuclear Physicist William Higinbotham, who previously worked on the Manhattan Project and was present for the first atom bomb test Tennis, Analogic, Hockey and Fogtball (Part 1) Submarine Cat and Mouse, Haunted House, Football (Part 2) Magnavox Odyssey 1972, 330,000 units sold GDYSSEY Table Tennis Ski, Simon Says Roulette, States Football Tech Specs Battery powered, the Odyssey didn't have a CPU or memory, instead utilising game circuit cards which slotted into the Master Control Unit. A basic table tennis simulation, yet groundbreaking, video games had found a new home Atari's PONG PONG 1975, 150,000 units sold Tech Specs There are few specifications to be found. However, the central chip was a giant step forward, allowing sound and for the first time onscreen scoring (1977 - 83) Second Generation Consoles: Rise And Fall Of The Atari VCS / 2600 An extremely popular console, the Atari VCS / 2600 was the first to adopt programmed game cartridges Adventure This innovative action adventure game laid the RPG foundations ATARI Atari VCS / 2600 1977, 30 million units sold Pitfall This technically brilliant and hyvper addictive platformer started the genre in style Tech Specs CPU: MOS Technology 6507 CPU, 8-Bit running at 1.19 Mhz Graphics: 8-Bit Resolution: 160x192 Colour Palette: 128 (NTSC) 104 (PAL) Onscreen Colours: 4 colours at once (one colour per object) Sprites: 2 sprites of 8 pixels width, 3 sprites of 1 pixel width Playfield: 40 dots horizontal resolution (rows of 4 pixels per dot) RAM: 128 Bytes ROM: 4 KB (1983 - 95) Third Generation Consoles: Golden Age Of 8-Bit Gaming A colossus among the consoles, the NES singlehandedly reversed the 1983 US videogame crash Nintendo ...... ...... NES 1985, 62 million units sold Tech Specs CPU: Motorola 6502 processor, running at approx 1.79 Mhz Graphics: 8-Bit Resolution: 256x240 Colour Palette: 52 colours Onscreen Colours: 16 Sprites: 64 per screen, 8 per line Sprite Size: Min 8x8 pixels, max 8x16 RAM: 2KB Video RAM: 2KB SuPen MARIO BROS Super Mario Bros 1985, 40.23 million units sold The moustached plumber's antics across the seven platform levels of Mushroom World truly revolutionised gaming forever ZELDA The Legend Of Zelda 1987 The open expanse of Hyrule brought a new complexity with its thrilling mix of adventure, puzzles and battles. The open expanse of Hyrule beckoned players to take Link on non-linear explorations of the various environments. The size of the quest meant the cartridge became the first to feature an in-built battery to save a player's position FINAL FANTASY Final Fantasy 1990, over 2 million units sold Final Fantasy was light years ahead of its time and set the template for a great RPG while simultaneously popularising the genre. Your four characters had their own special abilities, which you had to harness as you explored the three continents of the game world NES Conquers Gaming World The immense and deserved popularity of the NES saw its sales skyrocket as it conquered and resuscitated the video game market. Incredibly, the NES sold 62 million units, which is the equivalent of the entire current population of Great Britain owning one Tech Specs CPU: Zilog 280 3.58 Mhz Graphics: 8-Bit Resolution: 256x240 SEGA 1986, 6 million units Sega Master System Sega's valiant challenger for Nintendo's 8-Bit crown ultimately failed, despite having more power beneath its black chassis Colour Palette: 64 colours Onscreen Colours: 32 Sprites: 64 per screen, 8 per line Sprite Size: Min 8x8 pixels, max 8x16 RAM: 8KB Video RAM: 16KB Akes Kidd Alex Kidd In Miracle World 1986 The little guy lost out to Mario, but this underrated platformer has a nice story arc, lush map screens and shops in which the hero could buy various power ups with collected cash Phantasy Starr 1988 Epic in its day, the beautiful maps were incredibly detailed and the non-linear quest stretched over three giant planets. The game was so big that it required a cart with both extra memory and battery back-up (1988 - 99) Fourth Generation Consoles: Clash Of The 16-Bit Titans SUPER NINTENDO HEGA DRIVED DEEECINERKENALIE 1990, 49 million units 1988, 39 million units Sega threw down the gauntlet to Nintendo with the Megadrive. Self consciously cool, the Megadrive helped Sega overtake Nintendo in the gaming market for a while The release of the SNES instigated the first real console battle. A string of killer apps updating Nintendo's much loved back catalogue saw it rise to supremacy over the Megadrive Tech Specs CPU: 16-Bit 65c816 Ricoh 3.58 Mhz Work RAM for CPU: 128KB PPU: 16-Bit Video RAM for PPU: 64KB Max Colours On One Screen: 256 Total Colours Available: 32,768 Max Screen Resolution: 512x448 Max Sprites Per Screen: 128 Max Sprites Per Line: 32 Max Sprite Size: 64x64 Min Sprite Size: 8x8 Scrolling: Horizontal, Vertical and Diagonal APU: 8-Bit producing 16-Bit sound Number Of Sound Channels: 8 Clock Speed: 3.58, 2.68 & 1.79 Mhz Tech Specs Processor: Motorola 68HCO00 16/32-Bit processor ot 7.67 Mhz Co-processor (Sound Controller): Zilog Z80 8-Bit ot 3.58 Mhz Vi10y Processor e Yamaha the Sega Master System Memory: 64K work RAM (68000), 64K video RAM, 8K work RAM (Z80) Display Palette: 512 colours Onscreen Colours: 64 (normal) or 183 (shadow/highlight mode) Max Onscreen Sprites: 80 (320-pixel display) or 64 (256-pixel display) Resolution: 256x224, 256x448, 320x224, 320x448 Super Mario World 1990 Sonic The Hedgehog 1991 Mario struck back against Sonic's rising popularity with the help of Yoshi in this ground breaking evolution of the platform genre SONIC HEDGEHUG Sega finally got the mascot it deserved with Sonic. The blue hero had more edge than Mario and the game's speed shook the genre Mortal Kombat 1993 Mana 1993 Square's much loved Secret Of Mana was one of the best RPG's of its time with real-time battles and Secret SecRET MANA MORTAL KOMBAT Gamers grew up with the MA-13 rated Mortal Kombat. The realism made the extreme violence and an innovative multiplayer option gore all the more shocking Star Fox 1993 Flashback 1993 A joint effort between Nintendo and Argonaut Software, this was the first 3D Nintendo game. A Stunning 3D shooter way ahead of its time This sci-fi cinematic platformer used motion capture animation, giving the hero's movements a startling fluidity for the time STARFOX FLASHBACK (1993 - 2006) Fifth Generation Consoles: Into The Third Dimension Tech Specs CPU: R3000A 32Bit RISC chip at 33.8 Mhz, manufactured by LSI Logic Corp Clearing Capacity: 30 MIPS Bus Bandwidth: 132 Mb/sec 3D Geometry Engine: High speed matrix calculator Clearing Capacity: 66 MIPS Graphics: 16.7 million colours Resolution: 256x224 - 740x480 2 Megabytes VRAM: 1 Megabyte Sound RAM: 512K Playstation 1994, 103 million units Sony's first console began as a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES to be named the SNES-CD. Nintendo pulled out and Sony developed it into the Playstation. The rest is history Main RAM: CD-ROM Buffer: 32K Operating System ROM: 512K RAM Cards For Data Save: 128K Resident Evil, 1996 Arguably the most influential survival horror game, Resident Evil was an incredibly atmospheric cinematic experience that introduced a movie-like gaming experience. A truly giant quest held by many to be the genre EEprom Final Fantasy VIII, 1999 Epic in scope and beautiful to lok at, Final Fantasy VIII continued the brilliance of the RPG series, but there was a new depth to the storyline and a memorable cast of characters. It also boasted a massive quest, spanning across several discs Metal Gear Solid, 1998 One of the most influential releases on the Playstation. All action adventure games following in its gameplay features like intelligent stealth tactics and non-player character borrowed from its repertoire of innovative A.I. Tech Specs CPU: Main SH2 (28.6 Mhz, 25 MIPS) x2, sound 68ECO00 (11.3 Mhz) Work RAM: 16Mbit Video RAM: 12Mbit Sound RAM: 4Mbit Resolution: 320x224, 640x224 704x480 Sega Saturn 1994, 9.5 million units Sega's ill-fated 32-Bit machine had much to contend with in comparison with the Playstation. Difficult to programme for, the best and most innovative games were Sega's conversions of their arcade hits Colours: 32,000 displayed in foreground, 24Bit colour palette 20 Capabilities: Virtually unlimited sprites on a line, 24-Bit backgrounds 3D Capabilities: Texture mapping Gouraud shading, 512K texture cache, 200,000 texture-mapped polygons per second CD-ROM: 660MB max capacity Sega Rally Championship, 1995 Sega's high resolution racing port represented a progressive step forward for realism in racing simulators, as it was first to alter car handling in relation to the changing track surfaces, making it a firm favourite for many racing fans Virtua Fighter 2, 1995 Sega went to town with Virtua Fighter 2, making the finest 32-Bit Vntng Bame. Despite the obvious graphical downgrade the hi-res ter looked among Sega Saturn owners ed and played great, , making it a strong favourite Tech Specs CPU: Custom 64-Bit MIPS R4300 RISC CPU (93.75 Mhz) utilising Reality Immersion Technology 256x224 to 640x480 colour output 32-Bit RGBA pixel colour frome buffer support Memory Configuration: 4MB total RAM, Rambus DRAM Subsystem capable of transferring up to 562.5 MB per second Hardware Support For: 2-buffering scaling, rotation, skewing, shading anti-aliasing, texture mapping detail texturing, tri-linear Mip Mop interpolation, perspective correction, environment mapping depth buffering, LOD management vertex positioning and transformations, depth, colour and Nintendo 64 2D Graphical 1996, 33 million units Wary of using CD's, Nintendo announced their new 64-Bit console would use cartridges. Gamers thought Nintendo were being left behind, until they saw Super Mario 64 Super Mario 64, 1996 Super Mario 64 represented a massive step forward as the platform genre entered into an open 3D environment. Miyamoto and his team developed an innovative camera and precise control, making Mario's new worlds magnificently immersive The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, 1998 It took a team of 200 to develop N64's Zelda. As players adapted to a new control system they were given the freedom to experiment in a new form of RPG and be overawed by the sheer scale, openness and excitement of a 3D Hyrule texture clipping, Go transpard Sprite Special Effects: scaling rotation, anti-aliasing, transparancy Goldeneye 007, 1997 The storyline, range of different weapons and innovative control system of Goldeneye 007 set a new benchmark for first person shooters. The multiplayer deathmatch option was an intense experience and was adopted by the genre as a must-have feature (1998 - Present) Sixth Generation Consoles: The Move To Multimedia Sega Dreamcast 1998, 10.6 million units Tech Specs CPU: 128-Bit Hitochi SH-4 RISC (200Mhz 360 MIPS) prnhics: NEC CLX2 processor RAM: 16MB, 8MB video RAM, 2MB Dreamcast The Dreamcast was the first 128-Bit games console and the last made by Sega. It pioneered online gaming, an extremely important innovation in the gaming industry sound RAM Colours: 16.7 million Polygons: 3 million per second Game Media: 1.2GB GD-ROM, 12x Resolution: 6ta ress svels Dreamcast Innovations In A.I. Short lived as it was, the Dreamcast had two standout games that broke new ground for A.I. - Shenmue (1999) was an open world adventure game that simulated real life through varying weather effects and alternating periods of night and day. The talking NPC's also have developed personalities and daily routines. Seaman (1999) was a virtual pet game in which the curious human faced carp creature would respond and learn from commands spoken by the player into a dedicated microphone unit Sound: Yamaha 64 channel Operating System: Custom Windows CE with DirectX support Modem: 56Kbps (US/IP NTSC), 33.3Kbps (PAL) Playstation 2 rP 2000, 150 million units Tech Specs CPU: 128-Bit Emotion Engine System Clock: 30Mhz System Memory: 32MB Direct Rambus Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2 GB per second Sony's PS2 became the best selling console of all time. The graphics and interactivity of the game environments were a significant advancement and it utilised Co-processor: FPU Vector Units: VUO and VU1 Floating Point Performance: 6.2 GFLOPS Compresed Image Decoder: MPEG2 Clock Frequency: 150Mhz DRAM Bus Bandwidth: 48GB per second Pixel Configuration: RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer Max Polygon Rate: 75 million polygons per second CPU Core: Current Playstation CPU Sub Bus: 32 Bit Interface Types: IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus (USB) Resident Evil 4, 2005 Resident Evil 4 is widely regarded as the best game in the hugely popular series. Featuring numerous revolutionary elements including heart stopping quick-time events, an over-the-shoulder targeting system and frightening enemies, RE4 was one of the most important PS2 games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, 2002 After the hugely impresive open-world sandbox gameplay seen in Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City added to the series with an even bigger in-game environment, more weapons and vehicles and a distinctly 80's retro charm. Hailed by many as the pinnacle of the GTA series Disc Media: DVD-ROM (CD-ROM compatible) Tech Specs CPU: 733 Mhz Intel Custom Pentium II Front Side Bus: 133 Mhz - 1.0GB/sec RAM: Micron 64MB DDR SDRAM Memory Bandwidth: 6.4GB/sec bus Storage Medium: 8GB hard disk (Western Digital, 5400 RPM) Graphics Processor Unit: 250 Mhz custom designed NV2X Max Polygon Performance: 125 M/sec Simultaneous Textures: 4.8G/sec Pixel Fill Rate: Compresed Textures: (6:1) Maximum Resolution: 1920x1080 (HDTV required) Peripheral Bus (MCP BUS): 40 MB/s (Full Duplex) Operating System: Windows 2000 Core O custom designed by Microsoft) XBOX Xxeox 2001, 24 million units Microsoft's XBOX championed multimedia capabilities. Porting Windows CE into the console, it embraced online gaming with the integrated XBOX Live service Halo, 2001 Halo was one of the biggest XBOX games of all time, introducing a fantastic new hero, brilliant storyline and endless hours of co-op and LAN multiplayer gaming. Halo showed the world how a first person shooter should be done Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, 2003 Star Wars KOTÖR not only proved just how good a Star Wars franchise could be, but pushed the XBOX to the forefront amonst RPG fans. Featuring brilliant developed characters, a fantastic story, force powers and lightsabers, KOTOR still stands up today Nintendo Gamecube Tech Specs MPU (Microprocessor Unit): 485 Mhz custom IBM PowerPC Gekko Graphis Processor: 162 Mhz custom ATI / Nintendo Flipper Texture-Read Bandwidth: 10.4GB per second (peok) Main Memory Bandwidth: 2.6GB per second (peak) Pixel Depth: 24-Bit colour, 24-Bit Z buffer Sound Processor: 81 Mhz custom Macronix 16-Bit DSP Sound Performance: 64 simultaneous channels, ADPCM encoding Polygon Performance: 6 to 12 million polygons per second (peak) System Memory: 40MB Main Memory: 24MB MoSys 1T-SRAM Disc Drive: 128 ms CAV (constant angular velocity) system Data Transfer Speed: 16Mbps to 25Mbps Media: 3-inch, 1.5GB copacity disc 2001, 21 million units Rejecting the move to multimedia made by the XBOX and PS2, Nintendo made their less powerful Gamecube a console dedicated to great gaming, updating their stellar back catalogue Super Smash Bros Melee, 2003 Super Smash Bros Melee was a dream come true for any Nintendo fan, featuring the best characters from every major Nintendo franchise. Fun, fast and full of references aimed at Nintendo fans, Super Smash Bros Melee was a must-have for any Gamecube owner Metroid Prime, 2002 Metroid Prime was not e alike, but it breathed new life into an ageing franchise. Pushing gameplay and graphics to the limit, Metroid Prime was one of the top Nintendo titles in over two decades of gaming a huge hit amongst gamers and critics (2005 - Present) Seventh Generation Consoles: New Virtual Territories PS3 Wii XBOX 360 55 milion units so far The XBOX 360 integrated entertainment with its improved XBOX Live service and Windows Media Centre. Immersive giant environments and A.I. took g strides forward 50 million units so far Like its rival, the PS3 became a complete home entertainment system, improving its Playstation Network and playing Blue Rays. A multimedia powerhouse, it has some killer apps 87.7 million units so far Nintendo put things in motion and the rest followed. The revolutionary Wi remote gave an incredible new sense of control and interaction within expansive 3D Tech Specs CPU: Cell broadband Tech Specs CPU: 3.2 PowerPC Tri Xenon Tech Specs CPU: Custom built IBM Broadway, custom built ATI Hollywood Input/Output: 2XUSB ports, 4×512MB Flash Memory slots Max Resolution: 480p Game Format: 12cm Wii disc, 8cm Gamecube .7GB Giant Terrains On The PS3 and the XBOX360 engine Memory: 256MB XDR RAM, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM L2 Cache: 512KB Graphics: nVidia RSX Format: Blu-ray BD-ROM Networking: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g23, ethernet (RJ45) Max Resolution: 1080i Internal Storage: 2.5" SATA hard-drive Memory: 512MB GDDR3 RAM, 512MB UMA VRAM, 10MB EDRAM L2 Cache: 1MB Graphics: 500Mhz ATI Xenos disc, 4 Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g Other Features: Virtual console for retro games Max Resolution: 1080i Game Format: HD-DVD Wireless Connectivity: Wi-Fi ready IEEE 802.11 Hard Drive: 20GB , 60GB 120GB, 250GB Uncharted 1&2 Gears Of War Trilogy The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess Belin UNCHARTED GEARS or WAR Set in the fictional South East Asian islands of Panau, Just Cause 2 had a 400 square mile The first Playstation only title to truly make XBOX owners jealous. Featuring in motion capture, voice acting and animation, as well as mind blowing set pieces and innovative game play, Uncharted 1 & 2 remain two of the very best PS3 titles The XBOX360 boasted numerous 360-only titles, but Gears Of War stood apart from the rest. Featuring top notch voice acting, animation storyline and graphics as well as phenomenal gameplay, gore and hugely addictive online multiplayer game world. - 50 pen 0 miles Nintendo perfectly fused tradition with innovation with this continuation of e Zelda franchise, So vast is the world, that a casual walkthrough would take around 70hrs larger than Berlin the God Of War III Resident Evil 4: Wii Mass Effect 2 Edition GODWAR. Open world racing game Fuel (2009) holds the record for having the largest playable area in a console game, with 5,560 square miles to roam across. That spans an area larger that the US State of Conneticut (5,543 square miles) Mass Effect 2 was the best game of 2010 and one of the best games to date. Stunning environments, great characters, a gripping story and fantastic combat as well as plot divergences depending on your actions. Utterly brilliant Pesitent evil One of the most eagerly awaited PS3 titles, God Of War III features an epic storyline, huge battles, fantastic gameplay, a huge campaign and incredible in-game cinematic sequences and animations Wii edition The Wii edition of Resident Evil 4 took the PS3 version and added motion control, making for crisper targeting and a more involving experience that the Heavy Rain Call Of Duty Series Mario has continued to make appearances on the Wii: CALL-DUTY HEAVYRAIN Heavy Rain pushed the boundaries of gaming with innovations in both storytelling and gameplay. Featuring an incredible story with 22 different endings, Heavy Rain gave us an interactive drama that showed the rest how it should be done Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare put the series into a new dimension with a fast-paced campaign and hugely popular class-based multiplayer. The Call Of Duty games are now the best-selling series in history, with MW3 set to break more records Featuring in 44 different games (Present - ?) Eighth Generation Consoles: Future Worlds What does the future of gaming hold? How will advanced technology create more immersive gaming worlds? Will character A.I. evolve to create fully formed virtual personalities? Consoles are effectively a generation behind speedily evolving PC technology. The future lies in the hands of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. Wiju PlayStation4 XBOX 720 Rumour Mill The internet is rife with debate Description: The Wii U has a powerful new CPU, meaning Nintendo apps will appear in glorious H The huge touch screen controller gives a stronger sense of being immersed in the game world over the PS4. Will it use Nvidia's Project Denver or will Sony build a super-partnership with Google? Nothing has been confirmed Rumour Mill Will it use cloud storage? Will relent and adopt Blu-Ray? Are the Avatar CGI-quality graphics rumours true? No doubt it will have gesture control, but for now it's all hearsay Microsoft finally