The past

Video games have been around for a lot longer than most people realise. Many people can remember playing games on their ZX Spectrum (1982), or even their cartridge-based Atari VCS (1978). However, before these systems came into being there had already been a decade of video game development, mostly based in the US and Japan.

The first recognised games console was the Magnavox Odyssey [1] in 1972. This US-produced machine sold around 100,000 units in three years, and at the time was considered to be revolutionary. Despite the lack of colour and sound, and the limitations of the system resulting in a maximum of three basic graphics on the screen at any one time, imaginative software led to the Magnavox being widely acknowledged as the first true games console.

As the seventies progressed, several games consoles were launched with varying degrees of success. A recurring factor in the success (or otherwise) of many of these consoles was the actual software support that they received. Many consoles, despite being superior in power and capability to others on the market at the same time, generated disappointing sales due to the lack of games. Surprisingly (or depressingly), this situation still occurs today, and has indirectly led to the Playstation becoming the clear market leader over the last two years.

In the late seventies, Atari launched the VCS system, which can be considered to be the first mass-market dedicated games console. As well as bringing in-home gaming to the masses, the console also caused the emergence of several games-related companies and enterprises that are still going strong today, most notably Namco.

Also in the late 70's, (Sir) Clive Sinclair appeared on the scene. Fresh from producing some of the first digital watches and calculators, Sinclair moved into the small home computer market. The first mass-market Sinclair computer was the ZX80 (based around the ZX chip, which was named after...well, look at the two letters in the bottom left corner of your keyboard). The ZX80 possessed less than 1K of memory and extremely limited visuals, but still proved popular. Surprisingly, a close version of the same 8-bit chip was used inside the Nintendo Gameboy, the world's most successful handheld games console, which still sells strongly today.

In 1981, the predictably named ZX81 was launched, to adverts claiming that the computer could run a nuclear power station. The machine, which resembled a rather fat door wedge, possessed 1K of memory, a membrane-based keyboard, and visuals that were still limited but could be manipulated into surprisingly good (black and white) graphics. Several companies produced software and hardware, thus enabling people to attach a keyboard and a memory expansion pack offering a "massive" 16K of memory. Consensus at the time in our school playground was that no-one was ever going to write something that would fill 16K of memory and thus the add-on was a waste of money.