The progression of the popularity of video games

The way that videogames have changed over the years is truly a testament to time. Not only has there been massive graphical improvement, but also in terms of scale as well. What I mean by that is, during the 1970’s, games used to be announced through television, magazine ads, and general word of mouth. Back then video games were more of a casual thing to be played with the family next to you. Then E.T. ruined all video games in the 80’s because of his nearly unplayable game then the crash of ‘83 happened, though in the same year Nintendo single-handedly saved them with the release of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System, for the uninformed).

However, this changed video games just a little bit. What I mean is that games were being geared more towards children, but only the cool children, specifically boys. Some saw what Nintendo was doing and they wanted a piece of the pie as well. So, in 1989, the Sega Genesis was created, kickstarting the console wars that go on to this day.

Thus advertisers ran campaigns that said how the other consoles were made for losers, men who couldn’t manage to get a woman. It was a different time for advertising. Back then people thought that, in order to have any interest in buying a game, the main character had to be a lady’s man. This led to a slight change in gaming culture. Instead of begging your parents for just an NES, kids in the late 80’s were either Nintendo fans or Sega fans, or you were a rich kid who had both consoles and you would never shut up about it. Now games were becoming more about what kind of games the consumer wanted and how they would be judged by it. Of course,

Nintendo would have to keep up with the competition and they created the new and improved SNES! For a while, everything stayed the same, until a failed CD extension for the SNES evolved into the next generation of gaming. In ’94, Sony unveiled to the world the next step in gaming history, the PlayStation. Sega also kept on doing what Nintendon’t and jumped onto the CD train with the Sega Saturn!

However, Nintendo would perfect the way how games would control with the joystick on their own 3D console the Nintendo 64! Then PlayStation would improve it even more by making a controller that didn’t feel like garbage. The mid- to late-90’s were a very experimental time in gaming, since almost no one knew how to develop for the 3D dimension, and gamer culture was even more divided than ever before! You either defended the use of cartridges with the excuse of 10/10 game with the n64, or touted your impressive (for the time) AMV cut scenes and graphics with the PlayStation. Oh, and there was the Sega Saturn. And because of this, all the kids were either bragging about playing Crash and Spyro, or playing the revolutionary Super Mario 64 and the just plain good Banjo and Kazzioe, and that weird kid who had a Sega Saturn coping while playing Sonic R.

This feud would only go on for a while because Sega would mark their place in history once again with the Sega Dreamcast. It was the first console to have internet connection capabilities, making playing console games with different people around the world possible and a standard. Unfortunately they would be outclassed just a year later with the release of the PS2, due to it having all the previous features as well the ability to play DVDs. And with the even more powerful Xbox and the charming GameCube, the Dreamcast was gruesomely murdered and
buried with the harsh competition just within two years of its inception.