First generation of video game consoles
[2] Consoles often came with accessories and cartridges that could alter the way the game played to enhance the gameplay experience[3] as graphical capabilities consisted of simple geometry such as dots, lines or blocks that would occupy only a single screen.
In June, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari, which would go on to be one of the most well-known video game companies and play a vital role in the early generations of consoles.
[6] Baer did not pursue the idea, but it returned to him in August 1966 when he was the Chief Engineer and manager of the Equipment Design Division at Sanders Associates.
Baer spent the next few months designing further prototypes, and in February 1967 assigned technician Bill Harrison to begin building the project.
[7] He soon proved his value to the team by coming up with a way to display three dots on the screen at once rather than the previous two, and proposing the development of a ping pong game.
[8] As Sanders was a military contractor and not in the business of making and selling commercial electronics, the team approached several cable television industry companies to produce the console, but were unable to find a buyer.
[9]: 12 After a Sanders patent attorney recommended approaching television manufacturers, they found interest first at RCA and finally at Magnavox, who entered negotiations in July 1969 and signed an agreement in January 1971.
[8][10] Magnavox designed the exterior of the machine, and re-engineered some of the internals with consultation from Baer and Harrison; they removed the ability to display color, reduced the number of controller types, and changed the system of selecting games from a dial to separate game cards that modified the console's circuitry when plugged into the console.
[8] The first generation of consoles did not contain a microprocessor and were based on custom codeless state machine computers consisting of discrete logic (TTL) circuits comprising each element of the game itself.
[19][20][21] In 1976, General Instrument produced a series of affordable integrated chips that allowed companies to simplify console production and lower costs.
[24] The demand for the chip was so high that General Instruments could not supply enough to satisfy all the orders it was receiving causing problems for some smaller companies.
[22] Coleco received their order early on, allowing them to build up strong production capabilities and have success with their Telstar range.
[9]: 22 [22] These events became known as the video game crash of 1977, as sales of second generation consoles were only modest for the next few years until the arrival of the killer app, the home port of Space Invaders for the Atari VCS in 1980.
[33] It had features that became industry standard in subsequent generations such as detachable controllers, light gun accessories and interchangeable game media.
All of them were dedicated consoles, and each subsequent release was an improvement over the previous, adding features such as additional game variations, on-screen displays, and player-controlled handicaps such as smaller paddle sizes and variable ball speed.
The technology was licensed from Magnavox and it contained a single ball and paddle style game that resembled Pong but without an onscreen score display.
[15]: 121 [44][45] The series featured a number of different styles of ball games and external accessories to enhance gameplay such as the Telstar Arcade, which had a unique triangular design that came with a light gun and steering wheel attached to the casing.
[49] The third console in the series, the Color TV-Game Racing 112, was the first project of Shigeru Miyamoto, who would go on to become the creator of some of the most well-known video game franchises.
