Timeline
1972. Atari is founded by Nolan Bushnell. Pong is developed as an arcade game
1976. Bushnell sells Atari to Warner for c. $26 million.
1977. Atari releases the Video Computer System (later: 2600). In the next few years, Mattel, Magnavox and others release home systems.
1978. Atari introduces the Atari 400 and 800 "home computers."
1981. Nintendo releases Donkey Kong (Shigeru Miyamoto).
1981. Commodore releases the VIC-20, predecessor of the Commodore 64 (1982). Unlike its predecessor, the Commodore PET, the VIC-20 accepts game cartridges. (Hybrid computer/game machine.) The VIC-20 was released during the same year as the original IBM PC.
1985. Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System (8 bit)
1988. Atari sues Nintendo.
1989. Sega Genesis (16 bit)
1990-1993. Sony launches the "System G" TV graphics project, headed by Ken Kutarag. Becomes PlayStation R&D project.
1991. Nintendo releases Nintendo Super Entertainment System (16 bit)
1992. 3DO Is Launched
[32-bit]
1993. Nintendo announces Project Reality. (Nintendo 64), to design 64-bit graphics processor with Silicon Graphics.
1994. Atari Jaguar
[32/64 bit]
1994. Sony selects LSI Logic to build a custom CPU for its upcoming PlayStation game machine. [32-bit]. It is launched in Dec. in Japan, Sept. 1995 in the U.S.
1995. Nintendo America
announces its Ultra 64 game machine. It uses an R4300 processor manufactured
by NEC, and a Reality Coprocessor accelerator. [64-bit] Later that year,
it drops the NES.
1996. Nintendo releases the Nintendo 64 (64-bit). 500,000 sold during release month, October.
1998. Microsoft teams
with Sega to develop Dreamcast video game console based on Windows CE
operating system. [128-bit]
2000. GDC. Bill Gates announces X-Box. [128-bit] Sony Playstation 2 is released.
2001. X-Box and Nintendo GameCube released.
Data
Game sales in 1976: $3 million. Popular Electronics, September 1977, Volume 12, Number 3.
Home Video Game System Sales: $1.2 billion in 1982. The New York Times estimates that video consoles are in about 8 million homes.
Arcade machine sales in 1982: $900 million
Arcade game revenue in 1983: $5 billion. About 5-6 million game machines are sold, and about 75 million game cartridges.
1983-1984. Market collapses.
Games sale in 2001: about 8 billion, roughly 2/3 video games (hardware and software) and 1/2 PC game software.