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From ‘Pong’ to ‘Halo’
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Over the past 30 years, the video game industry has grown immensly. In 2007, according to the Entertainment Software Association, the industry raked in an astonishing $9.5 billion in the United States alone.
With such astounding numbers it is hard to imagine that a pastime of the mid-1970s has evolved into one of the fastest-growing entertainment industries. It is also difficult to fully appreciate the innovations of key video games and their creators that have allowed the industry to reach such a pinnacle without reviewing the industry’s history.
In 1972, the newly-founded company known as Atari released the first successful video game, called “Pong.” It was a coin-operated arcade machine. Pong was a simple concept: two horizontal bars represented ping-pong paddles and bounced a dot between them, thereby simulating an actual game of table tennis.
Upon its release, “Pong” sold 6,000 units and made Atari a household name.
However, it wasn’t until 1980 that video games effectively made the jump into mainstream American pop culture. A Japanese-based company, Namco, released a game featuring a yellow circle with a mouth that traversed a maze littered with ghosts. As the yellow character traversed the labyrinth, it had to eat a certain number of pellets to advance to the next stage.
Originally titled “Puck-Man” in Japan, Namco feared that ne’er-do-wells would change the “P” to an “F.” It immediately changed the name to the widely-recognizable “Pac-Man” for a U.S. release.
The arcade industry was a thriving business during these early days of video gaming, but the industry practically died out at the latter-end of the decade. This became known as the “crash” that nearly crippled the industry.
Several video game companies declared bankruptcy as a result of poor sales and video games began to be viewed as a curiosity and a passing fad.
In 1981, Nintendo hired Shigeru Miyamoto, a creative designer, to develop an arcade game that would ultimately be the basis for the rebirth of the industry.
Miyamoto decided that the major element that was missing in the current video game market was the ability to tell a story.
Miyamoto then created a game that featured a stubborn gorilla that had kidnapped the girlfriend of its trainer.
The object of the game was to help the gorilla trainer, named “Jump-man,” rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of “Donkey Kong.”
The creation of “Donkey Kong” not only revitalized the ailing gaming industry, it also saw the creation of Nintendo’s soon-to-be famous mascot, “Mario” previously known as “Jump-man.”
Miyamoto is perhaps the most influential name in video games, even by today’s standards.
Not only is he responsible for the creation of one the industry’s most beloved characters, he is also responsible for the success of Nintendo’s business venture into home video game consoles, with the creation of “Super Mario Bros.” This blockbuster was released with the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES.
The NES paved the way for future home consoles, such as the Super NES and the Sega Genesis, which in turn led to the Nintendo 64 and the Playstation.
From there it is easy to see how the current generation of video gaming has come about with the release of the Playstation 3, the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii.
The video game industry is where it is at today due to the risks and innovative minds of many influential and creative people.
Without “Pong” there would be no “Madden NFL” and without “Super Mario Bros.” or “The Legend of Zelda” there would definitely be no “Halo” or “World of Warcraft."
C. COLT CRANE
BizTech Writer
