The First Five Video Game Console Series.

Hey guys, so you have seen me do a lot of the history of video games, and well I got to thinking here recently... I personally love history, I love the history of video games, I have played some video games that have gone back to the mid 70s, and so I was thinking, well since these video games systems are so far removed, that you guys might like to see what came first... With the first five video game consoles series!

At number 1: The Magnavox Odyssey.

The first the world has ever seen!

Now this controversial video game system is universally considered to be the first video game console to have ever come out, having been released by Magnavox in 1972!

As for the second one to come out we have: Tele-Games

The Sears, 'Tele-Games' console was a console dedicated to, 'Pong'!

This system was a dedicated system that was developed by Atari in 1975 and released through Sears... And was the first real direct competition for Magnavox's, 'Odyssey' system... So much so, that I believe this system may have been partly responsible for Magnavox taking Atari to court over Atari's Pong game.

At number 3: Binatone TV Master

This is one of the models of Binatone's, 'TV Master' TV Game system. 

This system was Britain's move to the world of, 'Video Games', you see around the mid 70s, Binatone would release it's Binatone TV Master... This would grow the market by about 5 times in the first 2 years... As another side note, there was more then one model of this particular gaming system, which would be licensed by, 'Magnavox' for the United States!

Now the next one, and the fourth on our list, we have the, 'Coleco Telstar' (Model 6040).

The first of the Coleco series.

This one was the first of the video game systems that would be created by Coleco as part of their move over from processing shoe leather in to the video game market... This first video game system, which would be released in 1976 is a dedicated video game console with 3 pong variant games on it (Hockey, Handball & Tennis,) and this game it appears had 2 paddles as controllers...

This may have  been the first model, but it certainly would not be the last, with Coleco releasing 13 more video game consoles under the, 'Telstar' name!

And last, but certainly not least, we have a name you might recognize, with the Color TV-Game 6, that was released by Nintendo back in 1977!

Color TV-Game 6... Dull name, but before Nintendo's game systems we all know and love like, 'The Wii', or 'The DS', one of the earliest was, 'Color TV-Game 6'!

Before Nintendo released it's now legendary systems, such as: 'The Nintendo', 'The Super Nintendo', 'The Wii' or, 'The DS', or any of it's other classic video game systems from it's long list of amazing video game systems, Nintendo released the, 'Color TV-Game 6'... Well a dull name, but along with the other model in this line... Including: Color TV-Game 15, Color TV-Game Racing 112, Color TV-Game Block Breaker & Color TV-Game, would help to create the video game revolution we all know and love!

For more information:

The First Home Video Game System... wracked With Controversy

The Magnavox Odyssey... The video game system that started the revolution!

We all know video game systems like, 'The XBox One' or, 'The Playstation 4', but before that, and even before such classics as, 'The Sega Genesis', or the, 'Super Nintendo', or even before, 'The Atari 2600', or 'Commodore 64', there was a video game system that could be said to be either directly or indirectly the mother of every thing we as gamer's treasure in our current video game systems!

What I mean by this, is that the first home video game console, a video game console, which was released back in 1972, and which sold 100,000 games in it's first year was Magnavox's 'Odyssey'!

A blast from the past right... I mean when was the last time you bought something that had that label?

Two people playing one of the oldest video games ever made for a home console!

But the truth is, is that like every great innovation, there are others that will quickly come out with their own versions of it, trying to make it better...

Well the truth is, is rather it is right or wrong to do that, for everything to go ahead, we always need to be putting out better product right... Well with Magnavox being the first to make it in to the home video game market, they had competition almost immediately!

What I mean by this is that Magnavox started protecting what was theirs when they sued Atari for patent infringement, when Atari released, 'Pong' as it looked extremely similar to Magnavox's, 'Tennis' game...

The Odyssey's 'Tennis', and the Atari 2600's 'Pong'... 2 very similar games that caused some friction at the dawn of the home console games!

Well ultimately, they settled out of court, but in the following years they would end up suing other big name companies such as: Mattel, Coleco, Seeburg & Activision... They would either win or settle these cases!

Ultimately, 'The Odyssey' line would continue to come out with fresh consoles until 1978, when, 'The Odyssey 2' was released... Now apparently this was the first of it's type to be a fully programmable system... Since then, in 1997, an emulator was created for the Odyssey 2...

This system may have ended up having a little bit of a checkered past... But you can't beat the first of it's kind, and the generations of boy and girls that have been entertained because that system will continue on for generations to come!

Asteroids (1979) - Video Game Review

Official Score = 2 1/2 Devils

You know when I was a kid one of the things that I was really happy about was the fact  that when I got in to playing video games, I was able to get in to both the games that were being released at the time (I had a friend that used to bring in his Nintendo to the school I was going to at the time, and the teacher allowed us to play it for a while every week!)

Included in the fact that I was able to get in to the games that were being released at the time, between the restaurant that my family used to go to, and the video game systems that my relatives had, I also got the opportunity to play the  games that at the time had started to become really old!

And one of those being a game that at the time I had gotten play in an arcade...  (Trust me when I say that considering the fact that arcades seem to be a mostly dead entertainment medium, does make me feel a little old,) but that  game that I got to play in the arcade was, 'Asteroids' (1979)!

This game may look weak, but it is a surprisingly fun game!

In this game, which was developed and published by, 'Atari Inc.' and which was initially made for the Arcade had the player playing as a space craft going through a veritable minefield of asteroids and saucer ships... As you break up the Asteroids they become smaller and smaller until they are completely destroyed!

Now the truth is, is this game...  Well considering that this game came out in the late  70s, it is no wonder that the game did not have the greatest graphics... But the sound effects were awesome, and the game play had both an element of being easy (figuring out the controls was pretty easy, even for a kid in his early double digits,) but it also had that element of being hard when as you went up the levels, each one ended up getting harder and harder!

Overall, this game, (which I had heard that at one point there was plans to turn this game in to a movie), is a true classic... Comparatively speaking to the more modern games out there, this game may seem like a dud, but give it a try, you might be glad you did!

5 Classic Japanese Commercials For 5 Classic Video Game Systems

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="427"] Nintendo is one of the most historically relevant video game manufacturers of all time... Most of the video games & consoles that we all grew up with had their beginning largely in Japan![/caption]

You know, most people may not know this, but for most of the 20th century, and even today (although not as much today, as it had been in the past), but Japan was the dominating force behind Video Games and their consoles...

Nintendo is a great example of this... Even though, 'Nintendo' and it's accompanying video games and consoles are all over the world, and are still a dominating force in American Video Gamming... The company was formed in Japan with just about all of the generations of their video games originating in Japan.

Sega is another good example of this, It is true that Sega doesn't really do video game consoles anymore, but they still do video games, and just about all of that also has it's roots in Japan as well!

So I thought that it might be fun to see, 5 Classic Japanese Commercials For 5 Classic Video Game Systems:

Color TV Game (1977 - 1980):

http://youtu.be/hvEQIjSNbv8

Famicom (1983 - 2003):

http://youtu.be/2Ll4XbatNB4

Sega: Master System (1986 - 1996):

http://youtu.be/DHReBmIKscs

Atari 2600 (1977 - 1992):

http://youtu.be/0YLwftwWZlQ

Playstation (1994 - 2006):

http://youtu.be/BEuBYE6je_U