The fight for proffit

The 80’s saw the golden age of computer games, the rise of the industry and the advent of ‘the console wars’. 1980 saw the release of pacman and the first iconic figure in gaming. From now on game characters would play an important part in the image and overall sales in an increasing number of titles. Battlezone was released in the same year and was the first game to incorporate 3-d vector based graphics. The Commodore 64 was release in 1964 and was the best selling single computer model of all time. I would never have known (quite amazing). In the same year Pole Position was released; a racing game that put the camera above and behind the car. I noticed the other day while surfing ITunes that Pole position can be bought of the ITunes store to play on the IPod. How times have changed!
In 1983 the game market crashed due mainly to bad titles and game surpluses. But not to worry; later that decade the NES was released was really popular and made lots of money and dominated the market till the early 90’s. It brought about some lovable characters that I personally hate (I’m not ignorant of their significance to the industry though). Then in 89 Nintendo brought out the Game Boy, the first massively popular hand held gaming device.
The 1990’s saw the meteoric rise of the industry. Increasing computing power and decreasing cost of processors saw the rise of 3d graphics. This is when the console wars began. The war still goes on. First of all Sony and Sega had an all out brawl. Then Nintendo joined the fray and an inevitable free for all started. Meanwhile Bill Gates was watching and waiting for the right time to attack. Biding his time. Maliciously. 94 - 96 were good years for Nintendo and Sony but a bad one for Sega. The Sega Saturn was a bit of a flop. I know because I got the Nintendo instead. The N64 brought about the first person shooter to an entirely new level (thinking about it, first person shooters haven’t changed that much since the release of quake and Goldeneye; they just get better graphics and invent new ways of killing people). Then Nintendo was knocked off its mighty throne of smugness with the release of the Sony PS2. And so the war went into full throttle. I was a traitor to all sides (My console order: Mega Drive, Nintendo 64, PS2 and XBOX).