

    This is a history of Home Video Game systems since the first
PROGRAMMABLE home system was made available to the public in the United
States.  This does not include the 72 different companies that produced
the Pong type games.   They are listed in the order of their release.


Magnavox Odyssey
 
      Used colored plastic overlays that covered your TV screen to
      produce a color effect for the black & white games.

Fairchild Channel F
 
      Sorry I have never seen one of these animals.  Only know that
      they existed.

Bally Home Arcade

      Graphics comparable to the Atari 2600, and actually a little
      better.  Sold for the most part through Montgomery Wards stores.
      Used a controller that was the grip of a handgun with a trigger
      for a firebutton and a small joystick 'knob' on the top of the
      gun handle.

Atari 2600

      One of the most popular home video games of all time.  Literally
      hundreds of cartridges produced for this thing.  Graphics were
      lousy.  Sound was not much better, but this was the first video
      game system that was heavily marketed and VERY successful for the
      Atari Corp..  The mass quantity of games available for this system
      led to the decline of home video games.  Programmers found
      themselves searching for ideas and often producing games even when
      the ideas were terrible.  People began to get fed up with paying
      $20 - $30 for a game that looked like it took about 1/2 hour to
      program.

Magnavox Odyssey 2

      This system was the only one to come with a typewriter style
      keyboard.  Graphics were slightly better than the Atari 2600, but
      there were not nearly as many games available.  This machine died
      out for the most part while the Atari 2600 market was still very
      strong.

Arcadia 2001

      Again, only vaguely remember this system.

Mattel Intellivision

      The top rival for the Atari 2600.  Was released soon after the
      2600.  The graphics were much better than the Atari 2600.  The
      mainstay of this system was it's reputation for it's sports games.
      Animation of it's 'human' (just slightly more detailed than stick
      figures) characters was very realistic.  It had less than half the
      amount of cartridges as the 2600, but also had much less third
      party support - most games were programmed by Mattel itself.  This
      was also the only system that did not use the standard type of
      controller - the joystick.  Intellivision used a 16 position disc
      for directional movement as well as a keypad much like that of a 
      telephone.

Colecovision

      Released just before the 'Great Video Game Depression' this
      machine did not have much time to catch on.  Graphics were better
      than any system released to date.  Controllers used were a
      combination of Intellivisions' keypad and the standard joystick in
      place of the disc.  The systems themselves were not very reliable
      and often needed service.  Possible reason for this is that Coleco
      had to hurry it's entry to the video game market as Atari was
      starting to decline and they did not fully test the machine.  Many 
      of the games were ported directly from arcade games.

Atari 5200

      Atari's answer to Colecovision.  Graphics were much better than
      the Atari 2600, and Atari probably saw the 2600 starting to loose
      ground.  The controllers were much like the Colecovision
      controllers - keypad and joystick.  Only a few games were made for
      this system becuase had already lost faith in the video game
      systems and the quality of it's software.

Vectrex

      One of the most unique systems produced.  This system came with
      it's own monitor and had no color even though the technology was
      available.  It used what is called vector graphics (hence the
      name - Vectrex) which is a type of graphics that has no curves.
      Just intersecting lines.  The controllers were strangely similar
      those of a system that had not yet been produced - Nintendo.  It
      seemed this machine was relying on parental fears of TV damage
      from the systems such as Atari 2600 and Intellivision that used
      the TV for it's output.  This system never caught on.  There were
      probably less than a dozen games made for it.

Intellivision II

      This system added nothing to the original Intellivision other than 
      a more compact design and an adapter to allow the user to play
      Atari 2600 games.  Seemed as though Mattel had given in to the
      old saying - "If you can't beat them - join them".

Atari 7800

      Atari's 'third wind'.  Have to hand it to this company though.  At 
      least they did not give up.  This system had graphics close to
      the original Nintendo, but the Atari name was associated with the
      Atari 2600 and all of it's problems and never really caught on.
      This system would also play most of the Atari 2600 video games.

Intellivision III

     After Mattel had given up on the system a third party bought the
     rights to it and produced this machine.  It was exactly the same
     as the original Intellivision.  The company (InTV) also produced a
     handful of new games for the system including revised versions of
     many of the sports games that allowed one player operation (the
     original games were mostly two player only games which was a big
     complaint from Intellivision I owners).  This system probably lived
     about as long as the Vectrex did.  Nintendo was released shorty
     after it and proceeded to scratch it from existence.





    That's it.  I don't think I really need to go into the systems that
are still available such as Nintendo's and Sega's systems.  Just go to
your local Toy's R Us and see for yourself.

    Some of these systems were very popular.  You might even say that 
the Atari 2600's popularity was comparable to that of the Nintendo
system today.  Video games were a very new thing inthe late 70's and
early 80's.  People could not get enough of them.  They bought up
every single cartridge produced.  It seemed programmers were just
releasing garbage so that they could get in on it and eventually turned
people away from the systems all together.  A few systems tried to
revive the industry such as Colecovision, Vectrex, and Intellivision II
with it's computer and piano keyboard add ons, but the consumers would
not hear it.  They had been 'screwed' one too many times with terrible
quality games for thier systems at $20 - $30 each that that all efforts
to save the industry failed.
 
     People had been away from video game systems for about 5 years or
so and Nintendo felt it was time to 'test the water' and released the
Nintendo Entertainment System.  It was and still is a HUGE success.  The
funny thing is that the same thing seems to be happening all over again.   
Everyone and their brother is trying to make a few bucks on the NES and
the quality of the games is really starting to slip.  Stayed tuned.
We'll all just have to wait and see what happens.



