Since its commercial inception as an oddity of technology at a science fair in the 1950s, gaming has become one of the most promising entertainment sectors in the world.
A new generation of gamers has entered the market thanks to the recent boom in mobile technology, which has also changed the sector. Indeed, gaming has assimilated into contemporary popular culture to the point where even grandparents are familiar with titles like Angry Birds, more than 42% of Americans are gamers, and 4 out of 5 U.S. families have a console.
Dr. Edward Uhler Condon presented the first known instance of a game machine at the New York World’s Fair in 1940. It was on display for 6 months, and over 50,000 people played the game, it was based on the ancient mathematical game of Nim, with the computer apparently winning more than 90% of the games.
However, it took Ralph Baer and his colleagues until 1967 to introduce their “Brown Box” prototype as the first game console intended for widespread commercial home-usage.
Two people could control cubes that chased each other on the screen using the “Brown Box,” a vacuum tube circuit that could be linked to television. The “Brown Box” could be set up to play ping pong, checkers, and four different sports games, among other games. A lightgun for a target shooting game and a unique attachment for a golf putting game were added accessories using cutting-edge technology for the time.
Source: TechCrunch
