Everything has a beginning, and oddly enough, those games with millions of polygons and incredible textures that you’re used to playing on brand-new next-gen consoles also had one. Since the first video game (Pong), long before online platforms for gaming news and reviews were established, the world has changed a lot. Both the graphics and the sound, as well as the plot of today’s video games have evolved surprisingly quickly and in a sensational way, and although it can be said that the first video game appeared about 50 years ago, the origins of this fantastic world go back much further, as do the companies that founded it.
Nintendo
The Japanese company Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi and until the 70s of the twentieth century it was dedicated, above all, to the manufacture of playing cards for games. Nintendo did not lose sight of the emergence of electronic technologies for entertainment and, already in the early 70s, presented some gaming devices for arcades, based in principle on video playback. In 1977 it introduced its home console COLOR TV GAME 6, in the 80s it released the SNES and in 1996 the Nintendo 64, the first console that worked at 64 bits. Even greater, if possible, has been Nintendo’s predominance in portable consoles since 1980 when it presented its Game & Watch portable console, precursor of the GameBoy saga that would be released in 1989 for the first time, already in the 21st century its Nintendo DS portable was at the forefront of technology.
Nintendo has gone on to sell millions of copies of its video games, thanks to characters such as Super Mario, which was born with the historic game Donkey Kong.
Atari
In 1972 Nolan Bushnell founded, together with Ted Dabney, the company Syzygy, which was quickly renamed Atari. That same year they introduced a coin-operated arcade machine with the game Pong, a version of Tennis For Two. It was a great success and in 1975 Atari offered the Atari Pong, a home video game console that was connected to a TV set and allowed you to play the game Pong at home. In 1976, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for about $30 million at the time. But the best was yet to come, the launch of the Atari 2600 console was a milestone, which made the company a leader in the video game console market for almost the entire following decade. In the 1980s, the word Atari came to be used as a synonym for video game console, even to refer to products from other brands.
Apple
In 1976 Atari had among its ranks a certain Steve Jobs and a certain Steve Wozniak who developed the game Breakout, the first block-mashing game in history, which was a new variation of Pong. Both, using Atari components, created the first Apple computer. Faced with Atari’s lack of interest in their project, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created their own company, Apple Computer Company, and entered the history of computers.
Sega
Service Games was an American company that in the 40’s was dedicated to the commercialization of primitive coin machines based on mechanical systems and that in the 50’s was transferred to Japan. In 1965 they merged with Rosen Enterprises to create SEGA, and in addition to marketing, they began to manufacture their own machines. In 1968 they achieved their first success with the arcade Periscope, a submarine simulator, they would create classic games such as Out Run, Shinobi, the Sonic saga, Daytona, etc.
It has been one of the contenders in the console wars. Its first console was the SG1000 in 1983, and a personal computer based on the hardware of this console was also built under the name SC3000. In 1984, before the departure of the NES from Nintendo, Sega counterattacked with the Mark III, which did not overshadow the NES. Thus, in 1986, Sega introduced the Sega Master System, with better luck, and in 1988 the 16-bit Sega Megadrive for the first time in the history of consoles, and with a fairly great success that would not be repeated, but not enough to surpass the SuperNintendo. Its last console was the Dreamcast.
In the handheld market, Sega offered high-quality products such as the Game Gear that were however widely defeated by Nintendo’s different GameBoys.
A good portion of Sega’s business has historically come from developing hardware for arcade machines, with a good number of products on the market.
Taito
In 1953 Taito was founded by Michael Kogan, a Russian whose family had fled to China during the communist revolution of the early 20th century. During the 50’s they were mainly dedicated to the rental of jukebox machines. In 1978 Taito introduced a new coin arcade machine in Japan with the game Space Invaders, and achieved unexpected success, especially in Japan where it became the national craze. The company continued to develop games, many of which became universal, such as Bubble Bobble, Operation Wolf and Arkanoid, based on Breakout.
Konami
In 1973, Kagemasa Kozuki, who was dedicated to the business of juke-bok machines, founded the company Konami in Japan, which would be dedicated to the creation of games for arcade machines, MSX computers and video consoles of other companies. Their first game didn’t appear until 1978, at first they created the inevitable new versions of games like Pong or Space Invaders, but then they began to create more and more original games and, in many cases, with enormous success. In 1981 they produced games such as SuperCobra or Scramble, which was their first great success outside Japan, the recurring theme of space fights was original in this game due to its screen scrolling that gave the sensation of moving forward and advancing flying over hostile areas compared to the relative statism of previous games.
It was Frogger the game that elevated Konami to the Olympus of video games. The frog that had to cross the dangerous tracks was tremendously addictive, its originality in the very foundation of the game makes this game representative of Konami video games and, in general, of Japanese video games compared to American and European games. In addition, Frogger was the cause of legal proceedings against Sega, which eventually had to withdraw its own version of Frogger from the market for its Game Gear console. Konami has always been developing a complex business network, with its own companies operating under other brands, such as Ultra Games, created to avoid the limits that Nintendo imposed on each company on the number of games they could develop for its NES console.
Listing classic Konami games would be endless but at least Pooyan, Time Pilot, Roc’n Rope, Gyruss, Radius, Antartic, Penguin Adventure, Castlevania, Knightmare, Yie-Ar Kung Fu, Typhoon, Green Beret, Pro Evolution Soccer or the Metal Gear saga would be endless. They are masters of sports simulations with titles like Hyper-Sports, Konami88, Konami Tennis, Konami Golf, Hyper Athlete, and many more. They have also been able to sign contracts to produce video games about famous characters from film or television, such as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tiny Toons, Goonies, the Simpsons, X-Men, Asterix, King Kong, Batman, or Disney characters among many others.
Conclusion
Today, with ever-increasing graphics and speeds, it is curious to recall how the explosion in popularity of video games would come soon after, in 1993 with the release of developer ID Software’s groundbreaking DOOM. It was the beginning of the gaming revolution that still endures today.