Video Games Essays

First Home Consoles

Everything great has a history behind it and so do video games. The first video game console to come out was back in 1972, 46 years ago it was called the Odyssey. However, it was known as the atari the name may sound familiar if you played games as a child. It was the first home console as opposed to big arcades. It had 28 games which are nothing compared to today’s standards. The most known game was pong which was based on an arcade game but in the convenience of your own home all of us are already used to this but at the time was a huge deal.

The year 1983 took a turn on video game console sales for the worst because people lost interest in the current home console since it wasn’t that good and the industry experienced a crash in the market. Until two years later when it was saved by a miracle. This miracle was known as Nintendo which came to America from Japan and released the Nintendo NES (Nintendo Entertainment system). This should sound familiar because they revived the video game industry and are a well-known company to this day. The NES was advanced for its time; it had 8-bit graphics which means it had colors and sound which was ahead of its time for a console. Nintendo found its start as a card player in 1889 before producing game consoles. The NES brought classics like Super Smash Bros and the Legend of Zelda. These names sound familiar because they are still relevant which should show how good these games are. Other companies would produce games for the console. An example is capcom which produced classics such as Megaman and Final Destination.

Nintendo and Video Game Industry Evolution 

Nintendo continues to make moves later in 1989 when they popularized handheld gaming devices. There in particular was known as the Gameboy and Gameboy color. Everyone I knew as a kid had one and everyone wanted them because of how fun and cool they were. Nintendo continued to make more handheld consoles such as the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS. They were very successful and other companies wanted to get into the market so came in the Sega which was a 16-bit console which was better than Nintendo. This was the start of a phenomenon known as the console war where companies competed to have the best graphics, the best games, the best console and sell the most over the other company.

The year 1990 brought along my favorite category of video games – the violence category where it shows blood, guns, and guts, basically explicit content that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.  The game, in particular, was street fighter which is an infamous game since most parents hate it because the games exposes kids to terrible sights that could possibly scar a child. However, the people who played it loved the game and had tons of fun, myself included. The game is still popular to this day and is more graphic and looks more realistic than before. The video games industry has come a long way from its beginning. Today the video game industry is worth 135 billion dollars. And they currently have events where the top tier players and pros go to play and could win money for winning the tournament. A kid at Arroyo won 10,000 dollars from playing competitively and he’s going to New York to compete against other top-tier players for a prize pull of millions of dollars. People these days can make a career just by playing video games and streaming. There are kids who have been signed to professional teams that are making way more money than an average person.

Current Day Technology

There are stories of people who have had their lives saved due to video games. Because it distracts them from their sorrows and keeps them occupied with hours of stress-free exploring or looting and gathering. To most people playing video games are for losers or no lives but this is not the case everyone can enjoy them. There are prisons where they allow the inmates to play video games as a pastime and as a result crime in the prisons went down cause everyone was less stressed out and overall happier. Video games can also bring people together with current-day technology. We could play online with people from all over the world and it’s a ton of fun too. Most people would rather play video games with their friends than hang out with them in real life because it’s that much better than just hanging out.

To refrain myself, video games are better than reality to me and most of the video game community we all agree. In real life, you’re limited to your own body and your own qualities which is boring for most since life is boring. Video games are amazing because you could be anyone you want and do anything you want. The most popular game, Minecraft is a perfect example of a great game where you can do whatever your heart desires and spend thousands of hours playing without realizing it. Me and my friends have put in “30 days worth of playing” in Minecraft and I don’t regret one second of it. All I have from that game are good memories and the best laughs I’ve had with my friends. My goal is to make it not nerdy to play games. Growing up I remember being made fun of for playing Minecraft but all a sudden it’s cool again so hopefully the people who missed out experience it for themselves without being tormented for it. Video games will not go away, they will stay as long as we do because they will just keep evolving and becoming bigger and better than the years before. We have seen it happen in the years before back then it was just a joystick and a button nowadays we have virtual reality. We can put ourselves in a war – it seems as though you are actually there it’s like a helmet with screens on it and you have a remote to control the hands of the person in the game so it’s very realistic. If we have this technology now image in the future, video games are going to be amazing there and as realistic as possible which will be like reality but way better since you’re going to have abilities and aspects about yourself that you don’t have in real life

Why Video Games Are Special for Me 

In conclusion, I thank videogames for making my childhood special even if I had to snitch on my brother for playing all day and crying just to get my turn but it was well worth it. That’s why videogames are better than reality. Video games are special to everyone who’s invested their time into them and luckily it has become more acceptable now. The early consoles would be proud to see how much they’ve progressed today and the people who played the early NES consoles must be very proud of what video games have become. I hope this encourages whoever reads this to pick up a console from their local gamestop unless it’s out of business by then.