For the first time ever, video games entered the consumer market at numbers never before seen. The entire ball game changed and that is what takes us into the 1st generation. The beauty of it is that each generation refines itself more and more, always improving, but always leaving room for further improvements to be made in the following generation. This is the process that refined gaming consoles to the place they are at today. Gaming consoles are a long way from perfect though and it’s as interesting to watch them progress today as it is to trace their histories back to their predecessors.
4 – An Overview of The First Generation Games Console Era
The first generation of video game consoles or the Pong Generation as many gamers have come to call it, brings me to the conclusion that 'Pong Generation' is the perfect subtitle for this era as that is really all we had.
Not that I am complaining. At the time these Pong systems were huge and a great source of entertainment. Hey, if the only entertainment you had before a Pong console was chasing a wheel with a stick then they would have blown your mind. Maybe that is going a little far, but I am sure you can see why this first generation of consoles, despite being so basic, was such a hit.
Of course, you had Pong as well as a multitude of regular Pong clone systems. It seemed that in the late 1970s nearly anyone in the world who was tech savvy and had the capital could create a Pong system and put it on store shelves. As a matter of fact I think that may have been what happened, as the market was incredibly over-saturated with more than 100 different Pong consoles released in such a short time.
So it is very important to note that while some Pong consoles did shift an incredible amount it is fair to say that the majority that made it to store shelves bombed big time. It's crazy to think that some companies who had no experience in electronics, let alone games, thought they could put a Pong system on store shelves and make a million dollars.
What I find very interesting about the first generation of video game consoles is that yes the market was flooded, and well into the three figures with random Pong clones, is that it did not take long for a few companies to stand out and start what I guess you could call the first video game competitive war or Pong war if you prefer.
Magnavox with their Odyssey consoles, Atari and their never-ending different Pong game designs, Coleco with their Telestar, and of course in Japan you had Nintendo with their Color TV Game consoles. So you really had three main companies in the west who were fighting it out, all with hardware that was pretty much the same when you really get into it.
The first generation of video game consoles is very basic, make no mistake about that, but it is also a very interesting one.
I will stress again that there were over 100 Pong consoles produced, and a majority of them are pretty much the same. So it was impossible to write a review for every single one without turning this book into a full length Pong tribute catalogue. Therefore, I have listed the main first generation consoles that are popular with collectors, together with a few obscure ones.
5 – What Was Pong?
Pong CC Image – Wikipedia – Public Domain Image
Many people think that Pong was the very first video game. It actually was not. What Pong was however was one of the very first video games to hit mainstream popularity and just blow up all around the world. You really can credit Pong with maybe not lighting the fire that started the gaming industry, but it certainly poured a big can of gas on the fire. Pong can be called tennis, table tennis or really what ever your imagination wants, but for the most part Pong is seen as a representation of some form of tennis.
Here we are going to have a look at the earliest Pong system from Atari. Again, in truth it would be near impossible to list every single Pong video game system that was released in the 1970s. If I did review every Pong clone console in this book it would be cluttered with consoles not worthy of collecting.
Atari Home Pong (Sears Tele-Games)
1975
Atari had a huge hit with their arcade Pong and work was started on bringing Pong to people in their homes in 1974. It was a very small team of people who would design and develop the first home Pong console. What is really cool and worth noting is that there was a single chip powering this first Pong console, but at the time it was released there was no other product on the market that used as high performance a chip as the Atari Home Pong did.
Despite the huge popularity of the arcade version of Pong, Atari had a really hard time selling their new console to toy and electronic stores. No one was interested as they felt that it was too expensive and that no one would want one anyway.
By chance someone at Atari saw an advertisement in a Sears Catalogue for the Magnavox Odyssey. What surprised them was that it was in the sporting goods department. So Atari got in touch with the sporting goods department at Sears to see if they would be interested. A gentleman at Sears called Tom Quinn loved the Atari Home Pong console and offered them an exclusive deal right there and then, but Atari, despite having no one else interested felt like they could secure a better financial deal elsewhere.
Atari really wanted a toy retailer to sell their console so they set up a booth at the 1975 Toy Fair in New York. No one was interested except one guy, Tom Quinn.
So, they met Tom Quinn again at the Toy Fair and agreed to have a meeting with him. After showing the console to other Sears executives a deal was struck. Atari told Tom Quinn that for the 1975 Christmas season they could supply 75,000 consoles for Sears to sell. Tom Quinn and the guys at Sears had such faith in this console that they asked for double that amount.
Atari agreed to the terms even though they lacked the manufacturing power to do this. So they went out and bought a huge manufacturing plant to meet the huge demand. Atari were able to meet the demand that was set for them in time for the Christmas 1975 season.
The first units that came off the production line in 1975 were branded with the Sears Tele-Games logo. Atari would re-release the Sears Tele-Games system with their own branding on it, in 1976.
6 – Magnavox Odyssey
Magnavox Odyssey CC Image – Wikipedia – Evan-Amos
Developer: Magnavox
Release Date: 1972
Origin: U.S.A.
Initial Price: $99 USD
CPU: None
Games Released: 28
Oh the days of simple home gaming! Remember the original grey Nintendo with Duck Hunt and Mario? Or the even earlier Pong on Atari? Well, before Nintendo, before Atari, there was the first original home gaming console – the Magnavox Odyssey. This innovative ground-breaker was the first wide-scale commercial attempt at convincing the public to play games in the comfort of their own homes.
With twenty-eight different game cartridges released and a slew of colourful overlays for your television screen, the Odyssey was a huge step up in home entertainment. You could play tennis, hockey, football, and try skiing in the comfort of your own living room. There were also some more creative games like submarine, haunted house, and geography options. Today, we look back at this technology and see a blinking square going back and forth between two other squares; but in the 1970s, this was a huge advancement.
Overlays and Accessories
The equipment involved looks pretty basic - a large box that holds the system brains, two bulky hand controllers, an RF cable, a switch box and six cartridges. There were a number of different upgrades available as well, including