Popular Electronic Games

Superheroes battle monsters and space invaders in fast action games. Players take on the role of these superheroes in epic battles. In other games players race cars, boats, motorcycles, helicopters and planes against villains and even less evil opponents to win high stakes races.

Game titles such as Burnout3: Takedown, ESPN, NHL - 2K5, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Terminator 3: The Redemption, Donkey Kong 3, and, Pokemon have joined the national lexicon as kids have flocked to the lure of electronic games.

Parents, teachers, preachers and politicians, have criticized and in some cases even banned electronic games. Electronic games have been blamed for poor grades, poor conduct and even poor health. If you listen long enough, electronic games are responsible for all of the problems our young people experience today.

One thing is certain. Kids love them. They buy and play them in ever increasing numbers. Electronic games are here to stay.

People have been trying to play games on computers almost since the days of the very first computer. As early as 1950, Claude Shannon, a mathematician and engineer, believed that computers could be programmed to play chess in competition with humans. He became intrigued with the concept of artificial intelligence. In pursuit of this idea researchers and scientists designed crude games that could be played on the huge and clumsy computers of the 1950s and 1960s.

The first actual electronic games as a consumer product were built as coin operated arcade games in the early 1970s. In 1971 Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney and Al Alcorn formed the first game company, Atari. Soon after they produced the first game console and their first electronic game, Pong, as an arcade game. Pong was immediately successful.

This success led Atari and other firms to begin work on home game consoles that could be hooked to TV sets. Atari released its first home console in 1977. Soon games were put on cartridges that could be changed at the whim of the player.

By 1979, the company, Activision, was formed by former Atari game designers. The purpose of this new company was to focus strictly on game software. They decided to leave the development of equipment to play electronic games to other people. This was the first company to build a business of developing and selling electronic games software.

In a short time a spate of game companies sprang up trying to develop software for the infant electronic game industry. The result was a glut of poorly conceived games hitting the market. Consumers turned away in droves and the home electronic game industry faded hit the skids.

By the early 1980s, electronic games were being developed for personal computers. Color graphics, flexible storage capacity and general purpose processors made games much easier to play on personal computers. The game console business was all but dead.

In the late 1980s, two Japanese companies introduced a new generation of game consoles that were technologically capable of handling the new electronic games being produced. These companies were Nintendo and Sega. These game consoles had graphics capabilities that exceeded those of most personal computers. Nintendo also offered a feature that let the console record the game action so a player could pause the action of a game.

Right behind Nintendo came Gameboy, a hand-held game console. Game consoles enjoyed a resurgence of popularity during the 1990s. A new, even more sophisticated generation of electronic games was introduced by 2001. These consoles included Playstation2 and Xbox. Electronic games continued to become more complex with more action and more graphics.

Electronic games, today, have achieved art form status. They are sort of a wonderful combination of board games and comic books all rolled up into one medium with spectacular graphics and compelling audio. Curiously enough, most electronic games are similar to board games. They have one of two central themes. The first is racing and the other is capturing area or opponents. Perhaps it is because of these similarities that electronic games have begun to capture a wider audience.

As electronic games have matured they have begun to attract more mature audiences. Initially these games were primarily toys for boys. The growth area in the game industry is no longer adolescent males. It is mature adults, both men and women. Many of the most popular board games have been adapted to electronic game formats. Where youngsters hooked game consoles to TV sets, adults are playing games on their PCs, often against other players across the Internet. Grandparents are playing electronic games with grandchildren. They are also joining game clubs to play electronic games on the Internet with other senior citizens in another state or half a world away. Many of the top game companies are betting that older adults are the new growth market for the game industry.

Claude Shannon believed that computers could be programmed to play chess. In a sense he was right. He certainly never imagined chess players reaching across cyberspace as they exercise chess strategies on computerized game boards. Nor could he have imagined video poker, Internet casinos and all of the other popular electronic games people of all ages are playing. Electronic games aren't just for kids anymore.

About the author: Royce Armstrong is a successful freelance writer with a business and banking background who believes consumers should get the best value for their money when shopping for toys such as electronic games, playstation 2, and game boy.

Latest News

Washington Post

Chargers, fans expected more games to mirror Thursday's rout San Diego Union Tribune, CA - 3 hours ago The game degenerated into something of a morass, as routs sometimes do, but the Chargers Thursday night on national TV showed they have not given up on this ... For Sporting News SportingNews.com Chargers roll over Raiders San Francisco Chronicle Gary Peterson: More of same from ever-imploding Oakland San Jose Mercury News USA Today - San Jose Mercury News all 793 news articles

Washington Post

Saturday's top college football games Arizona Republic, AZ - 1 hour ago The winner will land in the BCS Championship Game; the loser, the Sugar Bowl. Six SEC title game winners have gone on to win the national championship, ... Bowls waiting for BCS games to fall in place Kansas City Star OU has Missouri QB Chase Daniel's number NewsOK.com Mark Schlabach: Oklahoma Sooners, Missouri Tigers take different ... ESPN Washington Post - St. Louis Post-Dispatch all 413 news articles

Earthtimes (press release)

NAMCO BANDAI Games Announces New 'SURGE' Publishing Label MarketWatch - 14 hours ago Afro Samurai(R), the high-style title that blends urban hip hop culture with traditional Japanese aesthetics, will be the first game to launch under the new ... Namco launches Surge publishing label GamesIndustry.biz Namco Plans Satiation, Envelope Pushing with New Surge Label Shacknews all 27 news articles

New York Daily News

It Comes Down to This: A Look at the Conference Championship Games The Queensberry Rules, MA - 12 hours ago The Big 12, and SEC Championship games will take center stage, since the winners of those two games will most likely face off for the BCS National Title. ... Tide senior ties up career The News-Press Florida-Alabama winner dreams of Miami GatorCountry.com Blog...Y'all Play Nice. SEC Championship Game Tiger Sports Digest Gatorsports.com - Sports Network all 794 news articles

Canoe.ca

CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS DON'T LOSE GAMES LIKE THE ONE LAST NIGHT!!!!!! Los Angeles Times, CA - Dec 3, 2008 What I did want to address, however, was the flurry of comments during and after the loss along the lines of this game providing irrefutable proof that the ... Court Awareness: Wednesday Review FOXSports.com Pacers at Cavaliers Spread, Odds, Trends & Matchups The Spread Rondo has triple-double, Boston wins 10th in a row The Associated Press Los Angeles Times all 337 news articles

bit-tech.net

BioShock Creator Says Games are the Convergence of Everything Washington Post, United States - 14 hours ago To hear Ken Levine cite Ultima Underworld as the game that inspired him makes me smile. I miss the Ultima series, the Underworld games most of all. ... 'Games Are The Convergence Of Everything' Forbes Ken Levine: "I wish PC gaming was more successful" bit-tech.net all 9 news articles

Midway Games says it may default on $240 million in debt Chicago Tribune, United States - 1 hour ago By Wailin Wong | Tribune reporter Video game-maker Midway Games is fighting for its survival after warning Thursday that it could default on $240 million in ... Midway Turns to Lazard for Advice About Debt Wall Street Journal Midway stock continues to plummet after Redstone bails Neoseeker all 8 news articles

The "Hi Tech Mommy's" Hot Picks for Family Friendly Video Games MarketWatch - 20 hours ago Find out why an Xbox 360 is more than your average video game console, how to rock out like Bon Jovi with Guitar Hero on Tour: Decades, swing a baseball bat ...

Boston Globe

Studs, duds and sleepers: Not time to give up on Hightower USA Today - 2 hours ago His total of 85 rushing yards in the past four games is frighteningly bad. The Rams, however, are 30th in the league against the run, second worst in ... Birds of a feather Boston Globe Patriots visit Seahawks on Sunday afternoon Patriots.com Notebook | Experience is overrated? Cassel has Patriots in playoff ... Seattle Times Metro Boston all 13 news articles

Tampabay.com

Music video games are big fun -- and big bucks Journal and Courier, IN - 2 hours ago By DOUG ELFMAN • delfman@suntimes.com • December 4, 2008 All the new music video games make me so angry at myself. I can play the plastic guitar and drums ... PopStar Guitar for the Wii Consumer Electronics Net Are you a sitar hero? Le Mars Daily Sentinel Wrap Up Some Fun Las Vegas Review - Journal Tom's Games - CTV.ca all 60 news articles