Week 3 1980s +1990s

A big thing to note is that during this period EA was set up and continued producing games during these two decades and are still successful even today. Successful is a loose term as I wouldnt touch many of EAs games with a large pointy stick.
Well it seems that some legendary games were released before the first wave of PCs and consoles. MAny people have heard of Defender being the first game as a side scrolling shooter and rather pretty good as I remember. I played it ages ago and I found it pretty hard because my reflexes suck. However, I haven;t been back to replay it since I'm sure my reflexes still suck. Afantastic game that I just looked at that came out in 1981
was 3d Monster Maze. You essentially run through a maze (made to look 3D through angled lines) to get to the exit, however there is a T-Rex that wants to eat you. You get points by running away from it and by completing the room.
Also in 1981 was a game titled Space Panic which featured a space man fleeing up ladders and across platforms to avoid aliens that wish to kill him. This game looked very similar to the original Donkey Kong with its platforms, ladders and dodging of items that will end your life.
Another game I played was Pole Position.  Released in 1982 i had sprites which switched to show your car turning. This same method was used in Mario Kart 64 where it seems those karters had less sprites than Pole Position. The game [PP not MK64] was pretty hard to beat beyond the training level as your car came with the acceleration of cotton wool on velcro.

In 1982, the Commodore 64 and the ZX spectrum were released. The UK preferred the ZX Spectrum for its games whereas the Americas enjoyed the Commodore more. The Speccy was one of the first colour consoles and the spectrum was to signify the colour it had. Even if it was still 8 bit, it was a big revolution and gained alot of software and hardware during its 18 year life time.

With the invention of the mouse it was now possible to create many more games. LucasArts being the first to change the previous text based adventures into new point and click adventure games using their patented SCUMM engine. For the rest of the 80s, it was all about developers beginning to work with mice and experiment with new games.

Good old Nintendo brought out their 8bit NES in 1985 which became the biggest home console (non-pc) of the time. Many games were promoted on this console that we still have today such as Mario, Legend of Zelda and Megaman.
The NES ruled the console markets until newer consoles came out such as the Game Boy and a bit later; the Playstation and the N64 with their 3D graphics. One of the first games in full 3D was Super Mario 64 which introduced many things
such as camera work and actual exploration. It is thought of as one of the greatest games ever
 along with Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. 
It was also during the 90s that many genres were created such as Survival Horrors and MMORPGs. Even more game franchises were added in the form of Metal Gear Solid, Sonic the 
Hedgehog and Pokemon (whilst it was '99 it really has become one of the biggest game franchises
ever).

So that is a quick history of gaming while I was alive. Technically I only alive for half of it but that
 was when everything happened. 

This is also a 5 minute video showing many of the games and their progressions starting from Pong
and ending in the present 

A History of Videogaming