Archive for September 14th, 2013

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The Evolution of Video Gaming & TV Has Always Followed a Parallel Trajectory

video-games-evolution Microsoft’s recent announcement that it is set to release its shiny new, HD-ready Xbox One console on 22 November is merely the latest chapter in a long story of video gaming. What begun in 1967 with the world’s very first video console, the so-called ‘Brown Box‘, seems light years away from our modern day world of internet gaming, ultra HD TV and wireless controllers. It is an intriguing story that has taken on many forms over the years.

What is certainly clear is that the trajectories of video gaming and television evolution have always made for extremely happy bedfellows, major innovations such as the advent of ultra high definition TV coinciding almost precisely with similarly generation-defining changes in the gaming industry.

The aforementioned launch of the world’s very first games console coincided with the advent of colour TV the same year, two events that undoubtedly changed the course of home entertainment forever. The ability to record television onto videotapes was realised in the early 1970s, meaning mum and dad could record their favourite TV programs whilst the children played the new Atari Pong.

The 1980s was, arguably, the golden era of video gaming, Nintendo emerging as market leaders and revolutionising gaming forever with their original NES console. This came about at the same time as cable TV, a multi-channel approach that led the way towards on-demand TV and the viewing public’s appetite for crystal clear, ultra HD technology.

The following decade witnessed change and innovation on a grand scale. Video games progressed in earnest from a one-game-built-in type formula to having multi-game cartridges available to play on them. The 90s was the era of the PlayStation, Megadrive, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. It all coincided wonderfully with the creation of CRT, or cathode ray tube, TV. It was this technology that begun to see television screens grow in size, changing the way both programme viewers and hardcore gamers experienced their respective mediums. The decade was bookended by the launch of the PS2, the first console to be able to play DVDs. It was the very same year that digital video recorders hit the market.

It wasn’t until the turn of the 21st century that HD TV truly took off. Microsoft’s original Xbox set the precedent for high quality graphics that appeared crystal clear on this exciting new television technology. LED-based HD TV followed soon after, unleashed on the world at the same time as the Xbox 360 and PS3, both consoles capable of internet gaming and the very first for truly HD graphics capability.

The worlds of TV and gaming truly merged for the very first time in 2007 when Apple launched ‘Apple TV’ and several years later Microsoft got in on the act by allowing 360 users the option of streaming films using Netflix.

And so we arrive in the present day, with the Xbox One about to be released. Times, oh they have changed. LG’s 84″ ultra HD TV has been reinventing how we both watch TV and experience video games for several months now, but understandably this kind of technology is available for a price.

What trajectory the worlds of gaming and TV take from here are anybody’s guess, but what’s certain is that one day current technologies that still seem almost unthinkable now will appear somewhat obsolete.

Posted in: Editorial
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