The history of home entertainment over the years

It's hard to imagine what people did with their hands and minds in the days prior to home computers, video entertainment consoles and other types of electronic entertainment. Human hands appear to be perfectly contoured to fit joysticks and mice -- or maybe it is the other way around?

Home entertainment has changed dramatically with both the computer and video game industries. Now those two industries are quickly merging into one thing.

Have you heard of the Magnavox Odyssey? Introduced in 1972, it was the first widely-released game console. But Atari was soon at the top of the video game market because of the bouncing ball game called Pong. People were captivated by it.

It wasn't long before computers like the Commodore 64 and the Tandy Color Computer began competing with game consoles for the time and money of tech-savvy consumers. While some homes had both a computer and a game console, this was rare. Both these items were expensive, and consumers had to choose between the versatility of a home computer and the superior controllers and graphics of xbox 360 console.

After a while, names like RCA, Intellivision and Nintendo joined the video game market while Apple, IBM and a range of clones took over home computing. Speed and graphics quality improved on video game systems and personal computers, and new game introductions would briefly put one company on top of another until still another new development changed the industry once more.

Home computers reached prominence at the end of the 1990s, when many homes had at least one computer, and they have shown no signs of decline. Game consoles haven't achieved that level of growth, but they continue to gain in popularity regardless of brief blips in the market.

For several years game consoles depended on joysticks and computers depended on mice and occasional touch pads and trackballs. However, in 2006 the Nintendo Wii was introduced, marking the beginning of games with no physical controls. Game console manufacturers have also added Internet connections and the ability to surf the web to their consoles, removing the requirement for a home computer in house holds where computers are not a necessity for business applications.

In addition to video games that sense motion and don't need controllers, the future also holds further integration between television, gaming, the Internet and home computers.

Before long one cheap device connected into a high-tech, wall-mounted monitor will offer users a full entertainment experience. The reality is, a few televisions coming available on the market very soon will provide almost every gaming alternative users can dream of -- and they are already equipped for ones that don't even exist in the minds of their designers at this point.

But do not get worried. Retro will always be in, too. Pong is still available for most gaming formats -- and still selling like it's 1975.

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