Video Games - the Evolution

From PC based to console driven, video game popularity has risen exponentially during the past 15 years. Most of us remember the days when gaming systems looked like a little stove (such was the case of the first Atari consoles) and graphic animations where better described by their "blocky style", regardless the visual and operational disadvantages these early games and consoles helped open the doors to incredibly complex and graphic intensive games which we now enjoy.

During the early 90's improved two dimensional games were released and Nintendo became famous for releasing a game featuring one of the most famous Italians, Super Mario. Due to the huge worlds, levels of difficulty and complexity it remains one of the favorite games to those who still own early Nintendo consoles.

Later on we saw two dimensional games (for Super-Nintendo) which were given an original spin to improve their appearance and graphics while retaining the complexity of Super Mario's Games, such is the case of Donkey Kong. This game became so popular that was later transformed into PC versions.

According to every gamer's age, different types of games are available. Some expert and hardcore gamers may find that Donkey Kong and Super Mario are "Old School" or boring, that's why several action/battle games were released such as "Street Fighter" and "Mortal Kombat". The later became so popular that was released in nearly every gaming console version, from Super Nintendo to Nintendo 64, PC, XBOX, Playstation, etc.

This leads us to more recent and graphic intensive games. Since many users have access to computers and the web, PC games became popular and have a great percentage of the gaming market. Following the combination of strategy and violence we find popular PC games such as Half Life in which the main character battles alien creatures and military-like enemies in a cold, dark and dangerous environment. A less violent popular PC game is NFS (Need for Speed) which is a difficult racing game due to its random and surprising tracks.

New gaming consoles require the gamer to use special peripherals such as headsets, other require them to move their body (arms, hands) to move the characters, this is the case of Nintendo's Wii. This new gaming system incorporates new peripherals with special motion sensors which can also be used to play PC games thorough not-so-difficult hacks available online.

New games have set a higher standard as far as graphics and complexity. Playstation, Wii and XBOX brands are constantly competing with one another (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) but as long as new complex and extreme games such as F.E.A.R and HALO come out, there will be an increasing market demand and happy gamers.