Video Games
By: Claire Copeland & Amanda Houlby
Timeline
•1967- Ralph Baer and coworkers developed the first console for video games. The console had 12 games and was called the Brown Box
•1972- The same company begins production of the Magnavox Odyssey which was the first commercial video game console.
•1972- Nolan Bushnell founded the company Alari. First big hit with the video game Pong.
•1977- Alari begins on a cartridge based system called Stella.
•1980- The company Mattel creates the system Intellivison which challenged Alari
•1985- The first Nitendo Entertainment System is released
•1989- Nitenndo creates the Game Boy. It was the first handheld game console.
•1991- Super Nitendo Entertainment system is released
•1995- Sonys PlayStation is launched which was the most popular consoles
•1996- The Nitendo 64 is released which is the last system to use cartridges
•2000- Play Station 2 is released and also can play DVDs
• 2001- Microsoft releases the first XBOX
•2002- The Game Boy advanced is released
•2004- Nitendo DS is released which has dual screens and touchscreen
•2005- XBOX 360 is released
•2006- Play Station 3 is releaed by SONY
•2006- Nitendo releases the Wii
•2013- Sony releases PlayStation 4
•2013- Microfsoft releases XBOX One
Consoles
First PlayStation compared to PlayStation 4
First XBOX compared to newest XBOX
First GameBoy compared to newest GameBoy
How Video Games Have Impacted The World
Seeing Shades of Gray
•increases vision called contrast sensitivity
•Helpful when driving in fog
•People who play video games also pay more attention and don’t get distracted as easily
Laser Focus
•People who play video games become more efficient
•Able to detect new information coming at them faster
•Also better multitaskers so they can switch from task to task easier
Closing The Gender Gap
•A ability to mentally manipulate 3-D figures is called spatial cognition
•Women usually score worse on these tests, but after women started playing video games the gender gap nearly closed
•The useful field of view is a part of spatial cognition and is how much of the visual field a person can perceive at any given moment
•Again women scored worse on these tests, but after playing action video games the difference was gone
Works Cited
"A History of Video Game Consoles." Time. Time Inc., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
Trudeau, Michelle. "Video Games Boost Brain Power, Multitasking Skills." NPR. NPR, 20 Dec. 2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.