The 1970s: The Genesis of Gaming
This is when gaming “started” and to be precise 1972 when Pong took over convenience stores and restaurants. However, in 1977 is when the first home console hit the markets enabling home gaming. The console, Atari 2600, sold 27,640,000 units worldwide idr168.
The 1980s: The Beginning of Nintendo, Pac-Man and Mario Era
1980 and 1981 saw the release of Pac-Man and Mario respectively. The latter selling 60,000 arcade units while the former selling 350,000 arcade units.
However, it was in the mid-80s that saw a shift in gaming. Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in 1985 and went ahead to sell a whopping 61,910,000 units. The gaming scene was only picking momentum at this point and 4 years later Nintendo came up with another ground-breaker.
The Gameboy.
This was the first handheld gaming device and because of its portability, players fell in love with it. In fact, a total of 118,690,000 units were sold.
The 1990s When Gaming Took Over
As early as 1991, Nintendo was on it again. This time releasing the Super Nintendo (SNES) which sold a total of 49,100,000 units to this day.
But 1993 was when the world was introduced to martial arts gaming. This also raised concern among parents because of the violence portrayed in Mortal Kombat. This was also the first 2-player fighting game.
The popular Warcraft game can also trace its roots to 1994 when it was first released under the first title of Warcraft: Orc & Humans.
In 1995, Sony made the grand entrance to gaming like the beast they were about to become. The Sony PlayStation was the first console and it went ahead to sell 104,250,000 units.