Popular Electronic Games - They Are Not Just For Kids Anymore

Superheroes battle monsters and space invaders in fast action games. Players take on the role of these superheroes in epic battles. In other games players race cars, boats, motorcycles, helicopters and planes against villains and even less evil opponents to win high stakes races.

Game titles such as Burnout3: Takedown, ESPN, NHL ? 2K5, Silent Hill 4: The Room, Terminator 3: The Redemption, Donkey Kong 3, and, Pokemon have joined the national lexicon as kids have flocked to the lure of electronic games.

Parents, teachers, preachers and politicians, have criticized and in some cases even banned electronic games. Electronic games have been blamed for poor grades, poor conduct and even poor health. If you listen long enough, electronic games are responsible for all of the problems our young people experience today.

One thing is certain. Kids love them. They buy and play them in ever increasing numbers. Electronic games are here to stay.

People have been trying to play games on computers almost since the days of the very first computer. As early as 1950, Claude Shannon, a mathematician and engineer, believed that computers could be programmed to play chess in competition with humans. He became intrigued with the concept of artificial intelligence. In pursuit of this idea researchers and scientists designed crude games that could be played on the huge and clumsy computers of the 1950s and 1960s.

The first actual electronic games as a consumer product were built as coin operated arcade games in the early 1970s. In 1971 Nolan Bushnell, Ted Dabney and Al Alcorn formed the first game company, Atari. Soon after they produced the first game console and their first electronic game, Pong, as an arcade game. Pong was immediately successful.

This success led Atari and other firms to begin work on home game consoles that could be hooked to TV sets. Atari released its first home console in 1977. Soon games were put on cartridges that could be changed at the whim of the player.

By 1979, the company, Activision, was formed by former Atari game designers. The purpose of this new company was to focus strictly on game software. They decided to leave the development of equipment to play electronic games to other people. This was the first company to build a business of developing and selling electronic games software.

In a short time a spate of game companies sprang up trying to develop software for the infant electronic game industry. The result was a glut of poorly conceived games hitting the market. Consumers turned away in droves and the home electronic game industry faded hit the skids.

By the early 1980s, electronic games were being developed for personal computers. Color graphics, flexible storage capacity and general purpose processors made games much easier to play on personal computers. The game console business was all but dead.

In the late 1980s, two Japanese companies introduced a new generation of game consoles that were technologically capable of handling the new electronic games being produced. These companies were Nintendo and Sega. These game consoles had graphics capabilities that exceeded those of most personal computers. Nintendo also offered a feature that let the console record the game action so a player could pause the action of a game.

Right behind Nintendo came Gameboy, a hand-held game console. Game consoles enjoyed a resurgence of popularity during the 1990s. A new, even more sophisticated generation of electronic games was introduced by 2001. These consoles included Playstation2 and Xbox. Electronic games continued to become more complex with more action and more graphics.

Electronic games, today, have achieved art form status. They are sort of a wonderful combination of board games and comic books all rolled up into one medium with spectacular graphics and compelling audio. Curiously enough, most electronic games are similar to board games. They have one of two central themes. The first is racing and the other is capturing area or opponents. Perhaps it is because of these similarities that electronic games have begun to capture a wider audience.

As electronic games have matured they have begun to attract more mature audiences. Initially these games were primarily toys for boys. The growth area in the game industry is no longer adolescent males. It is mature adults, both men and women. Many of the most popular board games have been adapted to electronic game formats. Where youngsters hooked game consoles to TV sets, adults are playing games on their PCs, often against other players across the Internet. Grandparents are playing electronic games with grandchildren. They are also joining game clubs to play electronic games on the Internet with other senior citizens in another state or half a world away. Many of the top game companies are betting that older adults are the new growth market for the game industry.

Claude Shannon believed that computers could be programmed to play chess. In a sense he was right. He certainly never imagined chess players reaching across cyberspace as they exercise chess strategies on computerized game boards. Nor could he have imagined video poker, Internet casinos and all of the other popular electronic games people of all ages are playing. Electronic games aren't just for kids anymore.

About the author: Royce Armstrong is a successful freelance writer with a business and banking background who believes consumers should get the best value for their money when shopping for toys such as electronic games, playstation 2, and game boy.

---

UAV Swarm Reconfiguration for computer war games

The modern battlespace is changing in the real world and... Read More

Popular Electronic Games - They Are Not Just For Kids Anymore

Superheroes battle monsters and space invaders in fast action games.... Read More

10 Innovative Game Features

Watch yourself struggle, sweat, collapse as you turn your video... Read More

SMS Gaming - Text Paging Games that can be Played by Anyone

Using the Physical World as a Game Board: This is... Read More

Virtual Wrapping Paper and E-Gifts- Is There Really An Online Santa?

The internet has proven to be an amazing delivery conduit... Read More

Computer Traumas

It has happened! Computer games have started to control my... Read More

Review: Samurai Jack -- Code of the Samurai

Fans of Genndy Tartakovsky's "Samurai Jack," which wrapped last year... Read More

Ingredients For A Great Game

There are millions of computer games out there on the... Read More

Sega Dreamcasts Cause of Death?

What ever happened to that game console we used to... Read More

Xbox vs. PS2 Game Consoles

There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the... Read More

Best Space Themed Games - Part I

Space? How much we can place where? Incredible words, unknown... Read More

Malicious Advertising

Advertising is a necessary irritant in the world today. You... Read More

The Future of Submarine Games

In the last six months, the demise of sims has... Read More

Ten Things You Should Know in Video Games

Bloodborne | It's Zero Hour | Star Wars: Battlefront |... Read More

$20 Buys a Lot of Game These Days

Watching the evolution of sports games has been like watching... Read More

XBOX 360 vs. PS3: an in Depth Look

All gamers are awaiting the release of the Xbox 360... Read More

Rome Total War: Battle Strategy Guide

A. FormationsIt's pretty much common sense to come up with... Read More

A Comparison Of the Next Generation Gaming Consoles (Part 2)

Arguably Microsoft can attribute a great deal of its success... Read More

Create Computer Games - Get Started on Creating Your Own Virtual Worlds

I've always loved video games, ever since I first played... Read More

Playing Games Like Its 80s

Do you miss the good old 80's Amiga and Commodore... Read More

Go Digital and Groovy... and Save Trees!

Have you inherited your Dad's trading card collection - ie.... Read More

A Parents Guide to Online Gaming, Part 2

In part 1 we talked about online gaming and your... Read More

The Story Behind OpenSimcity

I've always liked to play SimCity since I was little.... Read More

Solitaire RULES Half Life DROOLS

It's a popularity contest.Solitaire is hip, cool, and way more... Read More

Aerial Blimp Refueling of UAVs

Aerial refueling from blimps might be easier than we think.... Read More

Reviving Old Computer Games

Remember the good old days of gaming, when there were... Read More

Another Title by Atari Released on StarForce Protected DVDs

"Atari has selected StarForce to protect their brand-new game called... Read More

Great Games Youve Never Played

Do you know what you're missing?Some of the best computer... Read More

Next Generation Games Consoles - Separating Fact from Fiction

Over the next 18 months the 3 giants of the... Read More

Full Version Pocket PC Games For Free

Play Games InsteadDo you like your full version pocket pc... Read More

Computer Game on Mars; Design for Communication Device

Powering up hand held wireless devices in the field for... Read More

Guns Dont Kill People - Videogames Do!

"Ban these evil games", "Videogame violence corrupting our nation's youth",... Read More

Increasing Rates of Climb in Fighter Aircraft Like the New Joint force Strike Fighter

We know from studying aircraft like the F-8 Crusader, in... Read More