The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent (201-331)

Summary: 

In 1976, Mattel began to work on a calculator-sized sports videogame that became known as the first ever handhold videogame. They first created a game that became known as Auto Race. They had the option of going with either a sports game or a racing game and they went with the racing game because it took less effort. The second game that came out was known as Football. It took nearly 2 years for Greenberg’s’ team to finally launch their new super mode game console known as ColecoVision. The game system was unveiled at the January Consumer Electronics Show in 1982. On February 1^st, 1982, Coleco and Nintendo signed an agreement in which Coleco paid Nintendo an undisclosed amount of money and promised royalties of $1.40 for every Donkey Kong cartridge and $1 for every tabletop machine sold. By the middle of 1822, even as the arcade industry began to fall, videogames were still doing well. In fact, Walt Disney Pictures even released a movie, Tron, in which Jeff Bridges saved the world by entering a super computer and defeating an evil program in a series of videogames. The biggest and most successful game company that emerged during the Commodore 64’s region was Electronic Arts, also known as EA. It was founded by Trip Hawkins, who in 1995 was included in People magazine’s list of 50 most attractive people. He had first gotten the idea to get into the computer industry in 1975 while he was studying in Harvard. In 1982 Hawkins prepared to open his company but asked Valentine for funding. With Valentines funding’s, he handpicked people that he thought were smart and persuaded them to join the team. In the early 1980’s companies were still selling their games in plastic bags with labels and Hawkins began to package his games in “album covers”. A lot of companies wouldn’t sign licensing agreements with Nintendo because the terms and agreements seemed entirely one-sided. In 1986, Americans purchased more than 3 million NES consoles and doubled the next year. Nintendo had been gaining a lot of momentum.

Quote:

"Greenberg began telling retailers about the system toward the end of 1981, unveiled it at the January Consumer Electronics Show in 1982, and began shipping it in July" (Kent 206).

Response:

I was kinda shocked when I read this quote because I didn't think that they had an electronics show where products could be unveiled at. It can connect to today because there are a lot of electronic shows in which companies just show a trailer of their upcoming game so that everyone will know what they are going to buy or not buy. Such an show is E3. It unveils games in June that are going to come out in November or December. I thought it was pretty cool that something from the 1980's could be similar to what's going on today.