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A brief history of video games and how they relate to Generation X

In order to show how video games and Generation X can be related, first we must define some time boundaries. Video games have been around on computer departments in universites since the early 1960's, but they did not gain widespread popularity, or become "born," if you will, untill the 1970's. Generation X is the generation of people who have been born since somewhere around the mid-60's and 70's, and are becoming adults today. So, in a since, video games and Generation X have kind of grown up together, so it seems natural to think that video games are a great example to characterize Generation X. That's what this web site is about, and this particular section of this site is devoted to a brief history of video games and what Generation X was doing at the time.

The first big step in the widespread popularity of video games began with Nolan Bushnell. In 1972, Nolan Bushnell created Pong, a game where 2 people bounced a ball back and forth with paddles. It sounds simplistic today, but in its time, Pong was a big hit. The bar where Pong first debuted phoned Customer Service and Repairs for the game the second day after it came out. Apparently the machine was out of service because it was overflowing with quarters! This is when video games reached its infancy, and at the same time, Generation X was also in diapers. But, some lucky Generation X players may have cut their teeth, so to speak, on Pong. An interesting tidbit: Nolan Bushnell also founded Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater. Does this guy know how to have fun or what?

Later on, after the thrill of Pong settled down, video arcades started becoming very popular. Video arcades at this time were places where young and old gamers could go to pump quarters into such classics like Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Pac Man. Many a Generation Xer probably has special memories about video arcades, because they may have represented some first memories of independence. It may have been a first bike ride, or a first big fight with parents that brought them to a video arcade. Many Generation Xers may also have sat down Saturday morning to watch the Pac Man cartoon, eat Donkey Kong cereal, or save those precious quarters in a Q*Bert bank.

Also at this time, home video game console systems began to hit the market. Now game players could save their quarters and play games at home. Back in the late 70's and early 80's, many a Generation Xer probably had an Atari 2600 or a Intellevision on their Christmas wish list. The console systems, as well as the games in the arcade, kept getting better and better as time went on. Some of the console systems have become household items. We didn't just say, "Let's go play video games," we said, "Let's go play Nintendo." I could give an extensive history on these console systems, but there is a superb web site on the web that I truly recommend for your console history viewing. It's the Classic Home Video Game Museum. If you like old arcade games, here's another page where you can wax nostaglic.

It can be argued that video games and Generation X shouldn't be considered related. Video games can be enjoyed by people of all ages. While this is true, I believe that Generation X and video games have a special relationship because we have both grown from infancy to maturity at the same time. Also, what about the people who make these games, aren't most of them Baby Boomers? To that argument, I can defend the same way as the first, although at the end of this page, I have set up a paragraph giving credit to some of these programmers. Also, many Generation Xers have been influenced by video games so much that when some became authors, they made references to video games in their writings. Two Generation X authors that we read in this class that do this are Eric Liu and Ian Williams. In Eric Liu's essay, "A Chinaman's Chance," he made a refernce to video games when he was commenting on his teenage years: "When I was in my early teens, I would invite my buddies overnight to watch movies, play video games, or beat each other up" (127). In Ian Williams essay, "Trash that Baby Boom," he critiques the world in which Generation X lives when he says, "[We] never lived in a world that wasn't softened immeasurably by Nintendo, cruise control, and Easy Cheese"(151).Now let's look at the present situation.

Today, arcades are a little different than what they used to be. Even though the games have improved graphically, the audience which plays arcade games has narrowed to just teenage boys. I think there are reason for this, and you can view those reasons on my problems with video games page. The console game systems have improved as well, and they are doing a better job targeting all age groups, even Generation X. I think the best ones that do this are Nintendo and Sony. The three biggest companies in the business now are Nintendo, Sega, and newcomer Sony. And let's not forget computers! In the last few years especially, computers have been able to keep up and set some of the standards that arcade and console games adhere to. Another phenomenon with video games is that in the past few years, despite the release of newer and better systems like the Nintendo 64 and the Sony Playstation (pictured above), many people, including and perhaps especially Generation X, have embraced some of the older games even more. Game companies are even starting to release collections of the older games like Namco's Museum volumes for the Playstation. This "retro-gaming" craze can probably be explained by Generation X wanting to revisit some of their childhood memories.

I can't complete my history of video games page without recognizing some of my favorite video game programmers. Next Generation, a gaming magazine, has an excellent albeit outdated page dedicated to many of these programmers and other movers and shakers in the business. As mentioned before, it all started out with Nolan Bushnell's Pong. Eugene Jarvis is famous for his hit arcade games, like Defender, Robotron, and the more current Cruis'n USA. Here's another excellent page on Jarvis. Probably the most popular video game of all time, Tetris (who hasn't heard of Tetris?), was made by a Russian mathematician, Alexei Pajitnov. Masaya Nakamura has been credited with creating another popular game, Pac Man. Shigeru Miyamoto, shown in the photo, created Nintendo's popular lineup of games that includes the Super Mario Bros. series, the Legend of Zelda series, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and a host of other fun games and characters. Yu Suzuki has done for Sega what Mr. Miyamoto has done for Nintendo. He made Sega's top arcade titles, like Hang On and Virtua Cop. Finally, talented game programmers like Roberta Williams of Sierra On-Line have revolutionized the computer gaming industry.

Well, I hope this page was useful. Again, if you have any comments, please visit my biography page. I also encourage you to visit some of these other great links to pages.

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