Science had discovered that humans get into a “flow” state when engaging in any sort of game, increasing productivity through the roof. People love their entertainment! In the next forty years, where will gaming take us? I read an interesting fiction novel entitled MetaGame by Sam Landstrom where everything in the world had become a playable game. The video game industry generated over $25 billion last year, and shows no sign of slowing despite a sluggish economy. Today gaming is a deeply ingrained part of our culture. Little known fact: Just before founding Apple in 1976, Steve Jobs worked at Atari (where he also got his friend Steve Wozniak involved with Pong and Breakout). The gameplay itself would be something that would be laughed at today, as the game used simple push buttons to control the action the screen.Ĭomputer Space, which was released in November 1971, launched its two creators, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell, into creating the iconic company Atari. It was also the first commercially available game that did not rely on a microprocessor, RAM, or ROM, for operation, but proprietary TTL circuitry that hardwired to play just a single game. Eager players used to queue up for hours to drop in a quarter and pilot a rocket ship in a space battle. If you’re unfamiliar with Computer Space, it was the first coin-operated video game machine in history. From using a one-button controller, to having a peripheral that can sense a person’s location and react to it, the industry has certainly advanced by leaps and bounds. As video gaming as an activity reaches its 40th birthday, I am amazed at how far games have come from the days of Computer Space and Pong, to the lush worlds of Skyrim in the present. Contrary to public opinion, Mario did not usher in the revolution, he just benefited from it.

The reason being that I grew up playing games on an Atari 2600, and learning BASIC on a TI-99 with a cassette tape drive for storage.

I always get a chuckle when I see a teenager walking around Best Buy with a shirt emblazoned with a classic NES controller and the word “roots” printed in some cool font. What crosses my mind, however, is the question of whether or not these young gamers realize how far video games have come since their inception. And rightfully so! Looking at the amazing graphics and deep gameplay of the latest Elder Scrolls game, it’s not that much of a mystery as to why so many people love playing games. Gaming has become such a large part of our culture that the release of high-end games like Skyrim become much-anticipated world events. As a person who was born in 1976, it’s somewhat difficult to grasp that anyone under the age of 21 most likely did not grow up in a house without a computer or gaming console.

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