Introduction This is where I will be looking at the development history of console as well as all of the different platforms What Is a Game Platform? A game platform is a way in which you are able to play a game and these are put into categories which are similar like the ps3 and Xbox 360 are in the console platform category and there are mobile which are games which can be played on phones like temple run there are also arcade which were categorized since they offered a variety of games that can't be played on others but nowadays you can play anything on any platform History of Game Platforms 1947- The cathode ray tube amusement device which was a missile simulator inspired from the radar display from WWII

1953- The first case of interactive TV which was a show for kids called windy dink and you and you had to buy transparent pieces of paper to place on the TV and copy what the characters did however this was discontinued since kids were drawing straight onto the screen

1957- The IBM/610 which was the first personal computer (meaning it was the first computer intended for one person to use)

1958- Tennis for two which was played on an oscilloscope with a vector screen

1967- Ralph Baer‘s brown box is the first console made but not released to the public

1971- Galaxy game is the earliest known coin operated arcade machine which was able to play only on the campus of Stanford University

-Computer space was the first commercially sold arcade video game

1972- The Magnavox odyssey is created the first home console

1974-Ceefax the BBC information service is launched as interactive TV

1975- Pong is released and a home version is able to be brought

1977- The very first hand held game console was the mattle’s LED based handhelds which were a variety of sport games like baseball and basket ball

1979-Milton Bradley micro vision this was very prone to problems like the screen rotting and a slight electric charge breaking the game cartridges

1980- The Nintendo game and watch series which comes with the games Donkey Kong, Mario and balloon fight

1981-the IBM PC is released with 16K of memory, 160K floppy disk drive and a 11.5 inch black and white monitor with a cost of $1,565

1982- The first IBM luggage compatible computer is created weighing 28 pounds

1983- The first commensally sold mobile phone the Motorola dyna TAC 8000x or the brick phone which is also known as

1985- NES (Nintendo entertainment system) becomes popular after the video game crash and release the popular titles like super Mario bros and the legend of Zelda

1989- The game boy gets released and is said to have some of the best games in it's library's like Tetris and Pokémon -the Atari lynx/ lynx II the console developed to rival the game boy it had better graphics but was way too expensive

1990- The sage game gear a more successful game boy rival and was still cheaper than the lynx

1991- Apple crates the power book and this is the base design every laptop takes after

1993- Bamboozle and quiz game featured on channel 4

1995- The PlayStation is released and is one of the first consoles to use a disc drive built into the console and included popular game titles like resident evil and crash bandicoot

1997-The first popular mobile phone game the Nokia snake which was preinstalled on its 6110 model

-Motorola releases the first clamshell mobile phone inspired form the star trek communicator

1998- The Nokia 5110 again featured snake and was more slim then there previous one -the game boy colour is released which was like the Gameboy but this time it had colour screen and backwards compatibility -apple crates the bondi blue iMac and sells it for $1,300

1999-black berry releases there first handset the black berry 850 -TiVo is released to as a box for interactive TV

2000- The PlayStations 2 is released the second console made by Sony and had the 128 bit system and backwards compatibility -Nokia 3310 is released and is believed to be the best mobile devices ever created and some think it is unbreakable

2001-game boy advanced/ Gameboy advanced sp (2003)/ micro (2005)

2002-samsung releases their first phone and is one of the first to use a thin film transistor active matrix LCD display

2003- Black berry release a phone with email and QWERTY keyboard but you needed head phones to make calls

2004- The Nintendo DS is released one of the first with a touch pad and backwards compatibility -apple creates the iMac G5 which has influenced the modern all in one desktop design

2005- The PlayStation portable comes out this featured high quality graphics and non-gaming functions like take photos -Gizmondo was created by tuger telematics but since it had lots of features like camera and GPS but no compelling games and high price it never did very well

2006- PlayStation 3 released with wireless controllers and online capabilities - The Wii is released and one of the first consoles with a motion controller 2008-the apple iPhone 3G is released and one of the first smartphones

2012- Wii u is released and is one of the first consoles to have 2 screens for the games one is the TV and the other is the remote

2013- The PlayStation 4 and Xbox ONE is released the PlayStation with a small screen built into the controller and the Xbox with a better version of the motion peripheral the Kinect

With gaming there are a bunch of different types of gaming platforms for instance: Consoles- these are things like the PlayStation 3 (on top) and Xbox360 (on the bottom) which uses disc and have the ability to play online and offline. The first home console the Magnavox odyssey which used cartridges and was first released in 1927. The advantages of using a console over a another platform is that if you were to buy a console it does the gaming side of a pc but for half the price so it is cheaper to buy a console rather than a PC it is also much easier to understand and since the games made for the console you know will work since they are all the same while all PC’s are different so one game will work on one but not the other and the controls can be easier to understand while on a PC using a keyboard and mouse may seem weird to some. The downside of some consoles are that they can not be modded since if you are to do that you usally break the game and also there is the problem of exclusives where if some thing is exclusive for the xbox people who have a playstation will never be able to play unless they decide to realease it on the console later on and vice versa also the fan base of consoles is smaller than say the PC base since every game that comes out is aimed to be able

to be played on the pc except say the exclusives for each console the features of some consoles like the PS3 it has USB ports, a blu ray player, wireless controller, a hard drive in stead of say a memory card, it has online play. Hand held console- consoles don’t just come as things you have to plug in to play it can also come as a hand held console and some of the benefits of this is that you are able to bring it with you and play it when you get boared or if you have time spare and also any game that is released on the big consoles like playstaion will usally be relaesed on the hand held version if not as a new game or with extra content like new mini games to fit with the features of the console like touch screen games and such but the games may be downgraded in term of graphics compared to their console conter parts to fit with the system. Some of the drawbacks of a hand held console is that it will eventally run out of battery lif which means it will need to be recharged and if you let it run out while you are playing it you will lose all of your data unless you saved your game before hand. The featurers of a hend held console like a DS(bottom console) is that they have back wards compatability with the gaame boy, it has a touch screen, it has a micro phone, and uses card rather than having a HDD in it so the only problem is losing the game cards. Arcade- this is things like the arcade machines which were coin operated machines where the earliest arcade game recorded was the Galaxy Game which made its debut in 1971 on the campus of Stanford University and in the same year there was the game computer space which was the first commercially sold arcade game. The golden age of arcade games was 1978-1986 where some of the most memorable arcade games made like PAC-MAN (1980)(cabinet on the left), Space Invaders (1978) and Donkey Kong (1981) the beneift of these machines were that you could play as long as you liked until you died once you did you would need to put another pound into the machine to start again also the sort of had a social aspect where you would go to play these games with your friends or even play with people you have never met before. People use to to need to go out and play arcade game like in pubs arcades and even hotels but now adays you are able to download an emulater like mame which can allow you to play your favourite arcade games on your PC and something like this can kind of take the effectivness of the arcade cabinet away if you can just download and play the games for free. The features of a arcade cabinet are that it has a joy stick controller along with buttons, it has a coin door which is where you put the money play it and there is also a return button if you want your money back on the dorr as well (coin operated), it has a marquee that is used to present the name of the

game usally this is back light to make it stand out, a bezal which contains art to do with the game and maybe the instuctions however they can also be seen in the instruction panal and a PCB(printed circurit board) which contains every thing the game need to function and later models allow the owner to change the games installed on the PCB ,there is also a monitor which is where the game is viewed and can display raster and vector images (raster pixle by pixle images got good when scaled up since qulity loss, vector only able to use points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon can be scaled and keep qulity) and there is a swithcing power supply which provides the correct abmount of voltage to the PCB PC- A PC is "personal computer" they have the ability to go online for things like gaming however they don't always need a connection to be able to play the games you can own on them like team fortress 2 has online and offline play so that you can play the game whenever you like the advantage of having a PC over another game platform is that the games you get for PC are more customizable than games for say the Xbox 360, the graphics compared to other platforms are better however this may depend on the type of computer but most PC games need your to near enough at its best to be able to play it and people can be more accurate using mouse and key board since it allows for small corrections like if you were playing sniper in battle field a mouse and key board would be better but for something with a lot of controls like GTA a controller may be a better option. The features of a PC is that it has the ability to play games online, when playing games you are able to mod the games you play (potently), depending of the hard ware you have in your computer it can have better graphics than that of a console, it has USB ports and can play any game with the help of emulators.

Mobile- these are things like iPhone games like angry birds and temple run. Games have been available to play on the phone however they only really had the snake game and solitaire but when the iPhone came they gave people the ability to buy multiple games for things like £1 and under to play when they have time to kill. The benefit of mobiles for gaming like the hand held console they are very portable and they are good for casual gamer but the downsides are that they aren’t fully optimized for playing games since they mainly used for calling and nowadays internet also they will run out of battery at some point and playing games uses the battery up faster.

Television- this is where they have games on the TV and sometimes to go along with

shows you would mainly see this with games shows(picture below) since they allow people to play along and try to win if they offer prizes or just let you have a bit more fun with the show other than just watching it. This gives watching TV and playing a game a more casual feel to it and can even engage the person more in to whatever they are watching/playing but the downside is that it can't work for every show so it is very selective. You can also get smart TV’s which TV’s that are able to generally able to connect to the internet which allow them to let you view things like iplayer and thing like that without having to go on a computer also you can also get a box (box on the right) which you can connect to the TV and this again lets you connect to the internet and turn you TV into a smart TV. The features of interactive TV are that you can use you remote to buy things off the channel, you will have pop ups appear on you TV about the advertisements you watch allowing you to maybe get some vouchers for that product, and set reminders to show and set up your device to record them

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_2_retail_configurations PlayStation 2 picture