This is a history of Home Video Game systems since the first
PROGRAMMABLE home system was made available to the public in the United
States.  This does not include the 72 different companies that produced
the Pong type games.   They are listed in the order of their release.


Magnavox Odyssey

     Used colored plastic overlays that covered your TV screen to
     produce a color effect for the black & white games.

Fairchild Channel F

     Sorry I have never seen one of these animals.  Only know that
     they existed.

Bally Home Arcade

     Graphics comparable to the Atari 2600, and actually a little
     better.  Sold for the most part through Montgomery Wards stores.
     Used a controller that was the grip of a handgun with a trigger
     for a firebutton and a small joystick 'knob' on the top of the
     gun handle.

Atari 2600

     One of the most popular home video games of all time.  Literally
     hundreds of cartridges produced for this thing.  Graphics were
     lousy.  Sound was not much better, but this was the first video
     game system that was heavily marketed and VERY successful for the
     Atari Corp..  The mass quantity of games available for this system
     led to the decline of home video games.  Programmers found
     themselves searching for ideas and often producing games even when
     the ideas were terrible.  People began to get fed up with paying
     $20 - $30 for a game that looked like it took about 1/2 hour to
     program.

Magnavox Odyssey 2

     This system was the only one to come with a typewriter style
     keyboard.  Graphics were slightly better than the Atari 2600, but
     there were not nearly as many games available.  This machine died
     out for the most part while the Atari 2600 market was still very
     strong.

Arcadia 2001

     Again, only vaguely remember this system.

Mattel Intellivision

     The top rival for the Atari 2600.  Was released soon after the
     2600.  The graphics were much better than the Atari 2600.  The
     mainstay of this system was it's reputation for it's sports games.
     Animation of it's 'human' (just slightly more detailed than stick
     figures) characters was very realistic.  It had less than half the
     amount of cartridges as the 2600, but also had much less third
     party support - most games were programmed by Mattel itself.  This
     was also the only system that did not use the standard type of
     controller - the joystick.  Intellivision used a 16 position disc
     for directional movement as well as a keypad much like that of a
     telephone.

Colecovision

     Released just before the 'Great Video Game Depression' this
     machine did not have much time to catch on.  Graphics were better
     than any system released to date.  Controllers used were a
     combination of Intellivisions' keypad and the standard joystick in
     place of the disc.  The systems themselves were not very reliable
     and often needed service.  Possible reason for this is that Coleco
     had to hurry it's entry to the video game market as Atari was
     starting to decline and they did not fully test the machine.  Many
     of the games were ported directly from arcade games.

Atari 5200

     Atari's answer to Colecovision.  Graphics were much better than
     the Atari 2600, and Atari probably saw the 2600 starting to loose
     ground.  The controllers were much like the Colecovision
     controllers - keypad and joystick.  Only a few games were made for
     this system becuase had already lost faith in the video game
     systems and the quality of it's software.

Vectrex

     One of the most unique systems produced.  This system came with
     it's own monitor and had no color even though the technology was
     available.  It used what is called vector graphics (hence the
     name - Vectrex) which is a type of graphics that has no curves.
     Just intersecting lines.  The controllers were strangely similar
     those of a system that had not yet been produced - Nintendo.  It
     seemed this machine was relying on parental fears of TV damage
     from the systems such as Atari 2600 and Intellivision that used
     the TV for it's output.  This system never caught on.  There were
     probably less than a dozen games made for it.

Intellivision II

     This system added nothing to the original Intellivision other than
     a more compact design and an adapter to allow the user to play
     Atari 2600 games.  Seemed as though Mattel had given in to the
     old saying - "If you can't beat them - join them".

Atari 7800

     Atari's 'third wind'.  Have to hand it to this company though.  At
     least they did not give up.  This system had graphics close to
     the original Nintendo, but the Atari name was associated with the
     Atari 2600 and all of it's problems and never really caught on.
     This system would also play most of the Atari 2600 video games.

Intellivision III

    After Mattel had given up on the system a third party bought the
    rights to it and produced this machine.  It was exactly the same
    as the original Intellivision.  The company (InTV) also produced a
    handful of new games for the system including revised versions of
    many of the sports games that allowed one player operation (the
    original games were mostly two player only games which was a big
    complaint from Intellivision I owners).  This system probably lived
    about as long as the Vectrex did.  Nintendo was released shorty
    after it and proceeded to scratch it from existence.





   That's it.  I don't think I really need to go into the systems that
are still available such as Nintendo's and Sega's systems.  Just go to
your local Toy's R Us and see for yourself.

   Some of these systems were very popular.  You might even say that
the Atari 2600's popularity was comparable to that of the Nintendo
system today.  Video games were a very new thing inthe late 70's and
early 80's.  People could not get enough of them.  They bought up
every single cartridge produced.  It seemed programmers were just
releasing garbage so that they could get in on it and eventually turned
people away from the systems all together.  A few systems tried to
revive the industry such as Colecovision, Vectrex, and Intellivision II
with it's computer and piano keyboard add ons, but the consumers would
not hear it.  They had been 'screwed' one too many times with terrible
quality games for thier systems at $20 - $30 each that that all efforts
to save the industry failed.

    People had been away from video game systems for about 5 years or
so and Nintendo felt it was time to 'test the water' and released the
Nintendo Entertainment System.  It was and still is a HUGE success.  The
funny thing is that the same thing seems to be happening all over again.
Everyone and their brother is trying to make a few bucks on the NES and
the quality of the games is really starting to slip.  Stayed tuned.
We'll all just have to wait and see what happens.

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