Everything changed forever when William Higinbotham created Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope. From then on, electronic games stopped being simple experiments or proof of concept, and leaned more toward entertainment. New hardware and new languages led to a drastic increase in game quality, which was reflected mainly through graphics.
Try to remember the first time you played a video game. Remember its graphics, its colors… and compare them with what exists now. Personally, I got to enjoy the last phase of the Atari 2600, with River Raid, Pitfall, Volleyball and Boxing (both from the RealSports series), and then I moved to the Commodore 64, enjoying the Giana Sisters, Microprose Soccer, Pole Position, Out Run, Pitstop 2, and more. Today, all those games are within our reach thanks to emulators, running on systems with chilling processing power… but the truth is we need that power. Why? Just watch this video to understand it:
The Evolution in One Video
https://www.youtube.com/embed/bN7TiIZBc7gYes, it is impossible for a list of that nature to be perfect, simply because it is impossible to mention every game. However, we see a good selection among the pioneers (Spacewar, Computer Space, Pong), the first attempts at 3D with perspective tricks and wireframe (Battlezone), the adoption of polygons (Winning Run, Hard Drivin’), advances in physics, greater emphasis on speed (Sonic Adventure), and finally an explosion in quality with titles that brought powerful computers of the time to their knees (Doom 3, F.E.A.R., Crysis). The consoles are very well represented with Gears of War and Ryse: Son of Rome, as is the multiplayer genre with Battlefield 1.
Now, it is no coincidence that the last two games are PlayStation 4 exclusives. Beyond the similarities between the hardware of current-generation consoles and the enormous potential of high-end computers, we cannot deny that Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War are works of art. The good news? There are even better things on the horizon.
