A History of Video Game Consoles, pt 1 of 2

a momentary break from actual gaming by Renzie Baluyut

Hey everyone. Just thought I'd do a public service discussing the History of Video Game Consoles. Some friends and I were talking about the days when we played our first ever video games- it was the Atari 2600 for me, and back then, if you had one at home, you were the coolest kid on the block.

Welcome to my two-part special on my personal gaming blog: Get Your Game On | Renzie on Gaming. Enjoy!

How It All Began

As early as 1951, a dude named Ralph Baer came up with the idea of interactive television, supposedly as he was building TVs from scratch back in New Youk. Baer was actually a television engineer, and so in 1966, created the first ever video game: two dots chasing each other around onscreen.

Sanders Associates, the company he was working for, gave Baer the go-ahead to go further, and threw some funding his way. Two other dudes were signed up: Bill Harrison, who came up with the idea of a light gun, aimed to hit a target moved by another player, and Bill Rusch who came up with the concept of the video ping-pong game.

The result was the protoype known as the "Brown Box" in 1968. It had 2 controllers, a light gun, and switches to determine which game you wanted to play.

The company Magnavox came on board in 1969 and used plug-in circuits to change the games instead of switches- giving birth to the first ever commercially released video game console in May 1972: The Magnavox Odyssey.

First Generation (1972-1977)

Aside from the Magnavox Odyssey, you also had the Pong game from Atari/Sears, which came out in the Christmas of 1975. You also had the Coleco Telstar, which also had its own line of games.

The first-gen consoles were not very successful commercially, however, owing to little support from their parent companies, and therefore not having a decent marketing push.

Second Gen (1976-1984)

Things started picking up though by 1977, when Atari came out with the Atari 2600, then later with the 5200.

You also had the Fairchild Channel F, the Magnavox Odyssey, Mattel's Intellivision, Milton Bradley's Vectrex, the Emerson Arcadia 2001, Colecovision, and the SEGA SG-100.

Though everyone enjoyed fairly brisk sales in the early 8-bit era, the most popular choice was still the Atari 2600, having a good selection of games that were also popular in the arcade.

We also saw the early handheld game consoles. Milton Bradly's Microvision was the first to come out in 1979, but didn't do so well commercially. You know what did though? Nintendo's Game and Watches, which came out in 1980.

The more popular games at the time? Pac-Man, Asteroids, Defender, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Space Invaders, Pitfall, Q*bert, Mario Brothers and Spy Hunter.

The video game crash happened in 1983, mainly because the market was oversaturated with all kinds of consoles, and mostly crappy games, as many companies only wish to just cash in on the video games craze of the early 80's, without really delivering much in the way of a great gaming experience.

For a time there, the future of gaming looked rather bleak- many companies have gone bankrupt and folded. Entire inventories had gone unsold, and were even used as landfill, the stories say.

Third Gen (1983-1992)

Nintendo's Family Computer (as it was known here in the Philippines), or Famicom (as it was known in Japan), or the Nintendo Entertainment System pretty much singlehandedly saved the video game industry, at least as far as consoles were concerned.

Its most popular titles? Super Mario Bros., the first Final Fantasy games, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Contra, Metroid, Mega Man, Castlevania and Bomberman.

Nintendo also introduced the Gameboy, which started to dominate the handheld market in the late 80's.

Despite Nintendo's success in North America and most of Asia, Sega's Master System was more popular in Brazil, Australia and New Zealand.

Fourth Gen (1987-1996)

By this time, we saw the dominance of two new consoles: the Nintendo's SuperNES, and the SEGA Genesis.

We now saw 16-bit games, which looked so much better than their earlier counterparts. In fact, many of the popular titles from the third gen got themselves updated to 16-bit versions, but we also saw some newcomers- Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter were all popular fourth gen games.

Part 2 of my 2-part coverage of The History of Gaming Consoles comes up in a bit. We'll cover the rest of the gaming consoles all the way to the seventh gen, which would the consoles we have with us today.

Cheers, everyone!

5 Ways of Dealing with Repetitive Strain Injury

Here's a post that I first published on another blog of mine, The Life and Times of The Renzie Man. A little bit of advice for all you fellow gamers out there, especially those who have yet to experience the pain and discomfort of Repetitive Strain Injury. Read on!

I’ve had the misfortune of not being able to type for more than a couple of weeks. The doctors said it’s RSI, or Repetitive Strain Injury. Or Cumulative Trauma Disorder (CTD). Or Work related Upper Limb Disorder (WRULD). Whatever it is, the joint area that connects my right pointy finger with the rest of the hand got all swollen up, and for a time, unbelievably painful, particularly with the smallest bit of movement.

Which meant that I was pretty much getting by with just the left hand for two weeks. So it’s been ice packs and hot packs for me, and a lot of pain killers.

On the plus side, I’m just a little more proficient with navigating with a mouse using my left hand.

It’s actually pretty serious, particularly for people who spend a big chunk of their waking hours in front of a computer. Surfing isn’t much of a problem. It’s really those who type a lot, or play games a lot, or in my case, both. Repetitive Strain Injuries can keep you from performing your job well, or if you’re a gamer, it can keep you away from that MMORPG you’ve been obsessively immersed in for days.

I do a lot of writing for clients (e.g. continually churning out articles and blurbs on a keyboard), on top of maintaining a number of blogs. After three to four hours of non-stop keyboard-work, what do you suppose I do to take a break? Play computer games! Oh the tendons on my hand are just happy to do more button-mashing and mouse-clicking!

You take your hand’s well-being for granted until the pain slowly creeps in. At first, it just feels a little tired. So you go on with your work-play routine anyway. Then you feel the joint stiffness. Swelling starts building up. After a day, the pain sets in- so bad that at this point, you can’t even move your mouse anymore, or type with both hands. The swelling spreads to the surrounding areas. It dies down after a while, but it still takes at least two weeks for you to get yourself back to two-hands-typing form.

Dealing With Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

1. Prevention is key. Don’t wait for RSI to happen to you. Or in my case, don’t let it happen again. Take a few minutes break after an hour of keyboard-mashing. Fifteen minutes every hour or hour-and-a-half should be alright. And use those fifteen minutes to do something else- not by checking Facebook, or Plurk. Really take time to walk away from the keyboard and recreate some other way. Make a sandwich, read a book or plant an herb garden or something.

2. Your state of well-being counts. Which means proper nutrition and lots of exercise. Strengthen those arm muscles to improve circulation and endurance. Drink lots of water. Eat the right kind of food.

3. Invest in more ergonomic keyboards, mice and other interfaces. There are lots of nice keyboards out there designed to keep the wrists in a more functional position while typing, as well as all kinds of gaming interfaces for those who play all day. Adaptive technology enables the consumer to have access to a wide selection of special keyboards, mouse replacements and even pen tablet interfaces and speech recognition software. Might be wise to consider these. Heck, I know I would.

4. Observe a good sitting work posture. Being conscious of your posture at work also plays a role in preventing Repetitive Strain Injury, or RSI (and a lot of other body pains for that matter).

5. When things start to go downhill, consult a licensed medical professional. The tendency of some people is to self-medicate. Unless you’re a medical professional yourself, you shouldn’t go ahead and pop some pills for the pain. Besides, there are a lot of available pain management protocols available for different kinds of Repetitive Strain Injuries, for different kinds of lifestyles. Help your doctor figure out the best one for you.

So there you have it. Hopefully it doesn’t happen to you- coz it’s really such a bitch to have, what with all the pain and discomfort.

Cheers, everyone!

A Quick Break From Gaming - 2008 July

Hey there, fellow gaming enthusiast.

It's actually been quite a while since I've posted anything really substantial on this blog. I've been in Los Angeles for a little over a month- and if you've been reading any of my other blogs, you probably already know that I have plans of moving there definitely within the year.

I've already cut all my corporate ties (i.e. retired early from my radio career in Metro Manila and had gone completely home-based) back in the Philippines, and I'm starting to appreciate my new work-life situation.

What it means, really, is more time for me to do the shit I want, whenever I want. And yes, that means, among other things, more gaming.

At least I managed to get some stuff done while I was in Los Angeles:

--> I managed to get me a sweet new PC. It's got a nice new monitor, much better sounds and I thought I should try me out Vista for a change. I'll be using it for a lot of photo/video/audio editing on top of my regular gaming stuff.

--> Moved quite a lot of games to Los Angeles, but I still have a substantial amount of toys and games left to bring to the United States. At least I can play World of Warcraft from L.A.

--> Seriously considering getting me into Age of Conan. Been getting good word-of-mouth. But do I really have enough time for another paid MMORPG? I don't think I'm playing enough WoW as it is :)

--> I still have my eye on a new Xbox 360. I bought me a new Canon EOS 400D Digital Rebel XTi instead.

--> I was considering getting a DS Lite. Or a Sony PSP. But I have serious doubts- I don't think I really want to get into handhelds. Maybe when I have a spare US$150, then I'll think about it again.

--> Checked out the new 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Not too keen about it. I'd rather stick to the old 3rd or even 2nd Edition rules. Seriously. In fact, I'm playing Icewind Dale II all over again.

--> Got my sister hooked on World of Warcraft :D

--> Also managed to get my hands on Mass Effect for the PC, which I'm playing right now. Awesome game.

Well, at least it's good to be back. This blog is in need of some housekeeping. I didn't even realize Felicia Day left me a message last March. Felicia Day, man! Of "The Guild" and "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"! How could I have possibly missed that?

Let's get back to some blogging now, shall we?

Cheers, everyone!

WCG 2008 Philippine Champions announced

I'm a gamer- but definitely not as hardcore as these guys. I mean, I love playing, I can lose myself in a great MMORPG for hours on end, but at the end of the day, I still have a job to do, cats to feed and a girlfriend to spend time with.

But check it out: hundreds of gaming fans and gaming enthusiasts headed down to the SM Mall of Asia last weekend to check out all the gaming action on The World Cyber Games 2008 Philippine Preliminaries.

A total of 104 gamers entered the quarter finals which began Friday (July 11), following a series of eliminations held in various internet and LAN shops all key cities over the Philippines- in Metro Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao.

So who's representing us at this year's World Cyber Games?

The legendary local CounterStrike team Horsemen of the Apocalypse- Arvin Agbisit, Paolo Nancho, Jupiter Mars Gaboy, EJ Clores and Gary Guevarras- will be playing for Philippine pride in Cologne, Germany in November of this year, where they'll be going head on with other national teams for world Counterstrike supremacy.

Also competing are: Frederick Pe, our 2008 Warcraft III champion, Rafael Formoso, this year's bet for Guitar Hero, and John Raymond Tan, who's pitting his skills against the rest of the world on Command & Conquer 3.

Meanwhile, competing at the Asian Cyber Games is Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients (DotA) Team Meneski, with members Rhymel Olete, Jose Silva Jr., Ronald Robins, Kendrick Sy and Rovic John Perez.

This year's batch of national gaming champions will be representing the Philippines in the WCG Grand Finals set this November in Cologne, Germany, where up to 800 of the world's best gamers are expected to participate in the world's most prestigious e-Sports competition.

Our champions have not only earned the right to compete in Germany, they also get a lot of prizes for their efforts: a cash prize of P30,000, as well as other great stuff: mobile phones from Samsung, brand new Quad Core processors from Intel, peripherals from Logitech, and other computer gaming parts and upgrades. They also get free games, gift certificates, premium items of all kinds, magazine subscriptions, and the well-earned respect from legions of gaming fans.

Presenting the awards at the closing ceremony were officials from WCG global partners Samsung and Intel. Jerry Lacson, General Manager for Marketing of Samsung Electronics Philippines Corporation, commended the gamers for their display of skill and sportsmanship. In a speech, he says:

Samsung believes that Filipino gamers can excel in the games, and in doing so, display the highest level of sportsmanship that makes them worthy to carry the Philippine flag in the world finals. Since the beginning of the World Cyber Games, Samsung has been a staunch supporter of this competition. We do this for a simple reason – we believe in doing our share to create a healthy and responsible games culture.

Very well said, Jerry.

Meanwhile, as gamers saw action and cheered on for their favorite teams, everyone else at the SM Mall of Asia had the chance to check out a cosplay side event sponsored by Logitech.

The weekend crowd cheered as twenty four cosplay participants paraded in their intricate costumes. What was even more entertaining was the question-and-answer portion, in which the contestants really got into character. Some even had prepared skits with memorized lines, and the savvier ones easily ad-libbed their character's personality.

The top prize winners for the cosplay were Mark David Cerezo as Optimus Prime in first place, Belldandy Grimarez as Scar Predator in second place, and Pablo Bairan as Iron Monger in third place.

The World Cyber Games 2008 Philippine Preliminaries were made possible through the support of global partner SAMSUNG, premiere partner INTEL, along with the following official partners: Villman Computers, Logitech, Seagate, Asrock, Sparkle, SM Malls, SM Cyber Zone, Enchanted Kingdom, World of Fun, Playground Magazine, NU 107, Data Blitz and Vivendi Universal.

Cheers, everyone.

Have You Checked Out The World of Warcraft Comics?

Here's something every World of Warcraft gamer can appreciate: a whole bunch of World of Warcraft funnies- 15+ pages of comic strips- right smack in the WoW Official Website Community Page, which you can check out right here.

I gotta credit my girlfriend for pointing this one out to me. Yes, she plays World of Warcraft- heck, even more so than I do. Just the other night, she was checking both our accounts to see which ones needed renewing, and she stumbled upon the motherlode of WoW humor.

We eventually ended up reading them all. Of course some were funnier than others, but it was great to know how there are so many passionate players out there who came up with all these great strips.

You can see all kinds of renditions of familiar World of Warcraft character archetypes- some anime-ish, some intentionally drawn crudely- the variety in itself is a testament to WoW's universal appeal.

It seems that World of Warcraft players have been submitting these funnies since May of 2006- that's exactly 2 years ago- and more seem to be coming in. We're both looking forward to seeing more of these entertaining comic strips.

So next time you check out your World of Warcraft account, take some time out to browse through the rest of the WoW Official Website. Drop by the Community Section and check out the comic strips. Good times, man.

Cheers, everyone!

Would Rather Be Gaming

There seems to be a shortage of good gaming bloggers.

At least that's what this friend of mine told me. She works for a local PR agency, and it's good to hear that more PR and advertising agencies have been making good use of bloggers as a legitimate means to promote their interests.

In any case, she's had no problem putting together groups of bloggers for other events- food events, tech events, lifestyle events- but for some reason, she wonders, why does she seem to have a shortage of good gaming bloggers?

I thought about it as she brought it up- was this true, I pondered to myself. Off the top of my head, I could name probably a handful of bloggers I know who are into gaming, and some who actually do have gaming blogs which I read- but that's just it, there's only a handful.

But why aren't there more?

Even looking at my own blog- this one, "Renzie On Gaming"- I've noticed that I haven't put in as much content as I have on, say, my blog on marketing, or my blog on music. Even if it's clear that I'm a game freak of the freakiest kind.

Gaming is what I do when I'm not blogging, or otherwise engaged in business. And given the kind of games I play, it's so easy to get lost in them hours at a time.

And then it struck me. Why aren't there more gaming bloggers?

Because bloggers who are into gaming, would rather spend two hours playing their World of Warcraft, Call of Duty 4 or Grand Theft Auto San Andreas than spend those same two hours blogging or writing some more.

Even at this moment, in fact, I'm just itching to head on back to Azeroth to level up my Dranei shaman for a couple of hours before I start doing real work.

But there you have it. The answer to our question. There's still a huge demand for gaming blogs out there, and now that I've realized that, maybe it's time to change the way I see things.

After I log in to World of Warcraft a bit. Gotta check my Auction House sales, you know?

Cheers, everyone :)

The Gamer in Felicia Day!

Now here's a lady who can easily be every gamer-boy's dream-come-true. Felicia Day, ladies and gentlemen: she's cute, she's funny, and most importantly, SHE PLAYS GAMES!

Seriously.

In a recent episode of Mahalo Daily with Veronica Belmont, we get treated to an interview with Felicia Day and The Guild co-star Sandeep Parikh. Of course, they talk about the online comedy series- what it's about, how they came up with the idea for it, and what's in store for The Guild in the immediate future.

Somewhere along the conversation, Felicia admits to being a gamer all her life- getting into PC games as early as 6 or 7 years old, and rattled off quite a few of the games I also played back then- more notably, the Sierra series of adventure games: King's Quest, Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry!

Woohoo! Man, I loved those games! And that was back when games came in antiquated 5-1/4" diskettes. Diskettes, man!

She also mentioned the Ultima series, a bad Diablo addiction in college, and as we all know now from The Guild official website, a two-year addiction to World of Warcraft!

Anyway, you can check the rest of the interview on YouTube, or right here, as I have conveniently provided for your viewing pleasure.

Check her out on her very own website, right here- where you could check out more pics (like the one above), and the kind of work she's done so far. Smart little lady has even done some branding and is doing a great job marketing herself online. Heck, she's even designed the website herself! Well done, Felicia :)

If you haven't seen it yet, go check out The Guild- it's a hilarious online comedy series which you can check out on the show's channel on YouTube, or on this great comedy site- Effinfunny.com. I've also provided some linkage (to all eight webisodes thus far) right here:

• Episode 1: "Wake Up Call"
• Episode 2: "Zaboo'd"
• Episode 3: "The Macro Problem"
• Episode 4: "Cheesybeard's"
• Episode 5: "Rather Be Raiding"
• Episode 6: "Total Wipe"
• Episode 7: "Home Invasion"
• Episode 8: "Tipping Point"

Read more about The Guild as I feature the rest of the other episodes on this blog, "Renzie On Gaming". In the meantime, you can check out their official website for lots of great insider stuff and exclusive video, or you could check them out on Facebook and MySpace.

'Til next episode! Cheers, everyone!