25 years of digital gaming

A quarter of a century ago, the first generation Game Boy stole many children’s and teenagers’ hearts. But the small grey brick was also popular with adults. It came with a black directional pad and two pink operation buttons and took the global video game market by storm. In Germany, the first Game Boys cost some 160 deutschmarks - the equivalent of 80 euros ($111 dollars).

TV game consoles had been around before the Game Boy was invented. Atari 2600 was one such pioneer. Its first version was released in the US in 1977. It came with pixelated graphics and a limited range of colors. Atari 2600s were produced until the early 1990s. Overall, some 30 million consoles were sold.

In 1982, Commodore 64 took off on its triumphal course with computer fans. The C64 model was the first commercially successful personal computer which could be used for both computer games as well as other applications, such as writing small programs. The C64 had no hard drive. Games would be started using a so-called Datasette. Commodore later launched its higher performance Amiga models.

Hiroshi Yamauchi was at the helm of Japanese console manufacturer Nintendo for 53 years. The company produced Japanese playing cards until the 1970s, when Yamauchi decided to restructure it. In 1983, Nintendo launched the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan. It was sold in Europe and the US under the name of Nintendo Entertainment System. Yamauchi died in September 2013.

The company Sega also has its roots in Japan. Its biggest success was the game console Mega Drive, which was launched in Japan in 1988 and hit the European market in 1990. In North America, the device was known as the Sega Genesis. Sega has long left the console market and today focuses on producing software as well as arcade cabinets.

Nintendo's Game Boy, meanwhile, had a longer shelf-life - and even made it to the new millennium. Launched in Europe in 1990, the first model was quickly followed by Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Micro. Nintendo has since stopped the Game Boy series and replaced it with Nintendo DS.

In 1990 (1992 in Europe), the top-selling Game Boy was flanked by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo’s new console for TV sets. Over the next few years, close to 50 million such consoles were sold worldwide. "Super Mario World" quickly became the most popular game on Super Nintendo.

In 1994, Sony’s Playstation outsold Super Nintendo. Video games started using CD-ROM drives, lowering costs and vastly extending storage capacity. Today, gamers are playing on the fourth generation Playstation.

Playstation’s huge success triggered US software giant Microsoft to enter the console market - albeit with considerable delay. In 2001, Microsoft’s Xbox hit the shelves in the US. Microsoft would later expand its Xbox with camera-led gesture command, such as here in the game "Kinect Sports Rivals". But Xbox did not pioneer gesture commands.

In 2006, the launch of the Wii marked Nintendo's reappearance on the console market. The Wii left Nintendo's competition far behind. It was the first console commanded with remote controlled pointing devices equipped with movement detectors. Command was therefore shifted away from the fingers and onto the entire body’s movements, allowing for a whole new game experience.

Future generations' game consoles will probably be based much more on the concept of "virtual reality". Special glasses, such as the Oculus Rift, transmit realistic 3D images to the player's field of vision. Special detectors register every movement. Armies already use similar devices for military training purposes.