In 1972, the earliest whispers of the technological revolution began to reach the home entertainment market when Magnavox released the first home video game system known as the Odyssey. Interestingly enough, the Odyssey was not even considered a computer by the industry of the time. The Odyssey came preprogrammed with 12 games, however, consumers generally found only two of them to be satisfactory entertainment.

Following directly on the heels of the Odyssey was what most people imagine as the first home entertainment system, Atari Pong. Pong had long been an arcade standard, but Atari Pong brought the game into homes.

Both the Odyssey and Atari Pong were low tech by today's standards. The Odyssey did not have enough power to display full screen graphics so users applied overlays, sheets of plastic with pictures on them, to TV screens to simulate the full screen effect.

In May of 1977, the first modern video game system was released, the Atari 2600. The Atari 2600, or Atari Video Computer System as it is known, was the first system to use interchangeable read-only-memory (ROM) cartridges to contain games. Each 2600 cartridge could only hold four kilobytes of information. Today's standard DVD ROM can hold 4.7 gigabytes of information – over 1 million times (disregarding compression and emerging formats that can extend the amount even further) the information of the 2600 cartridges.

The next leap in technology came with the release of the Colecovision and the Atari 5200 SuperSystem in 1982. Neither gained the market share their parent companies desired because personal computers had recently entered the market diverting resources from game to software production. Milton Bradley also entered the market in 1982 with the GCE Vectrex game system. The system never had a strong showing in the home entertainment sector.

Atari tried to rekindle its former glory with the Atari 7800 in 1984, but the system met the same fate as the Atari 5200 and the Vectrex. Video game historians (yes, they exist) consider the period from 1981 to 1984 to be the "Dark Ages" of the industry. Of course, the light was about to shine through the clouds with new technology from Japan.

The hot toy for Christmas of 1985 was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES set the standard for video games. It boasted a palette of 52 colors, 16 of which could be displayed at any given time, and an 8-bit processing unit. (The term "bit" refers to both the graphic and work capabilities of a processor. In video game systems, in most cases, a higher bit rating means better performance.)

Nintendo Inc. was noted for Machiavellian business practices, specifically regarding licensing of game design equipment and architecture. In fact, the NES entered the market a few months behind the Sega Master System, but due to third-party support, Nintendo had captured 96 percent of the video game system market by 1986.

The Sega Master System, although superior in technology to the NES, could not produce the same kind of games that the NES could. The NES effectively locked Sega out of the market by manipulative business practices and alliances with other mega-corporations, specifically Pepsi and Toys R' Us.

NES's 8-bit competitors such as the NEC Turbografx-16 (which ironically contained an 8-bit processor) and Sega Master System met with inevitable financial hardships and technological short-comings. They saw that the only way to compete with the NES was to surpass its technology. They needed to enter the 16-bit world.

Sega was the first to enter the market with the Sega Genesis in 1989. Genesis boasted a palette of 512 colors and 80 displayable sprites, or rendered moving objects. The powerful (at the time) 16-bit processor and increased screen resolution spooked Nintendo into production of the Super Nintendo (SNES), which overshadowed the Genesis in all technological specifications except for processor speed.

The Super Nintendo, which entered the market in 1991, crushed all competition including SNK's Neo-Geo, a better system but far over-priced. Nintendo had been faking supply shortages on games since 1988 and the strategy continued to work to produce support for the Super Nintendo. Nintendo could not, however, dominate the market with the SNES as they once had with the NES.

For the next four years the Super Nintendo and the Genesis engaged in a bitter battle for the home gaming market. Other companies tried a number of products to break into the scene but most fizzled or outright failed.

NEC introduced the TurboDuo in 1991 and Phillips took a crack at the SNES with the CD-I in 1992. Panasonic tried its hand with the 3DO in 1993 and Atari let out its death rattle with the Jaguar the same year. All competed with the SNES and Genesis in the 16-bit processor market and none made a dent in market share.

Neither Nintendo nor Sega could force the other out of business but Nintendo eventually gained the upper hand even though its system couldn't compete with the superior coding of the Genesis.

Eventually, Sega released the Sega Saturn in 1995. A CD-based system that was too little, too late against the new king of the hill, the Sony Playstation.

The Sony Playstation, the herald of the new 32-bit gaming standard, debuted in 1995 causing Sega to discontinue its line of Genesis products. Over the next five years, the Playstation ate into the market share of the gaming industry. Sega retaliated with its Dreamcast in late 1998 but internal company problems caused the system to all but vanish from the market.

In the end, the two contenders left standing are the recently released 64-bit Playstation 2 and Nintendo 64 (N64). Other competitors have withdrawn their console bids from the market, folded entirely or merged with stronger companies.

Both Nintendo and Sony are planning future systems; however, they may encounter competitions for unexpected sources. Microsoft is slated to release the much-anticipated X-Box late this year against Nintendo's release of the Gamecube. There is almost no way to predict which console will win the market in the end.

The history of video game systems is rife with corporate dealings and public relation strategies. Only time will tell.

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