the magnavox odyssey - 1972
The Brown Box (re-released as the Magnavox Odyssey ) is usually credited as the ‘first’ games console. It was designed by Ralph Baer in 1966 and he finished the prototype in 1969. It was released in 1972 and cost $99($560 now). It had incredibly pixelated graphics and ran 28 different games including the legendary “Pong”. The Magnavox was released first as the Brown Box, in an unattractive wooden cladding. Sales plummeted until Ralph Baer, creator of both and Father of Video Gaming ‘jazzed’ it up and rereleased it under the name Odyssey. It could only display 3 moving components at once and featured no colour. It's fairly self explanatory why this console was important for the development of gaming-it was the first, it always will be and no-one can change that. It started a revolution in technology that still hasn't ended almost 50 years later.
atari 2600 - 1977
The Atari 2600 revolutionized gaming; It was one of the first consoles to use a microprocessor based system.It used ROM Cartridge technology so that games could be loaded via ROM cartridge so they didn't have to be built into the console. This meant games could be made by developers separate from the console company, which is the root of companies like EA, Infinity Ward and Activision. This made the console more popular, as it was less of a commitment than buying a one-game-per-console. It helped popularize titles such as Pac-Man and Breakout. The game ET, however, contributed massively to the home gaming crash, and lost a lot of the ground Pac-Man had gained. It was important as literally no consoles these days allow gamers to only play games that were pre-installed.
space invaders
Space Invaders was one of the most iconic games ever,now featuring almost everywhere from emoji to tattoos. It also featured revolutionary technology -the storage of data in the form of a hi-score. This was important for gaming as you can save game progress, hi-scores and even game-play footage, and without Space Invaders, the idea may never have even been conceived.