The milestones that shaped today's video games (part 1)

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There is no doubt that Apple has had more influence on today's smartphones than any other company. There is also no doubt that Apple was not the first to introduce smartphones. Long before the concept was even invented, there were smartphones, and before Apple launched its mobile phone, I had an HTC TyTn II. It was an absolute best-in-class mobile phone with awesome performance, a real slide-out keyboard, built-in GPS, Windows support, and so on.

But... it was more difficult to use with small, cluttered icons and the screen required the use of a stylus. Don't get me wrong, I really loved my HTC TyTn II, but it wasn't the one that led the way forward; that honour goes to the iPhone. It's not about being first, but about doing it best, and it is with this in mind that I have now written this article, namely to tell about the milestones that have led to today's game consoles. Without these, the gaming world would look completely different today - for better or worse.

Replaceable cartridges

(Atari 2600, 1977)
Of course, cartridges existed before the Atari 2600, but I would like to point out again that it is not about being first, but about doing it right. Magnavox Odyssey is often considered to have the world's first interchangeable cartridges (before that, the games were built-in), but technically speaking, these were not ROM cartridges. Fairchild Channel F is perhaps the best candidate, but they were awkwardly designed, lacked attractive covers (often just a number) and had no real instruction manuals. Instead, it was the Atari 2600 that established today's standard, which remained in place for decades, with attractive covers, classic cartridges and accompanying manuals.

The Cross of Strength

(Famicom, 1983)
Nintendo was early with this, and even the Game & Watch game Donkey Kong from 1982 came with a classic control d-pad. Although it is basically the same as the one that ended up on the NES controller, it was with the latter that the pieces fell into place. A new control method was established as a standard that still applies today.

L/R-buttons

(Super Nintendo, 1990)
Lots of controllers came out for lots of consoles in the second half of the 1980s, including 16-bit devices such as the Mega Drive. They all looked like variations on the NES. Instead, it was Nintendo that once again pushed the boundaries of what a controller could be in 1990 by equipping them with easily accessible L/R buttons. This quickly became the standard, and six buttons were so superior that Sega was forced to make a new Mega Drive controller with six buttons, but placed them all on the front rather than on the top. It was not until the Saturn that they finally gave in and followed suit - and so did everyone else. A standard was born.

Disc reader

(PlayStation/Saturn, 1994)
Here is another example of something that was definitely not first (I cannot separate these two winners, they did equally well at the same time and must share the victory), and as early as 1988, for example, the NEC PC Engine was released, and in 1991, the Mega CD came to the Mega Drive. In addition, PC CD-ROM had begun to establish itself at this point. In the gaming world, however, I believe that earlier devices were more like steps along the way, and on the PC, they usually resulted in rather miserable video adventures. It was instead on the PlayStation and Saturn that all the pieces fell into place, complete with convenient save features. A new standard was born, and playing on CD was suddenly as easy as playing on cassette... albeit with longer loading times.

Four controller ports

(Nintendo 64, 1996)
In an era when we didn't play online, local multiplayer was the norm. There were plenty of games that supported four or more players, but this almost always required some kind of expensive multi-port adapter that was connected to the console, after which you could then connect more controllers. Nintendo is often at the forefront of local multiplayer, and they did so at this time as well, launching the first console with four controller ports and creating an obvious standard (with the exception of the PlayStation, which only had two ports).

Rumble features

(Rumble Pak, 1997)
Again, not first, and this time on the verge of not being the best either. I hesitated for a long time and instead considered giving this honour to Sony and their DualShock. However, they will receive the honour for the next point instead (which will surely upset someone), so I will give this one to Nintendo. After all, their Rumble Pack was heavily marketed and became the starting point for vibrating controllers, with Dreamcast being the only exception, opting for the Puru Puru Pack instead.

Analogue sticks

(PlayStation, 1997)
"What, Nintendo 64 and Saturn were way ahead," you might think. And you'd be right. But best, not first, as I said. There were plenty of solutions for PCs even before that, but they were more like joysticks. Nintendo 64, on the other hand, had a strangely designed analogue stick that was positioned in such a way that you could no longer reach the L button and the directional pad, and it was loose and simply not very good. The Saturn solution was better but felt more like an analogue directional pad. Instead, it was Sony with DualShock that got it right, and they also understood that a controller needs two. Right then and there, it became the standard.

Built-in internet

(Dreamcast, 1998)
For being so incredibly innovative with games and so daring with console experiments, I realise that there is very little Sega on the list. They simply had few ideas that really caught on, clearly. At least until Dreamcast. Because when the crisis began, they apparently took off running. Everything about Dreamcast was unique, but perhaps most of all its built-in internet. Each unit had a built-in modem, and suddenly the online era of video games had begun.

HD‑quality

(Dreamcast, 1998)
Dreamcast again? Yep. While all consoles ran at a resolution of 480i, where you could marginally improve image quality with better cables (S-video and RGB were a hot topic), Sega invested in VGA, which they were the first to do in the console world - and it was thus possible to play Dreamcast in 480p. Today, Dreamcast games still look viable (the Sonic Adventure image illustrating this is just pixel-enlarged) thanks to this, and generally much better than titles for the more powerful PlayStation 2, which ran basically everything in 480i - and with Sony's console as the only real exception, the road to HD quality had begun.

The continuation in part two will be available next week.