Video games have come a long way since Pong made its appearance in the early 1970's. Pong was the first popular video game and if it were released today it would no doubt be called a `tennis simulation'. But a game resembling Pong would not be given a second glance today.
Pong's greatest achievement was that it happened: it was an actual video game. All similarities to today's games, however, end there. Indeed far more recent games such as Doom and Super Mario already look dated.
Games evolve and the aforementioned are not alone in having predecessors and sequels. Quake II is the most recent sibling in the Wolf 3D, Doom family history whilst Mario 64 continues the little Italian plumber's adventures in video game land. The most successful games are more often than not the sequel of an already popular game and, unlike the movie sequels, they are invariably better because the technology has developed.
In Doom for example, you could only aim at an enemy standing in front of you; in Quake the game engine allows you to fire from vantage points both above and below your opponents. In golf games you can now experience planes flying overhead and ball flight is simulated far more accurately.
To play these games you need a decent machine and the only games machines worth their salt are the Sony Playstation, the Nintendo 64 and of course the good old IBM-compatible PC. The two consoles retail around the £100 mark whilst a decent PC can cost anywhere from £1000 to over £2000. If you are looking strictly for a games machine the Playstation is hard to beat and has hundreds of games available for it whilst the number of games in the Nintendo library doesn't extend beyond two-digits, although Goldeneye and Mario 64 are exquisite offerings.
The PC is a fantastic games machine and there is a veritable mountain of games software available for it. You can download shareware (try before you buy) games from the Internet or courtesy of CD's covermounted on magazines. It has the greatest potential for graphics and you can play against friends via modem or against people from all over the world through the Internet. But the PC does have its problems, not least the initial cost; when you have to add 3-D cards, joysticks and other peripherals the total cost can get out of hand.
There's also the annoying fact that, because all PC's differ, games don't always take kindly to your current set-up and they have been known to crash - temporarily at least - a PC or two. Games that were released prior to the advent of Windows '95 (and now, perhaps, re-released under some budget label) often take a keen dislike to the operating system and are more likely to mystify your PC.
Whilst games are constantly changing with the advent of new technologies, the number and type of people playing them is also changing. Video games were certainly big business a few years ago but now the business is absolutely huge. In Japan, Sony's eagerly awaited sequel to Resident Evil, imaginatively titled Resident Evil 2, sold 1.8 million copies on the day of its release.
George Romero (director of Night of the Living Dead and Creepshow amongst others) was employed to create a Resident Evil 2 advert and the two-day shoot cost 150,000,000 yen (approx £850,000) to shoot. It will no doubt be a big hit in Ireland also. According to recent figures, Sony claim that the Sony Playstation has penetrated around 17 per cent of all households here.
Of course if playing games is not enough stimulation for you, you can always try your hand at making your own games or new levels for games. Enthusiasts have, for example, created thousands of levels for Doom and Quake. Sony is now even selling the `Black Playstation' or `Net Yaroze' - a cut down version of a professional development system; the Senior College in Ballyfermot even teaches `Net Yaroze' programming.
It would be even better for the industry though if the next great game wasn't Quake III or Final Fantasy VIII but something new and original.