In the last 30 years video games have progressed into a
multi-billion dollar industry, from games with two button controls to no
control at all, games wouldn't be possible for the someone simple games today.
In 1952, A.S douglas wrote his PhD
degree on Human-Computer interaction. Douglas created the first graphical
computer game which was a version of tic-tac-toe and was programmed on a EDSAC
vacuum-tube computer, which has a cathode ray tube display. 
The Cathode ray tube amusement device was the first ever
recorded type of “console”. It was a big box with a little screen. When playing
the player would turn a knob to control a beam of light on screen. When playing
“tennis for two” they player would control a paddle that they would move by
rotating a knob to stop the beam of light, acting as a ball, from falling off
the edge of the screen.
In 1972 a more renown game called pong was introduced. It
was originally played in an upright cabinet made by Atari. It was seems like it
was based of the game “tennis for two” as it has the same concept where two
players control paddles and bonce the ball back and to and not letting it fall
of the screen
. 
The Nintendo Entertainment System was release in 1985,
Originally a Japanese playing card company released this to the US. At first
retailers didn’t know whether to sell the console after the video game crash
but with is popular titles such as Mario bros, Legend of Zelda, Metroid and
Final Fantasy it soon broken sales records and became the best selling console.
It also added more buttons to the regular controller such as a D-Pad, and A and
B button and a pause button.
In
1989 Nintendo hit the markets again with the first ever major hand held game
console called the “Game Boy”. The Game Boy features am 8 bit CPU like its
predecessor the NES. Popular titles such as Tetris the sales skyrocketed. Thus
the Gameboy has several makeovers and has influenced other companies to further
make hand held consoles including Nintendo.
The era of Nintendo continued as they release the “Super
NES” in 1991 which was made to sound like it was twice as good as the original NES and
on specs it was. The old NES was 8-bit were as this was 16-bit with two
controllers and two more buttons. Console controllers have been adding more and more buttons ever since as controllers today have a massive 15 buttons or more. The Super NES was first sold at $210 at sold 49 million units worldwide and was marketed in competition with Sega Genesis but it was at the same graphics and was cheaper making it a huge hit in the US.
In 1995 the first Playstation was released, there was so much money being made in Japan alone on video games sony decided to join in the competition and they sure did take the industry by storm. The first playstation had sold 102 million units worldwide making it the most sold console of its time, however, many of these consoles were sold but many of them were "chipped", meaning that people were able to write there own discs for much less than the retail price. The original controller had the usual 8 buttons plus 2 for select and start, but 4 more "bumper buttons" were added and all consoles since have added these. If this wasn't enough they release a brand new Dual Shock controller and it has added two analog sticks, these added more than the up, down, left, right commands and added different angles and degrees adding more options for developers.
In the years 2000 - 2001 three more consoles were added to the market. The Playstation 2; The Xbox and the GameCube. This wasn't the first console we had seen from Nintendo or Playstation but this was the first we had seen from Xbox. Nintendo did its usual thing with its regular titles such as Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. Xbox had brought some of their own exclusive titles such as Halo 1 and 2 but Playstation had the largest range of exclusives and thus, the Playstation 2 was more successful in selling units as it sold a massive 155 million units worldwide whereas Xbox sold 24 million and Nintendos Gamecube sold a close 21 million. These consoles have shown that it isn't about the specifications but exclusive games and consoles today show off the games they play rather than specs.
Ever since the Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo have dominated in hand held gaming as the Gameboy had several make overs such as the gameboy lite, gameboy advance and gameboy colour. Playstation decided to join the market with their brand new PSP standing for "Playstation portable" but Nintendo wasn't going to watch them take the lead as they brought out the Nintendo DS standing for "Dual Screen". When release the DS was only $150 but the Playstation was $181 which tilts in Nintendo favor. The DS allowed users to play games from their gameboy so it didn't leave them gameless so it was one of the first recognizable backwards compatible console which doesn't use discs, not only that but the DS introduced one of the first touchscreens to be used on any console, it was that popular most handheld gadgets use them today. The DS had 3 redesigns and 1 successor and in total they sold 153 million and the PSP only sold 76 million. I believe this is because the DS was the cheaper of the two and presented new technology.
Nintendo didn't stop there when it come to introducing new technology to gaming as they brought out the Wii in 2006. The Wii presented the very first major gaming console that uses motion gaming. This new technology was a huge craze and its starting retail price was $250 which was yet again a cheap console from Nintendo especially giving that it was the first major console of its kind. The console could be used just like any other but the player could point, shake, rotate and swing the control adding a mass range of possibilities to the gaming industry. The console was that popular it sold a massive 100 million units worldwide and it was that influential, other companies such as Sony's Playstation and Microsoft's Xbox 360 added their own motion control gaming and delayed the new generation of consoles for 2 years!
