Video Game Platforms, A Comparative History

What a dull title. Even the phrase "video game" seems archaic and insufficient now, consigned to geezerspeak along with "records" and "tapes". Of course, I own more tape decks and turntables than mp3 players, so I guess I'm a geezer. But that makes me old enough to have seen the changes, and dumb and geeky enough to have had my fingers on many a keypad and joystick (that's "analog stick", gramps).

Back in the day, the various platforms were so distinct as to be incomparable; there were consoles and computers and arcade machines, and each did things the others could only dream of. Nobody would stick a quarter into the slot and play text-based adventures, for instance...

But as things heated up, there began to be a distinct rivalry between afficionados of the different ways to waste your time playing video games. This is still echoed in the bitter FPS debate between PC and console extremists, and has claimed many lives (not really, though the forum-flaming could at times warrant a Towering Inferno remake). So I thought, "well, hell...every geeky idiot with a blog account has published their own top ten lists and inaccurate nitpicking histories, and I don't want to get left out."

B. A. (Before Atari)...late 1960's through late 1970's, basically...

PC: expensive, arcane, and extraordinarily limited graphically, the not-really-personal computers of the first era were nobody's gaming choice. Between the hard-nosed techies who built and programmed the mainframe monsters and the rather single-minded 'professionals' who utilized speciialized versions for such boring things as airplane reservations and point-of-sale bookkeeping, "playfulness" was not at a premium. Nevertheless, geeks were and always will be game players, and the very first examples of "video games" were old news before anyone heard the word "Pong" (we're talking 1950's and 60's here). So the computer got on the scoreboard early and held on with rare but notable apps for many long dark years...mainly "dark" because people were doing it for fun, not money. How dare they?

Arcade: Nobody was quite prepared for the rise of the coin-op giants. A few years of Pong-fueled awkwardness in the late 60's/ early 70's convinced a growing number of perceptive folks that there was a lot of potential in this area....and reassured many more short-sighted ones (i.e, "practical") that it was a flash in the pan. The ease with which these arcade concepts were adapted to home use shows that the competition was neck in neck...except that very few folks on either side ended up giving them too many of their hours or dollars.

Console: Fads and duds, on one hand, but the many Pong-alikes graced so many family rooms that only a fool couldn't see the writing on the wood-panelled wall. Sure, you could only do one thing, but you could sit there in your pajamas and do it for as long as you liked with anyone who happened to be around. Friendless losers like me were pretty much out of luck with the almost exclusively multiplayer machines. You can't solo in Pong.

Handhelds: are you kidding? It was all anyone could do to make a calculator with a square root function. Even the controls on the consoles were tethered by a short, thick cord...when they weren't mounted directly on the consoles themselves, guaranteeing stiff necks and the overwhelming smell of your opponent's halitosis and B.O. Still, a few brave LED-based sports games were starting to come out...but do they really count?

Final score: everybody is a loser, but consoles and arcades tie for first place because the money was there sometimes and it did talk (to those who listened). Computers take a distant third, and handhelds were barely in the race at all.

Golden 80's (beginning in the late 70's, of course)

PC: Maintaining their distant third, the computer nevertheless had a few things in its favor: hardware and software kept making great strides in sophistication and accessibility. On the cheap end, you had Commodores and Ti's and CoCo's and such, who met and sometimes exceeded the challenge of the 2600 and NES ascendancy, as well as pushing a few boundaries (and teaching math and balancing a few checkbooks along the way). On the more pro end, the Apple II and IBM PCs began to produce not just decent arcade efforts, but also unique and enduring new game concepts...deep and lengthy adventure and RPG games, for instance, and unique puzzle and strategy games that made the others look like the bleep and twitch boxes that they were.

Aracde: duh. The 80's were all about arcade games, just like they were about spandex and hairspray. The rich visuals (now in COLOR!) and blazing speeds were unparalleled anywhere else, and just about every modern gaming concept was born with a metal box that read "No Tokens" (or, almost as often, "Tokens Only"). Pac-man, Donkey Kong, Pole Position, Defender, Galaga....ah, you know all this already. As big as home systems became, they were constantly playing catch-up, and almost always losing in terms of game performance.

Console: double duh. Arcades may have had the edge in power, but they also had the edge in unsavory-looking teens with suspicious smells...consoles brought it home for mom, dad, little sister and everybody else. The Atari 2600 and NES started with crappy versions of arcade hits, but capitalized on the fact that you neither had to get off your butt nor root around in mom's change jar for quarters. And along the way, they occasionally also broke some truly original ground...

Handheld: what? Oh, sort of...I mean, if you wanted to play still-ridiculously-simple LCD games, maybe...but it was a race to see if you'd get bored before the annoying repetitive beeps drove you to test their cheap plastic casings against a variety of hard surfaces. However, it was uniquely geekily cool to have pac-man or space invaders on your watch, in glorious slow-moving liquid crystal monochrome.

Final score: Arcades, by a noticeable length, but consoles making an impressive show as well. This was the first era of platform snobbery, in which a few desperate Colecovision owners threw more-or-less-faithful Donkey Kong cartridges at a huge crowd of four-color Atari enthusiasts, and pretty much everybody agreed that the arcade had better stuff. In the rear were a mass of home computers who provided drama with spurts and stalls, and the handhelds consoled (ha ha) themselves with Simon at the bar afterwards. If we'd known enough, we would have laughed at the poetic justice of all the money that had been lost trying to exploit the craze. But the last laugh would have been on us, because the evil geniuses were taking notes, and getting better at making us pay for our fun...

Assimilation Years (90's)

PC: Yup, we're taking over. Once Windows standardized (to an extent) the computing experience, it was no longer necessary to have a six-figure income or even a three-digit IQ. The mighty graphic-and-sound barrier was broken as PCs began to put the lesser bits of game-only units to shame, without sacrificing the potential for complexity and depth. Oh, and online? That's right. Multiplayer and mods and shareware...can you family-room controller-junkies do that?, Suddenly all the hassle of actually making the damn thing work started to be worth it (some of the time).

Arcade: Nice of you to drop by, but we won't be seeing too much of one another from now on. Though there was still some mileage in unique concepts (things like House of the Dead and DDR kept the dream alive, for example), the idea of a big box in a public place that only played one game was getting rather quaint. The graphical edge was gone, and nobody really wanted to walk around with a pocket full of quarters anymore, unless you also happened to be eating pizza and chatting with people dressed as giant mice.

Console: Many came, but few stayed...every year brought another system and a (slightly) better crop of cartridges, but it wasn't until the uber-consoles such as the abortive Dreamcast and the more robust Playstation appeared that console gaming truly came of age. When games began to appear on shiny silver discs, the sheer availability and convenience of console gaming kept it in the lead over the more powerful but problematic PC platform (whew, say that five times). And most importantly, the game companies had begun to learn how to make money instead of blow it on stupid unwieldy concepts...at least half of the time.

Handheld: Hmm, maybe there's some hope for you yet. Though handhelds were often the quickest way to hasten the downward spiral of a former giant (cough Atari cough Sega), the humble Game Boy finally proved that a simple (ish), small (ish), portable (ish) unit could be loads of fun if you gave it the right apps to work with. From the ubiquitous Tetris and Pokemon to the surprisingly involved Tactics games, Nintendo kept afloat and in many, many sweaty hands.

Final Score: PC's led the pack in almost every way, but were closely trailed by a changing cast of consoles whose teenaged fanbois shouted loudly and spent freely. Handhelds smirked quietly as they left dying arcade machines in the dust and fitfully but steadily gained ground.

The Recent Future (2000 and beyond!)

PC: always running slightly ahead of console power, the PC has nevertheless lost many of its more obvious areas of superiority. Sure, everyone has one these days, but the type of rig needed to play the really impressive big games is starting to be embarrassingly expensive and curiously single-minded. If you have to shut down everything else just to get a decent frame-rate, an Xbox360 or PS3 doesn't look like too much of a compromise. However- and it's a big however- the PC still offers world more options and depth than even the best console system. Warcraft, anyone? Not just that, but the countless small and quirky offerings just keep coming as anyone with a novel idea and a little dedication can get their game played. From Desktop Tower Defense to Orsinal to Dwarf Fortress, the PC still reigns supreme for anyone who is more interested in new ideas than movie tie-ins and overhyped retreads.

Arcade: Are you still there? Well, you'll always have a place in our hearts and carnivals, anyway. Like bad metal bands, you'll always have an Asian market to fall back on.

Console: As bigger and more expensive systems challenge the PC's turf with graphics and multiplayer capabilities, the wildcard Wii captures hearts and atrophied body parts with unique control methods. For better or worse, gaming is no longer for geeks alone- the thirty-something professional is the target audience, with the younger and older "casual gamer" gaining importance in the minds of production houses and marketing agencies everywhere.

Handheld: Back, in a big way. The PSP and DS show that you can take almost any kind of game almost anywhere (given enough charge). Millions of toters are willing to forgive a little drop in graphics power and control convenience for the ability to play last-decade's console hits on the bus...but in return, they also get some truly inspiring and quirky exclusives that make even a hardened hi-res whore wonder what they're missing. And now with wifi! Not to mention the fact that your average cell phone can now be used as a game machine in a pinch, with downloadable apps that (occasionally) take advantage of the growing power in the shrinking, ubiquitous handsets.

Final score: surprisingly up in the air. Consoles can now do most of what PC's can do, and all that extra CPU power and sophistication isn't always useful if you're both going for the big mainstream payoff. PC users can no longer afford to scoff at the built-in expiration date of console machines- because any given gaming PC will be obsolete nearly as quickly. Try playing BioShock on a state-of-the-art 2003 machine and see what I mean. However, games were (cover your ears if you are in The Industry) never about money...and people are still doing innovative things that don't require the newest latest PC or a Hollywood budget and marketing division (and I'm not talking about just the willfully retro).

Personally, I'd rather have the convenience of a controller than a mouse-and-keyboard if I'm playing any kind of action game...I'll sacrifice a little precision to minimize the barriers between me and The Zone. But consoles still have yet to match the simulation and RPG capabilities (go ahead, mention Final Fantasy or Zelda or any of the other adolescent cartoon games masquerading as real RPG's) and they never were and never will be the platform of choice for creative independants. I can't really include handhelds in my personal wrap-up; despite a handful of fascinating little games that push boundaries and all that, they are still hopelessly limited compared to the other two...and I just don't wait around or travel much except under my own power (kids, don't drive under the DS influence). But there's no doubt that they can be a lot of fun, and that's really what it's all about.