This required the use of specialized processors and monitors, but the sales of Asteroids clearly showed that there was potential for profit using this technology.

What set this title apart from the majority of games during that period was the use of vector graphics – images created by sequences of lines, rather than colored pixels (also known as raster graphics). Having enjoyed tremendous success with Asteroids in 1979, Atari sought to push the technology used in those games one step further. However, the best games could still be found in arcade halls across the land.

At this point in time, 8-bit home computers and gaming consoles were selling like hot cakes on a cold winter's day. We begin this journey through the decades of video games by returning to the scene as it was 40 years ago. 'The boxes that games were shipped in always boasted ultra-realistic graphics or claimed to be the best yet' The chase begins

Gameplay still trumped all, but that didn't prevent game makers from striving for the deepest sense of immersion and realism: 3D. The boxes that games were shipped in always boasted ultra-realistic graphics or claimed to be the best yet, but this never stopped developers from pushing the boundaries of what could be achieved with the available hardware. These changes, however, came slowly – it took 20 years to evolve from a handful of dots and lines on the screen to a visual feast of colors, sprites, and vivid effects. As computing technology slowly improved and prices came down, the platform of choice swung from consoles to cheap computers, then back to consoles. In Part One of our look at 50 years of video games, we saw how the experiments of engineers in the 1960s and 70s gave rise to the birth of gaming machines in arcade halls and at home.

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