Welcome to Generation Games, a companion website to the Playable Museum Exhibition
(Currently in Bristol as part of the History of Video Games)
Which documents the Chronological History of the
Home Video Game Console Industry
Right from it's inception in the USA when
Raplh H. Baer's
Magnavox Odyssey
saw a retail release to the USA on 5th September 1972 and then the UK during 1973 and Rest of Europe & Japan 1974.

And so began "a long and eventful experience" that continues to this day nine generations of technological advancement later. 

1972                                                                              2022




Ralph H Baer first envisaged the world wanting to play games on a television set way back in 1951. After twenty years of research and development with numerous prototypes,  finally licenced the product to Magnavox in 1971.

The Console was first presented in technology shows during 1972, to prompt resellers to purchase the brand new invention for sale to the public, with the vision that families could have the future of gaming entertainment at home.

During one of the Demos, playing the in-pack console game "Tennis", the game was seen and became the inspiration for a Video Arcade Game called "Pong"
"Pong" became the second commercially available Video Arcade Game and was installed in Arcades during November 1972, where it soon became the first successful arcade video game now available to the general public at large and was single handedly instrumental in creating the
Video Arcade Game industry. 

Both these totally new industries rapidly became massively popular and thrived side by side whilst also in competition of each other. 
The Consoles to game at home and the Arcade to game out in a new revised, bustling expansion of what was the Victorian "penny arcades".
(Which were typically beside the Seaside in the UK). 

The Arcades always wanted to stay ahead of the game and make the games better and more exciting than the consoles were capable of, whilst the console manufactures strived to bring the video arcade into the home.

Please enjoy the site and feel free to email us with any comments.

Maybe when you are finished and you now wish to experience some or all of these classics consoles yourself then:

The History of Video Games exhibition in Bristol, currently puts both the Video Arcade and the Home Video Consoles finally right alongside each other in one venue creating the best of both worlds and chronologically allowing the visitor to experience the full 50 years history of both industries.

See for your-self the Arcade classics and the Console home conversions of the same games whilst you Time Travel through 50 years of history at:

https://www.historyofvideogames.co.uk