This document compares and contrasts video games of the past and present. It discusses how games, consoles, graphics, controls, and diversity have evolved over the last 40-50 years. Games now have improved graphics, more complex controls like motion sensors, and a wider variety of game types. Consoles also have better designs and are smaller. While early games were simple 2D graphics with one or two buttons, modern games offer realistic 3D environments that immerse players in the gameplay. Overall, video games have undergone significant enhancements and changed the way people play through technological advances.

1. Rochester School<br />Andres Fernando Blanco Inzunza<br />English- 9C<br />Compare & Contrast Essay<br />20/04/2011<br />PAST & PRESENT<br />VIDEO GAMES<br />In which year do you think was invented the first video game console? Do you like video games? Which was your first video game console? Do you still have it? In the past 40-50 years the video games had a lot of enhancement, and with the new technology the video games have reached a new stage in the way people can play video games, without controls, just movement sensors. This is just an example of all the improvements and changes that have occurred in video games. In order to understand and see the improvement of video games is important to compare and contrast the more important changes such as the type of games, the consoles, graphics, the controls, and other little issues like the diversity of new games and how realistic are these new games that had changed in time.<br />The first topic that is going to be compared and contrasted is the games that are played now and the games that people play some years ago. There are some new kind of games that in the past did not exist such as Wii Sports, San Andreas, and a bunch of other “new” games, but almost most of the games are just an improvement of games of the past, such as Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Prince of Persia, and a lot of other games. When you detailed both kinds of games you realize that there are some differences and similarities between them. Discrepancy such as the main topic or the main idea of the game has changed with the time, also the type of hero that is shown. These games are also similar because some of them are the same story with the same characters but wit better graphics and an improved way to play the game, and sometimes is the same story but with different characters. <br />There is another very important topic to talk about, and is where the games were played, the video games consoles. When you look back, the consoles in which your parents used to play where really grave and big, now the consoles have “evolved”, the creators had improved the way the consoles look like, their contour, their figure, their color, just for finding a way for making it more attractive for video games buyers, such as children and teenagers. <br />Now this next topic that is going to be compared is (for some reason) really attractive for the video game players, the Graphics of the game. In the past, the graphics were not as good as the ones we now can see in every video game, in the past video games were in just 2D, that means plane upbringing, with plane characters. The first video games like in Atari were just two rectangles in each side of the TV, and a square which goes from side to side bouncing when it hits one of the rectangles, this game was the first idea for a sport in video games, tennis. Now Graphics are a characteristic of the video game that designers take really in account because in actuality is believed that if the game does not have good graphics, the game is not good, so in order to keep de children interested in the game, designers always search ways for perk up the graphics and make the game real as possible.<br />The topic that you are about to read is the one who had changed the most, the controls. In the past reins were made by just two buttons and one stick, with that you controlled the whole game, with years the games became more complex, and required more buttons, and new designs of controls for make the player be comfy, manage the whole new buttons and for playing in an easy way. Children began to develop a new level of control, memory, and motility for just learning how to handle a new control for video games. Now these kinds of material control are becoming old, why? Easy, because now the new controls are humans, our selves, that means human have develop one way for using motion sensors and that means no more controls, with the sensors, our body will do what we want the character of the game do, it’s really astounding.<br />With time not just the graphics in video games had change, but also the diversity of games had changed a lot, the idea of diversity is that the type of games, and what players can do in the games is more unmitigated, more diverse, and more fun! The main topics of the games, as becoming a rock band with your friends, becoming a super hero, or a soccer player, etc. This diversity is something that games creators take a lot in count because when the game is more new and give the player for making something amazing helps for the game to be sold with more success.<br />Now, one last detail that had changed with the games of the present with the games from the past, and is how realistic they are, the way the games had improve that the players may use a control as they were driving a car, or use a wii control as a sword and fight against ninjas, or put the control in a guitar and become a famous guitarist, or in the newest games, use your entire body for making a character move in the game the way you move, it’s awesome. In the past the games did not have the realistic levels the games have now, the games used to be in 2D, for maximum 2 players, and they does not give the player a leadership they have now, but still the games for that epoch were able to make the imagination of players flow and make them believe they pilot a spaceship and that they can destroy a bunch of aliens with just one knob. <br />After making a assessment between general things about video games, of how they were in the past, haw they are now, and their improvements, players may learn a little bit about this really interesting topic, and also realize how much does video games had changed and improved in the last 20 years. At last, players who read this text may not just know the differences between the video games in the past but also learn something about this topic, even now there are people who have the old video game consoles, and prefer to play those old games, because they like more a “Retro” style, but there are also the people who do not like at all the old games and prefer play the newest games, and thinking about the games that will be made in the future, which of these two kind of player are? “Retro” or “Futurist”?<br />