From Atari 2600 to Xbox

From Atari 2600 to Xbox

on July 21, 2004

From the release of the Atari 2600 in 1978, to the Microsoft Xbox in 2001, home video game graphics have made astonishing progress in detail and realism.

In 1978, your $200 Atari 2600 boasted the following capabilities:

A 6507 CPU running at 1.19 MHz. 128 bytes of RAM. 6 kilobytes of ROM.

Contrast that to today, when you can buy an Xbox for $149 and have this kind of power at your disposal:

Dedicated graphics processor drawing 116.5 Million polygons per second with realtime perspective-correct texture mapping and anti-aliasing, 733 Mhz Pentium III CPU, 64 MB of SDRAM (more than 500,000 times as much memory as the Atari), 8 GB of hard disk storage.

While the capabilities of gaming consoles have increased by unimaginable leaps over the last 25 years, the basic paradigm of hooking a computer up to a TV in your living room and sitting on the sofa has remained constant.

Microvision's technology makes it possible to create 3D, stereoscopic images that either augment a user's field of view or completely block out the outside world -- allowing the visual world of a wearer to be determined by the hardware and software capabilities of a game console.

While game consoles will continue to improve on the existing paradigm (PlayStation 3, Xbox 2, and Nintendo Revolution are due in stores by next Christmas), these companies are keenly aware that they will need to evolve, adapt, or risk obsolescence.

Gamers by the millions are eager for new and novel experiences that highten immersion in the gaming world. The first company to offer 3D virtual reality gaming with a stylish, lightweight eyeglass display will have a massive edge in mindshare -- their brand will always be tied to bringing leading-edge, futuristic and differentiated gaming capabilities to their customers -- and in the super-competitive high-stakes world of gaming consoles that kind of advantage could be worth big money for years to come.

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