Hong Kong (AFP)

Between the hypnotic table tennis matches offered by "Pong" and the dreamlike journeys of the latest video games, nearly 50 years of extraordinary epic have passed.

The machines have continued to take advantage of technological advances and the graphics quality has improved considerably to offer players an ever more sophisticated experience.

A few days before the appearance of the ninth generation of consoles - with the two versions of Sony's PlayStation 5 and the new Xbox Series X and S from Microsoft - here are some of the highlights of a fabulous story.

- Square bales -

Launched at the end of 1972 by the Atari company, the now legendary "Pong" was one of the first widely marketed games, while others before had not had the same success.

It simulated a game of table tennis: the players had to stop and return a small square - the ball - by guiding small lines representing the rackets, on either side of a vertical line delimiting the two parts of the field, the all embellished with sound "pocs" each time the "ball" hit the "racket".

- "Insert corner" -

The success of "Pong" lays the foundations for the rise of the video game industry at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. Gondola heads, "Pacman" or "Space Invaders" attract children who no longer count coins for achieve a better score than their buddies.

The appearance of electronic game boxes ("Game and Watch") brought the adventure out of the arcades.

The invention of consoles like the legendary Atari 2600 and Nintendo NES brought it into living rooms.

Some opuses released at this time have passed into posterity.

This is the case of one of the first Nintendo, "Donkey Kong" (1981) which counts among its characters a certain "Jumpman" who, renamed "Mario", remains one of the greatest heroes in the history of video games.

- The "console war" -

The take-off was accompanied by increasingly strong competition between manufacturers: Sega and Nintendo engaged in the early 1990s the first "console war".

It is Sega which wins the first parts by surfing on the popularity of its mascot Sonic or by allowing, already, to replay the football matches of the Italian "Mundiale" on the Master System II.

But the Mega Drive, one of the flagship consoles of the Japanese group, will ultimately not have the success of the Super Nintendo.

The innovation of graphics and scenarios brings video games to another dimension.

Who plays "GoldenEye 007" - a first person shooter game - "is" James Bond and has to take down all the enemies of the famous British agent.

"Tomb Raider" offers an even more advanced experience for an increasingly diverse audience.

At the turn of the century, a new generation of consoles appeared and with it a now global war, this time between the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube and a new player: Microsoft and its Xbox.

The PS2 wins, becoming the best-selling console in history with 155 million units sold, according to Forbes.

- In multiplayer mode -

With the Internet, "gaming" is experiencing new upheavals.

The game against his sofa neighbor is over: the game is now played online, against opponents on the other side of the world.

"Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft" ... the online gaming sector weighs more than a billion dollars and becomes a sporting discipline: esport.

To surf on fashion and capture an ever larger audience, publishers are distributing their games for free, and constantly updating them, by offering virtual items for sale: a + free-to-play + model that reaches peaks with the Fortnite phenomenon.

- New experiences -

In 2013, Sony and Microsoft released their most powerful consoles, the "PlayStation 4" and "Xbox One".

Games like "The Last of Us" or "Uncharted" can offer, by relying on the advancement of graphics, an almost cinematic experience.

With smartphones and increasingly powerful internet connections, the game can be found on mobiles and can be consumed between two subways ("Candy Crush Saga").

The 2020 consoles will go even further, notably with ultra high definition 4K images and light reflections to illuminate scenes in the shadows (Ray Tracing).

Now, the manufacturers, joined by the giants Google and Amazon, are relying heavily on subscriptions and streaming games (+ cloud gaming +) which even makes it possible to do without a machine at home using remote servers.

Before one day, perhaps, virtual reality keeps all its promises ...

© 2020 AFP