A Brief History of Console Video Games

In the first 30 seconds, this video takes us from Pong through a series of 1970s and early 1980s arcade games, then into NES versions of The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. In the remaining two and a half minutes, we're treated to a wild ride of bleeping, blooping, and spastic visuals, as the video's creators mash up popular console and arcade games from the past forty years.

While this isn't a complete history of video games (or even console games), it's insanely nostalgic for gamers of a certain age. If you remember the NES, you'll recognize a dozen games from the first third of this video -- along with the surprisingly memorable sounds from those games including the SMB coin sound, the laughing dog from Duck Hunt, and many more. What I found most interesting is when I stopped recognizing all of the games (around 1:15 when the action moved into 3D consoles). As time progressed, I could barely tell what console a given game was running on, unless the franchise was clearly from Nintendo.

Turn the sound up!

Also fun is this one-minute student project showing Pong, Pacman, Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Megaman, Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter II, and Super Mario Kart -- a pretty good sample of significant games from 1972-1992.

If that's not enough, check out this video demonstrating vintage Pong action (among other tidbits).