The CM/Mer's History of Home Video Game Systems Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 1975, Home Pong made its appearance in Sears stores and homes across America. It was Nolan Bushnell who asked Al Alcorn to develop a simple game with "one moving spot, two paddles, and digits for score keeping." Superior software, sound, brand recognition and great marketing came together to dominate the home video game market. Pong is remembered as the classic that it is but it was not the first. There was a game system occupying store shelves for the previous three years. Can you identify this groundbreaking game system?

Answer: Magnavox Odyssey

Ralph Baer is the "Father of Home Video Gaming". He had the idea for a television with a gaming channel in 1952. By 1968, he had a working prototype of the machine that was released by Magnavox as the Odyssey in 1972. The battery operated mostly analog console featured 12 games when you purchased it in 1972. The games were "Tennis", "Simon Says", "Submarine", "Analogic", "Haunted House", "Roulette", "States", "Ski", "Football", "Cat and Mouse", "Hockey," and most importantly "A simple game with one moving spot, and two paddles," "Table Tennis".
Home Video Gaming's first law suit ended with Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, settling out of court and becoming Magnavox's first sub licensee for "Pong".

"Atari Computer Space" was the first viable Video Arcade Game.

The Tandy 1000 was an early PC.

WOPR is an out of control fictitious military super computer in the movie "War Games".

You can call me laughinglion. "Do you want to play a game?"

2. When the ColecoVision video game console was released in 1982, it delivered state of the art graphics and was expandable. It was bundled with a game cartridge featuring two iconic video game characters: a plumber and a big gorilla. Name the famous game.

Answer: Donkey Kong

ColecoVision was ahead of its time in many ways. You could buy modules to make it compatible with other consoles of the time or to turn it into a computer. In less than six months from its release half a million units were sold and one million was reached a few months later.

"Donkey Kong" featuring "Jumpman" (later "Mario the Plumber") trying to rescue a damsel in distress while avoiding objects thrown at him by "Donkey Kong", a giant gorilla. Nintendo licensed "Donkey Kong" to Coleco, which bundled it with its ColecoVision game console.

Question by Da_Man11

3. In 1987, LucasFilm Games, using their own SCUMM language, came out with a point-and-click story adventure that was available for the early generation home PC Commodore 64. In this game you had to save Sandy and deal with the likes of Weird Ed and Nurse Edna. What was its name?

Answer: Maniac Mansion

SCUMM stands for Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion. "Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders" was the next point-and-click story game from LucasFilm Games to come out. "Leisure Suit Larry" was an adult point-and-click story adventure for early PC systems and "Resident Evil" is a popular survival horror game for more modern gaming systems. Some of the key elements that define point-and-click games are the telling of a story, items to be found, gathered and used, puzzle solving and dialogue. Point-and-click games grew out of adventure games, such as "Adventure". "Deja Vu," which was released in 1985, was the first true point-and-click adventure game.

Question added by BxBarracuda, former gamer, retired player in the New York-based Madden League (not very good though), former Madden League announcer (a bit better at that), and cast member of the yet to be released Madden League documentary.

4. A special game for Sega Genesis was created by motion study and capture of a certain animal. This was an innovation at the time. A side-scrolling adventure, what was the animal hero?

Answer: Dolphin

"Ecco the Dolphin" was extremely life-like and fun to play. You could make your dolphin jump, dive, and use echolocation to find things. I bought the Sega system just so I could play "Ecco the Dolphin". You only had a limited amount of air, and had to surface to get a breath.

This question submitted by postal315

5. "Get N, or Get Out!" Such was the marketing slogan of this product, released in 1996 and later considered one of the more influential video game consoles of all time. Two games that accompanied its production, "Super Mario" and "Pilotwings" shared the number appended to this gaming console. What was this creation, which was superseded by the GameCube in 2001?

Answer: Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64, released in Japan during the summer of 1996, proved to be one of the company's disappointments when it premiered with an analog stick to high expectations in the gaming community. The console was somewhat of a bust, but "Super Mario 64" ended up being one of the most successful games of the era. The PlayStation dismantled the N64 in purchases during the '90s, but several games made for the platform, including "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" and "Goldeneye 007" were extremely popular.

This question was written by adams627.

6. The first PlayStation was released in Japan in December of which year?

Answer: 1994

The Sony PlayStation has turned out to be one of the best of all the video game consoles and has undergone several changes since it was first released, including the more compact PSone, the more powerful PS2 and the very versatile PS3. There is also the wonderful handheld version, the PSP, which has a built-in WiFi capability for fun on the move!
Over 8,000 games are available for the various versions so there is something to suit every taste.

This question was written by martin_cube - proud owner of several PlayStations and a PSP which goes everywhere with me. :)

7. Microsoft first entered the game console market with the release of the Xbox just in time for Christmas in 2001. One of the "shooter" games that came packaged with the unit became a huge best seller worldwide. It involves a parasitic organism named "Flood", a super-soldier called the "Master Chief" and giant inhabitable rings in space. What is the name of this game series?

Answer: Halo

"Nebula" is the name of an award given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. "Ringworld" was the first of a series of books written by Larry Niven in 1970. "The Wheel of Time" is a series of books by James Oliver Rigney Jr. (pen name Robert Jordan).

"Halo" was considered Microsoft's "killer app", meaning that all other first-person shooter games were (and still are) compared to it. It was so successful that the sequels set new records, with "Halo 3" raking in sales of more than $170M USD in the first 24 hours after release.

This question was written by Jakeroo

8. Games have been played on computers as long as there have been computers, but the collections-of-initials MMOG, MMORPG, MMORTS, MMOFPS, and MMOSG have become familiar to gamers only because of the advent of which of these technological developments?

Answer: Widespread access to broadband Internet

The initials stand for, respectively: massively multiplayer online game, massively multiplayer online role-playing game, massively multiplayer online real-time strategy, massively multiplayer online first-person shooter, and massively multiplayer online social game.

The 'massively multiplayer' aspect depended on enough people being able to access the Internet through a broadband connection, because of speed-of-response (and rendering of graphics). (The other choices are 'fudged' technically, but refer to developments that came later than the mid-1990s surge in MMORPG.)

People have always wanted to play games against others, and before the Internet they used modems; before modems they used hard-wired terminals (which of course were limited geographically). Such gaming started with text 'dungeons and dragons' type of games; today, tens of thousands of people, worldwide, may be logged into a MMORPG such as "World of Warcraft".

This question was written by Gheelnory.

9. Nintendo has been a major player in the handheld game console market since the introduction of the Game Boy in 1989. In 2004 they introduced the Nintendo DS. What does DS stand for?

Answer: Dual Screen

DS also refers to "Developer's System" as well as the distinctive dual screen the system has. The lower of the two screens, by the control buttons, is touch sensitive and can be used to interact with the game as well as to draw or write.

This question was written by jules44

10. November 2006 saw the last stage in the evolution of home game systems that we will cover in this quiz. That month was the launch of a system which offered active play experience to players. Which system, brought to the world by Nintendo, is this?

Answer: Wii

Using an infrared sensor and wireless controllers the Wii has brought the home gaming experience to many people who shy away from the other advanced systems and their sometimes complex controllers. The Wii is considered a 7th Generation console and allows players to be more physically active than any previous game system. The Wii is also backwards compatible with GameCube games, and offers games from the NES and SNES-eras via the Virtual Console feature.

This question was written by BxBarracuda.

Source: Author BxBarracuda

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor kyleisalive before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

The CM/Mer's History of Home Video Game Systems Quiz

Join us on a trip through the evolution of home video game systems.

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