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How did video games go from so niche to completely mainstream?

This is our story.

No, this is your story.

Welcome to watch Mojo.

Siri's How Geek culture Became pop culture.

Once niche and ridiculed geek culture has exploded into the mainstream.

How did so much change join us as we look at how Pulp fiction, comics, video games, anime and nerd heroes became pop culture staples.

It actually took a long time for video games to even catch the public's interest.

The earliest games were created by computer scientists at universities.

It wasn't until MIT researchers and students created Space War in 1962 that a game was played on more than one terminal space.

War pushed the limits of the PDP ones graphics and real time capability.

Even then, the computers that ran space war weighed £1600 not something the average Joe could use.

However, space war did inspire the creation of the first ever commercial arcade video game computer space.

Its creators, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, went on to found Atari in 1972 and release the legendary Pong Pong was a commercial success, both in a coin operated arcade cabinet and eventually in home console form.

Competitors piled in, and the video game industry was born Hung, invented by Atari.

Now, at last, you've been playing at home.

Atari found success again with games like Break Out, But it was the 1978 game space invaders that took the popularity of arcade games to the next level.

Japanese designer Tomohiro Nishikata was inspired partly by the sci fi renaissance caused by Star Wars, while Pong turned a tidy profit space.

Invaders was a cultural phenomenon, appearing in restaurants, movie theaters, bowling alleys and gas stations everywhere, showing everyone just with ease.

Spiffy new video games were all about Who's Mad Max?

Better than you.

Its appeal included the fact that it could record high scores, allowing friends to compete.

Not only did it establish the Shoot em up genre, its success also helped usher in what's now known as the golden era of arcade games.

In the eighties, home video consoles also began to take off thanks in no small part to the Atari 2600, which featured Ah, home version of space invaders and interchangeable cartridges.

That's right.

It could play mawr than one game.

You could get nine cartridges, 187 game.

Welcome to the future.

Around the same time, disgruntled Atari employees founded their own company, Activision, the first ever third party developer for games.

Of course, video games were still pretty niche.

And wouldn't you know it just a Z.

They began to find wings.

Came Disaster, the video game crash of 1983.

Warner Communications said today that its once booming Atari business lost another $180 million in the third quarter for total losses this year of more than half a billion dollars.

The console market had become over saturated, personal computers were taking a slice of the pie, and Activision wannabes were producing low quality games.

Capping it off was the legendary misfire that was Atari's E.

T.

The Extra Terrestrial, a game so bad that Atari buried unsold cartridges and a New Mexico landfill.

As Faras, the public was concerned the era of video games was over.

Who could possibly clean out the pipes and restart the system?

Hello in 1985 Japanese company Nintendo decided to bring their hit console, Fama com or family Computer to the U.

S.

But the industry was still reeling from the crash, so instead of marketing it as a console, they marketed it as a toy.

It was given a square look resembling a VCR and bundled with a light gun or zapper and an interactive robot, the first to play with Rob, the extraordinary video robot.

The best selling title of this new entertainment system was a little game called Super Mario Brothers.

To this day, Super Mario Brothers is regarded as arguably the most influential game of all time.

It wasn't just a fun and engaging adventure.

It wrote the book on modern game design.

With Mario in its corner, the NES singlehandedly revitalized the video game industry, becoming the talk of schoolyards everywhere.

Mario quickly became not only Nintendo's mascot, but the face of video games.

Their competitors.

Sega wouldn't catch up until several years later with the help of a certain speedy hedgehog.

With the crash in mind, Nintendo introduced the Nintendo seal of quality to keep third party games upto a high standard.

Nintendo also expanded into a new untapped market portable systems for short pick up and play sessions.

In 1989 they released the GameBoy, bundling it with a game out of the Soviet Union.

Tetris.

This puzzle game, by Alexey Pajitnov, was simple to understand, but challenging to master appealing to a wide audience and having it on a portable system made it ideal for kids to take to school where they could challenge their friends to beat their high scores.

The fact that it wasn't built around cute or cartoony characters drew in adults, too.

And so, as we transition into the nineties games more no longer just for kids.

I'm sorry, sir, your flight's been delayed.

Come on.

In a roundabout way, this adult appeal grew, thanks to the fallout from a new sort of game in arcades.

One on one, fighting Games 1992.

Street Fighter two featured a diverse set of characters from around the world, though the standout was Chun Li, whose popularity paved the way for future female video game protagonists.

However, Street Fighter two also led to the rise of popular competitors Mortal Kombat, which took a much more bloody approach.

The shock of seeing such scenes got gamers talking but also lead to moral panic among parents.

And so video games found themselves in front of the United States Senate for hearings on whether they were suitable for Children.

This newfound infamy, Haddon upside The congressional hearings led to the establishment of a rating system for video games, allowing parents to make informed decisions while also permitting games to tackle mature themes.

Within certain ratings, video games had grown up.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board, or SRB, has proven controversial, but it also opened the floodgates.

No longer were games shackled to being kid.

Friendly or stigmatized is just for kids, leading to the emergence of new household names.

And with the rise of mature games came consoles designed for that audience.

In 1994 Sony released their PlayStation Ah console using CD ROM's, which allowed farm or storage space, while other manufacturers also switched from cartridges.

PlayStation stood tall, unleashing a wave of cinematic games using full motion video, but started blurring the line between games and movies.

This also allowed them to tap into other markets.

Gran Turismo brought in racing fans.

FIFA and Madden started to look like the actual sports they were based on.

Tomb Raider established a female character in the lead role, and horror fans found the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill to get spooked by.

Some of these titles were also available on PC and Sega Saturn.

In the two thousands, the industry continued to expand to cover diverse interests.

Mario Kart and Halo became the biggest games at university dorm room party nights.

Grand Theft Auto Three showed that it was possible to explore entire cities inside of games.

Call of duty for modern warfare, released at the controversial height of the Iraq war showed that video games could be grounded in realism and touch on contemporary themes.

And the Nintendo Wii broke down even Mawr audience barriers as casual games became a popular activity for the whole family.

Thanks toe online gaming and streaming.

There's also been a major shift in how gaming is perceived as a hobby.

It's no longer a solo activity, or even just for local co op land.

Parties have been replaced by online multiplayer, but what's more, games have become a spectator affair.

Online streaming has seen the popularization of E sports, while platforms like YouTube and twitch allow people to sit back and watch rather than play the personalities behind.

Video game content have become bona fide celebrities.

You need to eat brah Brian Easy.

In fact, let's play videos have played a significant role in YouTube's history.

In turn, YouTube helped popularize the best selling video game of all time Minecraft.

These online platforms allow fans to connect like never before as they exchange content and duke it out in the comments.

However, arguably the biggest shake up over the last few decades has come with the rise of mobile devices.

The first mobile game was actually Tetris back in 1994.

Snake followed soon after.

Around the same time, graphing calculators had nineties kids all pretending to be very hard at work in their math classes while playing games like Lemmings, Doom and Dope Wars.

Yeah, teachers weren't too happy about that last one, but this was really just the smallest glimpse of what was to come.

Following the launch of the iPhone in 2007, touchscreen smartphones and tablets changed everything.

Suddenly, games were more accessible than ever in your pocket whenever you wanted.

Casual games had already experienced a boom online thanks to sites like Games Ville and Mini Clip.

Social networks like Facebook gave them an added boost.

Damn you, Farmville!

But mobile devices like smartphones and tablets made them absolutely ubiquitous.

Candy Crush has been downloaded one billion times.

Angry birds 300 million.

Sure, serious gamers might turn up their noses, but consider this.

The first casual game was arguably Pacman, and increasingly mobile platforms are becoming home to more complex games, some ported over and some new.

The point is, games are now omnipresent.

In parallel to those changes, the portrayal of gamers and games on screen has undergone its own evolution.

Slowly pushing back against the stereotype of gamers is lazy, socially awkward losers living in their parents, basement gamer heroes save the world and video game characters air well, The rock.

Mm.

Actually, they've been the rock more than once.

Must be my lucky day.

It's been a steeper, uphill battle for movie adaptations, but there is hope.

Oh, today the gaming industry is worth more than the film and music industry combined.

While games have had breakout success stories, what's really made them a pop culture mainstay is how their appeal has diversified over the years.

This has proven that video games can be for anyone.

Whether you play on a high end gaming PC, just want to kill some time on your phone or something in between.

It's been a long journey for games and gamers, but the pixels of your have become the future of entertainment.

Make sure to tune in for our next episode of how geek culture became pop culture, where we'll be talking anime.