21 Interesting Gaming Facts

The Sega Dreamcast was the first console to implement online play over a phone line, calling the system Sega Net.

The Microsoft XBox is the first video game system to completely support HDTV.

Popular Science recognized the Sega Dreamcast as one of the most important and innovative products of 1999.

The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, contained 40 transistors and no microprocessor. The new Pentium 4 microprocessor contains 42 million transistors on the chip itself!

The PlayStation 2 is the first system to have graphics capability better than that of the leading-edge personal computer at the time of its release.

The Nintendo N64 marked the first time that computer graphics workstation manufacturer Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) developed game hardware technology.

While the original Atari Football game was first created in 1973, it wasn't released until 1978. It was delayed because the game couldn't scroll the screen -- players couldn't move beyond the area shown on the monitor. When the game was finally released, it became the first game to utilize scrolling, a key part of many games today.

The Atari Pong video game console was the No. 1 selling item for the holiday season in 1975.

The first console to have games available in the form of add-on cartridges was the Fairchild Channel F console, introduced in August 1976.

The PlayStation 2 is the first video game system to use DVD technology.

On the original Magnavox Odyssey, players had to keep score themselves because the machine couldn't.

The Nintendo GameCube's proprietary disc can hold 1.5 gigabytes of data -- 190 times more than what an N64 game cartridge can hold.

On the market from 1991 till 2004, the SNK NeoGeo AES has tied the Atari 2600 (1977-1990) as the longest supported gaming console in history.

The Sega Genesis featured a version of the same Motorola processor that powered the original Apple Macintosh computer.

Mattel's Intellivison system, introduced in 1980, featured an add-on called "PlayCable," which delivered games by cable TV.

Nintendo's Game Boy is the most successful game system ever, with more than 100 million units sold worldwide.

The word atari comes from the ancient Japanese game of Go and means "you are about to be engulfed." Technically, it is the word used by a player to inform his opponent that he is about to lose, similar to "check" in chess.

In the 1980s, a service called Gameline allowed users to download games to the Atari 2600 over regular phone lines. It was not a success, but did form part of the foundation for America Online, the world's largest Internet service provider.

The first color portable video game system was the Atari Lynx, introduced in 1989 and priced at $149.

Introduced in 1993, the 3DO was the first video game system to be based entirely on CD Technology

The Sony PlayStation was originally intended as a CD add-on to the Super Nintendo. When licensing problems and other issues arose, Sony decided to develop the PlayStation as a machine of its own.