In late 1971, former amusement park manager and electrical engineer, Nolan Bushnell, together with his business partner Ted Dabney, and amusement company, Nutting Associates, created and released Computer Space - - the first arcade video game ever created, as well as the first ever commercial video game. Heavily inspired by the 1962 MIT computer program, Spacewar! - - one of the first ever non-commercial video games - - Computer Space would prove to be a modest success for Bushnell and Dabney. In June of the following year, the pair would form their own video game company, Atari, shortly before parting ways with Nutting Associates.

Their next arcade title, Pong, would also be their first official release as Atari, debuting in the fall of 1972. Pong would quickly become a massive hit, with Atari finding itself struggling to make new machines fast enough to keep up with the demand for them. Over the next few years, Atari would grow by leaps and bounds, releasing several Pong variants, in addition to a variety of other arcade titles. Then, in 1975, Atari struck a deal with department store chain, Sears, which would sell dedicated Pong consoles that could be hooked up and played directly from any consumer television set. Originally branded as the "Sears Tele-Game", Atari-branded versions would eventually become available, as well.

Following the success of their Pong home device, Bushnell started a project within Atari to develop the world's first ever flexible home gaming console, that could allow different titles to be swapped in and out at any time. In order to help see this device come to fruition, a deal was struck in which Atari would be acquired by entertainment conglomerate, Warner Communications, in exchange for $28 million, and Bushnell getting to stay on in his same roles, as chairman and CEO. Though they would ultimately be beaten to market by the 1976 release of US rival, Fairchild's, swappable cartridge-based home game console, the Video Entertainment System (later rebranded as the "Channel F"), Atari would eventually succeed at creating their own such system, as well.

Featuring 6 metal switches (later scaled back to 4) and a faux wood grain panel on the front, the Atari Video Computer System - - or VCS, for short - - would officially launch on October 14, 1977. While Atari was a bit slow to build up a respectable library and user base for the console, they would finally begin to hit their stride by the beginning of the 1980s, with monster hits like Space Invaders and Asteroids (amongst others). It was the (eventual) collection of top-notch titles like these that made the VCS the incredibly popular cultural phenomenon that it was. In honor of the console's anniversary, we would like to take a look back with you, now, at 12 of the finest examples of groundbreaking excellence that the Atari VCS/2600's library had to offer.

Frustrated by the lack of success following the launch of their 8-bit Master System console in America, as well as their continued struggles against rival Nintendo in the Japanese home console market, Sega quickly began working on their next iteration of gaming hardware. During this time frame, another contender entered the arena - - Japanese computer company NEC, with their PC Engine (the Japanese counterpart to what would eventually be released in North America as the TurboGrafx-16). This would prompt Sega to incorporate a 16-bit CPU into their specs, as well a to focus their design on closely modelling the architecture of their popular System 16 arcade hardware.

In contrast to Nintendo's strategy, the external appearance of Sega's new console would be designed to appeal to a more mature audience. To that end, the console's design would be inspired by, and specifically modeled to resemble, a high-end CD player (which, at the time, was still an increasingly popular luxury device); to the point that it would even end up including a volume slider and headphone jack. While Sega would dub the console the "Mega Drive" in most other regions, Sega of America chairman, David Rosen, would change its moniker to "Genesis" for the North American market, as he thought it sounded better and wanted the system to represent a new beginning for Sega.

Sega would officially launch their Genesis/Mega Drive console in the fall of 1989, in Japan, and then on September 15th, 1989, in North America (following a limited test release, a month prior). While the Mega Drive would fail to achieve much additional success for Sega in the Japanese market, the North American Genesis would prove to be quite a different story. As a result of Sega successfully beating NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and Nintendo's 16-bit Super Nintendo to market, in addition to a brilliant and relentless marketing campaign, Sega was able to not only gain the lead in the 16-bit console race, but hold on to it for the majority of its duration.

Of course, the success of any game console is always largely dependent on the size and quality of its library of titles, and the Genesis most definitely did not disappoint on that front. Between legendary arcade ports, outstanding third-party fare, and some of the greatest sports titles of all time, the Genesis arguably boasted on of the greatest libraries in gaming history. It took some doing, but we have managed to whittle their impressively large list of hits down to just 12 of the greatest to ever grace the console; which we proudly present to you without further ado:

Throughout the second half of the 1980's, Nintendo managed to absolutely dominate the home console market with their wildly successful Nintendo Entertainment System. They also enjoyed some smaller scale success with their Game & Watch/Time-Out line of simple and relatively low-cost dedicated handheld games. Eventually, Nintendo decided to create a  a portable counterpart to the NES, with which to replace the Game & Watch line.

This new device needed to feature more complex games with better graphics and, most importantly, interchangeable game cartridges. It would be designed to closely mirror the look and feel of the Nintendo Entertainment System controller, in order to attract the millions of fans that that console had already amassed. The design team would also settle on an unlit, green-tinted super-twisted nematic monochrome screen so as to help keep power consumption and costs down.

Nintendo's portable, which would ultimately be dubbed the "Game Boy", would launch in North America, on July 31st, 1989. Despite its notable lack of light and color, the little handheld that could would somehow manage to extend Nintendo's domination into the portable segment of the market (even among rival devices that were offering those very features). And dominate, the Game Boy would - - for the better part of a decade, in fact.

Enjoying one of the lengthiest runs of any Nintendo console, the Game Boy managed to grow a pretty substantial library over the course of its life. While many of these titles may have been average or even somewhat poor in quality, there were a number of pretty incredible releases as well. In honor of the 36th anniversary of the portable's North American debut, we would like to present to you our picks for the 12 greatest titles that Nintendo's Game Boy had to offer.

Following the near decade-long, David-like success of their original monochrome Game Boy, Nintendo finally decided to release a half-hearted attempt at a colorized successor in 1998 with their markedly minimalistic follow-up, the Game Boy Color (even the device's name was phoned in). Although the system was a long time coming, Nintendo apparently realized pretty quickly that the GBC didn't constitute enough of an effort to suffice. Due to increasing competitive pressure, they decided to reveal an even better color portable, less than a year after the Game Boy Color's North American debut. It's immediate successor, the Game Boy Advance, would feature a much more powerful 32-bit processor, and dramatically
improved graphics, while still maintaining backwards compatibility with both of its predecessors.

Given the fact that the Game Boy Color was barely on store shelves a year before market attention and resources began shifting to its incoming successor, the GBC holds the unfortunate distinction of having one of the weakest libraries of any Nintendo console (not counting, of course, the absolutely massive assortment of original Game Boy titles that it could also play). Thankfully, the Game Boy Advance was around for a number of years before Nintendo decided to unveil their next portable console, so the GBA library was pretty stacked by comparison. Additionally, with hardware performance quite similar to the Super Nintendo, the Game Boy Advance was able to play host to an impressive number of classic ports from the 16-bit era, in addition to the multitude of outstanding original titles.

The incredible assortment of fantastic new and retro titles made the Game Boy Advance a particularly popular device, as it was a boon for fans and collectors of both. It's those outstanding original titles, however, that we will be focusing on today; and we have assembled a pretty respectable list (if we do say so ourselves) of some of the very best that the system had to offer. So, without further ado, here are 12 of the greatest (original) titles that the Game Boy Advance had to offer.

Despite the massive success of the Wii, Nintendo had a problem on their hands just a few short years after its release. While the system exploded in popularity shortly after its launch, it was failing to maintain that same level of interest over time. The motion-based controls that Nintendo (and their competitors) had gone all in on over the subsequent console cycle had clearly been a passing fad. Changes to the design of their next home gaming system would be necessary if Nintendo desired to stay relevant.

​For inspiration, Nintendo decided to look no further than their very own successful line of DS handheld game systems. They came up with the idea for a tablet controller that would serve as a second screen, offering developers and players a choice of how they wanted to control their gameplay, be it with standard buttons and sticks, a touchscreen, or motion controls (for those that still wanted them). As an added bonus, this would also let players choose (in most cases) to either view the gameplay on a regular television screen, or the tablet controller itself, offering a unique level of versatility and flexibility for gaming enthusiasts who had to share the TV with other members of their household. The new console would ultimately also boast better graphics, HDMI output (which the Wii had notably lacked), and full backward compatibility with the Wii.

​Dubbed the Wii U, Nintendo's new console would make its debut on November 18, 2012. Sadly, despite looking like a pretty respectable machine on paper, the console ended up being a pretty big flop for Nintendo, not even managing to reach a quarter of the numbers that its predecessor had sold. While the astoundingly poor choice of name was a big part of the Wii U's problems, so too was its comparatively anemic library of titles. Though the Wii U did have a fairly reasonable selection to offer at first, support for the console waned after the first couple of years, to the point where major new titles for the system began to come pretty few and far between.

That isn't to say that the Wii U's library was bad, however. Far from it. By nearly any metric, a good portion of the Wii U's titles actually ended up being objectively better than those that had been released for the Wii. Not only was the Wii U not absolutely rife with the same massive pile of third-party (wrist) waggle-controlled garbage games that the Wii library became infamous for, but many of its Nintendo-published titles were higher quality as well. Most games on the Wii U tended to score better with critics, featured more precise controls, and were arguably just more fun. Please read on for a list of 12 of the best games that the Wii U had to offer.

After the massive success of Sony's original PlayStation, a follow-up console basically became a foregone conclusion. Rival Sega, which had utterly taken a beating with their ill-fated Saturn console, attempted to correct course with their next gaming system, the Dreamcast; even managing to get a jump on the competition by getting their new hardware to market over a year before anyone else. Sony, still enjoying their considerable lead in the race, was able to take some time in developing a proper successor to the PlayStation, and did ultimately succeed in delivering something truly worthy of following in that formidable console's footsteps.

The PlayStation 2 would officially be unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20, 1999, merely a week after the release of Sega's Dreamcast. Despite some savvy design decisions, a respectable library of new and upcoming titles, and the Dreamcast's modest early foothold in that generation's console race, it wouldn't be enough. The absolutely massive amount of hype leading up to, and then following, the October 26, 2000 North American launch of Sony's smartly-designed PlayStation 2 console would impact Dreamcast sales to the point that Sega would have to prematurely bring its run to an end, just five months later.

The hype was definitely warranted. In addition to doubling as a budget-friendly DVD player, and being backward-compatible with a massive collection of original PlayStation titles, the PS2 would boast its own substantial library of games - - one of the largest for any console, not only then, but ever. While a collection that large is bound to have at least a few stinkers, it also, of course, contained plenty of top-notch exclusives as well, both temporary, and permanent (at least for that generation). Please read on for a selection of 12 of the finest titles to ever grace the PlayStation 2.

Well, it's another new year and time, once again, for another retrospective. This time around, we'll be taking a look back at the best games of 2010. As the start of a new decade, it was certainly an important year; and it also happened to be a pretty exceptional year for gaming as well, with some of the biggest releases, well ever. Please read on for a selection of the 12 most notable titles that 2010 had to offer.

Due to the abysmal peformance of Sega's disastrous Saturn console, and not long before its premature cancellation, Sega set about development of their next generation of video game hardware. In an effort to cut costs, and to make sure that the Saturn's successor would be easy to create games for, Sega opted to use preexisting, off-the-shelf PC components and a custom Windows operating system, in favor of more complicated proprietary options. The new console would also share architecture with Sega's own NAOMI arcade hardware, which was developed around the same time, thus all but ensuring it would be the recipient of a steady stream of home-playable arcade hits, pretty much from day one. Finally, Sega decided to give the system a built-in modem for online play and internet access, the first console to include such a feature.

After finalizing the hardware specifications, a public contest was held by Sega to name their new system and "Dreamcast" was selected out of more than 5,000 entries. In order to avoid the same anemic launch that the Saturn had suffered, Sega took steps to have plenty of Dreamcast games available to choose from when the console made its North American debut on 09/09/1999. Sega also acquired American sports game developer Visual Concepts to ensure that the system's library would be adequately stocked with a variety of great sports titles, both at launch, and over the months and potentially years to follow. In addition (and as they did for all of the company's previous consoles), Sega's other internal studios all worked diligently to provide the Dreamcast with a multitude of high-quality first-party fare over the console's life.

Despite making a number of savvy decisions with the design and launch of the Dreamcast, Sega was ultimately unable to sell enough systems to cover their past losses on the Saturn. Nor were they able to gain enough market share to turn the tables on Sony and Nintendo. Eventually, the Dreamcast also began to burden Sega with losses and so, just over a year and a half into its life, they reluctantly exited the console industry altogether. It is said that the candle that burns half as long burns twice as bright. That may have been true in the Dreamcast's case. It's difficult to name another console that was able to amass such an amazingly diverse library of incredible titles over such a short run. Please read on for a list of the very best of these games to ever have graced Sega's final console.

3D Stereoscopy has experienced something of a recurring fad since its discovery, beginning with stereoscopic photograph viewers, all the way back in the mid-1800s. 3D films first rose to prominence in the 1950s, before mostly dying out and then enjoying a somewhat brief resurgence in the 1980s, and then again from the late (20)00s to early '10s. That most recent period of renewed interest in 3D films also gave rise to some new 3D technologies and devices as well, including televisions and, perhaps most notably, the Nintendo 3DS

For decades, Nintendo had invested in and experimented with various types of 3D tech, including their infamously ill-conceived Virtual Boy system, which they released to the public in the mid-90s (before quickly cancelling it within a year's time) Despite their failures with that much-maligned gaming device, Nintendo eventually opted to try one more time, with the successor to their wildly successful DS portable. In order to avoid one of the most common complaints associated with the vast majority of stereoscopic displays (the need for glasses), as well as to try and avoid any more disastrous product failures, Nintendo wisely invested in a somewhat novel approach for what would become their 3DS system. By utilizing a parallax barrier inside the screen of the 3DS, Nintendo was successfully able to generate 3D images completely free of the usual glasses requirement.

Despite this groundbreaking approach to 3D gaming, the 3DS, not unlike its earlier 3D predecessor, got off to a pretty slow start sales-wise (though not nearly to the extent of the Virtual Boy). Luckily for Nintendo, they were able to mostly turn things around with an early price cut and the announcement of incoming downloadable NES and Game Boy Advance classics for the system, some of which were made available at no cost to early adopters. The 3DS eventually went on to become a moderate success for Nintendo, selling more consoles than the GameCube and the N64 combined (though still only managing to move about half as many the record-holding original DS system). As would be expected of just about any Nintendo device, particularly one with such unique stereoscopic 3D capabilities, the 3DS boasted some pretty uniquely excellent games to match. Here are 12 of the very best titles that the 3DS had to offer.