First generation

The first generation started in 1972 and ended in 1977. Best known consoles are the Magnavox Odyssey, Atari Pong and the Nintendo Color TV Game.

Magnavox Odyssey
Magnavox Odyssey is the first video game console ever made. It was released at August 1972 in North America, 1973 in United Kingdom and at 1974 in Europe and Japan. It was discontinued in 1975.

Sales of the console were hurt by poor marketing by Magnavox retail stores, in addition to many consumers being led to believe that the Odyssey would work only on Magnavox television. For that reason, most later "Pong" games had an explanation on their box saying "Works on any television set, black and white or color".

Magnavox settled a court case against Nolan Bushnell for patent infrigement in Bushnell's design of Pong, as it resembled the tennis game for the Odyssey. Over the next decade, Magnavox sued other big companies such as Coleco, Mattel, Seeburg, Activision and either won or settled every suit. In 1985, Nintendo sued Magnavox and tried to invalidate Baer's patents by saying that the first video game was William Higinbottam's Tennis for Two game built in 1958. The court ruled that this game did not use video signals and could not qualify as a video game. As a result, Nintendo lost the suit and continued paying royalties to Sanders Associates.

Baer went on to invent the classic electronic game Simon for Mattel in 1978. Magnavox later released several other scaled down Pong-like consoles based under the Odyssey name (which did not use cartridges or game cards), and at one point a truly programmable, cartridge based console, the Magnavox Odyssey², in 1978.

Atari Pong
Atari Pong was released at 1975. The system began development under the codename Darlene, named after an attractive female employee at Atari. Alcorn worked with Lee to develop the designs and prototype, and based them on the same digital technology used in their arcade games. The two worked in shifts to save time and money; Lee worked on the design's logic during the day, while Alcorn debugged the designs in the evenings. After the designs were approved, fellow Atari engineer Bob Brown assisted Alcorn and Lee in building a prototype. The prototype consisted of a device attached to a wooden pedestal containing over a hundred wires, which would eventually be replaced with a single chip designed by Alcorn and Lee; the chip had yet to be tested and built before the prototype was constructed. The chip was finished in the later half of 1974, and was, at the time, the highest performing chip used in a consumer product.

Bushnell and Gene Lipkin, Atari's vice-president of sales, approached toy and electronic retailers to sell Pong, but were rejected; retailers felt the product was too expensive and would not interest consumers. Atari contacted Sears' Sporting Goods department after noticing a Magnavox Odyssey advertisement in the sporting goods section of their catalog. They discussed the game with a representative, Tom Quinn, who expressed enthusiasm and offered Atari an exclusive deal. Believing they could find more favorable terms elsewhere, Atari's executives declined and continued to pursue toy retailers. In January 1975, Atari staff set up a Pong booth at a toy trade fair in New York City, but was unsuccessful in soliciting orders.

While at the show, they met Quinn again, and, a few days later, set up a meeting with him to obtain a sales order. In order to gain approval from the Sporting Goods department, Quinn suggested Atari demonstrate the game to executives in Chicago. Alcorn and Lipkin traveled to the and, despite a technical complication, obtained approval. Bushnell told Quinn he could produce 75,000 units in time for the Christmas season, however, Quinn requested double the amount. Though Bushnell knew Atari lacked the capacity to manufacture 150,000 units, he agreed. Atari acquired a new factory through funding obtained by venture capitalist Don Valentine. Supervised by Jimm Tubb, the factory fulfilled the Sears order. The first units manufactured were branded with Sears' "Tele-Games" name. Atari later released a version under their own brand in 1976.