Worldwide market for video game consoles, peripherals, and software is estimated at $28.8 billion in 2001 The first wave of home video games was launched nearly 30 years ago.
By the early 1980s, this electronic entertainment medium had emerged as a cultural phenomenon, thanks to classics such as Asteroids, Centipede, Donkey Kong, and Pac-Man.
The world of video games has, of course, changed drastically since then.
For starters, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are now the key players in the console industry, having replaced Atari, Coleco, and Mattel for those top spots.
Advances in technology are making game worlds more realistic and interactive than ever before.
The result is a new breed of fresh and exciting game genres that people in the early 1980s could only dream about.