We often forget that video games share a lineage with electromechanical arcade games, thanks to segregation through historical classification (i.e. video/not video). They are direct ancestors of many gaming concepts that would appear in 70s and 80s arcade video games
When I was learning about early PC history in the early 1990s, some accounts like Triumph of the Nerds dealt with personal computers as if they had sprung forth fully formed without addressing any business or mainframe computer precedents. It was misleading
Although it was probably by accident becuse the creator was old enough to remember and have experienced older computers than PCs, but I personally was not. So we have to keep in mind what newer generations might not know about tech history
It’s funny how ideas of classification can hurt an understanding of history. Another example I often mention is the Atari 400/800, a powerful hybrid game platform that often gets excluded from console history because it is also a general purpose computer
I also think the idea of different “generations” of consoles (think Wikipedia, which I believe borrowed the concept from an old NYT guide to games) is needlessly arbitrary and hinders a deeper understanding of the flow and continuity of the console market
A similar non-tech classification that hinders modern historical and cultural understanding is the idea of race in humans based on skin color, which we now know due to genetic science is bunk. But the mental walls built by the concept persist and hinder deeper understanding
Innovation and invention is a continuum. The hard breaks people insert to serve concepts in easily digestible pieces can hinder a richer understanding. It’s not always bad becuse we can’t grasp everything at once. But it’s worth reconsidering those classifications occasionally
Everything we know is a story, simplified to some degree so our human brains can understand it. How we understand and tell history is a cultural choice. Sometimes it’s good to change up those historical shortcuts to match new discoveries and the ever changing culture around us
