Online gaming has been around since the mid nineteen nineties and revolutionized the way people think of gaming. Before the advent of the internet, most of us simply had no means to game at games, particularly legal, regulated gaming. Planning a trip to Las Vegas, Atlantic City or Monte Carlo was the province of a lucky few and a pipe dream for most.
However, shortly after the World Wide Web became well, widely available, the first online games officially launched in 1994, called Gaming Club which ran its own proprietary software. Gaming Club would soon go on to become Microgaming, the original online games software provider that virtually sparked the industry single handed. Admittedly, the first online games were nothing to write home about but it was at least a start and for millions of people around the world, the beginning of a revolution.
As the internet grew and evolved, so did online games, utilizing the available technology to further develop and enhance their platforms. For much of the 2000’s online games were predominantly available as download only options. In other words, in order to play the available games, you had to download the games software package to your desktop. Depending on the games, this file size could be rather large, taking up valuable space that could be used for other tasks and processes.
However, when Adobe released their Flash Player platform in 1996, online games software providers including Microgaming, NetEnt, Playtech and others, began to design games that could run directly in users browsers. This meant that online games could now choose how they wanted to play their preferred games, by either downloading the full experience to their desktops, or simply playing a slightly limited version with no download required.
Live Gaming – Virtual Comes Full Circle
One of the biggest benefits of playing online games is being able to play them from virtually anywhere in the world. As long as you have a reliable internet connection with decent bandwidth, you don’t need to be anywhere near an actual brick and mortar games. However, as convenient as online games are, there is one small fly in the ointment. Online games just aren’t as thrilling as the real thing.
Virtual games are great and the really good ones provide a fairly realistic experience, with many even featuring 3D graphics. But virtual games are fairly lifeless and are played between you and a computer, there is no atmosphere charged with the thrill of the chase. That is, until new technology paved the way for the next instalment in the online games evolution – live dealer gaming.
Live games gaming, also known as live dealer gaming, is the ultimate fusion of two seemingly disparate worlds – the real and the virtual. Top software brands like Evolution Gaming (rather an appropriate name) uses advances in live streaming video technology, combined with broadband applications, to bring real live games to your computer screen, in real time. The games, which include all the classic brick and mortar games like roulette, blackjack, baccarat and poker, can be accessed in precisely the same way as any other online game. There is no need for an additional account or profile and the games can even be played on most smartphone and tablet devices.
The online games industry has made remarkable strides within a relatively shorts timeframe. While other industries benefit from decades or even centuries of evolutionary trial and error, the online games industry is only in its second decade and has already achieved incredible feats, going from humble and basic online games, to mobile apps and even real live games, all at the touch of a button or a swipe of the thumb.