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History of Video Games: CS481/CS681 Fall 2007

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108 views21 pages

History of Video Games: CS481/CS681 Fall 2007

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History of Video Games

CS481/CS681
Fall 2007
Summary
●
1931 Pinball machine
●
1971, first commercial
game introduced
●
2 game market crashes
●
$10,000,000,000 industry
●
Seven generations of
hardware
●
What’s the future?
Pinball
●
Bally Manufacturing
●
Williams Manufacturing
●
Midway Games

●
Created the production,
distribution, and consumer
channels used by video
game industry
Japan (Pre-history)

●
Early coin operated companies established by
foreigners
– Taito, (Sega + Rosen Enterprises = Sega Enterprises)
– 1966 – Periscope
– Imported to the US and Europe, expensive
– Set the 25 cent price for coin operated machines

●
Meanwhile, back in the US ... computers rising
Electronic / Computer games
(Prehistory)
●
1948: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device
patent for electronic game. Vacuum tubes
controlled missiles firing at a target
●
1951: Transistors replacing vacuum tubes at
university computers. Students want games.
– Checkers (1951)
– TTT (1952)
– Nimrod played Nim (UK)
Birth
●
Spacewar, 1962, MIT
students wanted to “test” the
capabilities of their new
DEC PDP-1
●
Gravity, warp
●
Widely distributed by DEC
●
Other games were not
distributed (no internet)
Commercialization
●
1971: Galaxy Game
– Clone of Spacewar
– Stanford, 10 cents in student union
– Ran until 1979
●
Bushnell, Dabney created custom
arcade hardware for Spacewar
clone - failure...
●
June 27, 1972 Bushnell/Dabney
found Atari Inc. ... meanwhile...
Games on Television Screens
(Consoles)
●
Ralph Baer
– 1967 – chase game
– Light gun -> shooting, paddles -> tennis
– Prototype played multiple games
– No sound, overlays
– 3 dials for vertical, horizontal, and spin
– Magnavox bought it, and managed to sell 100K units
Pong

●
Al Alcorn, Atari’s first game engineer
●
1972: Implemented Pong
– Atari tried to get Bally’s to manufacture it
●
Machine malfunctioned during demo because it
was too full of coins!
●
Atari decided to forget Bally’s and go into
manufacturing!
●
Many Pong clones competed
70s Creativity, new game genres
●
1974, Tank designed by
Steve Bristow
●
1973, Gotcha, pursuit
●
1974, Gran Trak 10,
Driving/Racing
●
1976, Night Driver, sit
down cabinet
●
1975 Breakout, SP Pong
●
1976 Death Race
Golden Age of arcade games (2)

●
1978:Space Invaders, (Taito) high score, no name
●
1979, Star Fire, (Exidy), initials
●
1979, Atari Football, smooth scrolling scree,
trackball controller

●
Many Companies entered the business
– Konami, Namco, Irem, SNK, Technos Japan.
– Galaga, Defender, Scramble, Moon patrol
Maze Games: Pac-Man
●
1980, Namco, Originally Puck-man but changed
name before releasing in the US.
– Best selling arcade game up to that point
– First identifiable video character
– Cover of Time
– 1981, MIT students enhancement kits for pac-man
ended up producing Ms. Pac-Man (4 mazes)
●
1982, Namco, Pole Position, Racing, POV
Platform Games
●
1981, Donkey Kong,
Nintendo
●
1982, Donkey Kong
Junior introduced
Mario
●
1983: Elevator Action
Tech

●
1972: handheld TTT
●
1976: game cartridges
●
1977: Joystick
●
Vector graphics
– 1979: Asteroids, others (but died after 1983 and raster)
●
Laserdisc
– 1983: Dragon’s Lair, animated sequences, interactive
movie
80s
●
1982: EA born
●
PCs, game source code printed in magazines
●
Commodore 64
●
1983, Snipes, first networked commerical text-
mode game
– Maze War (university research game)
– Spasim (3d multiplayer space sim), precursor to Doom
and Quake
●
Handheld LCD console
Crash of 1983

●
Too many companies, too many bad games
●
So many ET the Extra Terrestrial game cartridges
were left over that they had to be buried in a big
hole in NM!

●
Lasted One Year!
Video game consoles (3)

●
Nintendo, NES (Famicon), Super Mario Brothers
– Gamepad
– 8 direction D pad with 2 or more action buttons
●
1986: Dragon Quest precursor to RPG
●
1987: Final Fantasy, Role playing game
●
1986: Legend of Zelda
●
1988: Nintendo Power Magazine
90’s (4)
●
Rising to match Hollywood
●
3D graphics, sound cards, CDs, fast PCs
●
Internet based distribution, shareware,
●
1992: RTS games, Dune II set the std.
– Warcraft, C&C, StarCraft
●
1993: Myst, and adventure puzzle game
●
Sim games: Sim city, SimEarth,...The Sims (2000)
●
Mods, Counterstrike, Half Life mod
Internet Gaming
●
Multi-User Dungeons
●
1996: Quake, FPS
●
MMORPGS: Ultima Online, Everquest
– Persistent worlds, large numbers of players
●
Java/Flash back to simple games

●
Decline of arcades, rise of home consoles, PCs
4, 5, 6, 7 generations

●
Sega Genesis, Super NES
●
Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64
– DDR
●
Sega Dreamcast, Playstation2, Game Cube, Xbox
– Sims, Halo, GTA, Halo 2, GTA San Andreas, Guitar
Hero
●
PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS
– Spore Demo
Future

●
Where is it heading?
– Graphics
– Physics
– AI
– Immersion, Realism, ...
●
Holodeck

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