History of Video Games
By: Héctor Muñoz-Avila Sources:
• Gamespot.com • investor.about.com • emuunlim.com • designboom.com • Wikipedia • my own
Introduction
• Some ideas in the 1948 • First video game:
– Tennis game in an Oscilloscope – Space game on DEC-1
• In between: – Space Invaders: http://www.spaceinvaders.de/ • Current videogames:
– Half Life 2
Chess Origins
• 1769 Fake chess machine • 1952 Turing design a chess algorithm • 1956 Maniac versus Human
Origins of Some Companies
• 1889 company create card game: Nintendo (“leave luck to heaven”) • 1932 COLECO (short for Connecticut Leather Company • 1947 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company: Sony • 1954 David Rosen makes machines for GI’s in Japan (Service Games) SEGA
Other Origins
• 1951 Ralph Baer (@Loral) suggest adding game to TV – May be considered the inventor of video games – Only until 1967 he realized his dream of an “intereactive television” • 1952 A.S.Douglas (@Cambridge): Interactive Tic Tac Toe
• 1958 Willy Higinbotham (@brookhaven national laboratory): Oscilloscope
Other Origins (II)
• 1961 Steve Russell (@MIT) creates space war I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first. - Steve Russell
“If
Space War Legacy
1971 Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck formed Computer Recreations 1972 Noland Bushnell and Ted Dabney (@Nutting Associates)
Galaxy Game Cost: $20K Play cost: 10 cent Built: dozens
Galaxy Game Built: 1.5K
1972 PONG Built: 10K “Breaks down”
Early Games
• Pong (http://www.apn.gr/pong.html) • 1972 Magnavox builds Odyssey
Early Stages: 1976-1977
• COLECO builds TELSTAR
• Cartridges are born (Fairchild Camera & Instrument: Channel F)
• Atari bought by Warner Communications ($28M) – Atari releases first console (later known as Atari 2600)
Early Stages 1977-78
• Nintendo releases Othello (http://www.mattelothello.com/) • Taito creates Space Invaders! – Midway bought license
• Apple and Atari release PCs – But Atari is seen as a gaming company
The Golden Age 1979-1981
• • • • • Atari releases Asteroids! Frogger, Konami/Sega, 1981 Pac-Man, Bally/Midway, 1980 Donkey Kong, Nintendo, 1981 Namco releases Pac-Man, 1982 (+300K machines sold) – Own television show • US Army commissions Atari for a tank simulation game – Start of a long enduring activity (Lehigh included!) • Nintendo releases first console in 1981 • http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/
The Great Crash 1982-1984
• The Commodore 64 PC is released • Coleco releases the Adam PC • Too many competitors small and large saturate the market – 1982 Warner Corp. stock fell 32% after Atari announces les-that-expected sells of consoles – Atari sold to Jack Tramiel (owner of Commodore) – New company: Atari Corp. pulls from Console market • Bright spot: Nintendo releases famicon does well in Japan
The Return of the Video Games 1985-1988
• Nintendo releases NES – Met with skepticism by market observers – Turns out to be an instant hit – Legend of Zelda •1985 MS • http://www.nintendoland.com/zelda/home.htm releases • Apple releases the Mac, Atari releases 520STWindows •PC as a gaming – Who won? platform • Tetris is released!
– http://www.miniclip.com/tetris.htm
• Coleco files for bankruptcy
The Story Continues
• 1989 Nintendo releases Gameboy, Sega releases Genesis • 1991 Nintendo releases SNES, Sega releases Sonic • 1993 32-bit consoles – Nintendo releases Mortal Combat!
• 1999-2001 Playstation 2, Gamecube, Xbox
What’s Left?
• PC Games
– We will cover these in coming classes but by Genre:
• FPS • RTS • RPG (including MMO)