History of Video Games

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