1.1 history of video games

Chapter 1.1
A Brief History of Video
Games

2
The First Video Games
 William Higginbotham and Tennis for Two
 Created in 1958 for the Brookhaven National
Laboratory’s annual visitor day
 Display was an oscilloscope
 Sound effects were a side-effect of the relays that
made the game run
 No one realized its significance

3
The First Video Games
 Steve Russell and Spacewar
 Created in 1961 at MIT for the DEC PDP-1
computer
 Hugely popular within MIT
 Required prohibitively expensive equipment
 Eventually shipped as a diagnostic program with
PDP-1s

4
Games for the Masses
 The Advent of Home Video Games: Ralph
Baer and the Magnavox Odyssey
 1966, initial idea for a game machine that would
work on home TVs
 Created a shooting game and ice hockey game
 Sold to Magnavox in 1972

5
 Breaking Into the Amusement Business:
Nolan Bushnell and Atari
 Engineering major at the University of Utah
 Background in coin-operated amusement devices
 Tried to bring Spacewar to arcades as Computer
War

6
 Bringing Games to the Masses
 Atari founded by Nolan Bushnell in 1972
 Brought Pong to arcades
 Sued by Baer and Magnavox
 Paid a one-time license fee of $700,000

7
The Console Kings
 Atari and the 2600
 Atari VCS (1600) released in 1977
 Not quite the first cartridge-based home system
 Open architecture allowed easy development
 First to introduce licensing of a system

8
The Console Kings
 Video Game Crash of 1983
 Factors leading to the crash

Poor economy

Natural market cycle

Video games perceived as fad

Glut of poor 2600 games

Introduction of home computers

9
The Console Kings
 Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto
 Released Donkey Kong arcade machine in 1981
 Released Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985
 During late 80’s Nintendo owned 90% of the
market
 Latest console is the Nintendo DS

10
The Console Kings
 Sega
 Created in 1952 in Japan to sell amusement
games on US army bases
 Released the popular Sega Genesis in 1990
 Final console was 1999’s Sega Dreamcast
 Now dedicated to software

11
The Console Kings
 Sony’s PlayStation
 Created out of an aborted attempt to launch a CD-
ROM based system with Nintendo
 Released PlayStation in 1994
 PlayStation 2 released in 2000, maintaining
backwards compatibility with hugely popular PS1
 Next console release is PSP handheld

12
The Console Kings
 Microsoft and the Xbox
 Xbox released in 2001
 Based on a PC-like architecture
 Initially significant money lost on each console
sold
 Halo and Halo 2 are its most popular games

13
Home Computers
 Apple Computer
 Founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Mike
Markkula in 1976
 Apple II was released in 1977
 Revolutionized the home computer market

14
Home Computers
 Commodore
 Commodore Vic-20 Released in 1981
 Low price and shrewd marketing lead to success
 Commodore 64, released in 1982, became the
best selling computer in history

15
Home Computers
 IBM
 IBM PC introduced in 1981
 Moderate pricing helped it gain a foothold in the
business world
 BIOS licensing model backfired on them, allowing
cheap clones to enter the market

16
The Designers
 Maxis and Will Wright
 SimCity released in 1989
 Other Sim games followed (SimAnt, SimCopter)
 Maxis becomes part of Electronic Arts
 Released The Sims in 2000
 The Sims has sold more than 6 million copies so
far

17
The Designers
 MicroProse and Sid Meier
 Founded by Sid Meier and “Wild Bill” Stealey
 Concentrated on strategic simulations in early
years
 Sid Meier’s Pirates! in 1987 was Sid’s first
signature game
 Genre-defining Railroad Tycoon and Civilization
followed

18
The Designers
 Sierra and Ken and Roberta Williams
 Created first graphical adventure game, Mystery
House in 1980
 Great success followed with King’s Quest series,
Police Quest series, and Leisure Suit Larry series
 Published Half-Life

19
The Designers
 Origin Systems and Richard Garriott
 Created the Ultima series
 In 1997 created Ultima Online, one of the first
Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing
Games
 Studios disbanded in 2000 by EA

20
The Designers
 Origin’s Other Blockbuster: Wing Commander
 Created by Chris Roberts
 One of the more popular starfighter games
 Known for epic storylines and full-motion video
 Spawned a 1999 movie, directed by Roberts

21
The Phenomenons
 Space Invaders
 Introduced to the US in 1978
 First big Japanese success
 Introduced the “High Score” list to video games

22
The Phenomenons
 Pac-Man
 American debut in 1981
 Attempt to create a completely non-violent game
 Generated $100 million in sales during its lifetime

23
The Phenomenons
 The Tangled History of Tetris
 Created by Russian programmer Alexy Pajitnov in
1985
 Became a pop culture sensation
 Helped drive the success of Nintendo’s Game Boy

24
The Phenomenons
 Capcom and Resident Evil
 Capcom founded in 1979
 Created Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident
Evil
 Resident Evil has spawned 15 variations and
sequels as well as two Hollywood movies

25
The Phenomenons
 Square and Final Fantasy
 In 1987 released Final Fantasy as a last-ditch
effort to stave off bankruptcy
 15 games have been released since then, selling
more than 40 million copies
 Computer-animated Hollywood movie released in
2001

26
The Phenomenons
 Cyan and Myst
 Created by Rand and Robyn Miller
 Released in 1993 on the Apple Macintosh
 Helped popularize the CD-ROM drive

27
The Phenomenons
 Pokémon
 Created by Japanese video game enthusiast
Satoshi Tajiri
 Pokémon Red and Green released for Nintendo
Game Boy in 1996
 Movies, TV series and multiple sequels have
followed

28
The Phenomenons
 The Rise and Fall of the Video Game Mascot
 Early mascots helped sell game systems
 Mascots are seemingly less popular now
 Over-exposure and an aging audience may be
explanations for this trend

29
The Studios
 Activision and Infocom
 Activision founded by former Atari programmers
 Lawsuit by Atari created the “royalties” system still
employed by consol makers today
 Merged with Infocom and gutted it
 Still a strong player today

30
The Studios
 Electronic Arts
 Created by Trip Hawkins in 1982
 Revolutionary business plan did three things

Creative talent treated like artists

Creation of in-house tools to aid cross-platform
development

Handle own distribution
 Now the largest game software company in the
world

31
The Studios
 Interplay
 Formed in 1983
 First big hit was The Bard’s Tale in 1985
 Famous for their CRPGs, including Wasteland,
Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows
of Amn
 Since de-listed from the NASDAQ

32
The Studios
 LucasArts
 Formed in 1982 as an offshoot of LucasFilm Ltd.
 Released Maniac Mansion in 1987
 Created strong history of adventure games and
Star Wars universe games

33
The Studios
 Blizzard
 Started in 1991 by Frank Morhaime, Allen Adham,
and Frank Pearce.
 Released one of the seminal Real-Time Strategy
games, Warcraft, in 1994
 Their latest release, the MMORPG World of
Warcraft, has become the fastest selling PC game
in history

34
The Studios
 id Software
 Formed on February 1, 1991
 Successfully utilized Apogee’s shareware formula
 Created the defining first-person shooter with
DOOM

35
Genres
 Adventure
 Sub-genres include text-based adventure and
graphical adventure
 Zork by Infocom
 King’s Quest by Sierra

36
Genres
 Action
 Superset of all other action-oriented genres
 Typified by fast-paced combat and movement
 Spacewar, Pong, and Space Invaders helped
define the genre

37
A Genres
 Action-Adventure
 Adventure games with action elements
 The Legend of Zelda was first break-out hit
 Jak 3, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes, and Resident Evil
4 are modern examples of the genre

38
Genres
 Platformer
 Typified by a character running and jumping in a
side-scrolling playing field
 Modern definition has expanded to include 3D
 Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Pitfall!
and Super Mario 64 are examples

39
Genres
 Fighting
 Players typically fight other players or the
computer using swordplay or martial arts
 Double Dragon is an example of a side-scrolling
fighter
 Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Street Fighter
are examples of versus fighters, where the players
fight each other

40
Genres
 First-Person Shooter
 Action game where player is “behind the eyes” of
the game character in a first-person perspective
 id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM are the
earliest popular examples

41
Genres
 Real-Time Strategy (RTS)
 Typically, a game in which the goal is to collect
resources, build an army and combat the other
player or computer
 Popularized by Westwood’s Dune 2 and
Command and Conquer and Blizzard’s Warcraft

42
Genres
 Turn-Based Strategy
 Like real-time strategy games, but turn-based
 Civilization, X-COM, Master of Orion, and Jagged
Alliance are standouts of the genre

43
Genres
 Role-Playing Game (RPG)
 The video game counterpart to pen and pencil
games like Dungeons and Dragons
 Final Fantasy, Baldur’s Gate and Wasteland are
some popular examples of the genre

44
Genres
 Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game
(MMORPG)
 An RPG set in a persistent virtual world populated
by thousands of other players
 Ultima Online in 1997 was the first popular one
 World of Warcraft is currently the most popular
one

45
Genres
 Stealth
 Characterized by a focus on subterfuge and
planned-out, deliberate play
 Metal Gear in 1987 was one the first
 Popular modern series include Metal Gear,
Splinter Cell, and Thief

46
Genres
 Survival Horror
 An action-adventure or first-person shooter where
survival elements and a fight against the undead
are stressed
 Resident Evil is easily the most popular series in
this genre

47
Genres
 Simulation
 Based on the simulation of a system
 SimCity and The Sims are example of “God”
simulations where you control the lives of a town
or a family
 Wing Commander and X-Wing are popular space
combat simulation games

48
Genres
 Racing
 Games that involve competing in a race in a
vehicle
 Typically try to re-create a real-world activity
 Pole Position was first popular racing game

49
Genres
 Sports
 Games that simulate the sporting experience
 Breakouts include John Madden Football and
Tiger Woods’ Golf

50
Genres
 Rhythm
 Gauge player’s success based on the ability to
trigger the controls in time to the beat of music
 Sometimes require specialized controllers such as
dance pads or bongo drums
 Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution is the pre-
eminent title of the genre

51
Genres
 Puzzle
 Games that combine pattern matching, logic,
strategy and luck with a timed element
 Tetris is the breakout hit of this genre

52
Genres
 Mini-Games
 Short, simple games that exist within the context
of a larger game
 Mario Party and Wario Ware are popular
examples of this genre

53
Genres
 Traditional
 Computerized versions of board, word, and card
games
 Battle Chess and the Hoyle series are standouts
of this genre

54
Genres
 Educational
 Games designed to teach grade-school concepts
to children and young adults
 Oregon Trail was the first popular game in this
genre
 The Carmen Sandiego series and Mavis Beacon
Teaches Typing are more modern popular
examples

55
Genres
 Serious
 A game designed to teach real-world events or
processes to adults
 Most are privately funded
 Popular with the US Government and the medical
field

1.1 history of video games

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1.1 history of video games