Transcript 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?

History of Video Games
CS481/CS681
Fall 2007
Summary
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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
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Bally Manufacturing
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Williams Manufacturing
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Midway Games
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Created the production,
distribution, and consumer
channels used by video
game industry
Japan (Pre-history)
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Early coin operated companies established by
foreigners
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Taito, (Sega + Rosen Enterprises = Sega Enterprises)
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1966 – Periscope
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Imported to the US and Europe, expensive
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Set the 25 cent price for coin operated machines
Meanwhile, back in the US ... computers rising
Electronic / Computer games
(Prehistory)
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1948: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device
patent for electronic game. Vacuum tubes
controlled missiles firing at a target
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1951: Transistors replacing vacuum tubes at
university computers. Students want games.
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Checkers (1951)
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TTT (1952)
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Nimrod played Nim (UK)
Birth
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Spacewar, 1962, MIT
students wanted to “test”
the capabilities of their new
DEC PDP-1
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Gravity, warp
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Widely distributed by DEC
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Other games were not
distributed (no internet)
Commercialization
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1971: Galaxy Game
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Clone of Spacewar
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Stanford, 10 cents in student union
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Ran until 1979
Bushnell, Dabney created custom
arcade hardware for Spacewar
clone - failure...
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June 27, 1972 Bushnell/Dabney
found Atari Inc. ... meanwhile...
Games on Television Screens
(Consoles)
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Ralph Baer
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1967 – chase game
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Light gun -> shooting, paddles -> tennis
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Prototype played multiple games
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No sound, overlays
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3 dials for vertical, horizontal, and spin
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Magnavox bought it, and managed to sell 100K units
Pong
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Al Alcorn, Atari’s first game engineer
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1972: Implemented Pong
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Atari tried to get Bally’s to manufacture it
Machine malfunctioned during demo because it
was too full of coins!
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Atari decided to forget Bally’s and go into
manufacturing!
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Many Pong clones competed
70s Creativity, new game genres
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1974, Tank designed by
Steve Bristow
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1973, Gotcha, pursuit
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1974, Gran Trak 10,
Driving/Racing
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1976, Night Driver, sit
down cabinet
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1975 Breakout, SP Pong
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1976 Death Race
Golden Age of arcade games (2)
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1978:Space Invaders, (Taito) high score, no name
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1979, Star Fire, (Exidy), initials
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1979, Atari Football, smooth scrolling scree,
trackball controller
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Many Companies entered the business
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Konami, Namco, Irem, SNK, Technos Japan.
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Galaga, Defender, Scramble, Moon patrol
Maze Games: Pac-Man
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1980, Namco, Originally Puck-man but changed
name before releasing in the US.
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Best selling arcade game up to that point
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First identifiable video character
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Cover of Time
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1981, MIT students enhancement kits for pac-man
ended up producing Ms. Pac-Man (4 mazes)
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1982, Namco, Pole Position, Racing, POV
Platform Games
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1981, Donkey Kong,
Nintendo
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1982, Donkey Kong
Junior introduced
Mario
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1983: Elevator Action
Tech
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1972: handheld TTT
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1976: game cartridges
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1977: Joystick
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Vector graphics
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1979: Asteroids, others (but died after 1983 and raster)
Laserdisc
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1983: Dragon’s Lair, animated sequences, interactive
movie
80s
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1982: EA born
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PCs, game source code printed in magazines
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Commodore 64
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1983, Snipes, first networked commerical textmode game
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Maze War (university research game)
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Spasim (3d multiplayer space sim), precursor to Doom
and Quake
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Handheld LCD console
Crash of 1983
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Too many companies, too many bad games
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So many ET the Extra Terrestrial game cartridges
were left over that they had to be buried in a big
hole in NM!
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Lasted One Year!
Video game consoles (3)
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Nintendo, NES (Famicon), Super Mario Brothers
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Gamepad
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8 direction D pad with 2 or more action buttons
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1986: Dragon Quest precursor to RPG
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1987: Final Fantasy, Role playing game
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1986: Legend of Zelda
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1988: Nintendo Power Magazine
90’s (4)
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Rising to match Hollywood
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3D graphics, sound cards, CDs, fast PCs
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Internet based distribution, shareware,
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1992: RTS games, Dune II set the std.
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Warcraft, C&C, StarCraft
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1993: Myst, and adventure puzzle game
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Sim games: Sim city, SimEarth,...The Sims (2000)
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Mods, Counterstrike, Half Life mod
Internet Gaming
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Multi-User Dungeons
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1996: Quake, FPS
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MMORPGS: Ultima Online, Everquest
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Persistent worlds, large numbers of players
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Java/Flash back to simple games
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Decline of arcades, rise of home consoles, PCs
4, 5, 6, 7 generations
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Sega Genesis, Super NES
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Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64
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DDR
Sega Dreamcast, Playstation2, Game Cube, Xbox
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Sims, Halo, GTA, Halo 2, GTA San Andreas, Guitar
Hero
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PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS
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Spore Demo
Future
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Where is it heading?
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Graphics
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Physics
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AI
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Immersion, Realism, ...
Holodeck