Angry PixelsThe first 50 years of video gamesJonas Heide Smithjonas@autofire.dk@jonassmith

www.facebook.com/understandingvideogames

The first 50 5000 years of video games

Games!?

Space Invaders (1978)

Galaxian (1979)

Galaga (1981)

Gorf (1981)

Asteroids (1979)

Defender (1980)

Space Panic (1980)Donkey Kong (1981)

Mario Bros. (1983)

The Pac-Man Show(ABC, 1982-1983)

“Everybody loves Pac-Man - and every decent Pac-Man fan has Pac-Man carpets on the floor,Pac-Man curtains at the windows, sleeps in a Pac-Man pyjamas and dries himself in Pac-Man towels.”

Balance of Power (1985, 1990 version shown)

“Instead of putting funny little creatures on your screen, we put you inside our stories... All words. No pictures.”

King’s Quest (1984)

Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987)

Maniac Mansion (1987)

Elite (1984)

Sid Meier’s Pirates! (1987)

Little Computer People (1985)

Tetris (1984)

Nintendo Entertainment System (1985, USA)

SEGA Mega Drive (1988)

7th Guest (1993)

Phantasmagoria (1995)

Mortal Kombat (1992)

Mortal Kombat offers “children exciting new ways to maim, dismember, and murder unsavory opponents in a sadistic martial-arts tournament" where "it is considered a mark of success… to rip the head and spine out of an opponent and wave it in the air while the blood flows to the ground"

Montreal Gazette 7 Aug. 1994

DOOM (1993)

Night Trap (1992)

Ultima Online (1997)

Grand Theft Auto (2001)

“Children are playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them...This is a silent epidemic of media desensitisation that teaches kids it’s okay to diss people because they are a woman, they’re a different colour or they’re from a different place.”

Hillary Clinton, 2005

Guitar Hero (2005)

Wii (2006)

iPhone (2007)

iShoot (2008)

Canabalt (2009)

Wordfeud (2010)

Angry Birds (2010)

Limbo (2010)

What now?

What now?

0

125

250

375

500

2007

467

5

Games Film

1%...

“Games differ from other funding-entitled art forms, since they are more about movement and action than about language.”

Carina Christensen, 2001 (in email)

@jonassmith