Game History, Genres

Space Invaders… Pong… Max Payne…Action, Adventure, Puzzle, etc

History

Spacewar 1962– PDP-1– 2 Ships controlled by 4 buttons each:– Rotate left, right, thrust, fire

Adventure 1967– Text-based adventure– “You are in a maze of twisty little

passages”

History

Pong 1972– First arcade hit

Home version of Pong 1974 Fairchild Channel F 1976

– Cartridges! Hardware “Crash” 1977

– Millions of Pong clones saturate the market

History

Space Invaders 1978 Activision 1979

– First software house makes Atari 2600 Cartridges

Asteroids 1979– Record score: 100,000,000– Two guys played it for a week in 1982

Arcade Games 1980 Defender Missile Command Battezone Tempest Popular with Men AND Women:

– Pac-Man– Frogger– Centipede

Arcade Games 1981-83

Donkey Kong Q*Bert Tron Zaxxon Joust Pole Position Punch-Out

Home Games Late 70s Early 80s

Atari 2600 Atari 5200 (incompatible cartridge

with 2600) Colecovision Mattel Intellivision Bally Astrocade

Software Crash of 1983-84

Market of 1982: $3 billion Market of 1985: $100 million Millions of clones and lousy

cartridges– No rating system– No licensing system– Consumer confusion!

Mid 80s

8-bit Home Games:– Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

• Released 1986• Most popular toy of 1988• Mario Bros.

– Sega Master System• Released 1986

Late 80s

16-bit Home Games – Sega Genesis

• Released 1989

– NEC TurboGrafx-16 Game Boy Tetris

Early 90s

Super NES (16 bit), 1991 Game Gear Software

– Street Fighter 2• First decent fighting game

– Super Mario Bros. 3– Sonic the Hedgehog– Mortal Kombat 1992

Mid 90s

Sega CD (1992) PC CDROM (1994)

Software– NBA Jam (1993)– Virtua Fighter (1995)

Late 90s, early 00s

Playstation (1995) Sega Saturn (1995) Nintendo 64 (1996) Sega Dreamcast (1999) Playstation2 (2000) XBox (2001) GameCube (2001)

Late 90s

Software– Very strong 3D!– Decent sports games– Soul Caliber, Shenmue …

PC Software– Graphics no longer 100% of the challenge– Consumer demand for 3D causes cheap

3D graphics!

Game Genres

Name some!

Genres

Action 1st Person Shooter Adventure Fighting Puzzle Racing Role-Playing

Simulations Sports Strategy

Music Dance Artificial Life Quiz Show

2D Action Games

Shoot the horde of aliens– Shoot the horde of aliens

• Shoot the horde of aliens– Shoot the horde of aliens

• Shoot the horde of aliens

Space Invaders, Galaga, Defender/Stargate,

Mario Bros

1st Person Shooter

3D Shoot the horde of aliens– 3D Shoot the horde of aliens

• 3D Shoot the horde of aliens– 3D Shoot the horde of aliens

• 3D Shoot the horde of aliens

Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Max Payne

Adventure

Follow the trail Solve puzzles Nice scenery Inventory Learning Examples: Zelda, Metroid, Myst,

Shenmue

Fighting

Pluses:–KILL!!!– Short games– Stress reliever, flow experience– Social hierarchy “determiner”

Minuses– Arcane knowledge– Limited virtual space– Follow-on real violence ?(vs. social hierarchy)– Clone factor

Puzzle

Solving the puzzle is the primary goal

Gives feelings of mastery

Racing

First past the post Fairly strong simulation element Fine motor control

Role-Playing

3rd person adventure Strong story component (potentially) Learn the virtual world/environment Players are free to act within the

world’s constraints

Simulations

Flight Sim SimAnt, SimCity, Railroad Tycoon,

Roller Coaster Tycoon, ... Focus on details Training could be the goal

Sports

Armchair coach Abstract war Abstract team fighting games

Strategy

Same components as Sim games Historical simulation Puzzles may play a part A light story element No twitch in turn-based strategy

Music

“Name that Tune” Repeat a piece of music that the

game plays for you Play along musically

Dance

Dance Dance Revolution Dance kiosk type games (popular in

Korea!)

Artificial Life

Tamagotchi, Creatures, Black & White

Quiz Show

You Don’t Know Jack, Win Ben Stein’s Money, etc

Others??

Game Ideas – Discuss!

What ideas to people have??

What is the One Cool Thing?

Tools

Game Extension?