History of Video Games

By: Héctor Muñoz-Avila

Sources:• Gamespot.com• investor.about.com• emuunlim.com• designboom.com• Wikipedia• my own

Introduction

• Some ideas in the 1948• First video game:

– Tennis game in an Oscilloscope– Space game on DEC-1

• Current videogames:– Half Life 2

• In between:– Space Invaders: http://www.spaceinvaders.de/

Chess Origins

• 1769 Fake chess machine• 1952 Turing design a chess

algorithm • 1956 Maniac versus Human

Origins of Some Companies

• 1889 company create card game:

• 1932 COLECO (short for Connecticut Leather Company

• 1947 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company:

• 1954 David Rosen makes machines for GI’s in JapanSony

Nintendo (“leave luck to heaven”)

(Service Games) SEGA

Other Origins

• 1951 Ralph Baer (@Loral) suggest adding game to TV

– May be considered the inventor of video games

– Only until 1967 he realized his dream of an “intereactive television”

• 1952 A.S.Douglas (@Cambridge): Interactive Tic Tac Toe

• 1958 Willy Higinbotham (@brookhaven national laboratory): Oscilloscope

Other Origins (II)

• 1961 Steve Russell (@MIT) creates space war

“If I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first. - Steve Russell

Space War Legacy1971 Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck formed Computer Recreations

Galaxy Game Cost: $20KPlay cost: 10 centBuilt: dozens

1972 Noland Bushnell and Ted Dabney (@Nutting Associates)

Galaxy Game Built: 1.5K 1972

PONGBuilt: 10K“Breaks down”

Early Games

• Pong (http://www.apn.gr/pong.html)

• 1972 Magnavox builds Odyssey

Early Stages: 1976-1977

• COLECO builds TELSTAR

• Cartridges are born (Fairchild Camera & Instrument: Channel F)

• Atari bought by Warner Communications ($28M)– Atari releases first console (later known as Atari 2600)

Early Stages 1977-78

• Nintendo releases Othello (http://www.mattelothello.com/)• Taito creates Space Invaders!

– Midway bought license

• Apple and Atari release PCs– But Atari is seen as a gaming company

The Golden Age 1979-1981

• Atari releases Asteroids!

• Frogger, Konami/Sega, 1981

• Pac-Man, Bally/Midway, 1980

• Donkey Kong, Nintendo, 1981

• Namco releases Pac-Man, 1982 (+300K machines sold)

– Own television show

• US Army commissions Atari for a tank simulation game– Start of a long enduring activity (Lehigh included!)

• Nintendo releases first console in 1981• http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/

The Great Crash 1982-1984

• The Commodore 64 PC is released• Coleco releases the Adam PC• Too many competitors small and large saturate the market

– 1982 Warner Corp. stock fell 32% after Atari announces les-that-expected sells of consoles

– Atari sold to Jack Tramiel (owner of Commodore)– New company: Atari Corp. pulls from Console market

• Bright spot: Nintendo releases famicon does well in Japan

The Return of the Video Games 1985-1988

• Nintendo releases NES

– Met with skepticism by market observers

– Turns out to be an instant hit

– Legend of Zelda

• http://www.nintendoland.com/zelda/home.htm

• Apple releases the Mac, Atari releases 520ST

– Who won?

• Tetris is released! – http://www.miniclip.com/tetris.htm

• Coleco files for bankruptcy

•1985 MS releases Windows•PC as a gaming platform

The Story Continues

• 1989 Nintendo releases Gameboy, Sega releases Genesis

• 1991 Nintendo releases SNES, Sega releases Sonic• 1993 32-bit consoles

– Nintendo releases Mortal Combat!

• 1999-2001 Playstation 2, Gamecube, Xbox

What’s Left?

• PC Games– We will cover these in coming classes but by

Genre:• FPS• RTS• RPG (including MMO)