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
Whats the future?

Pinball
Bally Manufacturing
Williams Manufacturing
Midway Games

Created the production,
distribution, and consumer
channels used by video
game industry
J apan (Pre-history)
Early coin operated companies established by
foreigners
Taito, (Sega + Rosen Enterprises = Sega Enterprises)
1966 Periscope
Imported to the US and Europe, expensive
Set the 25 cent price for coin operated machines

Meanwhile, back in the US ... computers rising
Electronic / Computer games
(Prehistory)
1948: Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device
patent for electronic game. Vacuum tubes
controlled missiles firing at a target
1951: Transistors replacing vacuum tubes at
university computers. Students want games.
Checkers (1951)
TTT (1952)
Nimrod played Nim (UK)
Birth
Spacewar, 1962, MIT
students wanted to test
the capabilities of their new
DEC PDP-1
Gravity, warp
Widely distributed by DEC
Other games were not
distributed (no internet)
Commercialization
1971: Galaxy Game
Clone of Spacewar
Stanford, 10 cents in student union
Ran until 1979
Bushnell, Dabney created custom
arcade hardware for Spacewar
clone - failure...
June 27, 1972 Bushnell/Dabney
found Atari Inc. ... meanwhile...
Games on Television Screens
(Consoles)
Ralph Baer
1967 chase game
Light gun -> shooting, paddles -> tennis
Prototype played multiple games
No sound, overlays
3 dials for vertical, horizontal, and spin
Magnavox bought it, and managed to sell 100K units
Pong
Al Alcorn, Ataris first game engineer
1972: Implemented Pong
Atari tried to get Ballys to manufacture it
Machine malfunctioned during demo because it
was too full of coins!
Atari decided to forget Ballys and go into
manufacturing!
Many Pong clones competed
70s Creativity, new game genres
1974, Tank designed by
Steve Bristow
1973, Gotcha, pursuit
1974, Gran Trak 10,
Driving/Racing
1976, Night Driver, sit
down cabinet
1975 Breakout, SP Pong
1976 Death Race
Golden Age of arcade games (2)
1978:Space Invaders, (Taito) high score, no name
1979, Star Fire, (Exidy), initials
1979, Atari Football, smooth scrolling scree,
trackball controller

Many Companies entered the business
Konami, Namco, Irem, SNK, Technos Japan.
Galaga, Defender, Scramble, Moon patrol
Maze Games: Pac-Man
1980, Namco, Originally Puck-man but changed
name before releasing in the US.
Best selling arcade game up to that point
First identifiable video character
Cover of Time
1981, MIT students enhancement kits for pac-man
ended up producing Ms. Pac-Man (4 mazes)
1982, Namco, Pole Position, Racing, POV
Platform Games
1981, Donkey Kong,
Nintendo
1982, Donkey Kong
Junior introduced
Mario
1983: Elevator Action
Tech
1972: handheld TTT
1976: game cartridges
1977: Joystick
Vector graphics
1979: Asteroids, others (but died after 1983 and raster)
Laserdisc
1983: Dragons Lair, animated sequences, interactive
movie
80s
1982: EA born
PCs, game source code printed in magazines
Commodore 64
1983, Snipes, first networked commerical text-
mode game
Maze War (university research game)
Spasim (3d multiplayer space sim), precursor to Doom
and Quake
Handheld LCD console
Crash of 1983
Too many companies, too many bad games
So many ET the Extra Terrestrial game cartridges
were left over that they had to be buried in a big
hole in NM!


Lasted One Year!
Video game consoles (3)
Nintendo, NES (Famicon), Super Mario Brothers
Gamepad
8 direction D pad with 2 or more action buttons
1986: Dragon Quest precursor to RPG
1987: Final Fantasy, Role playing game
1986: Legend of Zelda
1988: Nintendo Power Magazine
90s (4)
Rising to match Hollywood
3D graphics, sound cards, CDs, fast PCs
Internet based distribution, shareware,
1992: RTS games, Dune II set the std.
Warcraft, C&C, StarCraft
1993: Myst, and adventure puzzle game
Sim games: Sim city, SimEarth,...The Sims (2000)
Mods, Counterstrike, Half Life mod
Internet Gaming
Multi-User Dungeons
1996: Quake, FPS
MMORPGS: Ultima Online, Everquest
Persistent worlds, large numbers of players
Java/Flash back to simple games

Decline of arcades, rise of home consoles, PCs
4, 5, 6, 7 generations
Sega Genesis, Super NES
Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64
DDR
Sega Dreamcast, Playstation2, Game Cube, Xbox
Sims, Halo, GTA, Halo 2, GTA San Andreas, Guitar
Hero
PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS
Spore Demo
Future
Where is it heading?
Graphics
Physics
AI
Immersion, Realism, ...
Holodeck