History of Video Games

By: Héctor Muñoz-Avila

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

Introduction: A Long Journey

• Some ideas in the 1948• First video game:

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

• Current videogames:– Crysis

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

Chess Origins

• 6 AD: Believed to come from India

• Came to Western through Persia

• 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

“interactive 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 Spacewar!

“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

Spacewar! Legacy

1971 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 Game Consoles

• 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• Nothing to do? Check this out (some retro games):

– 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 less-than-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, which 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

• 2006: Games for Windows

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• 2006: Nintendo releases wii (out sales PlayStation 3 and

Xbox 360)

What’s Left?

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

• FPSs• RTSs• RPGs (including MMOs)