History of Games - 1980s to 1990s

A lot can happen in a short amount of time. Although the 80s holds some very well-known and successful products in the game industry, it is also known for the fall.

In terms of successful games at the beginning of the decade, Namco released Pac-Man in 1980, while Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1981 which was also widely successful. Shortly after in 1982, Midway released Ms. Pac-Man, which became the biggest arcade game in American history. The original designer of Pac-Man was not involved in the creation of the game, instead it was designed by nine university students. It was an improvement on the previous best-selling game, with faster movement, more mazes, and more challenging ghosts. Over 100,000 Pac-Man­ and over 150,000 Ms. Pac-Man machines were sold - more than any other arcade game.

At a similar time, the Commodore 64 was released - an 8-bit home computer with a slot for game cartridges as well as a separate floppy disk drive that could hold more data. This attracted many new games companies to the market, probably the most successful being Electronic Arts.

However it wasn't all sunshine and sales in the game industry. Firstly, a connection between gaming and truancy began to emerge into the public eye. Governments called for restrictions on minors being allowed to play arcade games, due to the sheer popularity and amount of time people spent playing on them. But more notably, in 1982 Atari released an ET game, based off Steven Spielberg's blockbuster movie, for the VCS. Although the leaders were confident it would sell well, the manufacturers were unhappy with it, especially considering the incredibly short amount of time they were given to create the game. In the end, due to its disappointing play and basic graphics, the game was a bust and millions of worthless game cartridges were dumped by the company. Despite the crash for Atari in America, its international market kept fairly steady in Europe and Japan.

Another important moment in the 80s is the invention of Tetris, designed by Soviet Russion mathematician Alexey Pajitnov is 1985. I don't think it needs saying how successful that particular game was..

Meanwhile Nintendo kept on ploughing through time, releasing the Famicon in Japan in 1984 (which was a big improvement on previous video computer systems), and it's American version - the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. At the same time, Sega released Master System and Atari made a comeback with the 7800 game console, leaving the trio of new releases to battle it out in the market.

Then in 1987 Nintendo did it again, this time releasing The Legend of Zelda. After its success in Japan, there was concern of it appealing to American audiences - the game had a much more complex story line than previous games, and involved boxes of text. However their worries were of no need, to the dismay of my tutors who are convinced that the game ruined game art forever.

Nearing the end of the 80s, consoles were beginning to fade away as PC games became more popular, notably with the release of Wolfenstein 3D. However, computers were not all the rage since Nintendo's release of the Game Boy in 1989 witnessed immediate success, and its sales did not slow down even after superior products were being created and released. In fact, its sales were so high and steady that the product was only discontinued in 2003.

So, into the 90s. It is around this time where I start recognising games from my own childhood...

References:

Kent, S L. 2001. The Ultimate History of Video Games. Prima Publishing.

Image References:
donhodges.com, giantbomb.com,

History of Games - 1840s to 1970s

It may seem a little odd journeying so far back in time to explain the history of gaming, but games didn't simply pop out of thin air. First the technology had to exist before the implication of using it for amusement, and also the concept of gaming had to originate from somewhere else - quite often arcade games.

Difference Engine No. 2

We were given a lecture covering the evolution of computers dating back to the 1800s, and it all seemed to start with a machine called the 'Difference Engine' designed by Charles Babbage. I was surprised to find I'd never heard of it before, considering it was designed by an intelligent man whose ideas were beyond his time. The Difference Engine was designed to calculate polynomial functions, and its second design (1849) could calculate numbers with thirty-one digits. It also functioned as a printer, producing hardcopy printouts of the result as well as impressions onto soft material in order for a printing plate to be made. Impressive.

Colossus at Bletchley Park

Although it is widely believed that the first computer was of American make, it was in fact the British who built the first modern computer during the Second World War in order to break the Enigma and Lorenz codes used by the Germans. 'Colossus' was a digital computer that could process digital data and also carry out calculations unrelated to code breaking. However, because of its secret creation and its purposes, Colossus was destroyed after the War, and its existence was only found out years later.

Before the 1960s, most computers were the size of a room and were solely used for business purposes. Until people began thinking, why not make them smaller and personal? Why don't we make them fun?

The first games were created a century after Babbage's design. In 1947 the earliest electronic game was made - the Cathode-Ray Tube Amusement Device, inspired by World War II radar displays. However, due to its expense, it was never released to the public market.

Instead, many people consider Tennis for Two to be the first game. Invented by physicist William Higinbotham in 1958, it was a simple interactive game that mimicked table tennis and was displayed on an oscilloscope.

Russell's Spacewar

Then in 1962, MIT student Steve Russell created a two man combat game called Spacewar. Although successful, he held no copyright on it nor did he make any money from sales - the game was designed and developed simply to show that it could. However, once again, since computing equipment was so expensive at the time, making games for the general public didn't have much practical application.

A decade later, Atari, founded by Nolan Bushnell, released Pong. Though this caused a little fiasco when Magnavox released Odessey and got into a dispute with Atari over Pong infringing on the copyrights held by Ralph Baer. Nevertheless, Pong became very successful and Atari distributed games all over the US. Bushnell is quite an important figure in the history of game ideas. Other games her previously created included Tic Tac Toe, Fox and Geese, and Computer Space. Later in 1974, Atari designed the first racing game called Trak 10 and then later the first maze game Gotcha. If Bushnell had patented these ideas, games such as Pac-Man simply couldn't have been made, and the gaming industry we know would be very different.

Pong console

In 1975 Atari released Home Pong; a digital home console allowing Pong to be a consumer product as well as an arcade game. Although they sold well initially, it was then realised that people grew bored of consoles shortly after buying them - it needs to be refreshed in order to hold people's attention. It needs to read and process information like a computer instead of being hardwired with a single game. And so Atari designed the Video Computer System which was released in 1977.

Unfortunately there was a crash in the video game market in 1978 - products were sold at reduced rates and sales were low - something new was needed. Luckily this was about the time Space Invaders was released in Japan, and turned out to be so popular that it was introduced to the American market - Atari released the game for the VCS and sales were soaring.

This brings us up to 1980, the year Namco released probably the most popular and well-known game of all time - Pac-Man.

References:

Kent, S L. 2001. The Ultimate History of Video Games. Prima Publishing.

http://www.cs4fn.org/history/colossus.php

Image References:
atomictoasters.com, history-computer.com, hardcoregaming101.net, gamester81.com

Hello World!

So. A week into the course - time for a little introduction.

My name's Rachael and I'm from the south coast of England. Last year I studied at De Montfort on the Foundation in Art and Design course which was a hell of a lot of fun.

For pretty much all my life I've considered art to be 'just a hobby' and it never even crossed my mind to pursue it in higher education until I'd received my university acceptance letters to study Philosophy and Psychology and suddenly had a change of thought. So BANG everything turns around, I'm on a different path but this time it really felt like the right one.

I did the Foundation course to expand my skills because pretty much all that my drawings had consisted of up until then was copying portraits of film and TV characters from my laptop. And it did the job. I tried so many new things and found that I thoroughly enjoy life drawing and would love to do more.

Originally I hadn't planned to continue studying at DMU but the Game Art Design course really attracted my attention. I loved the attention to detail, the realism of it, the fact I could create artwork that was actually part of an industry.

Problem is I have near to nil digital experience work. I've only tried out my tablet a couple of times here and there, my version of Photoshop is 'vintage' as said by my friends and I've never even looked at a 3D program.

But here I am. It's going to be tough. Super tough. I found that out on the very first day. But it's going to be great fun and I'm going to learn so much, I can tell.