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The history of video games! Part 1
08-01-12 10:05 PM
G@mehe@d is Offline
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I thought it would be a great idea to type a thread about the history of video games. This thread will include several pictures and it will have a lot of information. This is part 1 out of 3. If the thread looks a little bad then I will make it less sloppy in part 2 THE BEGINNING: It all started in 1958 at Brookhaven National Laboratory were a man named William Higinbotham. He created a game called Tennis for Two to entertain visitors. He used an oscilloscope and a analog computer which was only kind of computer at the time, and the game was successful. 100s of people lined up near the game so they could play it. That might sound ridiculous because of the super simple graphics and gamplay, but back then when black and white Televisions were around, it was very impressive to people. Because the game was not a product. Only people fortunate to live in the area that this game was created in, got to see the game. There were several games developed at the time, but they were all at universities and very few people got to see them. Another game that picked up popularity was created by Steve Russell. The game was called, Spacewar were two people would have a ship and they would try to destroy each other. There was a giant star in the center of the screen. It was then transferred to other DEC computers which were mainly found at university's and laboratory's.  SpacewarTHE FIRST GAME CONSOLES AND ARCADE MACHINES:It started in 1966 when Ralph Baer had an idea. He looked at a TV and wondered what else could be done with it besides watching it. Then he made his prototype called "the Brown Box". He showed his prototype to various technology companies. Then in 1972 Magnavox licensed the technology and advertised it on TV. The console only sold about 330,000 units, this was because of Magnavox'es bad marketing. Eventually people began to think that the system will only work on Magnavox TV's. Several remakes of the system would be made, but in general. The Magnavox Odyssey series would never sell very well. However the system had some neat peripherals. Like the first light gun that looked like an actual gun I'm not kidding look at the picture below.The system also came with little casino chips and other stuff. 
Light Gun for Magnavox Odyssey  Magnavox OdysseyNow the first arcade game was designed by Nolan Bushnell, which he would be later the founder of Atari. The arcade game he designed was inspired by Spacewar, it was called Computer Space, and it was released in 1971, just 1 year before the Magnavox Odyssey was released. It was not a major success because of the tough controls for the time and since few people played video games. It was hard to understand for the average person. Computer Space THE START OF ATARI: Nolan Bushnell created a company in 1972 named Atari. He hired Allan Alcorn and as a training exercise Nolan Bushnell told him to design a simple game that involved two bars at the sides of the screen, and a moving ball. He later named the game Pong. Nolan Bushnell was impressed and decided to see if the game would make the company some money. So he put a Pong machine in a local bar and the machine got jammed with quarters. So the company manufactured more and more machines. The success lead to a home version of the game which was a huge success, then several company's made clones of pong. So Atari created new arcade games like Asteroids, and Breakout, which were success's. Then Atari thought of a new game console that would compete with the Fairchild F. It would use cartridges for games instead of having a certain number of games built into one unit. It was called the Atari VCS, later in the 80s it was called the Atari 2600. It was not very successful until a port of Space Invaders was created for the system. The Atari 2600 came with 2 joysticks and Combat, which is a game where you and a friend can drive a variety of vehicles, they would try to shoot each other  Combat game play Atari 2600 consoleTHIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS COME TO THE VIDEO GAME MARKET: When Nolan Bushnell left Atari, Ray Kassar took place, he gave very little credit to the programmers that created games for the Atari 2600. David Crane, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan. Got annoyed by this and formed their own company called Activision. They made a lot of good games for the 2600 like Pitfall, Ice Hokey, Enduro, and more, because of the success of Activision. Other people began making 3rd party software companies too. However this resulted in the terrible video game crash of 1983 that destroyed most video game companies. ARCADE GAMES THAT WERE SUPER POPULAR: In 1980 2 arcade games from japan, amazed people and started the franchises that we know of today. These games were PAC-MAN and Donkey Kong. PAC-MAN was released first, and became a hit at the arcades. Now days PAC-MAN may not be as popular as he was but he has a number of enjoyable games. Donkey Kong was later released and started the Mario franchise, and he is one of the most popular video game characters of all time. Donkey Kong had a couple things other arcade games didn't have. Multiple screens and a story. 
THE BEGINNING: It all started in 1958 at Brookhaven National Laboratory were a man named William Higinbotham. He created a game called Tennis for Two to entertain visitors. He used an oscilloscope and a analog computer which was only kind of computer at the time, and the game was successful. 100s of people lined up near the game so they could play it. That might sound ridiculous because of the super simple graphics and gamplay, but back then when black and white Televisions were around, it was very impressive to people. Because the game was not a product. Only people fortunate to live in the area that this game was created in, got to see the game. There were several games developed at the time, but they were all at universities and very few people got to see them. Another game that picked up popularity was created by Steve Russell. The game was called, Spacewar were two people would have a ship and they would try to destroy each other. There was a giant star in the center of the screen. It was then transferred to other DEC computers which were mainly found at university's and laboratory's. SpacewarTHE FIRST GAME CONSOLES AND ARCADE MACHINES:It started in 1966 when Ralph Baer had an idea. He looked at a TV and wondered what else could be done with it besides watching it. Then he made his prototype called "the Brown Box". He showed his prototype to various technology companies. Then in 1972 Magnavox licensed the technology and advertised it on TV. The console only sold about 330,000 units, this was because of Magnavox'es bad marketing. Eventually people began to think that the system will only work on Magnavox TV's. Several remakes of the system would be made, but in general. The Magnavox Odyssey series would never sell very well. However the system had some neat peripherals. Like the first light gun that looked like an actual gun I'm not kidding look at the picture below.The system also came with little casino chips and other stuff.
Light Gun for Magnavox Odyssey Magnavox OdysseyNow the first arcade game was designed by Nolan Bushnell, which he would be later the founder of Atari. The arcade game he designed was inspired by Spacewar, it was called Computer Space, and it was released in 1971, just 1 year before the Magnavox Odyssey was released. It was not a major success because of the tough controls for the time and since few people played video games. It was hard to understand for the average person. Computer Space THE START OF ATARI: Nolan Bushnell created a company in 1972 named Atari. He hired Allan Alcorn and as a training exercise Nolan Bushnell told him to design a simple game that involved two bars at the sides of the screen, and a moving ball. He later named the game Pong. Nolan Bushnell was impressed and decided to see if the game would make the company some money. So he put a Pong machine in a local bar and the machine got jammed with quarters. So the company manufactured more and more machines. The success lead to a home version of the game which was a huge success, then several company's made clones of pong. So Atari created new arcade games like Asteroids, and Breakout, which were success's. Then Atari thought of a new game console that would compete with the Fairchild F. It would use cartridges for games instead of having a certain number of games built into one unit. It was called the Atari VCS, later in the 80s it was called the Atari 2600. It was not very successful until a port of Space Invaders was created for the system. The Atari 2600 came with 2 joysticks and Combat, which is a game where you and a friend can drive a variety of vehicles, they would try to shoot each other Combat game play Atari 2600 consoleTHIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS COME TO THE VIDEO GAME MARKET: When Nolan Bushnell left Atari, Ray Kassar took place, he gave very little credit to the programmers that created games for the Atari 2600. David Crane, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Larry Kaplan. Got annoyed by this and formed their own company called Activision. They made a lot of good games for the 2600 like Pitfall, Ice Hokey, Enduro, and more, because of the success of Activision. Other people began making 3rd party software companies too. However this resulted in the terrible video game crash of 1983 that destroyed most video game companies. ARCADE GAMES THAT WERE SUPER POPULAR: In 1980 2 arcade games from japan, amazed people and started the franchises that we know of today. These games were PAC-MAN and Donkey Kong. PAC-MAN was released first, and became a hit at the arcades. Now days PAC-MAN may not be as popular as he was but he has a number of enjoyable games. Donkey Kong was later released and started the Mario franchise, and he is one of the most popular video game characters of all time. Donkey Kong had a couple things other arcade games didn't have. Multiple screens and a story.
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(edited by G@mehe@d on 12-26-12 12:34 AM)
12-26-12 12:09 AM
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Not bad. When do parts 2 and 3 come out? I really want to read them. |
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12-26-12 12:27 AM
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I have seen several similar articles like this.
I will say I find it interesting that you didn't site the cathode ray tube amusement device from 1947 or the "Bouncing Ball" program for MIT's Whirlwind computer from 1950 (among others)from WAY before you started "The Beginning" I will say I find it interesting that you didn't site the cathode ray tube amusement device from 1947 or the "Bouncing Ball" program for MIT's Whirlwind computer from 1950 (among others)from WAY before you started "The Beginning" |
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