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• Objectiveo to give an overview of video game history

Animation and Game Development

242-515, Semester 1, 2014-2015

1. Games History

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1. Historical Years in Gaming: 1958 – 2010

2. Trends3. Influential Early Games4. Some Game Studios

Overview

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• Physicist William Higinbotham invented the first "video game" at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York.

• His game, a table tennis-like game, was played on an oscilloscope.

1958

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• Steve Russell, a student at MIT, created Spacewar, the first interactive computer game.

• It ran on a Digital PDP-1 mainframe computer, and the graphics used ASCII text.

1961

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• 1967-1968, Ralph Baer created a light gun controller for shooting games and the Brown Box, the first home video game console. Sold to Magnavox in 1972.

Ralph Baer (1967-1968)

Brown Box and gun

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Magnavox Odyssey

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• Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (future founders of Atari) created an arcade version of Spacewar, called Computer Space.o the first video arcade gameo difficult to play

1970-1971

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• Created by Ralph Baer at Magnavox Odyssey• A ping pong game with a moving ball controlled

by user paddles; used a TV as the display

Pong 1972

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• Atari's version of Pong was released; It became a hot Christmas present

• Also became a popular arcade game

• Atari was sued by Baer and Magnavox,and it had to pay a one-time license fee of $700,000

1975

Atari Pongconsole

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• Manufacturers of older, obsolete consoles and Pong clones sold their systems at a loss to clear stock, creating a glut in the market.

• Only Atari and Magnavox remained in the home console market by the end of 1977.

Video game crash of 1977

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• Almost the first cartridge-based home system

• Open architecture allowed easy development

• First to introduce licensing of a system to game devs

Atari 2600 (1977)

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• The trackball was the controller forAtari's Football.

• Space Invaders was the first arcade game that tracked and displayed high scores.

1978

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• Asteroids was the first game to allow a high scorer to enter their name as three characters to be stored in the machine.

Arcades 1979-1981

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• Lunar Lander, Atari (1979) • Battlezone was the first 3D game, set in a virtual

battlefieldo it was later enhanced by the U.S. government for military

training

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• Pac-Man released by Namco in 1980-1981o generated $100 million in sales during its lifetime

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• Popular as a gaming platform:o Commodore VIC-20(1981), Commodore 64 (1982), Apple

II, IBM PC, and IBM clones

• Start of game developer studios e.g. EA, Lucas Arts

Rise of the home computer

(1980's)

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• Donkey Kong (1981)• Frogger, Centipede (1981)• Pole Position, Joust (1982)• Mario Bros, Spy Hunter (1983)

Popular Arcade Games

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• Factors for the collapse include:o Lack of innovation o Over supply o Poor strategic choices by Atari (e.g. its E.T game)o Rise of the home computer o Press/public perception of games

as a fad (a short-lived fashion)

Video Games Crash of 1983

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• Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in USA (1985)

• Sega Master System (1986)

Console Rebirth

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• Developed by a Russian programmer, Alex Pajitnov, for the PC.

Tetris 1985

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• Nintendo released the Game Boy.

• NEC released the TurboGrafx-16o first 16-bit console in the U.So first system to run games stored on CDs

1989

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• Myst (1993) o no obvious enemies, no physical violence, no threat of

"dying"

• Doom (1993)o very important first-person shooter

Rise of the PC (1990's)

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• Arcades focued on bringing in more "ride-and-video" games like skiing, snowboarding, and Jet Skiing, as they were more popular than shooting and fighting games.

• Used specialised hardware (not on PCs)

Arcade Hardware (1990's)

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• Sega Genesis console (16-bit)• Nintendo Super NES (1991)

o introduced the world to Sonic the Hedgehog

Sega and Nintendo

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• US Senate investigation into violence in video games.

• The Entertainment Software Rating Board was created.

• Rating on a game's box indicate the suggested age of players and the violent content.

1993-1994

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• Sony released the PlayStation 1 in 1994o PlayStation 2 released in 2000, maintaining

backwards compatibilityo also the PS3, PSP, Vita

• It is the most popular game console with over 20 million sold.

Playstation (1994)

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• The Tamagotchi virtual pet became a sensation in Japan.

• It was released in the U.S. in May, selling all of its 30,000-unit supply in 3 days.

1996

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• Created by Japanese video game enthusiast Satoshi Tajiri

• Pokémon Red and Green released for Nintendo Game Boy in 1996

• Movies, TV series, and multiple sequels followed

Pokémon

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• Introduction of 3D engines• Millions of polygons• Shaders and physics

Late 1990’s

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• Nintendo's GameCube delivered an easier development environment for game creators.

• Nintendo released the GameBoy Advance, a portable gaming system.

GameCube (2001)

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• The Nintendo DS, a portable system with two screens, one of which could be used as a touch screen.

2004

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• Sony released the PSP, a portable system with a large, high-resolution display.

• Microsoft unveiled the XBox 360, a console system in November.

2005

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• Nintendo released the Wii, a gaming system that let gamers play by moving the controllero e.g. swinging it like a tennis racket, holding and tilting it

like a steering wheel

2006

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• Grand Theft Auto 4 broke sales records in its first week after gamers bought more than 6 million copies.

2008

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• More than 10 million worldwide subscribers make World of Warcraft the most popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

• MMOs create entire virtual universes for players and redefine how we play, learn, and relate to each other.

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• Social games like Farmville and mobile games like Angry Birds shake up the games industry.

• Millions of people who never would have considered themselves gamers now while away hours playing games on new platforms like Facebook and the iPhone.

2009

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• The indie game movement comes of age with the tremendous popularity of Minecraft, the addictive brick-building game from Swedish developer Markus Persson (coded in Java).

2010

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• New types of controllers• Online gaming• Mobile games• Motion control changes game play• Rise of casual PC games

2. Trends

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• NES and PC gaming had driving wheels and aircraft joysticks in the 1990's, New controllers in 2000's included:o a soft plastic mat foot control for Dance Dance Revolutiono Samba De Amigo's maraca controllers o Donkey Kong bongo controller

2.1. Alternate controllers

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• Guitar Hero -- a guitar-shaped controllers for the PlayStation 2.

• Sony: the EyeToy peripheral, a camera that could detect player movement, for the PlayStation 2.

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• Return of the virtual reality head-mounted display:o the Oculus Rifto developer kits available since March 2014o consumer versions due out in 2015o optional treadmill

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• Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)o significant titles for the PC market included RuneScape,

World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Ultima Online

2.2 Online gaming

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• Older arcade-style games have become popular again on mobile phones, since they are simpler to play and implement.

• Mobile phone gaming revenues:o > 1 billion dollars in 2003o > 5 billion dollars in 2007, a quarter of all videogaming

revenue

2.3 Mobile games

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• More advanced phones have added to the appeal of mobile phone gaming:o Nokia N-Series in 2005 o iPhone in 2007o Android on multiple platforms since 2005

• New features such as twin cameras, easy multimedia recording, accelerometer, GPS, compass, suggest new game types.

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• The Wii Remote has been very successful. • But motion controls tend to be slow, inaccurate.

• Various add-on attachments adapt the Wii Remote to specific games, such as the Wii Zapper for shooting games and the Wii Wheel for driving games.

2.4 Motion control

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• The Balance Board

• Microsoft Kinect Sensor

• The PlayStation Move(+ Eye Toy)

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• Games with limited complexity for short play. • Many are puzzle games

o Popcap's Bejeweled and PlayFirst's Diner Dash

2.5 Rise of casual PC games

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• The biggest hit is The Sims, which has become the best selling computer game of all time.

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• In 2008, social network games began gaining mainstream popularity following the release of Happy Farm in China.

• The most popular social network game is FarmVille, which has over 70 million active users worldwide.

3. Influential Early Games

• Dragon Warrior • Alone in the Dark • SimCity • Wizardry • Doom • Pong

• Wolfenstein 3D• Dune II• Super Mario 64• Half-Life• Grand Theft Auto III • Prince of Persia

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• First graphically-rich Dungeons & Dragons-type game for home computers.

• The release coincided with the height of D&D's popularity in the USA.

Wizardry (1981)

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• First role-playing video game (RPG) in the Dragon Quest series.

• More emphasis on storytelling and emotional involvement, and exposed the Western game genre to Japanese manga.

Dragon Warrior (1986)

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• Originally a 2D platform game, but the series switched to 3D in 1999.

• Included intelligent puzzles, deadly traps, sprawling non-scrolling levels, fluid animation.

Prince of Persia (1989)

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• City-building simulation.• Introduced goal-centered, timed play.

SimCity (1989)

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• Innovations included: o textures, a first-person gun-grasping hand, switchable

weapons, ammunition counts

• Popularized shareware game distribution

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

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• Made real-time strategy (RTS) games popular.• New ideas:

o mouse controls, world map, framed interface, fog-of-war feature

Dune II (1992)

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• Started the survival horror game genre, setting the standard for later games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill

Alone in the Dark (1992)

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• One of the best 3D platform games. • New ideas:

o analog control of characters , dynamic camera

Super Mario 64 (1996)

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• New ideas:o immersive story, episodic chapters, scripted game events,

behaviour AI

• The Half-Life game engine can be licensed for free, encouraging other games.

Half-Life (1998)

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• Game world freedom: o users can play the non-linear story -- or noto many side-missions, mini-games

Grand Theft Auto III (2001)

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• Activision• Electronic Arts• LucasArts• Blizzard• Id Software

4. Some Game Studios

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• Founded by former Atari programmers• Introduced the “royalties” system still

employed by consol makers today

Activision

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o Created in 1982, now the largest game companyo New ideas:

• company treats its staff like artists• created in-house tools to aid cross-platform development• handles its own distribution

Electronic Arts (EA)

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• Formed in 1982 as an offshoot of LucasFilm Ltd.• Released Maniac Mansion in 1987• Many adventure and Star Wars games

LucasArts

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o Started in 1991.o Released one of the important early Real-Time

Strategy games, Warcraft, in 1994o Their World of Warcraft is the fastest selling PC

game in history

Blizzard

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o Formed in 1991o Successfully utilizes shareware to make money

from games.o Created the important first-person shooter,

DOOM

id Software