Animation and Game Development 242-515, Semester 1, 2014-2015 1. Games History Objective to give an overview of video game history

Overview 1. Historical Years in Gaming: 1958 – 2010 2. Trends 3. Influential Early Games 4. Some Game Studios

1958 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.

1961 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.

Ralph Baer (1967-1968) 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. Brown Box and gun

Magnavox Odyssey

1970-1971 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (future founders of Atari) created an arcade version of Spacewar, called Computer Space. the first video arcade game difficult to play

Pong 1972 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

1975 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 Atari Pong console

Video game crash of 1977 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.

Atari 2600 (1977) Almost the first cartridge-based home system Open architecture allowed easy development First to introduce licensing of a system to game devs

1978 The trackball was the controller forAtari's Football. Space Invaders was the first arcade game that tracked and displayed high scores.

Arcades 1979-1981 Asteroids was the first game to allow a high scorer to enter their name as three characters to be stored in the machine.

Battlezone was the first 3D game, set in a virtual battlefield Lunar Lander, Atari (1979) Battlezone was the first 3D game, set in a virtual battlefield it was later enhanced by the U.S. government for military training

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

Rise of the home computer (1980's) Popular as a gaming platform: Commodore VIC-20(1981), Commodore 64 (1982), Apple II, IBM PC, and IBM clones Start of game developer studios e.g. EA, Lucas Arts

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

Video Games Crash of 1983 Factors for the collapse include: Lack of innovation Over supply Poor strategic choices by Atari (e.g. its E.T game) Rise of the home computer Press/public perception of games as a fad (a short-lived fashion)

Console Rebirth Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in USA (1985) Sega Master System (1986)

Tetris 1985 Developed by a Russian programmer, Alex Pajitnov, for the PC.

1989 Nintendo released the Game Boy. NEC released the TurboGrafx-16 first 16-bit console in the U.S first system to run games stored on CDs

Rise of the PC (1990's) Myst (1993) Doom (1993) no obvious enemies, no physical violence, no threat of "dying" Doom (1993) very important first-person shooter

Arcade Hardware (1990's) 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)

Sega and Nintendo Sega Genesis console (16-bit) Nintendo Super NES (1991) introduced the world to Sonic the Hedgehog

1993-1994 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.

Playstation (1994) Sony released the PlayStation 1 in 1994 PlayStation 2 released in 2000, maintaining backwards compatibility also the PS3, PSP, Vita It is the most popular game console with over 20 million sold.

1996 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.

Pokémon 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

Late 1990’s Introduction of 3D engines Millions of polygons Shaders and physics

GameCube (2001) Nintendo's GameCube delivered an easier development environment for game creators. Nintendo released the GameBoy Advance, a portable gaming system.

2004 The Nintendo DS, a portable system with two screens, one of which could be used as a touch screen.

2005 Sony released the PSP, a portable system with a large, high-resolution display. Microsoft unveiled the XBox 360, a console system in November.

2006 Nintendo released the Wii, a gaming system that let gamers play by moving the controller e.g. swinging it like a tennis racket, holding and tilting it like a steering wheel

2008 Grand Theft Auto 4 broke sales records in its first week after gamers bought more than 6 million copies.

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.

2009 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.

2010 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).

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

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

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.

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

2.2 Online gaming Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) significant titles for the PC market included RuneScape, World of Warcraft, EverQuest, and Ultima Online

2.3 Mobile games Older arcade-style games have become popular again on mobile phones, since they are simpler to play and implement. Mobile phone gaming revenues: > 1 billion dollars in 2003 > 5 billion dollars in 2007, a quarter of all videogaming revenue

More advanced phones have added to the appeal of mobile phone gaming: Nokia N-Series in 2005 iPhone in 2007 Android on multiple platforms since 2005 New features such as twin cameras, easy multimedia recording, accelerometer, GPS, compass, suggest new game types.

2.4 Motion control 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.

The Balance Board Microsoft Kinect Sensor The PlayStation Move (+ Eye Toy)

2.5 Rise of casual PC games Games with limited complexity for short play. Many are puzzle games Popcap's Bejeweled and PlayFirst's Diner Dash

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

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 Wolfenstein 3D Dune II Super Mario 64 Half-Life Grand Theft Auto III Prince of Persia Dragon Warrior Alone in the Dark SimCity Wizardry Doom Pong

Wizardry (1981) First graphically-rich Dungeons & Dragons-type game for home computers. The release coincided with the height of D&D's popularity in the USA.

Dragon Warrior (1986) 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.

Prince of Persia (1989) Originally a 2D platform game, but the series switched to 3D in 1999. Included intelligent puzzles, deadly traps, sprawling non-scrolling levels, fluid animation.

SimCity (1989) City-building simulation. Introduced goal-centered, timed play.

Wolfenstein 3D (1992) Innovations included: textures, a first-person gun-grasping hand, switchable weapons, ammunition counts Popularized shareware game distribution

Dune II (1992) Made real-time strategy (RTS) games popular. New ideas: mouse controls, world map, framed interface, fog-of-war feature

Alone in the Dark (1992) Started the survival horror game genre, setting the standard for later games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill

Super Mario 64 (1996) One of the best 3D platform games. New ideas: analog control of characters , dynamic camera

Half-Life (1998) New ideas: immersive story, episodic chapters, scripted game events, behaviour AI The Half-Life game engine can be licensed for free, encouraging other games.

Grand Theft Auto III (2001) Game world freedom: users can play the non-linear story -- or not many side-missions, mini-games

4. Some Game Studios Activision Electronic Arts LucasArts Blizzard Id Software

Activision Founded by former Atari programmers Introduced the “royalties” system still employed by consol makers today

Electronic Arts (EA) Created in 1982, now the largest game company New ideas: company treats its staff like artists created in-house tools to aid cross-platform development handles its own distribution

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

Blizzard Started in 1991. Released one of the important early Real-Time Strategy games, Warcraft, in 1994 Their World of Warcraft is the fastest selling PC game in history

id Software Formed in 1991 Successfully utilizes shareware to make money from games. Created the important first-person shooter, DOOM