History of video games Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Though the history of the video game spans almost five decades, video games themselves didn't become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s.
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2 The 1960s 3 The 1970s 4 The 1980s 5 The 1990s 6 Early 21st century 7 See also 8 External links |
Early years
Many people attribute the invention of the video game to William Higinbotham, who in 1958 created a Pong-like game called Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope to entertain visitors at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This is incorrect, as under the general definition, the first video game came about six years prior to Tennis for Two.
A.S. Douglas developed a graphical version of Tic-Tac-Toe in 1952 at the University of Cambridge in order to demonstrate his thesis on Human-Computer interaction. It was played on the now archaic EDSAC computer, which implemented cathode ray tubes in order to create a visual display. In spite of its technological antiquity, the game is still playable on emulators available on the Internet.
The 1960s
In 1961, a group of students at MIT, including Steve Russell, programmed a game called Spacewar on the then-new DEC PDP-1. The game pitted two human players against each other, each controlling a space ship capable of firing missiles. A black hole in the centre created a large gravitational field and another source of hazard. This game was soon distributed with new DEC computers and traded throughout primitive cyberspace. It was the first widely available and influential game.
One of the developers of Multics, Ken Thompson, continued to develop the operating system after AT&T; stopped funding it. His work focussed on development of the OS for the GE-645 mainframe. He actually wanted to play a game he was writing called Space Travel. Though the game was never released commercially (and apparently costing $75 per go on the mainframe), the game's development led to the invention of the UNIX operating system.
In 1966, an engineer named Ralph Baer created a simple video game called Chase that could be displayed on a standard television set. Baer continued development, and in 1968 he had a prototype that could play several different games, including versions of table tennis and target shooting.
The 1970s
In 1971, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar and called it Computer Space. Nutting Associates bought the game, hired Bushnell, and manufactured 1,500 Computer Space machines. The game was not a success because many people found it difficult to play.
As Bushnell felt he did not receive enough pay by licensing games to other manufacturers, he founded his own company, Atari, in 1972. The first arcade video game with widespread success was Atari's Pong, released the same year. The game is loosely based around table tennis: two players each control a "paddle" which has the freedom to move up and down at their end of the "court". A ball is "served" from the center of the court and as the ball moves towards their side of the court each player must maneuver their bat to hit the ball back to their opponent. Atari sold 19,000 Pong machines, and soon many imitators followed. The coin-operated arcade video game craze had begun.
1972 also saw the release of the first video game console for the home market, the Magnavox Odyssey, based on Ralph Baer's earlier work and licensed from his employer. The console was connected to a home television set. Built using mainly analog electronics, it was not a large success, although other companies with similar products (including Atari) had to pay a licensing fee for some time.
1976 saw the first controversy over gratuitous violence in a video game, with the release of Death Race, by Exidy, where the object of the game was to run over "gremlins"—who looked more like pedestrians—with a car. The controversy increased public awareness of video games.
Early home computers from Apple, Commodore, TRS-80 and others had many games, that people typed in from books (those present will remember David Ahl's book, Basic Computer Games), magazines (Creative Computing), and cassette tapes, floppy disks, and ROM cartridges.
In 1977, Atari released its cartridge-based console called Video Computer System (VCS), later called Atari 2600.
The video game industry entered its Golden Age in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders by Taito. This game was a runaway blockbuster hit, and it inspired dozens of manufacturers to enter the market and produce their own video games.
In 1978, Nintendo released an arcade game: Computer Othello.
Also in 1978, Atari released Asteroids, its biggest best-seller. It replaced the game Lunar Lander as the number one arcade hit.
In 1979, Activision was created by disgruntled former Atari programmers. It was the first third-party developer of video games ever.
Other arcade classics of the late 1970s include Night Driver, Missile Command, Berzerk, Breakout, and Battle Zone.
While the fruit of development in early video games appeared mainly (for the consumer) in video arcades and home consoles, the rapidly evolving home computers of the 1970s and 80s allowed their owners to program simple games. Soon many of these games (often clones of popular arcade games) were being distributed through a variety of channels, included the physical mailing and selling of floppy disks and tapes, and the inclusion of the game's source code in magazines and newsletters, which allowed users to type in the code for themselves. Soon a small cottage industry was formed, with amateur coders selling disks in plastic bags sent through the mail.
This is an Article on History of video games. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About History of video games The 1980s
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The 1990s
1990
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Early 21st century
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See also
External links