COSC101 Computer Fluency

Lecture 13: Video Games

History of Video Games

A few things we missed from the early 80s

Defender (1980)

Arcade game First scrolling shooter First game to have things happening outside of the current player view. Arcade game First true 3D game Used wireframe graphics First game that was popular over a wide demographic. First character that was popular in its own right.
COSC101 Lecture 12a 4/6/09

Battlezone (1980)

Pac-Man (1980)

Pole Position (1982)

First rear view racer
Electronic Arts founded in 1982 Dragons Lair (1983)
First game to be stored on a disc (Laserdisc) First game to incorporate full-motion video
Animation was created by ex-Disney animators Designed like an interactive movie
Players would make decisions based on the last cut-scene, thus allowing them to access further cut-scenes.

COSC101 Lecture 12a

4/6/09

The Dawn of PC gaming

Up until ~1980 gaming on computers was done solely on large mainframe computers The advent of modern personal computers created a new platform for video games. Computers and their release years:
Apple II released (1977) Commodore64 released (1980) Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer (1980) Atari 400 & 800 (1981) Sinclair ZX81 (1981) IBM Personal Computer (1983)
Early games for computers had a very unique method of distribution.
Most early computers came with BASIC programming language editors/compilers installed by default. In fact this was often used in place of the operating system. Games were distributed as books of source code.
Users would type in the BASIC source code and then execute it to play the game. VERY TIME CONSUMING, and since many of these computers did not come with floppy or tape drives by default, it was often impossible to save your work.
Later, people started programming the games from books and copying them to floppies or tapes and selling them.
Thus the era of the game developer began. Akalabeth: World of Doom (1980)

An era of computer games

Distributed through the mail on floppy disks packaged in plastic bags Creators went on to found Sierra Online
Mystery House (1980) Apple II
Major developer of interactive fiction/adventure games
3D Monster Maze (1981) Sinclair ZX Dungeons of Daggorath (1982) Tandy TRS-80

More games

Snipes (1983) IBM PC
Built to test IBM PC First multiplayer-over-network game. First Graphically-based interactive fiction/adventure game First modern 3D game

King's Quest (1984)

Elite (1984)

More hardware

IBM PC compatible systems (1984)
Made both by IBM and 3rd party manufacturers

Apple Macintosh (1984)

Early online games
MUDs and BBS roleplaying (70s & 80s)

Multi User Dungeons

These eventually evolved into MMORPGs Single game and controller built into a handheld device Early versions relied on lights(LED), or plastic overlay graphics Later versions used primitive LCD screens Nintendo Game and Watch founded (1980) Tiger Electronics founded (1978)

Handheld Games

Third Generation consoles
Nintendo Entertainment System (1985)
AKA Famicom Considered the savior of the console platform
Revived the platform after the crash of 1983 Partly because Nintendo originally restricted developers from making versions of games for any other system if that game was going to be released for the NES.
Dominated North American and Asian markets
Sega Master System (1986)
Dominated European and South American market for years. Technologically superior to NES, but unable to break Nintendos grip on the North American market.

Atari 7800 (1986)

Introduced the gamepad as the replacement for joysticks/ paddles.
D-Pad (Directional Pad) and Two or more Action buttons This generation is also known as the 8-bit generation.
Generations also started being labeled by the number of bits
Famous Games of the Generation
Super Mario Bros. (1985) Legend of Zelda (1986) Dragon Quest (1986) Final Fantasy (1987) Metal Gear (1987)

First Stealth game

Major advancements killed the radio star
Two new computers ushered in the 16-bit era
Commodore Amiga (1985) Atari ST (1985)
However, they were so expensive that few people could afford them until the end of the decade By the time that the prices on the previous two computers had dropped, IBM PC compatible machines were cheaper and more powerful. IBM PS/2 (1987)

The dawn of the IBM PC compatible.
256 color graphics Sound card (Adlib)

Next Time

More History Different genres of games