History of Games Part 1

Well who would of guest it?
Games originate to as far back as the 1950's.
Yeah you heard me right. I didnt beleive it either until i started to look it up, and found that a bloke called A.S.Douglous wrote PhD degree in Human-computer interraction (1952). I decided to look this up and found that it means that a person or (User) must control a machine or (Computer) through the use of an interface or (controller).
He also created the first graphical computer game - a version of tic-tac-toe.
To think he went from creating his own degree to making games. People of that era must of thought he had gone mad but good for us he did.
I would beleive him to of got slandered alot because if he had of done something similar now for instence he would surely of been ridiculed. Their are of course those people out there who still enjoy ridiculing, that of the Gamer. By making out that only spotty over weight teenagers play games. Well i think they should be punished in several but painful ways for even thinking that was true.
Woah! i may need to have a bit of call of duty to carm me down after that.
So if he was the nutter who first thought of it i would like to think i could relate to him in someway and be able to think that i would like to be able to create something that is fun and easy to do or within reason. I think that it was a visual and stimulating experience for me the first time i played a computer game.
My first game was Mario Brothers for the Nintendo. And it was the combernation between the visual and the sound combined with how i was in control of those things. This is almost how A.S.Douglous's Degree describes itself. He is discovering a connection between human and machine through use of interraction cuch as a console or computer. For example im interracting with this machine by using the keyboard which would be the terminal of which im the user of.
Did any one follow that even a little bit?
I found that hard to describe in writing, it sounds more like a manual. But the main thing is i get it.
"No great surprise that one of humankind's most powerful inventions would, within minutes of its potential being recognized, be used for entertainment purposes!"
It just had to go in somewhere because it is such a good line. It says exactly what games are and probably what was going through A.S.Douglas's head as he made that version of Tic-Tac-Toe.
He had fun with his invention as all good scientists do. Or should do, instead of making bombs.
Anyway where was i oh yeah the first Video Game was and oh yes you guest it, was made in the 1950's. To be fair late 1950's, it was 1958.
The game was created by William Higinbotham and it was called "Tennis for Two".
Although it was to be later beaten by a game called Space War in 1962 ehich was the first game to be intended for a computer use.
You just know you have made something brilliant when people start to imitate what you did.
Which is exactly what happened in 1971. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney took the basis of Space War and made the first arcade game called computer space.
And if you think as weirdly as i do you may start to wonder why did it take nearly a decade for someone to do that.
My theory is, that evolution would only allow so many nut ball genious to be bornat one single time or maybe im just talking nonsense and it was just the usual case that people are just lazy.
How bad that i found out all that from this task and all along i had ed mysef to believe Pong was the very first game. Now i just feel silly, Would someone please leave a comment that they thought the same, so that i dont feel like the ony one.
The arcade game Pong was actually created by Nolan Bushnell in 1972 a whoe year after computer space.
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney started Atari Computers that same year. So this would explain why Atari were aways ahead it was really because they were huge copy cats and the only reason that their company is not doing very well at the moment is because now we have copy right laws.
In 1975, Atari re-released Pong as a home video game. Larry Kerecman was one of the first first operators of video arcade games, including Computer Space. He writes that, "The brilliance of these machines was that Nolan Bushnell and company took what was computer programming (in Space War) and translated it into a simpler version of the game (no gravity) using hard-wired logic circuits."
What i beleive to be really great about the very retro games is their ability to still create what can be described as a person or as acurate as a cowboy. The shape of a rocket ship and flying saucers are even visible in a pattern of diodes on the PC board.
In 1972, the first commercial video game console that could be played in the home, the Odyssey was released by Magnavox and designed by Ralph Baer. The game machine was originally designed in 1966 but it was rejected.
The Odyssey came programmed with twelve games. Which sounds quite impressive even to me as no other consoe to my knowledge has even considered this. The ony thing we have are those games like The Sonic Collection, but that is a re-release it would be impressive to see a console such as the Playstation 3 release it with 12 games installed.
In reaity this is a dream and would never happen, even though it is quite capable of doing so. This has become one of the biggest problems with the games industry it has become to fixated with making money and has forgotten the fundamental side of games which is fun. I understand that they have to make money but if a company such as Atari were to make a game and it 12 on it. Pluss i think that it would sell.
Thats why i like online games because even if the first version is rubbish they can change it and improve it with no cost of your own. For instense im playing Guild Wars and their are old arenas that you once were able to fight in but players were complaining and the creaters made a new area with all of the neccessary alterations. Now they quite happily play away with no trouble at all. I dont think i can quite honestly say i have a favourite format but i have favourites of each.
Like i enjoy Mario and Zelda for the Nintendo but I like Streets of Rage and Sonic on the Mega drive. The list of games and consoles go on and i havnt got all year to write them out because i would rather be playing them. hee hee.
In today's world video games are often seen as a source for teenage violence which brings me back to giving out punishment, it's interesting to see that the first home console also had a light rifle as an optional peripheral.
The world of video games continues to evolve. By reading about the past, perhaps we can start to see a glimpse of the future or at east how games are heading towards. Looks to me like we should all study Star Wars and The Running Man a little closer.
Appoligies for not doing my blog sooner alot gone off and not much time for anything even games. My flat mate has come back from home with his PS2 and a bunch of games so im now off to play lol.
Till next time cya.