History of Games Part 2

Well here we are again writing another but i feel sightly longer blog.
When i finished in part one i was discussing or bitching about how pong was cleverly disguised as the first game when in reality games were being created some 10 even 15 years earlier.
I just so happened to click the link for the story of pong where it again says that it is infact the first game. I dont know about you but im starting to like the designers of pong for having the guts to say they were first when their is quite obviousy alot more evidence to say otherwise.
I thought it might be handy to show you how brave they are and how they feel they have the force as though we are all weak minded and will follow their every word. Here is the very first line from that Link.
"The video game history started in a strange and complicated way and it is important to avoid confusions with what happened in the 1950s and 1960s."
Yeah because we are all going to ignore 20 years of evidence that quite literally shits on their statements from a great height.
Well i ended the first with a bitch and opened the second with another. Now lets get serious.
We can now move on to maybe the most influential eras of games history the 1980's. This was the era that has paved the way to how we veiw the world of games now.
probably most suprisingly the 80's games all originate with war games and looking at the History Games may even of originated from old war radar machines if information from this is anything to go by:
"Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. A patent application was filed on January 25th, 1947 and U.S. Patent #2 455 992 issued on Dec 14th, 1948.The game was probably designed earlier in 1946 but since we do not know this for a fact, we will rely on the filing date of 1947. The system used eight vacuum tubes (four 6Q5 triodes and four 6V6 tetrodes) and simulated a missile being fired at a target. The idea was obviously inspired by radar displays used during World War II. Several knobs allowed adjusting the curve and speed of the moving point representing the missile. Because graphics could not be drawn electronically at the time, small targets drawn on a simple overlay were placed on the CRT by the builder of this game."
Interesting to think although this is not classed as a video game it is still an interaction with a computer, like what is mentioned by A.S.Douglous.
This might suggest that their were games being created in this way as early as the first Radar. I could be being a bit optimistic but it just bares the thought how far back can you go before you find the true source of computer games.
The first thing the 80's did was start to see the development of actual companys specifically making games and consoles to play them on. One of these companys is Electronic Arts which have still survived until now.
In 1982 consoles such as the Commodore 64, Apple II and ZX Spectrum, were made and so started the very first console war.
I myself have played on a Commodore 64 but it is my dads and he wont let me touch it without him. Im starting to think he beleives it will combust or evaporate due to how old it is but he says it is because the games ware out very quickly.
The only game i have played that i can remember was a Submarine game where you had a little periscope and sunk ships. I really enjoyed that game because it was just loads of fun blowing things up, even if it was in like 1 bit lol.
1980 saw the arrival of Pacman, and what an arrival, he was the first character to achieve popularity in his own right. Pacman has to be the most addictive game in history along side the amazing space invaders which both of these games can now be played on your mobile. Or even downloaded as flash games. Showing that some games if they keep you entertained, no matter what the graphics a game can stand the will of time. So many different versions of Pacman so little time to write them all. But i will say this MS PACMAN SUCKS!
Dragon's Lair (1983) was the first laserdisc game, and introduced full-motion video to video games and is the most original game of its era in my oppinion.
Lucasarts text adventure Maniac Mansion built with its SCUMM system allowed a point-and-click interface. Maniac Mansion was made in 1987 and is then as old as me. This game should never be forgotton as it is what i would consider to be pure genious and it envolves so much freedom and random goings on that i have never tired of playing it.
Many people have complained at the fact that they get stuck and find it to hard to finish. Well i got news for them because i finished it and i did it without using any cheap walkthru's either.
I think that it was Maniac Mansion that got me into point and click games. I have played so many but here are a few of my favourites. All the Monkey Islands, Discworld 1, Discworld 2 and Discworld Noir. Broken Sword 1 + 2 are good and the new ps2 games are amazing but unfortunately the new ones are not point and cick but i mentioned them anyway because they are just great games. I have to say my very favourite point click for its humour alone is Feeble Files because never in a game have ever heard of getting killed for not smiling and having armed happy bots with poorly drawn on smiles checking to see if every one is smiling quite well enough, only to find at the end the creator of the world was asleep and left a game in charge.
I advise if you find that funny you should really play it because it has dozens of funny bits, and their all said in a sarcastic tone by Feeble himself who's voice is Robert Llewllyn from Red Dwarf.(Kryten)
The Nintendo Entertainment System was my first ever computer console and my first game was Mario Brothers. I just about played that game so much that i wore it out and the console along with it. I have tried to re-collect all the old games but prices vary so much now because of collectors as the more rare a game becomes the higher the price.
I think the most i ever spent on a game was £80. I bought Mystical Ninja for the Super Nintendo (snez). It came without a box but with a manual, i then discovered it had risen in value and should i of wanted to sell on it would of sold for no less than £150. Of course i kept it and play it as often as i can, the way a game should be i believe.
I like to think im a collector of games but i collect them to play not to leave in a display case.
I could leave them sealed or locked away because i have emulators with roms of all my games, but nothing can quite simulate the feeling of playing the real thing.
After searching for a bit about the creation of the playstation i came across a forum with this posted:
"Not many people know this, but Nintendo originally worked with Sony to develope the "PlayStation": the SNES add-on that provided CD-ROM gaming support.From what I have read, there were some politics between Nintendo and Sony, and Nintendo ended up stabbing Sony in the back by looking at the Phillips (?) CD-I machine. This is why the CD-I released 3 Zelda games.Nintendo created the monster that soon became their downfall...ironic isn't it? "
If this was true then it would expain a few things about why some Zelda games suck and the others are so amazing. As for the part about the playstation, i have heard simular stories with sight differences but nothing hard fact. But i think that all good things come to an end but not forgotton.
When the playstation was first released i was in ore of its magnificance. It had graphics of which had not been seen and this was enough to whirl me in. Now i realize that the majority of the games did not live up to your expectations. This was where the difference between the old and new consoles began. In the old games the graphics were unimportant, only the gameplay was what counted. The majority of newer games for the playstation were only interested in graphics and left the gameplay as second best.
Of course the really big blockbuster games were an exception to the rule as they found a healthy medium. Such as the Resident evils, silent hill, a big selection of RPG's just spring to mind.
I have to admit im very big on the RPG's and i love Final Fantasy.
I remember first seeing FFVII, it was being shown in a Downtown Oldrids as one of those machines that resemble arcade machines but allow you try before you buy.
I was stood playing it for about two hours before my mum had to rip me away, as she had walked round the shop twice. (she walks really slow, dont think the shop was even that big)
The Dragon Quest series made its debut in 1986 with Dragon Quest, and has created a phenomenon in Japanese culture ever since. Also at this time, SquareSoft was struggling and Hironobu Sakaguchi decided to make their final game, titled Final Fantasy (1987), a role-playing game (RPG) modelled after Dragon Quest, and the Final Fantasy series was born as a result. He called it Final Fantasy as a result of his retirement, unaware of its ongoing sucess. Final Fantasy saved Squaresoft from bankruptcy, and would later go on to become the most successful RPG franchise. It may be the most widely distributed video game franchise of all time, including standard console role-playing games, portable games, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, games for mobile phones, three anime productions, and two full length CGI films. Future installments have been announced to appear on future platforms such as the Wii, XBOX 360, and PlayStation 3 game systems. It is Square Enix's most successful franchise, and the third biggest selling video game franchise of all time, having sold over 63 million units worldwide to date.
Just before i continue i have to say no wonder nintendo have not been fairing well lately in the console war if they are creating consoles with names like Wii. I beleive their original name Revolution was most probably the most sane idea of the two.
Square first entered the Japanese video game industry in the mid 1980s, developing a variety of simple RPGs for Nintendo's Famicom Disk System, a disk-based peripheral for the Family Computer (also known as the "Famicom," and known internationally as the Nintendo Entertainment System). Alot of people beleive that the Famicom and the Nes are two seperate computers but they would be WRONG.
Following the success of the Final Fantasy, Square quickly began work on a second installment. As an installment, unlike a typical sequel, Final Fantasy II featured entirely different characters, with a setting and story bearing only some thematic similarities to its predecessor. Some of the gameplay elements, such as the character development system, were also completely changed. This approach to installments has continued throughout the series, with each major Final Fantasy game introducing a new world, and a new system of gameplay. Many elements and themes would recur throughout the series, but there would be no actual sequels until the release of Final Fantasy X-2, in 2003, after the merger with Enix.
Now we await the release of FFXII where we yet again will be emersed in Hironobu Sakaguchi imagination.

Cya nexct time for part 3.