Part 1 of a presentation I put together for the informal "unconference" Barcamp Derry. Unfortunately I've had to change the fonts so its not quite as good looking as it was when I presented it. I've included some videos as hyperlinks and some as Youtube inserts.

2. Covering... SIDE A: > A Brief History of Video Games SIDE B: > Serious Games > My Work at University of Ulster, Coleraine

4. The Origins 1958 Tennis For Two William Higinbotham Oscilloscope 1961 Spacewar! Steve Russell (MIT) PDP-1 computer

5. The Early Years Magnavox Odyssey1972 Ralph Baer. First home TV console. Pong 1972 Nolan Bushnell & Al Alcorn.

8. The Birth of Arcade Battlezone1980 Atari Maybe used for training US Army gunners (first serious game?) Donkey Kong1981 Nintendo First appearance of Mario.

9. The Birth of Arcade Pole Position 1982 Atari Advertising in similar style to kids toys.

10. Early Handhelds Game & Watch Nintendo 1980 One of the first handheld gaming devices. (Worth a lot on eBay now if you still have one in the attic...)

11. Computer Games Circa 1982 > Sinclair ZX Spectrum > Commodore 64 > Apple Macintosh > IBM PC > Amiga (Later)

12. 1983... MARKET FILLED WITH: Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Bally Astrocade, ColecoVision, Coleco Gemini, Emerson Arcadia 2001, Fairchild Channel F System II, Magnavox Odyssey, Mattel Intellivision, Intellivision II, Sears Tele-Games systems, TandyvisioN, Vectrex. MARKET FULL OF POOR TITLES FROM START-UPS. RESULTED IN...

13. 1983 VIDEO GAME CRASH OF NORTH AMERICA

14. Video Game Revival 1985 NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM (N.E.S.) Known as the Famicom (family computer) in Japan. Set the standard for control pads.

15. Home Consoles Two series were born... SUPER MARIO BROS. 1985 THE LEGEND OF ZELDA 1987

17. Home Consoles Super Nintendo(SNES) 1991 Bundled with the excellent Super Mario World.

19. PC Gaming id Softwaredevelop first person shooter (FPS) PC games: - Wolfenstein 3D - Doom Controversial - Played by one of the Columbine shooters. - Quake All games rated M/16/18. 1992 1993 1996

20. PC Gaming Not all shooters! - Sim City 2000 City creation game - One of the first games of the Sims series. - Myst Multimedia adventure game – one of the best selling PC games of all time. - Secret of Monkey Island Humourous point & click adventure. 1993 1993 1990

21. Decline of Arcades Mid-90’s Worldwide closures – game over man! Reasons: Popularity of games consoles in the home. Market had many poor clones. Lack of variety.

23. Sold over 100 million.

24. Remained in production until 2006!

25. Landmark titles:

26. Metal Gear Solid

27. PaRappa The Rapper

28. Popularised music & rhythm games.

29. Crash Bandicoot

30. Final Fantasy VII

32. Super Mario 64

33. Defined the 3D platformer.

34. GoldenEye 007

35. Zelda: Ocarina of Time

37. Tomb Raider

39. Jet Set Radio

41. Resident Evil 4

43. God of War

44. Guitar Hero

45. Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasMicrosoft Xbox 2001 Microsoft’s first console – proved a worthy competitor. Bundled with Halo.

46. Meanwhile, in Computer Gaming... World of Warcraft2004 The world’s biggest and most addictive online game. Currently has over 11.5 million subscribers. Rise of Casual Games PC casual gaming on the rise: PopCap’sBejeweled. Diner Dash. The Sims. Surpassed Myst as best-selling computer game of all time.

47. The Current Generation Nintendo DS 2004 Touch screen gaming. Iterations: DS Lite, DSi Highly successful for both casual and hardcore games market. Sony PSP 2004 Most powerful than Nintendo DS. Traditional control scheme (buttons). Iterations: PSP-Slim, PSP-Lite, PSP-Go Trailing behind the DS.

48. The Current Generation Microsoft Xbox 360 2005 First “HD generation” console. Xbox Live set the standard for online console gaming. Uses DVD format. Halo 3 & Gears of War flagship titles. Sony Playstation 3 2007 Free online play with PlayStation Network. Metal Gear Solid 4 biggest title so far. Uses Blu-ray disc format.

49. The Current Generation Nintendo Wii2006 Initially predicted to be a disaster. Uses motion control. Bundled with Wii Sports game(tennis, boxing, baseball, bowling and golf). Well marketed. Currently leading the generation (by a large amount!). Proved highly successful with casual gamers.

50. ...and lets not forget! Apple iPhone2008 App Store appeared in 2008, opening the doors for indie and commercial game developers. Low price-point for games. Allows for instant purchase anddownload of a game wherever youare. Games can be expanded (with downloadable content) and updated easily. Now for the stats...

51. Stats from http://www.theesa.com/facts/andhttp://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24859

52. Stats from http://www.theesa.com/facts/andhttp://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24859

53. Video Game Players The average game player is 35 years old and has been playing games for 12 years. 84% of all games sold in 2008 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+. 92% of game players under the age of 18 report that their parents are present when they purchase or rent games. 63% of parents believe video games are a positive part of their children’s lives. Stats from http://www.theesa.com/facts/andhttp://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24859

54. 2008 Video Games Market UK saw 26% increase in 2008 sales over 2007, compared to 15% in U.S. and 13% decline in Japan, meaning that it's now overtaken Japan to become the second largest videogames market in the world. Combined growth across the three biggest markets in the world averaged out at 11%, with 409.9 million units of software sold compared to 367.7 million the previous year. UK video games industry worth over £4 billion in 2008. Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/uk-leads-global-videogames-market-growth andhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jan/07/nintendo-games

55. Game Playersare maturing(and kids are still playing).Games are no longer just toys!