Games are a universal and powerful force that are played by anyone and everywhere. The history of computer games began with early experimental games in the 1940s-1960s on platforms like the cathode ray tube and MIT's PDP-1. Arcades and consoles like Atari and Nintendo became popular in the 1970s-1980s before the video game crash of 1983. The games industry rebounded with the Nintendo Entertainment System and the rise of personal computers in the 1980s. Since the 1990s, games have advanced with 3D graphics, CD-ROM, multiplayer capabilities, and genres like role-playing games. Today, over half of US households own a game console, with an average player age of 30. Major industry players
8. Early Games
Cathode ray tube amusement device, 1947
Analog game, purely electromechanical
Controlled by control knobs which influences the
trajectory of the CRT's light beam
Player controls a reticle and aligns it to an airplane to shoot down
9. Early Games
Noughts And Crosses, 1952
!
A Tic-Tac-Toe game
Ran on EDSAC
!
Used the tank display CRT as 35 x 16 pixel screen for displaying his game
!
Game did not get well known
11. Early Games
Spaceware! 1961
Programmed on PDP-1 in MIT in 1960
!
One of the first time-sharing computers
!
Space game where two players try to
shoot each others without being drawn
to the sun in the center
!
12. Arcades
Special purpose machines
!
Most popular game was PONG
!
Arcades became popular amongst
young in 1971-1974
!
2-D boards and movement
of objects
!
Special controls and buttons
13.
14. Pong 1974
Atari VCS 2600 1977
Game Consoles
In 1974 game consoles start to appear
!
Computer games market emerges
!
Atari became the industry leader
VCS – Video Computer System 1974 – 1984
Discontinued in 1991
15.
16. The Video Game Crash
In 1983 the computer game market crashed
!
Throughout the 1984 and 1985, the home video game industry
was nearly dead
Too much supply of similar games
Low quality
The public lost interest
!
Atari did not want to credit developers
17. Game Consoles Come Back
Nintendo Entertainment System, 1986!
!
Started the second computer console revolution
!
Changed the way games were marketed
Strict control of what games were produced and sold
Instituted quality standards
Instituted content standards
18. Enter the Personal Computer
In the 80s Personal computers become more wide spread
Games slowly appear in the PCs
19.
20. Interactive fiction
In the 80s Interactive fiction games became popular!
!
Role-playing game in which the player moves around in imaginative
adventure world and solves mysteries
!
Early games where text games with simple commands
!
Slowly graphics was added
21. Enter CD-ROM
With CD-ROM new types of games became possible!
!
More graphic
!
The 7th guest from 1992
!
Myst from 1993 became an
unexpected huge success
22.
23. Multiplayer and 3-D Games
Early games were multiplayer games!
!
Pong and Spacewar! were multiplayer
!
Most games after that were single player games where player
plays against the computer or players take turn
!
In the late 80s and early 90s networks start to appear
Ethernet LANs, then the Internet
24.
25. DOOM introduced 3-D graphics and multiplayer capabilities in 1993
!
3D game where the player moves around in a 3-D world
!
Breakthrough graphics
Multiplayer capability on a LAN
Multiplayer and 3-D Games
28. Addiction!
!
Some games are highly addictive
!
!
Role playing games, MUD (Multiple User Dialog)
Example: EverQuest
!
Games with progression, construction and commands
Examples: WarCraft, CounterStrike, Sims
Impact of Computer Games
29.
30. Really simple game, but highly addictive
Released on May 24, 2013,
discontinued Feb 8, 2014
31. Violence!
!
Some games are violent, made for mature
adult audience
!
Most games are not violent
!
!
Impact of Computer Games
32.
33. “In twenty years, games will have taken over the world and everything
will be virtual reality.”
-- Ray Kurzwiel
The Gaming Market
34. Who plays computer and video games?
51%
of US households have a dedicated game console
Source: ESA Essential facts, US data
45. Nintendo
• Products
– GameCube
– GameBoy
– Wii
– DS
• Appeal
to
families
– Apply
strict
standards
• Do
most
of
the
games
themselves
– Difficult
for
others
to
enter
– Wii
got
a
very
good
start
– Wii
Remote
46. Sony
▪ Products
– PlayStation,
PlayStation2
– PlayStation
Portable
▪ Have
the
broadest
market
– Has
most
of
the
games
▪ PlayStation3
– With
IBM’s
Cell
and
Blue-‐ray
Optical
Disk
– Movie
and
TV
show
downloads
47. XBox
• Products
– XBox,
XBox
360,
XBox
720
• Appeal
to
hard-‐core
games
– Most
powerful
console
– Xbox
Live
–
online
game
service
– Microsoft
is
promoting
xbox
as
entertainment
device