The Adventures Of Flackboy » A Brief History Of Gaming…

A Brief History Of Gaming…

The scope years…

1952 - OXO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkiwn7u8i8s

1958 - Tennis For Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2E9iSQfGdg

The mainframe years

1962 - Space War

http://spacewar.oversigma.com/

1969 - Space Travel

(Contributed significantly to the development of Unix O/S)

(First UNIX application)

The arcade years

1971 - Galaxy Game

(First coin op)

One unit, installed in Stanford University

1971 - Computer Space

(Nolan Buchnell. Too hard!)

1972 - Pong

(First widespread coin op)

“Avoid missing ball for high score”

1978 - SPACE INVADERS

(Led to country-wide shortage of 100 yen coins)

100,000 machines in Japan alone

Generated $500,000,000 by 2007

MAME - Space Invaders/Space Invaders M

1980 - PAC-MAN

Most popular arcade game ever?

STILL being played - Google logo 2010 (lost $120,000,000 worldwide)

(Pac-Man Galaxian Hardware Set 1)

1942

Gorf

Galaxian

Defender

Donkey Kong

THEN… WE SPLIT

The console years (US)

1977 - Atari VCS

128 bytes of RAM

1k for each joystick/paddle

104 colours (PAL)

8 colours (SECAM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Mvwh_Jjhc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koWxUd30hDo

Magnavox

Intellivision

Colecovision

The home computer years (UK)

1981 - Sinclair ZX81

1,500,000 sold

1k RAM (expandable to 16K)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zx81

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqpnq3X08HY

1982 - ZX Spectrum

5,000,000 sold worldwide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYryKa3CQTE

20,000 games titles released

1981 - BBC Micro

1980 - Vic 20

1982 - C64

1982 - Dragon 32

1983 - Oric 1

1984 - Amstrad CPC 464

1987 - Amiga (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaRkacQ-YMg)

1985 - Atari ST

1989 - Sam Coupe

http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f27DhO73FKY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-9my0tsutw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXzyB0nMCQ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuY8hEw5724

The console years - Worldwide

1984 - Nintendo Entertainment System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpk5U70MQBg

1987 - Sega Master System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP4UXvIZdBo

1995 - Sega Saturn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WGkJ0qqlRA

1998 - Sega Dreamcast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHBsA-PZXiA

1991 - Super Nintendo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVi8AiwKn3k

1995 - Sony PlayStation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQRVktGxMAs&feature=related

1996 - Nintendo N64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgn4J9pm5eE

2000 - Sony PlayStation 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MJwA7HC2Tk&feature=related

2002 - Microsoft Xbox

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuUHJVuwqkQ

2002 - Nintendo Gamecube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Y5rjv4cvw&feature=related

Meanwhile! Back on the PC…

Mouse AND keyboard meant more complex games…

Doom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggMsQc9ld9g

(Shareware distribution, new graphics cards, no mouse - YET)

Quake - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRMn1tj5-Nc

(Multiplayer, levels given away free)

Command & Conquer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Uq92eCdNQM

(Real time strategy + multiplayer)

Descent - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1eZBCmr_JY

(Full 3D movement, complex controls, OEM deal with graphics card)

But what about the handhelds?

Gameboy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdFBaNzI55g

(First handheld - B&W - Introduced more ‘casual’ games)

Sega Game Gear - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8iNPRBeF9s

(More bloody Sonic)

Evolution - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS_5rU7uU0o&feature=related

(approx 100,000,000 Gameboys or so…)

Sony Steps In - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwZZCGAUab8

(Shiny. Very shiny…)

But isolated from the rest of the market…

Current Generation

Xbox 360

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIopXUPVGFE

PlayStation 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=791fKHqeRUA

Wii

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqaPFAZS1K8

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A Brief History Of Gaming…