1980's - 1990's

From Pac-Man to "sufficient enough library so that choosing the appropriate game is impossible": 1980's to 1990's in gaming.

1980 was the time of many games that introduced something new, innovative into games. One example would be "PAC-MAN" . It was so innovative not only because it was the first time gaming has seen a antagonist in a game, but also because it tried to engage the female side of the population a bit more into gaming. In effect the game was such a massive success that it was documented in the Guinness's World Records book as being the best selling game of all times.

Nintendomination begins

At the same time in 1983 Atari was not doing so well. After their initial success with "PONG" the company started to take their success for granted and fell under the impression that anything they release will be a success as was proven wrong by "ET" that metaphorically sealed the deal and made Atari go bankrupt. However it has to be noted that their failure could also be directly correlated with the rapid influx of below-average-effort games all trying to make money on the market which consequently led to the video gaming market crash. It could be argued that if Nintendo has not stepped up the industry would die before it could gain momentum however, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto saved the day with his massive hit game "Donkey Kong" which introduced a simple yet enjoyable story of princess being kidnapped by an ape and that it was your task to save her. The game become so popular that Miyamoto was "forced" to make more games which resulted in us being able to play well established franchises like "Donkey Kong" series, the various Mario titles and well known RPG precursor with a confusing timeline, "The Legend of Zelda" series.

Can't say I had one of those

Looking at how prominent PC gaming is nowadays it is only logical to assume that this was the case also in the early days. However, that was not the case. By the time that consoles have scored quite a few good titles previously mentioned, PC games were scarcer and different in nature as instead of demanding reflexes from the player, they demanded patience just like Mystery House from 1980. However to say that PC gaming was inferior to consoles would be an overstatement as, when looking at PC library after simple graphics could be bettered, the amount of quality games went through the roof spawning titles like Warcraft, Half Life, Fallout or Diablo.

The 80's and the 90's were an unstable period. It was a time when the best but also the worst games were produced and played. Two different "camps" originated: PC vs consoles, however I think it is unfair to compare those two means of playing video gaming as they were original in their own way and the demands of the game were completely different depending on the platform.

References:
http://acidcow.com/pics/17659-games-102-pics.html
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/05/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-atari/#!oNKly
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134790/the_secret_history_of_donkey_kong.php?print=1
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1683023/how-pac-man-changed-games-and-culture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03P_tSWJIpE

1950's - 1970's

FROM MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY TO SPACE INVADERS: 1950's-1970's IN GAMING

Creators Alan Kotok, Steve Russell and J.M. Graetz play a game of Spacewar

Even though the title implies that Magnavox Odyssey was where it all began, in actuality it was only the first accessible set of video games that could be played at home and not only somewhere in a lab. In reality there was a few games created before the console has seen the daylight but because they were not played by anyone but its creators and few people that got to work with military electronics, I personally don't consider them as starting points in video game history. Cold War was the era which, ironically, gave birth to one of the biggest entertainment means currently present in the world - video gaming, thanks to extensive research into computers funded by the military. In 1958 William Higinbotham, an American physicist has created the first analog game called "Tennis for Two", by using an oscilloscope to manually control a ball between two screens hence emulating tennis. Not late after him came Steve Russell which created "Spacewar" in 1962 which, just like the previous game, was really simple as it involved controllable spaceships that 2 players could fire photon torpedoes at one another. It is vital for us not to omit the fact that those games were not made for marketing purposes or were not made for the purposes that video games are made now, but were simply thought about to create some kind of release and provide entertainment for computer scientists that were fascinated by the machinery they got to work with and wanted to experiment with it, aside from all the serious projects they were working on.

Pong Arcade

It is a common perception that Noel Bushnell is the father of video games, the person that made games accessible, however Ralph Baer preceded him with his "Brown Box" in 1967. On the other hand it can be easily understood, when looking at the fact that despite its initial success, the marketing was poorly executed and over time the console didn't fare that well, which also meant that it was a bit a one-off idea. More significant in the field of video games was previously mentioned Noel Bushnell and Atari which he started in 1972, as he was the first person who managed to use video games to make money and produce them on a worldwide scale. Atari's first massive success was the game "PONG", made in the same year, which after testing, turned out to be very popular and went on to be a standard in every social gathering place (bars, restaurants, pubs etc) that could afford it. In essence, it was an extremely simple game which required the player to move a block up or down in order to reflect the ball to the opponent but arguably its massive success can be attributed to the fact that 1) it was another means of people challenging each other, 2) when looking at women and men specifically and the time period in which women sought empowerment, PONG became a way for women to prove to the society that they are not inferior to men as they could play the game just as good or sometimes even better than men.

Space Invaders

At the same time, Japan decided to catch up with the West with the release of "Space Invaders" in 1978. Who here has not played Space Invaders at least once at some point in their life? That's right, everyone has. In Japan, the game was a massive success. In fact, so many people played it, that according to some stories, the country was running low on 100-yen coins at some point. In my next post I will be discussing how the 80's have marked the birth of the first protagonist in video gaming and how video gaming has developed well into the 90's.





Sources:
http://www.egmnow.com/sitepos/featured/egm-featuretop-5-most-influential-japanese-games-ever%E2%80%94day-1/#
http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=ConsoleMuseum.Detail&id=1&game=12
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u3Hc13wzHE
http://www.landley.net/history/mirror/atari/museum/Atari-Timeline.html
http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=spacewar

Hello, my first post will be really short, just a small introduction about myself. So who am I? My name is Marta and currently I am in my first year, studying game art design in De Montfort University. My story?
Since the early days, I found art to be the most enjoyable subject, and it was the only one that I could dedicate myself to fully. Art was one of the very few things in which I could really express my creativity and my emotions. I was never formally introduced to art as such, I could almost say that most of my skills were self-taught during my endless hours of voluntary practice, ranging from observational life drawings to using mixed media like paints and paper. During my journey I have met two really wonderful people - my art teachers: Mr.Law that has strengthened my passion for drawing and Mr. Smith that has given me the foundation of all the technicalities of art.
On this blog I will be posting some of my current work that I will be reflecting upon. Any comments or constructive criticism are welcome.

Thank you for your time.