Rumina'ons on the History of Video Game Design Computer Game Design
Game Systems Owned My Gaming CV Early: C- 64, Intellivision Nintendo: NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Game Boy, GB Color, GBA, GBA SP, GB Micro, DS, DS Lite, 3DS XL Sega: Game Gear, Dreamcast Sony: PSX, PS2, PSP, PS Vita MicrosoP: Xbox, Xbox 360 PC: Started with a 486 25Mhz; now a good gaming rig 2
Achievement Unlocked 1995 Blockbuster Store Champion First issues of Nintendo Power and EGM Independent study on medieval themes in games Papers on symbolism in Zelda, HCI of Steel Ba^alion First game owned? Congo Bongo (C- 64) Toughest game beaten? Ninja Gaiden (NES) Most recent game beaten? The Wolf Among Us (ios) Most recent purchase? Lots of Hearthstone cards Most recent game played? Hearthstone (ios) 3
The Stage of History I grew up during some important dmes in gaming that affect how I view games now BTW the average gamer today is 37 years old We come from different gaming pasts What was your first system? 4
Sears Super Video Arcade 5
The Stage of History From 1979 through 1983, the video game industry was booming New consoles pracdcally every year Atari 2600, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision (and all its clones), Odessey, Vectrex Startups were appearing all the dme, pushing new dtles consistently 6
The World of Balance In 1982, Atari was clearing $2B and was recognized as the fastest growing US company EVER Microcomputers were stardng to appear with reasonable prices Like the C64 and the TRS80 7
The World of Ruin However, it was too much of a good thing Many of the games that came out were just terrible The publishers had li^le to no control over the content In fact, this is when Acdvision was founded as an offshoot of Atari because Atari wouldn t pay royaldes based on sales 8
The World of Ruin So many games came out that retailers ran out of shelf space Games were discounted or sent back to publishers, who couldn t pay the retailers for the unsold copies Atari then published the worst game ever E.T. Not only was it bad it was also a movie license! 9
The World of Ruin By 1984, Atari had filed for bankruptcy It was at this point that the emerging dominance in the new electronic entertainment market moved from the US to Japan To a company known for making playing cards Nintendo 10
The Nintendo Seal of Quality 11
Now You re Playing With Power The NES was introduced in 1985 and took over the US market in 1987 It s safe to say that the NES saved the video game industry This is pardally due to the more medculous nature in which Nintendo reviewed games before approving them Also consider the franchises that were born during this dme frame 12
It s dangerous to go alone 13
The Rest of the Story The stories just kept coming SNES vs. Genesis Remember blast processing? GameBoy The emergence of Tetris Sega begins to bow out SegaCD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast The rise of new players Sony and MicrosoP enter the market 14
History in your Hands But let s talk about the history of gaming by looking at how we played the games 15
Sears Super Video Arcade 16
Game Overlays 17
Game Overlays 18
Game Overlays 19
Game Overlays 20