1972
Like many a youth in the 1970's my first video game experience was with the popular "Pong":

Pong - 1972 - Ralph Baer - Magnavox

BTW - most of these images are adapted from Wikipedia.

 

1976-1983 - Innovations at the Arcade:

I recall playing arcade games, at first in Pizza parlors, then at convenience stores, and finally at dedicated arcade spots.

1976
The first arcade game I remember playing was SeaWolf

SeaWolf - 1976 - ??? - Midway

1978
Of course the popularity of arcade games took off with Space Invaders:

Space Invaders - 1978 - Toshihiro Nishikado - Taito

1979
Soon vector-graphic Asteroids made a hit:


Asteroids - 1979 - Ed Logg - Atari

1980
1980 saw the popular introduction of 3D:


Battlezone - 1980 Ed Rotberg - Atari

and the fun, colorful, character filled, non-shooting, "top-view" Pac Man:


Pac Man - 1980 - Toru Iwakani - Namco

and the challenging "side-view" flyer Defender:

Defender - 1980 - Eugene Jarvis - Williams

1981
Little did I know what a star game designer Donkey Kong introduced, with it's character development, story line and plat-form play:

Donkey Kong - 1981 - Shigeru Miyamato - Nintendo

The progenitor of endless imitators (including my Nemesis)-- was the addictive Scramble:

Scramble - 1981 - ??? - Konami

1982
I was taken by Constantino Mitchell's graphics:

Joust - 1982 - Barry Oursler - Williams

The isomorphic graphics of Zaxxon also caught my eye:

Zaxxon - 1982 - Ikegani Tsushinki - Sega

And Q*bert brought character to isomorphic perspective:

Q*bert - 1982 - Warren Davis & Jeff Lee - Gottlieb

Beyond 1976's Night Driver, Pole Position took off with it's speed, color, and 3D immersion:

Pole Position - 1982 - ??? - Namco

1983
Dragon's Lair showed the potential of the future:

Dragon's Lair - 1983- Don Bluth - Cinematronics

Atari 2600 - Innovations 1977-1982:

Like many people, the Atari 2600 gave me time (without spending endless quarters and waiting in lines) to really get into the games at some length and involvement.

Combat really brought head-to-head action to the fore:

Combat - 1977 - Steve Mayer, Joe Deciur, Larry Kaplan, & Larry Wagner - Atari

The first graphic adventure I recall playing:

Adventure - 1978 - Warren Robinett - Atari

Of course, this classic inspired me considerably:

Pitfall! - 1982 - David Crane - Activision

Early Home Computers I Used 1980-1982:

My first computer game experience was on a TRS-80, while in the 6th grade in 1980 with the 1978 Instant Software game "Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio" by George Blank. It was a more sophisticated version of Richard Merrill's 1969 classic, "Hamurabi." (I programmed my own version of this on the Atari a few years later). Basically, you had to run and expand the economy of a small kingdom.

The next game I recall, from 1981, was an adventure, probably the 1978 Adventure International game, "Adventureland" by Scott Adams. Text adventures, as pioneered by William Crowther with Don Wood in Colosssal Cave Adventure in 1976, were loads of fun-- I made a couple myself-- and I think that this form can be married with newer games like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

In 1981, I answered an advertisement much like this one, and bought my first computer, a ZX80:

ZX80

I didn't buy any games, or type in any from magazines for the ZX80, so I learned BASIC and made a couple myself-- I recall programming Blackjack, a Slot Machine, the cell replication "game of Life" (originated by John Conway in 1970), a SeaWolf-like game, and a Lunar Lander game (originated by Jack Burness in 1973). Although I had typed in a small program on the TRS-80 (Something like "10 PRINT "CASTEN" and 20 GOTO 10); the ZX80 was my training ground in programming.

At our High School in Bend Oregon, in 1982, we used Apple II computers:

Apple II

It was with the Apple II that I was exposed to such games as:

Castle Wolfenstein - 1981 - Silas Warner - Muse Software

Ultima II - 1982 - Richard Garriott - Origin Systems / Sierra Online

In the summer of 1982, I received an Atari 400 from my mother, as a gift/payment for babysitting my sister. I was so exited I got dizzy from running around in circles.

Atari 400

Needless to say, the membrane keyboards on the ZX80 and Atari 400 were a pain- and the first thing I bought with some of the money I got from my sold games was a real keyboard... and later I got an Atari 130XE:

Atari 130XE

 

Atari 8-bit Computer Games

I had actually seen an Atari 800 before 1982, at a relative's home-- I played Star Raiders for a couple of hours (I think this must have been a "Killer Application" for the Atari 8-bits):

Star Raiders - 1979 - Doug Neubauer - Atari

I got the first two issues of Antic with my computer, and typed in my first Atari program:

Chicken - 1982 - Stan Ockers - Antic

I also appreciated the efforts of "rival" magazine A.N.A.L.O.G.:

Livewire - 1983 - Tom Hudson - A.N.A.L.O.G.

I started with an Atari 410 Cassette Tape deck (no Floppy Disk drive) and few dollars to spare at the time, hence my first game purchase was the inexpensive "Maze of Death." The graphics were of the lowest resolution, but I liked the foot-step sounds, and incorporated those into my own games:

Maze of Death - 1981 - Ted Clawges - Syncro Inc.

I soon found a favorite commercial game publisher, Synapse Software, and bought many of their games:

Fort Apocalypse - 1982 - Steve Hales - Synapse Software

Shadow World - 1982 - Mike Potter - Synapse Software

Pharos' Curse - 1983 - Steve Coleman - Synapse Software

Shamus II - 1983 - William (Cathryn) Mataga - Synapse Software

Zeppelin - 1984 - William (Cathryn) Mataga - Synapse Software

I was in particular a fan of Cathryn Mataga's games, and believe her work was at the highest level of 8-bit Atari game design. I believe she still works with video games today. Although the resemblance between Shamus II and Escape from Epsilon is coincidental (I was actually aping David Crane's Pitfall!)-- Operation Omega was going be much like a Shamus II/Zeppelin combination.

Other Atari games of interest to me included a Scramble like game on Scott Adam's software label:

Sea Dragon - 1982 - Todd Solomon - Adventure International

The graphics by Kelly Day in "Bruce Lee" kicked serious butt:

Bruce Lee - Ron J. Fortier - 1984 - Data Soft

I was very impressed by "PlanetFall." Most of the text adventures by Infocom were excellent, but this one in particular had you develop a friendship with a lovable robot, "Floyd." It remains my favorite text adventure:

PlanetFall - 1983 - Steve Meretzky - Infocom

Game Consoles - Innovations 1985-2008:

My knowledge of console games is not extensive, but I have sampled the field. Some standouts for the Nintendo, Sega, Sony, & Microsoft game consoles:

The Super Mario games have really evolved:

Super Mario Bros. - 1985 - Shigeru Miyamoto - Nintendo

Super Mario 64 - 1996 - Shigeru Miyamoto - Nintendo

Super Mario Galaxy - 2007 - Shigeru Miyamoto, Takao Shimizu, Yoshiaki Koizumi - Nintendo

Shigeru Miyamoto has had a hand in several excellent Nintendo projects, including the Legend of Zelda Series:

The Legend of Zelda - 1986 - Shigeru Miyamoto, Koji Kondo, Takashi Tezuka, Toshihiko Nakago - Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - 2002 - Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Yoshiyuki Oyama - Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess - 2006- Eiji Aonuma, Shigeru Miyamoto, Yoshiyuki Oyama - Nintendo

Here you can see that in the early 1990's Nintendo innovated 3D immersion for the TV video game player:

Pilot Wings - 1990 - Shigeru Miyamoto, Tadashi Sugiyama - Nintendo

Starfox - 1993 - Katsuya Eguchi, Yoichi Yamada - Nintendo

We can see the progression from "side-view" platform or "top-view" map games to more detailed 3D immersion found in the Mario series and the Legend of Zelda series with the Sonic the Hedgehog games as well:

Sonic the Hedgehog - 1991 - Naoto Ohshima, HiroKazu Yasuhara, Yuji Naka - Sega

Sonic Adventure - 1998 - Yugi Naka, Takashi Iizuka - Sega

Sonic the Hedgehog - 2006 - Shun Nakamura, Masahiro Kumono - Sega

The Sony Playstation innovated 3D action to with Crash Bandicoot - which was one of the first popular console games to take you over obstacles with a running and jumping character in 3D, albeit on a "linear track":

Crash Bandicoot - 1996 - Naughty Dog - Sony

I have a penchant for games with Cartoon Characters, especially duos:

Banjo-Tooie - 2000 - Gregg Mayles - Nintendo

Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - 2001 - Naughty Dog - Sony

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - 2003 - Insomniac Games - Sony

Sports and Combat are popular Genres:

Madden NFL - 2006 - Electronic Arts Tiburon - EA Sports

Call of Duty 4 - 2007 - Infinity Ward - Activision

The state of the art in 2007 includes Halo 3:

Halo 3 - 2007 - Bungie Studios - Microsoft

and 2008 holds the promise of GTAIV:

Grand Theft Auto IV - 2008 - Rockstar North - Rockstar Games

 

PC Computer Games - Innovations 1993-2007:

As I've covered my limited knowledge of computer games above (and remember, this is not a history of all the great games!)-- I'll begin here in 1993, when Windows, IBM compatible PCs and the Internet began to converge.

Strait out of the gate, we have the popular shareware game, Doom:

Doom - 1993 - John Romera - Id Software

The merger of Doom's action with Myst's graphics and puzzles might account for the evolution of First Person Shooter games:

Myst - 1993 Robyn & Rand Miller - Cyan/Broderbund

Hence we have the evolving storyline and graphics of Half-Life and Half-Life 2:

Half-LIfe - 1998 - Valve - Valve Software

Half-Life 2 - 2004 - Valve - Valve Software

Computer simulation, strategy, & "God" games come in several flavors:

Sims - 2000 - Will Wright - Maxis/Electronic Arts

Sid Meier's Civilization III - 2001 - Jeff Briggs & Soren Johnson - Firaxis Games

Black & White 2 - 2005 - Peter Molyneux & Ron Millar - Lionhead Studios

Microsoft Flight Simulator - 2004 - Microsoft Game Studios - Microsoft

Notice also, how, for example, as this game's (Prince of Persia's) three main sequels progress, the lead character "matures":

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - 2003 - Jordan Mechner - Ubisoft

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within - 2004 - Kevin Guillemette - Ubisoft

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones - 2005 - Kevin Guillemette - Ubisoft

The evolution of roll playing games leads one to speculate on their future:

Neverwinter Nights - 2002 - BioWare - Atari

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 2006 - Todd Howard - Bethesda

World of Warcraft - 2004-2007 - Rob Pardo, Jeff Kaplan, Tom Chilton - Blizzard/Vivendi

Future Trends? Into the 21st Century:

Philosophy and the Art of Video Games:

SYNTHESIS: Being influenced by the great Idealist philosopher Hegel, I am very interested in Synthesis. Just as I noted the synthesis of Myst's detailed graphics and Doom's fast paced action in future FPS and RPG games (like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion)-- I think we are already seeing the merger of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games and First Person Shooters in the likes of:

Richard Garriott's Tabla Rasa - 2007 - Destination Games - NCSoft

CINEMATIC REALISM: An obvious trajectory of video games is ever more realism: realism in graphic detail, richness in storyline, complexity of characters, and physics of game play. Here we see the merger of Video Games, and the traditional art of Cinema; as movies often use the form of more and more realistic CGI, the CGI of games will approach the content of movies with more complicated and experimental: (1) plots [deep plots with suspense and surprising twists], (2) character dialogue [appropriate AI comments], (3) character interaction [AI reactions to the player], (4) character development [as in sequels, or over the course of a game-- both the player and the AI characters-- AI character performance or acting should become more of an issue], (5) cinematography [using camera sweeps, etc.], (6) musical integration [e.g. more frantic music for high tension moments], and (7) editing [seamless integration between game play and cinematic interlude-connector scenes, etc.]. There is a bit of irony in searching for more realism in fictional simulations-- but that leads to another theme:

VIRTUAL REALITY: I suppose there is a human desire for reproduction, and we seem bent on reproducing or simulating everything in the universe. Some philosophers, like Jean Baudrillard, have suggested we already live in a world were we can't distinguish what is real and what is not-- a hyper-reality of simulations (where everything is real to the extent that it is replicate-able). Far Future games may, instead of placing a person in a Hologram, hook up directly to the brain's sense organ and motor nerves, and immerse one totally in a virtual environment. Something like The Matrix seems possible on the far horizon, but no doubt people will want to keep their reality and their virtual world separate-- with scarcity of material resources, virtual media products will multiply in the future, including video games. Again, complex detail seems to be a key factor for virtual realities-- although fantasy worlds may have a different type of detail than we find in the world around us. Some games seem to rely on fear to engage a simulation as if it were real: fear, not only of having to start over if you are "killed," but the use of erie music, dark graphics, blood and gore, surprises, etc. I've found that friendship engages one in a game too-- with other human players, or even with AI characters.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: Programmers of AI in games might rely on the "1,000,000 rules" approach to getting things done: a rule for just about any circumstance-- with some rules or heuristics being more general than others. Again, Far Future games may take advantage of neural-network like approaches to AI, and include the ability of virtual characters to originate their own dialogue (in character) and make decisions (again, in character). This will require that these characters have a history to work with, and can base present actions on prior results (pre-programmed histories, or histories learned on the fly)-- expanding the context of rules (if there need be rules) to include the idiosyncratic history of individual AI agents (that learn).

GENRE BENDING: I see two main axes in genres in games: (1) Game-play type or "Control," and (2) Game situational milieu or "Context." Game play types can overlap and include: Combat FPS's, RPG's, MMORPG's, God-Games, Simulations, Strategy Games, Sport Games, Music Games, Turn-Based, Real-Time, etc. while Game situational milieu genres include Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical, Epic, Contemporary, Realistic, Cartoon, Horror-Macabre-- and possibly Comedy, Tragedy, Satire, Romance, etc.

GAME SITUATIONAL MILIEU - CONTEXT: Of course, the entire history of literature, music, and art can be excavated for the expansion of video game genres: one may wonder about the avant-garde, abstract and absurd, and how that could apply to video games. Besides synthesizing current trends, and using "inter-disciplinary" syntheses with the other arts; video games can capitalize on their novel form, to chart new territory in the form and context of game play. Game play has a heavy history in sci-fi, combat, and sport-- but look at simple games like "Pac Man" or "Tetris" that leap right out of the box of traditional art genres (although even Pac Man is a bit cartoon-ish, and Tetris is a bit like the "board"-game Connect Four).

GAME PLAY - CONTROL: Game play seems only limited by the poles of acting and making decisions (see my essay "Style, Taste, & Cyber-Networks [click here]"). Ergonomically, the popularity of 3D FPS games suggest people want, as far as action is concerned, to move around in an environment, not only naturally (walking, etc.) but supernaturally-- flying, teleporting, etc.; yet with real world physics-- to make the fantasy seem real. God-games suggest that people want to make vast-far reaching decisions that have powerful effect over the other players in a game-- either fellow humans or AI. Yet, again, as with real world physics being desired to make the fantasy of say, flying, real; power requires a resistance to it, to make one feel as if it is being wielded-- hence the possibility of rebellion of a God's people (or nature's immutable laws limiting "God's" power). Hence, good games will most likely balance human and super-human powers with obstacles and opponents (of human and super-human ability). This might be the case, even if there is no Goal-Seeking agenda in the game. Games like Grand Theft Auto are more open ended in play, and a good game designer might research the various aspects of cognitive functioning to see what the brain is built for, and what it likes to exercise in games: not just puzzle solving using memory, induction, and intuition, or moving past obstacles towards a destination, but also building from such cognitive tasks as visual recognition and active perception [seeing a camouflaged target] to creation of new worlds or objects from given components [from "construction sets" to "FPS world Mods" to building new worlds in MMORPG's, and even on to playing musical instruments to play and create music] on to exploring new terrains, developing relationships, using deception, contemplating insanity or death, or even exploring new political and economic systems. Of course, much of this is already being explored in video games to some extent; but just as video game characters are often the worst of actors, video games have just begun to scratch the surface of probing psychological and sociological (and even ecological) depth, imo.

 

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