History of Computer Games: 1980-1990s

In the late 1970s, the console market crashed. This was because the obsolete consoles tried to clear all their stock by selling off all their systems at a loss. This created a glut in the market, and some of the successful consoles companies went down as well.

It was in the 80’s that computers became more common in the home. This was because they had got a lot smaller than older computers which could fill a whole room, and also had become more powerful and more affordable as well as the crash in the console market. Early home computers included the Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC. This led to more games being made for these computers, as they were more assessable to the public. 

 A lot of adventure games were made for these computers. At the start of the decade, home computers could not handle much in the way of graphics, so a lot of these games where text based adventure games. This was where the game described a scene and the items in it, and the player could type in commands. They were mostly puzzle based. An example of a game like this would be Zork (1980). The first graphical adventure game was Mystery House (1980) on the Apple II which only had static monochrome drawings and still involved typing commands. By 1987 the first point and click adventure game, Maniac Mansion removed the text based part of the game altogether.

Consoles crashed again in 1983, but where brought back into popularity by Nintendo releasing the NES. By advertising it as a toy, they were able to sell their product. This was also helped by the release of their game Super Mario Brothers in the package. Other successful games on the NES include the Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy and Metal Gear. This revived the market. Sega created a new console, the Sega Master System, but this did poorly.

The popularity of the arcade games began to decline in the start of the 1990’s as arcade games began to be released on consoles and as consoles became more popular. This was also the decade when 3D graphics began to be the developed. This allowed for new genres of games to be made, such as first person shooters and real time strategy games. In 1991, Nintendo began to be rivalled by Sega. Sega released its new console, the Sega Mega Drive, with the game Sonic the Hedgehog. In 1994 a disagreement with Sony and Nintendo made Sony release the Playstation as its own console. In 1996 Nintendo released the Nintendo 64, which was one of the few consoles which still used cartridges, which some saw as a disadvantage. The last console released in this decade was the Sega Dreamcast. This was Segas last console and was released in 1999.

This was also the decade when online games started to really take shape. Games such as Quake made online multiplayer almost a key feature of FPS. Online play also became a big part of RTS, with games like Starcraft and Age of Empires using it to allow players to play against each other. 

In summary, the 1980’s and 1990’s were decades of innovation in the games industry, laying the foundation for the games and genres we have today.

first guest lecture

This week on Wednesday we had our first guest lecture, from Jolyon Webb and Aaron Allport from Blitz studios. The talk was very interesting and gave a good insight into what working in the games industry is like. The company they work for is a UK based one which has worked on titles such as karaoke revolution, War games: Defcon 1, and Dead to Rights: Retribution. They mostly develop mass market family games.   

One of the most interesting parts of the talk for me was the video of an interview of a student on the course who had graduated and had been working with the company for four months. This was good because it gave a us a look at what working for Blitz would be like from the perspective of someone who had taken the course and was new to the industry rather than someone who had been working in the industry a while. It also gave us a look at the amount of workload the job required, working with a team and the roles that the job covered. 

 

It was also interesting the advice in the interview and the guest lecture about portfolios; it seems that in the last year it is a good idea to become more specific. If you are aiming for a particular job, it would be a good idea to have a portfolio only covering the area the job covers. For example, if you were aiming for a job as a character artist, there would not be much point in you having a portfolio with things like environments and vehicles. This also relates back to what we have been taught on the course, that the final project in our third year is probably best used to showcase your talent to prospective employers. However, at this stage, just getting to grips with the technology and the course, I don’t really know what I would like to specialise in.

Another part I found useful was the breakdown of the different amounts of people working different job roles. There were larger amounts of character and environment artists, but less visual effects artists and technical artists. The guest lecturers also said they were looking for visual effects artists and that when another company went under the people who had this job role were in high demand. They were currently looking for more people to employ into these roles. However, I did not really understand the role of technical artist from their explanation.

They also explained a lot more about character design and the process of developing ideas. They showed how some of their character designs and how they started with a sometimes not very detailed sketch, and then went through different versions until they thought it worked. The part about digital paint overs was also very useful; it seemed to really help to see what was wrong with the model by looking at the silhouette then painting over the corrections. This seemed a lot quicker than tweaking the model directly.

Although this was a very interesting and informative talk, I think that lectures like this will be more useful once I’m in the second and third year. This is because I would know more about what direction I would want to take my career and would have more questions to ask the guest lecturers. However, it was a really enjoyable lecture and I look forward to the next one.

Video game history: 1950-1970

In the 1950s, simple games began to be developed. However, the first device created which a simple game could be played on was the Cathode- Ray Tube Amusement Device, which was in 1948. It simulated a missile firing at a target. It was really basic, as graphics could not be drawn electronically, small targets were placed on the screen using overlays. The missile could be controlled with knobs that adjusted the curve and speed of the missile. Between 1949 and 1950, the bouncing ball program was developed for the Whirlwind computer. In 1951 a draughts program was written, but the computer it was designed for did not have enough memory to run it. It was also in this year that an inventor, Ralph Baer, who was working in developing television technologies, had the idea that audiences should be able to manipulate the images that were shown on their tv screens. However, when he suggested this to the supervisor, the company was too behind schedule to take this idea further. If they had been able, they may have advanced the development of games onto our television screens a lot faster. In 1958, a game was created with an oscilloscope and en analog computer. It was called 'Tennis for two', and involved hitting a ball over a net. This was made available for visitors to play in the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

It was in the 1960s where games began to progress from experiments into publically accessible. most games created up to this point were made as hobbies, including 'Spacewar!' (1961). This was a program created by students at MIT for the new DEC PDP-1 computer. It involved two players controlling spaceships.  They had to fire missile at each other and avoid the star at the centre of the screen. This was distributed to other DEC PDP-1 computers and was a major landmark. It was later, in 1961, that Ralph Baer came back to previous idea for a machine that could play games. He joined with a co-worker and created the first game that could be displayed on a t-v screen, called chase. This was a major milestone in videogame history. He and his colleague, Bill Harrison, and Bill Rusch continued to develop some more simple games , and by 1969 they were able to show their finished product to Sanders' R&D department, the place that they were working at the time.

Although there was a lot of advancement in the technical development of games, it was only really in the 1970s that games became available to the public. Arcade games started to be made as computer technology became more sophisticated and widespread. The first coin operated video game was the 'Galaxy Game', which was installed at Stanford University in 1971. It was based on 'SpaceWar!', as was another game made that year called 'Computer Space'. This game was brought by Nutting Associates who manufactured 1,500 machines. The game was a flop, but was the first mass produced video game. The creators, Bushnell and Dabney went and founded Atari in 1972 and released their next game 'Pong' which was very successful. They went on to release 'Asteroids' in 1979. Other successful arcade games of the time included games like 'Space Invaders' by Taito.

This is also the decade that the first generation of consoles were released, allowing the public to play games in their own homes. The first console released was Ralph Baers, which Magnavox brought and released it as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972. It used cartridges, and came with different overlays to add colour by placing them over the tv screen. Other concoles released in the 70s where the Magnavox Odyssey 200 (1975), Atari/ Sears Telegames Pong (1975), Coleco Telstar (1976) and the Nintendo Colour TV Game (1977)

Introduction

Hi, this is my introduction post to my new blog. My name's Sarah Arthur, and I've opened this blog up for the critical studies part of my Game Art course at De Montfort University. I'm originally from Peterborough, a small-ish city where I've lived my whole life. I've basically come here from completing A levels, although I was considering doing a foundation course in art if I didn't get into university. Moving was a bit weird, but I've started to settle into my new home now, although Leicester is a lot bigger than Peterborough, and full of a lot more traffic lights.

I was originally interested in more media orientated courses, such as media production, but became interested in concept art when seeing some for films. Art was also a big interest of mine, and I when I asked my University advisor about concept art courses there was a lot of game art courses listed. I researched the courses and decided that this course was what I wanted to do, and this was the place that I wanted to study at.

I hope by taking this course that I can work as a game artist. Ideally, I would like to work on landscapes, although I my opinion might change as I go through the course and my skills develop. I also enjoy character designing, and would like to have a career in designing and creating these types of things. During the course I hope through working hard I can learn some new skills to and develop old ones to achieve this goal.

I'm not sure what my dream job would be, but I mostly would like to be a concept artist. This is because at the moment I am more comfortable with 2D, and I really enjoy creating characters and locations . For example, a job like this one would be the type of thing I would want to do : http://www.system-uk.com/it-jobs/Environment-Artist-Games-Development-Singapore/ . This involves creating environments and objects they contain .However, this job is abroad and I am not sure I am prepared to move across the world. I am open to different options and what I want to do now will probably change as I go through the course and learn new things; I may find that by the end of the course I would rather work in a different position, such as 3D modeller and texture artist. 

I hope that I can develop my skills through taking this course. Although I have not had any experience with 3D software, through taking this course I'll learn to use it. The first lesson with 3d max was difficult but not impossible, and with time I'm sure I'll get better. It's a bit daunting at first though! Although I'm more used to drawing, already I think the first exercise of drawing the canal in single point perspective has improved how I draw. I will also continue drawing in my spare time to improve my skill.

My other interests include games, drawing, anime and manga (although I dislike drawing it), reading (mostly sci-fi, currently reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton) films and cooking. I also enjoy ice skating, although I don't think there is a rink in Leicester.