Game Design, Birth of Games Tutorial

Game Design, Game Generations tutorial In 1961, a group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology programmed a game called Spacewar! In 1971 Al Alcorn to produce an arcade version of the Odyssey's ping‐pong game called Pong. Home video games achieved widespread popularity with the release of a home version of ‘Pong’ in the Christmas of 1975. It spawned numerous imitations which went on to be successful too, including the Coleco Telstar. In the history of computer and video games, the second generation, began in 1976 with the release of the Fairchild Channel F and Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System. It is also referred as the early 8 bit era with games like Space Invaders making their presence felt in the market. In the early portion of this generation several consoles were released in the market. Much of the second generation was dominated by the Atari 2600 with other consoles, the Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and ColecoVision. The second generation came to an abrupt end in 1984 amid the video game crash of 1983. Video game crash of 1983: North American video game crash of 1983 was the crash of the US video game market in the early 1980s. It almost destroyed the new entrants in the industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies who were producing home computers and video game consoles in North America. The crash brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming in the English‐ speaking world. It lasted for about two years and during that period, many business analysts of the time expressed doubts about the long‐term viability of video game consoles. The video game industry was revitalized a few years later, chiefly due to the success of Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in 1985 and became exceptionally popular by 1987. There were several reasons for the crash, but the main cause was oversaturation of the market with dozens of consoles and hundreds of mostly low‐quality games. The primary reason for the crash is cited to be the disastrous failure of ET & Pacman. With the gaming market at the brim of saturation, more games were waiting to be released in 1983, resulting in over‐ production and a crash eventually. Third generation (1983–1992): The third generation of video games became known as the ‘dark ages’, due not to any new technology, but rather to the precipitous drop in sales that started in 1982. The crash was caused by too many derivative or poor‐quality game cartridges from too many manufacturers. Many third‐party game developers went out of business during this period, and even established companies lost money on unsold inventory. At the peak of the previous generation, the video game industry was grossing upward of $3 billion a year in America alone; in 1985, at the end of the third generation, video game sales reached only $100 million worldwide. The situation was so terrible that Atari's collection dropped 32% in a day, after it announced that VCS holiday sales would not meet company expectations. The crash of 1982‐1984 was a hard lesson for the gaming industry, as it regenerated itself with two technological innovations, namely lower‐cost memory chips and higher‐ power 8‐bit microprocessors triggering off a new generation of game units. These developments enabled game designers to produce home video game consoles that could successfully compete at a quality level equal to that of arcade machines. In 1983, Nintendo had released the Famicon video game system to the Japanese market and had captured the market right and royal with the ‘Super Mario World’. Atari attempted to reverse its sliding fortunes by releasing the Atari 7800 ProSystem which was long‐awaited in 1986, but failed due to outdated technology. The fifth generation of home video game systems featured 16‐bit processors which resulted in more detailed graphics, and more imaginative games. This generation was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. Video gaming’s fifth generation was ushered in by the 1989 American release of NEC's TurboGrafx‐16. To vie with the Sega Genesis, a 16‐ bit system was launched by Nintendo in 1991. In 1991, Philips decided to leverage its compact disc technology into a ‘multimedia’ system capable of playing audio CDs, CDi and CD+G software discs, VCD video CDs, and Karaoke CDs. In December 1993, a full six years since the release of its last game console, Atari attempted to re‐enter the fray by releasing a 64‐bit video game system. The CD‐ROM‐based Atari Jaguar promised to be a revolutionary machine with games such as ‘Doom’ being regarded as major breakthroughs even today, but was hampered by a lack of game cartridges and practically nonexistent marketing. By 1996, the Jaguar’s time was up and Atari officially ‘killed’ it to merge with JTS and stepped out of the gaming market. The sixth generation of home video games featured high‐powered microprocessors and dedicated graphics processors that enabled extremely realistic graphics and game play. These game consoles outperformed the higher‐priced personal computer systems of those days. The Sega Saturn was released in May 1995 and achieved its high graphics quality by using twin 32‐bit microprocessors and CD‐ROM‐based games. In September 1995, Sony released its first video game system, the Playstation, to the U.S. market. The PlayStation was aided mainly by the Grand Theft Auto series of games, which were received well upon their release. Nintendo released its own sixth‐generation game system, the Nintendo 64 in 1996, five years after the release of the Super NES. Seventh Generation (2004 – till date): The current generation of video games continues to push the envelope in terms of graphics, performance, and game play. The major players continue to be Sony and Nintendo, with one significant newcomer: Microsoft. Sega upped the video game ante in 1999 with the release of its Dreamcast system. Incorporating a 128‐bit microprocessor and 26MB memory, the Dreamcast ran on Microsoft's Windows CE platform. Building on the success of the first‐generation PlayStation, Sony released the PlayStation2, powered by a 128‐bit ‘Emoticon Engine’ microprocessor and 32MB memory. In the first two days of its March 2000 Japanese launch, Sony sold more than 1 million units. Also released in November 2001 was Nintendo's latest game system, the Game cube. Priced at $199, $100 less than Xbox, the GameCube was Nintendo's first non‐cartridge system, instead running small‐diameter CD‐ROM discs. Also new to the market, are Sony’s PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s X‐Box 360. .

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