Unit 20: Game Platform & Hardware Technologies: Task 1 – Game Platform Development Timeline

Introduction

In this Task I am going to explain how video game platforms have developed throughout history. I am going to produce a visual time line which will explain how video game consoles have changed throughout time focusing on the following platforms; Arcade, Console, PC, Mobile and Television.

Game Platform's Development Timeline

This is a timeline of arcades, consoles, PC's, Mobile and Television's throughout history, listing the most important game platforms which made a massive impact to the future platforms.

1940 - The Nimatron

The Nimatron is the first computer game console Created by Dr. Edward Uhler Condon in 1939/1940 for the world’s fair. On all four sides of the game there was a series of light banks. Players were challenged to beat the machine by pressing buttons to choose how many lights to extinguish from which light bank, before giving the machine its turn. The aim of the game is to avoid pressing the last light bank. Dr Edward Uhler Condon designed the machine to have a delay before taking its turn; He did this so the humans didn’t feel embarrassed when they had to think about their next moves. The Nimatron was successful as a public attraction for example 50,000 people had played Nimatron just over 6 months. Although Condon still considered the Nimatron as one of his greatest failures during his career simply because at the time, Condon didn’t realise how big computer games was going to be and only thought the Nimatron as a 'amusement device with no potential'.

1958 - Tennis For two

Tennis for two was first introduced on 18th October 1958 by nuclear physicist William Higginbotham. Table for two is an electronic tennis game displayed on an oscilloscope for a screen with two separate aluminium controllers. When playing tennis for two the players will see a 2D side view of a tennis court the ball is brightly lit moving dot which the players can hit by using the buttons on the controllers, there is also dials on the controller to help control the angle of the racquets swing. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up to play this game which surprised William because he never knew his game would become this popular, less than fifty years later his entire industry accounted for $9.5 billion in sales in 2006 and 2007 in the U.S. alone.

1962 - Space War!

The MIT which is a private research university in Cambridge was given a DEC PDP-1 Computer in 1961. PDP-1 was the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series. When MIT received the first Dec computer, Steve Russell thought the best way to present the computer was by creating a game although they did debate about creating a more interesting display for the new computer instead. Once they decided to create a game, young programmers who had come to MIT’s Kludge room to experiment with the new DEC computer along with Martin Graetz and Wayne witanen designed a space battle game which was based on series of novels by E.E. "Doc" Smith called Spacewar! On the game Two ships, one called the 'Wedge' and the other the 'Needle,' would fly around a star-filled background, both the ships are played by humans who have to try and avoid floating into the star whilst shooting each other. The graphics in the game are made up on ASCII text characters; the game was then distributed through DECUS (Digital Equipment Corporation users group) as a glorified tech demo for PDP-series computers. Ensuring it would become widespread in the technical and university computing communities spreading the game’s code to universities around the world.

1967 - Brown Box

In 1967 Ralph bear and a few of his colleagues at Sanders associates developed brown box which is the first multiplayer and multiprogramming video game system. Ralph Bear released that by 1967millions of Americans had A TV in their home and he knew that TVs have a lot more potential than just watching TV programs so he began investigating how to play video games on TV. This resulted in the brown box which was his first prototype as a video game system. This game system was originally called TV game unit #7 until it got its nickname 'Brown Box', the reason it got this nickname is simply because the system looked like a small brown box which had the basic features For example it only had a few buttons and knobs. The console has two controllers and a multigame programme system which means it could be programmed to play a Varity of games by simply flipping the switches which was at the front of the box. Some games which could be played on brown box include; Ping pong, Checkers, four different sport games, Target shooting and golf.

1971 - Computer space

45 years ago, in 1971 Nutting Associates released the first ever arcade machine. Nutting Associates staff Nolan Bushnell partnered up with Ted Dabney who came up with the idea of computer space and only two years later the game was released. Computer space game play consisted of the player controlling a rocket ship against two machine-controlled flying saucers. The player controlled the rocket by using four different buttons.
Each button had a different purpose for example, shooting a missile, two rotation buttons which rotates the ship and one for thrust which moved the ship in the direction it was facing. During the game two sauces will appear which is controlled by the machine, the sauces will move in a zig zag formation whilst trying to shoot the player, the players aim is to dodge the sauces and try and destroy as many as possible. Computer space was based on space war which was realised only 10 years before computer space.

1972 - Pong

Pong is one of the earliest arcade machines although it was the first ever sport genre arcade machine. Pong is one of the first ever computers which created the simple 'tennis like' game which features two paddles on either side of the screen and a ball. Although other arcade machines such as Computer space were created before it, Pong was the only arcade machine which hit main stream popularity. The aim of the game is trying to defeat your opponent by earning a higher score for example a player will get 1 point when the other player misses to hit back their ball, The player who has 10 points the quickest will win.
Pong was created because Nolan Bushell who helped create Computer space gave a training exercise to Allan Alcorn. Surprised by his work Nolan Bushell and Atari’s co-funder Ted Dabney decided to manufacture the game although Nolan did make a few adjustments to Pong to help make it a lot more interesting and eye catching to their audiences for instance Nolan adjusted the balls angle and added some simple sound effects to the game. By the end of the year Pong arcade machine was shipped to other countries, selling more than 35000 pong machines globally. To keep up with other arcade machines which decided to clone pong, Atari started to produce more similar games such as double pong which allows four players to play on the same screen.

1975 - Pong Home version

After how successful Pong was as an arcade machine Bushell decided to tell his employees to come up with new ideas and Atari engineer Harold Lee suggested a home version of Pong that would connect to a television: Home Pong. They started by developing and designing a prototype using the same digital technology used in the arcade machine. Lee worked with Alcon so in the morning Lee would work on the designs logic and in the evening Alcon would debug his ideas, this made it less cost consuming. The prototype originally had over 100 wires which Alcon and lee eventually changed in to a chip which was completed in 1974; the chip became the highest - performing chip because the chip provided the game with a digital on screen and attractive sound. However home pong was that expensive retailers thought it would not interest the costumers so Atari had a meeting with Tom Quinn who seen the potential Home Pong could have and offered Atari a deal.

1977- Atari 2600

Atari 2600 is a home video console which was originally called Atari VCS meaning video computer system although in 1982 when Atari 5200 was released they changed the name to Atari 2600. This video game console was released on 11th September 1977 by Atari. Programs for small computers were usually stored on a floppy disc, cassette tapes or simply a paper tape although in 1970s Halwett- Packared manufactured desktop computers costing thousands such as the HP 9830 which had Rom and other removable packages, this inspired Atari to use a 'fake' cartridge after seeing a "fake" cartridge system on another machine and they realized they could place the games on cartridges essentially for the price of the connector and packaging. Atari came with two simply joysticks with an initial offering off nine games, later realising more games. Some of these games include Outlaw, Space war and break out.

1978 - Space Invaders

A space invader is a Japanese arcade game which was released in 1978 by Tatio. It was developed by Tomohiro Nishikado who was inspired by star wars. A space invader is a 2D shooting game which involves a human shooting 48 aliens in each stage. The game is displayed by having the aliens in 6 different columns where they move back and forth across the screen in a set pattern, slowly moving more down towards earth.
The players aim is to shoot the aliens become they come to close to earth, trying not to get shot off the aliens. Once the player has destroyed all 48 aliens they switch onto a different stage where there are 48 aliens although as they advance to each stage the aliens get more difficult. Space invaders is the first ever arcade machine that tracks and displays the players high scores this is what made it so popular and throughout its life time it earned over 500 million dollars and was released on other systems such as the Atari 2600.

1980 - Pac Man

The first Pac man arcade game was developed by Namco and On October, 1980 it was released in the United States. Pac man became classics of the 80’s and one of the highest - grossing video games in all time, still being played in 2016. It over populated space invaders simply because Pac man created its own Genre and brought something 'different' to the games industry. Pac man is a 2D yellow pie shaped character who travels around a maze on screen. This maze is full off dots which packman has to eat to gain points although there are four different ghosts which all have their own personalities which brought the most interest from players. The aim of the game is to get Pac man who is played by the player to travel around this maze using the joystick, trying to eat all of the 240 dots before the ghost catches packman. There is also Power pallets in the game which if packman eats, the ghost will all turn black and be scared of Pac man for a short amount of time. When this does happen Pac man is then able to eat the ghost and get bonus points. There are also fruits which occasionally appear in the maze, each fruit is worth a different amount of points. It is really difficult to complete Pac man as it took one man 6 hours to complete it, simply because in packman there are 256 levels, the last level being the hardest. Once completed he had the highest possible score of 3,333,360 points.

1981- Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong is an arcade game released 1981. The game is one of the earliest platform game this means that the game usually involves the player playing a character which has to jump or avoid obstacles. In Donkey Kong the game revolves around a man called jump man (Now called Mario) having to save Lady (Now called Pauline) from a giant ape. The player has to control jump man to jump between gaps and over obstacles as well as having to deal with approaching enemies. Because each stage is different donkey Kong became the most complex arcade game at its time of realise.

1983- The Coomodore 64

The Coomodore is an 8 bit home computer which was developed by Commodore international in 1983. The coomodore is also known as C46, C64 and C=64. The coomodore made such a massive difference in games history simply because is the highest-selling single computer model of all time selling between 10 and 17 million units The coomodore is the most powerful video-game console to date and is the least expensive computer. For instance C64 was sold in ordinary retail stores instead of specialty stores simply because it was sold at a lost cost and actually dominated low - computer market because the coomodore had great features in such a low, surprising price.

1986- Nintendo NES, Atari 7800

The Nintendo NES stands for Nintendo Entertainment system which is an 8-bit home video game. Nintendo NES was released in 1986 and developed by Nintendo. The reason Nintendo NES was so successful is because the United States was still in shock after the video game in 1983. Nintendo NES was the first home video game released after the crash, which ritualize the United States giving them more hope that video games can still be successful. In 2009 Nintendo NES was e single greatest video game console in history by IGN.

ATARI 7800

The Atari 7800 was developed by Atari in 1986. The Atari 7800 was developed because Atari felt like their previous console (Atari 5200) was so unsuccessful that they had to develop and remake a whole new console using the same chip although adding better graphics. Atari felt the need to do this simply because Nintendo and Sega was becoming more and more of a competition so Atari had to bring something new to the market to help forget about the unsuccessful Atari 5200.

1989- Nintendo Game Boy, TurboGrafx-16, Genesis, LynxNintendo Game Boy

Nintendo Game Boy

Nintendo game boy is an 8 bit handheld video game console which was manufactured by Nintendo in 1989. Nintendo game boy was the first game boy in the series and was designed by the same man who designed the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Nintendo game boy was so successful because it was pocket size so it gave players the freedom to play their favourite video games where ever they want, which home consoles didn’t provide. Games on the game boy can be Tetris, Super Mario and Pokémon.

TurboGrafx-16

The TurboGrafx-16 is a home video game console developed by the NEC Home Electronics on 1989. It was the first console with 16-bit and still ultizing an 8-bit CPU. The TurboGrafx-16 was designed to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment system although ended up competing with the Sega genesis.

Sega Genesis

The Sega Genesis is also known as the mega drive which is a 16 bit home video game. Sega Genesis is designed by Sega to help compete with the Nintendo Entertainment system and even though the Sega Genesis is a bit more advanced than the NES it still failed to beat it in the competition.

Atari Lynx

The Atari lynx is a 8 bit handhold video game just like the Nintendo game boy although Atari Lynx was given the distinction of being the first handhold video game with colour LCD as well as being known for features, advanced graphics and the unusual layout. Because the Atari Lynx and the game boy were both released around a similar time they were main competitors although other competitors include the Turbo Express.

1993 - Doom

Doom is one of the first video games which was a first person shooter developed by id Software. Although Doom also introduced features such as 3D Graphics and network multiplayer game plays. Since being released doom has sold over 10 million copies (Played by 15 - 20 million people within two years) and is known as the most significant and influential titles in video game history. The original game was divided into three nine-level episodes where the player has to play 'Doom guy' finding their way through invading demons from hell.

1995- Play station

The first ever Play station was released in 1995 by Sony. The play station is a home video game console which competed with the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn as part as the fifth generation of video games. The play station is the first ever entertainment platform to ship 100 million copies within 9 years and 6 months. Nintendo had already used the floppy disk but went to Sony to develop a CD-Rom add on which allows compact discs to be read by the play station.

1996- Nintendo 64, The Tamagotchi virtual pet

Nintendo 64

The Nintendo 64 is a home game console developed by Nintendo in 1996. They named the console Nintendo 64 because it has a 64 - bit CPU so the software can display the 3D graphics. Like any other Nintendo’s the Nintendo 64 needs a cartridge so the player can play their games. The reason why they use cartridges is because in the long run it will reduce the third-party software support for the N64. The Nintendo 64 controller was unique looking simply because it had three pre-longed bits on the controller with just one analogy stick in the middle. On the right hand side of the controller there was the simple buttons as well as the D pad on the left hand side of the controller.

The Tamagotchi virtual pet

The Tamagotchi is a hand hold console which allows you to take care of a digital pet. It was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi in 1996. By 2010 over 76 million tamagotchis was sold worldwide. The tamagotchi was a really small, colourful console which was kept on a key chain. The aim of the game is to help raise a tamagotchi from an egg into an adult alien. To do this the player has to help the Tamagotchi to go through important life stages, depending how well the player takes care of the tamagotchi the alien could be a smart adult which can take care of its self or a adult who needs a lot of attention still. The player has to feed, stroke, bathe, play and look after the Tamagotchi when ill, this was a lot of responsibility as a player but this is what made the Tamagotchi so successful.

2000- Play station 2

The play station 2 is the second computer in the play station series, released only 5 years after the first play station. The play station 2 is also a home video game console that was developed by Sony and was released in 2000. The play station 2 competed with the Sega dream cast, Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo Game Cube. The play station was really successful, making $250 million just within the first day beating the $97 million that the dream cast had made. The play station 2 controller is named the Dual shock analog controller because when a player did something within the game, the control will do a little vibration as a reaction. The controller has a different appearance than the first controller, there is only two pro-longed bits on the pad to give [layers better grip with two different analogs. one of the analogs being used a main moving and the other analog moving the angle you can also press the analogs in which wasn’t a feature with the first play station controller.

2001 - Xbox, Nintendo Game Cube

Xbox

The Xbox is the first Xbox in the Xbox series. It is created and owned by Microsoft and was released in 2001. The Xbox is Microsoft’s first console in the gaming console market and mostly competed with the play station 2 which was only released a year before the Xbox. The Xbox was the first video game console offered by an American company after the Atari sales stopped in 1996. The Xbox allowed players to play games online without having a wireless connection although the Xbox live needed a subscription.

Nintendo Game Cube

The game cube is a home video game console released by Nintendo in 2001. The game cube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs to play games. The optical disc is an electronic data storage which can be written and read by low-powered laser beams. The console also provides online gaming for a small number of games through using a broadband. The Nintendo Game cube's controller is a simple controller with two handles for grip including two analogs, a D- Pad and a few simple buttons.

2004 - Nintendo DS

The Nintendo DS is a handhold console with two screens, the bottom screen is touch screen which you use your stylus to interact with as well as a simple D pad and buttons on either side of the device. The Nintendo Ds is developed by Nintendo and released in 2004. The Nintendo Ds has multiple other features such as a built-in microphone and wireless connectivity. Both screens look similar to the game boy advanced each screen are 3 inches and have LCD display panels.

2005- PSP

PSP stands for Play station portable as it is the third play station in the play station series although seen as Nintendo etc have been releasing handhold game consoles Sony thought they would release a similar console to keep in competition. Sony released the PSP in 2005 but was announced first in 2003. The PSP became the most powerful portable system when released; it became the first real competitor with Nintendo’s handhelds consoles. This is simply because the PSP Has multiple features such as high-end graphic,4.3 inch viewing screen and multi-media capabilities such as its video player and TV tuner making the PSP a major entertainment device.

2006- Wii, Playstation 3

WII

The Wii is a home video game console which was released by Nintendo in 2006. The wii was designed to be a new form of player interaction and the wii is actually the smallest home console measuring only 44mm. The Wii games are all optical discs and faced competition with the Xbox 360 and the play station 3. The wii is controlled by using a Wii remote controller which is used by pointing the controller at the wii which then detects the movement of the remote control; by having this feature the wii succeeded the game cube. The wii became known as the most family oriented entertainment system simply because the control of the system was quite simple and not as difficult to use.

Playstation 3

The play station 3 is a home video game console which was developed by Sony and was released in 2006. It is the third play station, coming just after play station 2. Seen as the Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s wii were both released around the same time as the play station 3 they became the play station 3s top competitor. The play station 3 is the first video game console to use blue ray discs as a medium as well as being the first console to combine social gaming services for instance play station 3 is the first of the play stations where you can do socialising and gaming at the same time.

2008 - Wii Fit

The Wii Fit is a video game designed for the Wii. The wii fit allows players to get active using a wii balance board. The wii Fit was released in 2008 although by 2012 it became the third best selling console game. The reason the Wii fit became so popular was because of the unusual balance board which is a platform the player can stand on to do activates such as Yoga, strength, aerobics and balancing games which are mostly suitable for all ages. The wii fit allowed families to stay fit together in an entertaining way and has actually been known for being used in old people’s home to help with their posture.

2010- Xbox Kinect, Playstation Move

XBox Kinect

The Xbox kinect is a motion sensing input device for the xbox 360 video games. The device is basically a web cam which can sensor the players moves to interact with the console. The First Kinect was released in 2010 in attempt to make the xboxs 360 audience much wider just like the wii fit which made massive competition with the wii remote plus, wii and play station eye/move. The kinects actual sensor is a bar connected to a small base which can sit on a TV stand. The device features a RGB Camera, depth sensor and a multi microphone. The camera can do 3D motion capture which can capture the players whilst playing the games by recognizing the players face and voice recognition.

PlayStation Move

The Play station move is also a motion sensing device just like the Xbox kinect. The play station move is developed by Sony computer entertainment in 2010. It’s a handhold device which uses motion moves to control the PS3. The motion control is basically a rod controller with an orb as the head which glow up in a Varity of colours based on the environment captured by the camera. The orb determines the distance from the camera to help track the player’s position in three dimensions.

2013- Play station 4, Xbox One

Play station 4

The play station 4 is a home video game console, following up from the playstation 3. The competition for play station 4 includes Nintendo wii U, Microsoft and the Xbox one. The Play station 4 is mainly focused on social interaction with other devices and services including being able to play games off-console on play station Vita. This gives players the ability to stream game play online or to friends. The main differences between the play station 4 and the play stations 3 pads includes the play station 4 having improved buttons and analog sticks as well as a touch pad on the controller. As of 2016, more than 43 million copies have been sold.

Xbox One

The Xbox one is a home video game console which was developed by Microsoft after the Xbox 360. The Xbox One has a similar look to the original Xbox featuring split screen multitasking of applications and improved sound support. The Xbox one also allows the players to record clips from game play or live stream directly to twitch ustream and other streaming platforms. The Xbox ones main competitors include the play station 4 and Nintendo wii u.

Visual Time Lines

Here are a few presentations, presenting how video games have changed throughout time. On each presentation there is simple bullet points stating the information about the product as well as bold writing to highlight facts and a example image on each slide. The reason I have created a visual timeline is simply because it is alot faster and eye catching than reading the written timeline.

1940 -1980

1981- 2000

2001-2013

Links
https://pbgames.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/1940-nimatron/
https://pcgaminghistory.wordpress.com/1940/04/18/nimatron/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2008/resurrecting-tennis-for-two-a-video-game-from-1958/
http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/187/778
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spacewar!-PDP-1-20070512.jpg
http://museum.mit.edu/150/25
http://www.technologizer.com/2011/12/11/computer-space-and-the-dawn-of-the-arcade-video-game/
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1301997
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600
http://www.classicgaming.cc/classics/space-invaders/history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(video_game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System
http://www.guokr.com/article/101471/
http://www.playbuzz.com/olivierl12/knowledge-test-videogame-culture-and-history
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/10/spacewar-the-first-2d-top-down-shooter-turns-50/
https://meansblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/22/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o019DYaSxUQ
http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=article-3
http://gamester81.com/history-of-consoles-pong-1975/
http://in.pcmag.com/gaming/17667/gallery/the-10-greatest-video-game-consoles-of-all-time?p=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=437Ld_rKM2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dScq4P5gn4A
http://www.mariowiki.com/Donkey_Kong_(game)