For over 50 years, video games have been a significant part of popular culture. Born in the minds of creative engineers, games have grown from mere curiosities into a global industry worth billions of dollars.
50 Years of Video Games
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MarkHughes
Posts: 343 +347
I was born in 1976 and I started playing on an Atari 2600 in about 1980. I am constantly amazed at the progress I have witnessed in gaming and the incredibly increases in computing performance in that time.
I'm sure there are plenty for folk here who are of similar age and have also seen this.
I feel like the big advances that we used to get are smaller now, A game 10 years ago still looks good to me and even with the side by side comparisons I sometimes struggle to see the improvements in new tech these days.
Wonder what the next big thing will be
I'm sure there are plenty for folk here who are of similar age and have also seen this.
I feel like the big advances that we used to get are smaller now, A game 10 years ago still looks good to me and even with the side by side comparisons I sometimes struggle to see the improvements in new tech these days.
Wonder what the next big thing will be
Neatfeatguy
Posts: 1,633 +3,078
Secret of Mana - probably my most favorite game on the SNES. I tried playing it on an emulator some years ago (but it didn't think it played well with mouse/keyboard so I gave it up) even thought about maybe picking up the remastered copy, but I'd rather not tint the rosy glasses I have for the original.
Secret of Evermore was decent, but not as good as Mana.
It's RT and frame generation! Nvidia has it cornered. They're the best! RT! RT! RT! RT! /s
I grew up with the Atari 2600 (the company my uncle worked at he had access to the hardware and software to make copies of all the Atari games. We had a cartridge where you could just swap out the memory chip - lift up the lever to unlock the chip, put in whatever game chip you wanted, push the lever down to lock the chip in, insert the cartridge into the Atari and turn it on. He made us copies of every game, even had a copy of the awful ET game) and it was amazing. Games have been a part of my life since I can remember and I'm sure they will be for many years to come.
I do miss the golden days of gaming for me. I'd love to have my Genesis & the 32X adaptor for it back and a SNES again with all the games I like.
Secret of Evermore was decent, but not as good as Mana.
I was born in 1976 and I started playing on an Atari 2600 in about 1980. I am constantly amazed at the progress I have witnessed in gaming and the incredibly increases in computing performance in that time.
I'm sure there are plenty for folk here who are of similar age and have also seen this.
I feel like the big advances that we used to get are smaller now, A game 10 years ago still looks good to me and even with the side by side comparisons I sometimes struggle to see the improvements in new tech these days.
Wonder what the next big thing will be
It's RT and frame generation! Nvidia has it cornered. They're the best! RT! RT! RT! RT! /s
I grew up with the Atari 2600 (the company my uncle worked at he had access to the hardware and software to make copies of all the Atari games. We had a cartridge where you could just swap out the memory chip - lift up the lever to unlock the chip, put in whatever game chip you wanted, push the lever down to lock the chip in, insert the cartridge into the Atari and turn it on. He made us copies of every game, even had a copy of the awful ET game) and it was amazing. Games have been a part of my life since I can remember and I'm sure they will be for many years to come.
I do miss the golden days of gaming for me. I'd love to have my Genesis & the 32X adaptor for it back and a SNES again with all the games I like.
Ohnooze
Posts: 613 +1,185
I was born in 72 and have been pretty much obsessed with video games my entire life.
I often think about how I would have reacted had I gotten to play WoW on my current setup (4k 120fps on a 55" tv). I use WoW as an example because D&D was so popular back then.
I can't even imagine how my mind would have been blown. I mean combat on Atari was amazing back then...
I often think about how I would have reacted had I gotten to play WoW on my current setup (4k 120fps on a 55" tv). I use WoW as an example because D&D was so popular back then.
I can't even imagine how my mind would have been blown. I mean combat on Atari was amazing back then...
Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,721 +4,821
It really is amazing when you think that game studios like Namco, Nintendo, Sega and Taito who were around at the dawn of the video game age are still around today.
Seminal games like Taito's Space Invaders, Sega's Periscope, Nintendo's Donkey Kong, Atari's Pole Position and of course, Namco's Pac-Man literally created the arcade gaming industry which itself was the dawn of video games in general. In the 80s and 90s, there was not a mall in existence that didn't have a video arcade place in them and this also led to the rise of Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants. Sure, home consoles like the Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision existed, but their capabilites were a joke compared to their arcade counterparts. The tech just wasn't there yet and while consoles like the NES, Genesis, Saturn and N64 would close the gap between them considerably, it wasn't until the release of the Playstation 2 that home gaming consoles truly achieved parity with full-size arcade machines and rendered them obsolete.
When I think of early arcade games like Defender, Missile Command, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Zaxxon, Lode Runner, Intrepid and Space Panic, I sure do feel OLD as DIRT! I only feel it more when I remember just how impressive the graphics of Sierra On-Line PC games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and The Black Cauldron seemed at the time!
Seminal games like Taito's Space Invaders, Sega's Periscope, Nintendo's Donkey Kong, Atari's Pole Position and of course, Namco's Pac-Man literally created the arcade gaming industry which itself was the dawn of video games in general. In the 80s and 90s, there was not a mall in existence that didn't have a video arcade place in them and this also led to the rise of Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants. Sure, home consoles like the Atari 2600, ColecoVision and Intellivision existed, but their capabilites were a joke compared to their arcade counterparts. The tech just wasn't there yet and while consoles like the NES, Genesis, Saturn and N64 would close the gap between them considerably, it wasn't until the release of the Playstation 2 that home gaming consoles truly achieved parity with full-size arcade machines and rendered them obsolete.
When I think of early arcade games like Defender, Missile Command, Galaga, Spy Hunter, Zaxxon, Lode Runner, Intrepid and Space Panic, I sure do feel OLD as DIRT! I only feel it more when I remember just how impressive the graphics of Sierra On-Line PC games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and The Black Cauldron seemed at the time!
MarkHughes
Posts: 343 +347
Amiga, Lemmings (1991, above)
Seems to be showing the PC version in the picture...
Seems to be showing the PC version in the picture...
The screenshot is indeed the DOS version but it's not radically different to how the original Amiga (below) and it was released in the same year (but after the initial Amiga launch).
Source: Mobygames
Invalid claim in the article, please fix: The average load time for a game [on Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum] wasn't 20 to 30 minutes - it was approximately 5 minutes. This can be checked by loading a tape file in an emulator of the 8-bit machine on a PC.
A journalistic exaggeration. While some games could certainly be loaded within a handful of minutes (here's an example of Jetpac taking 4 minutes to load and Robocop taking 8 minutes), there were titles that could easily stretch that to 30 minutes, before the use of fast loaders became commonplace. A lot, though, depended on the quality of the cassette player used, as not all were capable of letting the system achieve its peak baud rate. I can remember my first copy of Football Manager taking around 25 minutes or so.
However, it's a fair point, so I'll adjust the copy accordingly.
Well, there exist ZX Spectrum 48K multi-part games that take up to 30 minutes to progressively load all the levels. ZX Spectrum 128K load times can take up to 15 minutes. Then some 10 years later (year 1992 or so), some ZX Spectrum clones with a floppy drive could load the 48KB in a matter of just a few seconds.
The Fairchild VES (Video Entertainment System) was the first console with removable ROM cartridges. It sold very well until the Atari VCS came out.
The Commodore 64 had a cartridge port, although that computer was mainly used with the extremely slow 1541 floppy drive. It was also the best-selling computer in the world for a considerable period of time.
Part of the high expense of the Atari 400/800 and the competing VideoBrain, which came out earlier (1977), is that the FCC required fancy aluminium RF shielding. That drove up the cost of the machines. Jerry Lawson, who developed the Fairchild VES, was angry that this extra cost required Fairchild to price the VES as high as it was priced — particularly since the requirement was dropped not so long after.
I have to disagree with the summary of the NES: Basic but perfectly tuned. When compared with the preceeding consoles in the US, the NES was a huge advance. This was most apparent in the long adventure games like Metroid, MegaMan 2, and SMB 1. The closest thing to that kind of depth of experience in US console gaming was found with Pitfall for the Atari VCS, which hardly compares. The NES also was capable of compelling complex music to go with the complex gameplay. It was a massive advance for the US market and laughable attempts to be competitive from US firms, like the Atari 7800 and XE, exposed how backward US console game developers were. Things were different when it came to US home computer game developers like Richard Garriot.
What was more important with the Amiga than the number of bits was that it had powerful support chips. It was the cooperative task delegation of those chips that made the platform what it was. The Apple Lisa had the same 68000 CPU but no sound chip, no color, and no GPU.
The article doesn’t mention Wizardry, the early iterations of the Ultima series, and Pool of Radiance. There is also no mention of Maniac Mansion, Metroid, King’s Quest, and Dragon Quest (known as Dragon Warrior in the USA). Zelda 1 was also very important.
Particularly notable arcade titles from the 80s that weren't mentioned are Galaga, Pole Position, Xevious, Missile Command, Spy Hunter, Altered Beast, Ghost's 'n Goblins, Rampage, and Mike Tyson's PunchOut. Those were all hugely popular in the US. Berzerk, Paperboy, and Defender probably deserve a mention, too. Dig Dug was hugely successful in Japan. E.T. should be mentioned for being such a financial failure.
The Commodore 64 had a cartridge port, although that computer was mainly used with the extremely slow 1541 floppy drive. It was also the best-selling computer in the world for a considerable period of time.
Part of the high expense of the Atari 400/800 and the competing VideoBrain, which came out earlier (1977), is that the FCC required fancy aluminium RF shielding. That drove up the cost of the machines. Jerry Lawson, who developed the Fairchild VES, was angry that this extra cost required Fairchild to price the VES as high as it was priced — particularly since the requirement was dropped not so long after.
I have to disagree with the summary of the NES: Basic but perfectly tuned. When compared with the preceeding consoles in the US, the NES was a huge advance. This was most apparent in the long adventure games like Metroid, MegaMan 2, and SMB 1. The closest thing to that kind of depth of experience in US console gaming was found with Pitfall for the Atari VCS, which hardly compares. The NES also was capable of compelling complex music to go with the complex gameplay. It was a massive advance for the US market and laughable attempts to be competitive from US firms, like the Atari 7800 and XE, exposed how backward US console game developers were. Things were different when it came to US home computer game developers like Richard Garriot.
What was more important with the Amiga than the number of bits was that it had powerful support chips. It was the cooperative task delegation of those chips that made the platform what it was. The Apple Lisa had the same 68000 CPU but no sound chip, no color, and no GPU.
The article doesn’t mention Wizardry, the early iterations of the Ultima series, and Pool of Radiance. There is also no mention of Maniac Mansion, Metroid, King’s Quest, and Dragon Quest (known as Dragon Warrior in the USA). Zelda 1 was also very important.
Particularly notable arcade titles from the 80s that weren't mentioned are Galaga, Pole Position, Xevious, Missile Command, Spy Hunter, Altered Beast, Ghost's 'n Goblins, Rampage, and Mike Tyson's PunchOut. Those were all hugely popular in the US. Berzerk, Paperboy, and Defender probably deserve a mention, too. Dig Dug was hugely successful in Japan. E.T. should be mentioned for being such a financial failure.
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Axle Grease
Posts: 306 +262
I got myself a PS4 Pro in 2017 which I boxed a few years later. For me it's k&m only, but this was console gaming in late 70s New Zealand. I played a lot of pong/tennis/soccer on the family Sportronic.
Hodor
Posts: 765 +512
I liked 2D games like Prince of Persia or Scorched Earth even before DOOM appeared.
But one game that I really hated and despised was Wolfenstein. A game with 2.5D graphics that consisted simply of killing Germans and german shepherds. I mean, if there ever existed a prototype for a propaganda game - it was Wolfenstein.
RudyBob
Posts: 1,480 +1,573
What bothered me most about Wolfenstein was that every wall and door felt six feet thick and the lighting and colors for some reason really turned me off. I have never thought killing a dog was appropriate in any game but I'd kill Nazi's all day long
...The Commodore 64 hauled butt at the time. effortlessly more capable for gaming than the other offerings, here in NZ they sold tons of them.
...The IBM and Atari of the time had nothing on the Amiga. Multitasking and bus mastering spring to mind, but the custom hardware was the precursor for most of our gaming tech used now. I had an Amiga, I had friends with IBM's (WAY too expensive, and pathetically underpowered for the price) and Atari's (just...not as good. was always considered an also ran). If you look at the history of the tech, you can trace most of apples early stuff back to copying the way the Amiga did things.
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