Okaaay I seem to have been totally neglecting this. Ack! So behind! *gulp*
So! No point waffling, I’ll just cut straight to the chase: - [SFX: "TyreScreech_03.wav"]
Ahh! Too far! Rewind! REWIND!
…Alrighty; Serious Dougal is serious!
*serious face*
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The very first arcade game was invented in the 70s by Nolan Bushnell. It was a game based on ‘Spacewar!’ and about a year later the same guy invented Pong! Everyone loves Pong, right? ‘Tis a classic!
That same year Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney started Atari Computers and in ‘75 they re-released Pong as a home video game. Now everyone could sit and toss little white squares between little white rectangles. Woot!
In ‘72 the Odyssey was released by Magnavox. It was designed by a guy called Ralph Bear and was one of the first home consoles readily available for people to buy. The machine was actually designed while Mister Ralph was still with his old company waaay back in 1966. The Odyssey came programmed with twelve different games.
Yay for variety!
In 1976 the Fairchild Video Entertainment System was released (though later renamed Channel F). It was the first home console to be programmable (i.e. you could choose your game rather than playing the presets). It integrated a newly invented microchip that freed video games from certain restrictions allowing them to expand vastly.
The following year, arcades everywhere were invaded!! A strange fever ran across the gamers of the world as each competed for the honour of holding their local arcades' "Top High Score". Space Invaders was a massive hit.
Even my mum loves to play it! (...and my dear mother is about as far from gamer as you can get ^^;).
In June '80, computer games delved into legal business with Atari's "Asteroids" and "Lunar Lander" being the first games ever to enter the Copyright Office and get registered! Copyright material could only spout trouble for the developers and their love of thieving ideas and concepts from each other.
For the next few years Nintendo dominated the gaming scene with most other developers being ruthlessly defenestrated. The NES, SNES and delightful portable GameBoy allowed Nintendo's reign of terror to run from 1989 well into the late 90s.
For the most part, (with the exception of Spacewar! and Pong) many of the games of this era were notably single player. All through the eighties the market was dominated by single player games with multiplayer games not really becoming considered until 1993 when the game Doom was released. The game, though often criticised for its violence, was immensely influential. It allowed several computers to be connected together, thus allowing multiple people to play in the same game world. (WoW anyone?) It is widely regarded as one of the most popular computer games and is largely responsible for the popular "3D Shooter" genre of the current gaming world.
Despite Doom's influence with invoking multiplayer games... I personally think the GameBoy was the major turning point of the era. It meant that people could play games anywhere if they had suitable lighting and a couple of working batteries. A revolution!
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I never really cared much for real-time action games. I always preferred the more RPG, turn-based style (Pokémon4Life!). That was, until I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the violence and accompanying adrenaline rush of Unreal Tournament. Oh the gibs! Simply beautiful! *starry eyes*
Though, admittedly the random body parts flying through the air were almost always... mine.
As an extra note; tomorrow's headlines: "32 Soulless Geeks Killed In Midnight Stampede."
'World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King' launches tonight! There will be blood! ...And with that; I bid ye adieu.
*salutes*
- The dougalBUG.
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