Thursday 27 November 2008

The history of computer games (part 4)

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Part 4:
The Golden Age 1978-1981
(Click here for part 1)

1978 Bushnell Leaves Atari
Bushnell leaves Atari and signs a lucrative five-year agreement not to compete with the company he started. He buys the rights to Pizza Time Theatre from Atari and begins franchising it. Ray Kassar becomes the CEO of Atari.

Nintendo Releases Arcade Game
In March, Nintendo of Japan releases Computer Othello, a decidedly simplistic arcade cocktail-table game based on the board game Othello.

Trackball Rolls Into Arcades
Atari releases the arcade game Football. The game features a revolutionary new controller called the trackball.

Midway Imports Game to Beat
Midway imports Space Invaders from Taito. Space Invaders gives you a goal by displaying the current high score for you to beat.


Arcade Success Stories
Both Football and Space Invaders break all known sales records with almost equal earnings. However, Football's popularity fades with the end of the pro football season. Space Invaders' popularity continues, causing coin shortages in Japan and school truancy in America.

Atari Enters Computer Market
Atari begins selling its line of 400 and 800 computers to compete against Apple. The public, however, associates Atari with games, and the computers are never taken seriously.

Magnavox Releases Console With Keyboard
Magnavox releases the Odyssey2, a programmable console that has a built-in membrane keyboard.

Vector Game Released
Cinematronics releases Space Wars, a game similar to Bushnell's Computer Space. The game features vector (line-drawn) graphics. Vector graphics are the earliest form of polygon graphics to appear in video game applications, and they lack the flat shading or textures of later graphics.


1979
Holographic Games
Atari develops the Cosmos, a handheld programmable machine that features holograms within the graphics. Because the holograms are only for aesthetics and don't add to the gameplay, the Cosmos is never released.

Atari Vectors
Atari releases Lunar Lander, its first vector graphics game. Lunar Lander Begets Asteroids. Despite Lunar Lander's popularity, Atari halts production of the game and begins releasing Asteroids in the Lunar Lander cabinets. Asteroids is a game that was originally designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg for the Cosmos system. It goes on to become Atari's all-time best-seller. Asteroids introduces a new feature to arcades: High scorers can enter their three-character initials at the end of the game. Nearly 80,000 units are sold in the United States, but the game is less popular in other countries. Sega releases Monaco GP, a driving game with a top-down perspective, which is followed by the similar Pro Monaco GP in 1980 and the realistic 3D racer Super Monaco GP in 1989.

Milton Bradley Releases Programmable Handheld Video Game
Milton Bradley Electronics releases the Microvision, a handheld programmable unit that includes its own built-in LED screen.

1980
Space Invaders Come Home
Atari releases its exclusive home version of Space Invaders for the VCS. Sales of the VCS skyrocket.


Mattel Intellivision
Mattel Electronics introduces the Intellivision game console. The first serious competition for the VCS, the Intellivision has better graphics and a steeper price--$299. Mattel promises to release an optional peripheral that will upgrade the Intellivision console into a personal computer.

Namco releases Pac-Man
Pac-Man (パックマン Pakku man) is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the US by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular in the United States from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is universally considered as one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Upon its release, the game became a social phenomenon that sold a bevy of merchandise and also inspired, among other things, an animated TV series and music.

Handheld LCD games
Nintendo’s Game & Watch line began in 1980. The success of these LCD handhelds spurred dozens of other game and toy companies to make their own portable games, many being copies of Game & Watch titles or adaptations of popular arcade games. Improving LCD technology meant the new handhelds could be more reliable and consume less batteries than LED or VFD games, most only needing watch batteries. They could also be made much smaller than most LED handhelds, even small enough to wear on one’s wrist like a watch. Tiger Electronics borrowed this concept of videogaming with cheap, affordable handhelds.

(End of part 4)

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