Where did it all begin? Video Games: 1950's-1970's

How far back to video games go? I bet you are thinking the first video game ever made was something like "Super Mario" or "The Legend of Zelda", but surprisingly video games can be traced all the way back to the 1950's!

I personally believe it all started with a game on a cathode ray tube; a missile simulator made in 1947, the game was designed around radar displays from the second world war. I feel that this game pathed the way forward to the games that we all know and love today; by it showing people that there was potential to produce games electronically.

This then leads on to 1951 when "Alexander S. Douglas" created "OXO" commonly known as "Noughts and Crosses"; manufactured for the "EDSAC" computer, it used a rotary telephone for a game controller. With its unique use of a telephone as a controller this led towards the "Oscilloscope" being used to create the pioneering game "Tennis for Two". Made in 1958 by "William Higinbotham", not to be confused with the popular game "Pong"; the objective of this game was to hit the moving ball over the net rather than pass the opponent.

"OXO"

The main revolutionary game of this era was "Spacewar!"; a two player game created by "Steve Russell" and Co. in 1962, the aim of the game was to try and destroy your opponents ship whilst trying not to be pulled into a star located in the centre of the screen. This game was the first of its kind and without it I believe that we would not have games such as "Space Invaders" or "Asteroids"; even modern games like "Zombie Apocalypse" and "Diablo 3" which have the same sort of birds eye view shooting and controlling system.

"Spacewars!" compared to "Diablo 3"

"Spacewars!" is one of the most recognised games of the era due to it being the first to have a unique objective unlike other games of its time; it brought forth the a new genre of space combat simulation. Though the years this gaming style has been improved and expanded on to create the well known games we love today, however these wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for "Spacewars!".

"Maze war" created in 1973 was the first first person shooter, without this game we wouldn't have "Call of Duty"; can you imagine that? A world where we don't have 10 year old boys telling us where our mothers were last night? Nevertheless "Maze war" was played on the "Xerox Alto"; an amazing feature with this game was that you could connect numerous of these computers up together to create a multi-player game. 

"Maze war" being played on a "Xerox Alto" by two players

In 1977 consoles such as the "Atari 2600" started to pop up out of the shadows; the main game of this time was "Pong"; bringing the well known arcade game to the home. This well known game loved by many was a hit and brought console gaming to the top of the market. "Pong" is played by hitting a ball to the opponents side and hoping that they miss it; the success of this game made it obvious to other companies that there was a massive market for video games, this led to lots of games being made which were just a complete copy of "Pong".
 

"Pong" being played on an arcade machine

Towards the end of the 1970's the arcade market began to pick up; by the end of 1978 games such as "Space Invaders", "Spacewars!" and "Bee Gee" were now available to play on arcade machines and by 1979 even more games such as "Asteroids", "Lunar lander", "Monaco GP" and "Flight simulator" were released. This rise in popularity did wonders for video games; people began to think outside the box and create games with different genres and interesting objectives, this really was just the start to a wonderful thing that is video games. If it wasn't for these pioneering games and designers who knows what would have happened, would we still have games if it wasn't for these innovative people? "If I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next six months. I just happened to get there first." - Steve Russell aka "Slug" on inventing "Spacewar!"

References:
1) "OXO" image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7CTU9-IAPQiUrbiVSC5iMGCdChgCWi-L6Jgtkshno3k7oortI3tohH2cUYXQ8e0XLeD0UXPjYsgkcTEfIoGJ0rAA5k0aKstkLM41tRB_TCZMqFaep_2_K5yZVZ4_Z4msixOjCU_B__HI/s1600/oxo.jpg
2) "Spacewars!" image: http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gamelife/images/spacewar.png
3) "Diablo 3" image: http://geekshizzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Diablo-3console-2.jpg
4) "Maze war" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chDIySXK2Q
5) "Pong" image: http://media.edge-online.com/wp-content/uploads/edgeonline/2012/12/The-Making-Of-Pong.jpg
6) Steve Russell quote: Mary Bellis. The History of Spacewar. Available: http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/Spacewar.htm. Last accessed 31st Oct 2013.

The calm after the storm...

Went to Bradgate Park today... it was an experience... it rained a lot.

That's our group, looking very unimpressed and wet... after everyone else had gone home; but its not all doom and gloom, I for one had an amazing day. Yeah my feet hurt, my body aches and I got soaked but Bradgate is beautiful! Sometimes when you live in the city for so long you forget that places like this exist...

I learnt a lot today, not necessary about drawing due to me having to put my sketchbook away every 5 minutes because of a down pour but I've absorbed the atmosphere of being in a storm; knowing what the rain does to the lighting, how it affects the land, the way you walk, your emotions and basically just knowing the conditions of that weather. It might not sound very impressive but I know some day that's going to become useful information when creating a game environment.

Another interesting thing happened today, as we were continuing to plough through the day watching other student leave to go home to a nice warm flat, a massive downpour happened... after it finished we were cold, drenched and wanting to go home, however we continued like crazy people. We stayed until 5pm and as we were on our way back to the entrance willing for our taxi to be waiting for us, this happened...

The sun came out and lit up all of the surrounding area; even creating a double rainbow that we could see arch all the way across the sky...

Seeing this just made staying longer than everyone else worth it; knowing that we witnessed something no one else did. It taught me that you have to be there for every moment, to not miss a thing and to take every chance you get because something good will come out of it...

A little update and The 1st crackpot theory!

Hiya,
Just a little update about the whole Game Art thingy; Just finished my first visual design assignment (picture below) and feeling pretty happy with it :) I know its not perfect but that's why I'm at uni; to become amazing! :D

Final canal drawing.

Amber's Crackpot theories #1:

So I was laying in bed this morning after being woken up by drunk students (that have a social life; unlike me) on their way home at 5am after a booze up; as I was trying to get back to sleep I felt uncomfortable and vulnerable I then realised that my blanket wasn't covering my back... where does this weird feeling on security come from by just being wrapped up in a blanket cocoon? So I began to think to myself, does this come from when we were in the womb? being in a contained warm space? When you think about it it doesn't sound comforting at all, it feels restricting and well rather sweaty... but somehow it makes you feel invincible; feeling like you have a forcefield from ghosts, burglars and that weird hobo that lives under your bed...
That it all...

Cheerio! :D

The first of many ramblings.

This is weird.... 
Blogs are weird.... 
Uni is weird....
But I guess i'm pretty weird as well....

So yeah lets get started... Hi! I'm Amber, but I'm sure you already know that because one you are either my lecturer, two you are a fellow student or three you're my stalker; but if by some miracle you are none of those then here is some info about me and my life so far...

I'm from South London but now study at De Montfort University in Leicester; and well I don't live in London any more because my god that would be one hell of a commute. I moved into Uni accommodation with one of my good friends from back home and we are lucky enough to be studying the same subject: Game Art. I guess this is where I'm meant to say how much fun the next couple of years are going to be and how much I'm looking forward to them but truth be told I'm a little terrified; Its going to be hard work, but I'm up for the challenge! The first week of classes hasn't filled me with much confidence due to my awful tin can of a Dalek, out of proportion naked ladies and truly horrendous perspective of a canal; however to be fair its hard drawing bridges when you're constantly on the run from swans (the spawn of Satan), nevertheless I'm trying my hardest and will continue to.

I'm honestly not sure what else you're meant to write in a blog... apart from maybe random facts like how I'm a bit of a tea junkie and that I have webbed toes... but the main reason I'm writing this is so I can track my progress as I continue Uni; its definitely not because my lecturer is making me or anything like that...

But any who its about time I depart and make my self a cuppa (typing boring nonsense is rather stressful after all). So be sure to keep an eye out for more of my ramblings; I was going to end this blog by saying "see you next time"  but I doubt that's rather suitable seeing how you're on the other side of a screen... so Cheerio will have to do for now :)