Greetings, viewers and game enthusiasts alike. Welcome to Cursors And Crosshairs! In this blog post - in fact, the very first blog post of Cursors And Crosshairs, the history of video games will be reviewed and explained for a better understanding on the evolution of games throughout the years. For your information, the earliest computer games created were designated to run on mainframes and microcomputers before personal computers were commercialized and achieved popularity.
1952 - OXO, One Of The Earliest Game Created
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OXO – a graphical computer adaptation of Tic-Tac-Toe which debuted in 1952 was one of the earliest known computer game in the timeline of computer gaming. A creation of Alexander “Sandy” Shafto Douglas – a British computer science professor, OXO was designated to run on the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), the first stored program electronic computer created by University of Cambridge.
1962 -Spacewar debuts on PDP-1
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The game of Spacewar! involves pitting two players against each other in a form of a spaceship duel with both spaceships orbiting a star in the centre of the screen. The aim of the game is to destroy the opponent’s spaceship by firing torpedoes and at the same time, avoid being pulled into the central star via gravitational pull.
Spacewar! is considered as the pioneering game that is designated to run on computers. Moreover, the development of Spacewar! also contributes to the popularity of modern-day video games by acting as an medium for early game programmers to experiment on game programming.
Mid 1960s - Birth of BASIC
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In the mid of 1960s, a milestone in the history of computer games was hit when John Kemeney and Thomas Kurtz at Darthmouth College developed the Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC). The existence of BASIC further improved the user-friendliness of coding language, which granted access to students and people who are unfamiliar with coding into the world of game programming.
The existence of BASIC also meant that programmers could develop their very own gaming software on microcomputers, thus eliminating the need of gigantic electronic computers such as Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) and Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC).
1977 - Appearance of Interactive Fiction Genre Games
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In 1977, text-based adventure genre games (later renamed as interactive fiction genre in the early 1980s) –the ancestor of present adventure genre games – made their mark on the timeline of computer games.
At the time of their development, interactive fiction genre games had near to zero resemblance of modern adventure genre games due to the lack of graphics in its gameplay. Instead, text, in place of graphics, describes the surrounding environment and conveys a story to the player as they advance in the game. Interactive fiction genre games allowed players to interact and take control of the storyline by typing in commands (e.g: “go north” or “take keys”).
1980s - Home Computer Systems Gains Popularity
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Home computer systems such as Apple II, Commodore Vic-20 and Commodore 64 began to gain popularity in 1980s among gamers due to the decline of game console’s reputation among gamers. The game console industry received flak due to game console companies releasing huge numbers of game consoles in short time in order to compete with other game console developing companies. As a result, most of the game consoles produced were of low quality and caused game consoles to have a bad reputation among gamers.
In America, these home computer systems debuted at an affordable price to its citizens and were labelled as a “sensible” option for family usage, thus adding to its popularity. On top of that, the fact that home computer systems are BASIC-compatible further propels home computer system’s popularity among programmers and gamers alike.
In America, these home computer systems debuted at an affordable price to its citizens and were labelled as a “sensible” option for family usage, thus adding to its popularity. On top of that, the fact that home computer systems are BASIC-compatible further propels home computer system’s popularity among programmers and gamers alike.
1980 - First Copyrighted Game(s)
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In 1980, Atari – a video game development company established by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1972 – becomes the first company to copyright their computer games. On June 17 that year, Atari registered copyrights for two of their computer games – “Asteroids” and “Lunar Lander”. Since then, game development companies around the globe has followed suit in copyrighting games which they have developed.
1989 - First Open-Ended City-Building Genre Game Released
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The first simulation game focused on urban design – SimCity – was released for computers in 1989. Prior to its release, distributors were reluctant to purchase the rights to the game because many of them did not feel confident that the game’s pioneering open-ended city-building genre would sell well to the gaming community.
The distributors were later proven wrong as SimCity was a huge success among gamers upon its release. In the later years, sequels were developed and released due to SimCity’s roaring success.
1993 - Implementation of Game Ratings
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In 1993, Doom – a science fiction horror genre first person shooter game was released to gamers worldwide. Doom was considered as the game which propelled the popularity of first person shooter games among gamers.
However, the high amount of violence in Doom (which is also said to be on par with the violence level of Mortal Kombat, an arcade fighting game released in 1992) prompted worried parents of underage gamers to demand the implementation of ratings onto released games.
Ever since then, organizations such as Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), Pan European Game Entertainment (PEGI) and many more (depending on world regions) has been established to assign ratings to games prior to its release.
1994 - First MMO Game Makes Appearance
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In the following year, Warcraft, the first massively online game (MMO) is released. Warcraft enables users to play the game with their friends on computer via the internet. Furthermore, the popularity of multiplayer LAN games such as Warcraft increased with the arrival of Windows 95 and economical Ethernet cards at the time.
2001 - Debut of First MMORPG
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The release of Runescape, a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) in 2001 further enhanced the internet gaming experience by enabling millions of gamers worldwide to play together online. Moreover, players worldwide are able to interact with each other via the chat function provided. Other than that, Runescape also allows the player to compete with other players from around the world in-game.
2010s - Popularity of Video Games
Visitors playing computer games at G-Star 2013, Korea. Image Source
As of 2010s, the video game market is estimated to hold a value of $91.5 billion. Moreover, the video game industry is an industry that grows rapidly as it develops and produces new blockbuster games which generates a revenue so huge to the point where it rivals Hollywood’s revenue. Lastly, in reference to ESA Computer and video games industry report or 2015, a huge number of 1.5 billion internet users play video games.
Now that you know the brief history of computer games/video games – hailing from a simple game of Tic-Tac-Toe on a mainframe computer to Runescape, an online game which can connect millions of players worldwide, it is clear that the computer game industry has come a long way before it achieves the popularity that it holds in the present time.
Therefore, we should always hold appreciation for game programmers and game developers for always striving to create new and fascinating games for the gamers worldwide. Last but not least, we should shower appreciation unto those who has worked hard to make computers –regardless of its type – a reality and a roaring success. Without them, there would be no platform for us to play our games on.
Thank you for reading the first blog entry of Cursors And Crosshair! Stay tuned for the next post: Benefits of Computer Games!
Therefore, we should always hold appreciation for game programmers and game developers for always striving to create new and fascinating games for the gamers worldwide. Last but not least, we should shower appreciation unto those who has worked hard to make computers –regardless of its type – a reality and a roaring success. Without them, there would be no platform for us to play our games on.
Thank you for reading the first blog entry of Cursors And Crosshair! Stay tuned for the next post: Benefits of Computer Games!
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