History of video games 1980's-1990's

PART 2

Fellow gamers and loving fans

I informed you of the history of computers and the time before video games (sends a chill down my spine). Now Is the time where I pick up where I left off. I’m sure, fellow fans, you have been bombarded by the media about the next gen. consoles and video games coming out this winter (especially the ps4 which is released 2 weeks from now). It is a beautiful time to be alive and we’ve come so far (Higinbotham would be proud). However, again I must ask you to look back to the days of old, to remember how far video games have evolved, since its initiation.

Cast your minds back to the 1980’s. The 80’s had given way to popular culture that is still around today. Firstly the emergence of the contemporary art movement e.g. modernism, futurists, neo-geo/-pop, free figuration and graffiti presented the world with a new outlook upon life. This related to music as well. Musicians were now dressing and performing unconventionally. Music was becoming louder and more explicit Hair was getting longer, clothes become pointier but also more exuberant in colour. Movie culture was also inspired by the zeitgeist – especially futurists Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas, producing feature Series- Star Trek and Star Wars. These films, arguably influenced technology of today. Just look at Captain Kirk’s Communicator much like the telephone or the Empire’s speeder bike’s which influence the first hover bike ( watch link, it’s crazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ5Sn38NYGA)

However oversized sweaters and leg warmers were still not able to warm up the cold war. ‘The Cold War’ was coming to an end yet tensions between the IS and USSR were still high, Although the friction between the east and west, the constant head bashing between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, created a tremendous amount of xenophobia, it also sparked many technological advances which paved the way for modern video games and the big 3 gaming consoles.

The Arms race, threatening nuclear deterrents and the itchy trigger fingers of the US and USSR forced both sides to advance their progress on computers and laser technology especially for defence. One game created by Atari, 1980 ‘Missile Command’, shows “the Cold war’s manifestation on pop culture”, as the game has the player defending a nation by destroying nuclear warheads. This concept draws similar resemblance to Ronald Reagan’s ‘S.D.I’ defence satellite.

Despite these issues, the gaming industry was booming. Some dubbed the early 80’s as the ‘Golden age of arcade games’ as the gaming industry generated an annual revenue of $5 billion from 1981. As discussed previously, the Atari 2600 VCS, was one of the first consoles to bring the arcade home.

Well this is interesting, but what else? The past success of Atari was a pivotal factor in inspiring the rejuvenation of the gaming industry and creation of new consoles, such as the ‘Milton Bradley’ (1982), ‘Casio PV-1000’ (1983), ‘The Phillip’s Video-PC and many others. What is fascinating is like an economy, the console boom led the growth of new firms. Yet, I must admit of all the impressive consoles pioneered, the ‘Atari Lynx’ was the first handheld console. Thinking about it, it this console may be the grandfather to all of the handhelds, including the ‘Gameboy’, ‘Nokia Ngage’, ‘Sony PSP’ and 'Nintendo DS’, (pretty cool huh?). So when you’re playing ‘Pokémon XY’ on your 3DS, take some time to think of how far handheld consoles have progressed in such a short period of time.

The console boom led to the production of big game names around today including ‘Pac-man’, ‘Golf’, ‘Excitebike’,’Legend of Zelda’, ‘Mario Bros’, Duke Hunt’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Tron’, ‘Q-bert’ and not to mention pc notable titles like ‘Sim City’ and ‘Prince of Persia’.

However with a boom, a downturn is right round the corner and in 1983 the American video game industry plummeted to a crash. There are external causes, nonetheless, the flooding of new consoles and gaming firms to the industry over-saturated the market. Third part-developers saw the gaming industries success, moreover, an opportunity to make a ‘quick buck’ with no intention of improving the industry. These groups turned the gaming market from what was predominately oligopolistic to a perfectly competitive market structure, competing the supernormal profits away to normal profits, thus reducing company confidence to invest- therefore leading to a decline (I would go on, but I remember this is a game art blog, not economics). However, despite pessimism from the crash Japanese gained success from ‘Nintendo’ with their first console the (1983) ‘NES’ - being the first (if not, of the first) to introduce the handheld controller system. Furthermore, the NES’ games adapted story-telling which is a significant theme to have in games as most games of today portray fables. 3 years later, gaming firm ‘Sega’ released its ‘Master System’, allowing the first interactive controller- the gun. These are 2 of the firms which worked to redtore the gaming industry to its original standard (thanks a lot guys).

So I’ve explained how the Cold war’s influences technology. I’ve shown how technology influenced the gaming industry, moreover games. So how does this relate to us today and why should we care? Well, without these pivotal inspirations the world may be missing the big 3 consoles of today. Within their co-operation ‘Sony’ and ‘Nintendo’, worked together, using the success of Atari and Sega to create the (1991) ‘PlayStation’ and the (1996) ‘N64’ also the west’s ‘Xbox’ (2001), revolutionised the industry with their originality (PlayStation and Xbox introducing disk play), essentially transforming the gaming industry back into the oligopoly that it once was.

There you have it, folks. Stay tuned for the 3rd and final part of this Epic timeline: ‘Part three: into the 2000’s, From Here to Eternity?

(written by Denzil Forde)

Thanks for reading

And as always Like, Comment, Game On!

Reference material

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/coldwar/soviet_end_01.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBDVLq-3CCY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leaders_of_the_Soviet_Union

http://njarb.com/2011/07/game-consoles-of-the-80s/

http://www.1980-games.com/us/action-games/remake.php

http://www.gamegavel.com/reviews/2013/07/06/top-10-best-selling-games-of-the-1980s/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_in_video_gaming#Golden_age_of_arcade_games

http://atariboy2600.deviantart.com/art/Video-Gaming-Timeline-1980s-69902802

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_playstation.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64

http://www.ehow.com/about_6576819_original-xbox.html

First days in the course

Level 1

So Far…..

Greetings gamers

As you may have become aware from my previous post I am studying the accredited ‘Game art design’. I’m currently coming up to week 6 of my course.

In all honesty, the course has been, much more challenging than i perceived before joining. Especially learning the dreaded 3ds max and becoming accustomed to the never ending deadlines. Although, I should have expected it, Michael Powell (Course founder) termed it ‘bootcamp’ from my opening day.

Anyway, despite my unease, I have been pretty productive over the past several weeks and I would like to share with you a few samples of what I’ve been up to.

The first week was just an introduction the the ‘graft’. we were indulged in life drawing practices and creating churches using Autodesk 3Ds max.

Following this was getting us to show our drawing skills and  familiar with the keys. Therefore, the first assignments were to draw the Leicester canal and create a ‘Dalek’ using 3Ds max, with a ‘tri’ count of 600.

This was painstakingly irritating… at first, especially with little to no knowledge on how to tame 3Ds max. Despite my initial plight i pulled through, with the help of 2nd and 3rd years, of course.

Next, was the observational Archway sketches and final drawing, issued by the Visual design teachers Chris and Jack. Also, in game production we were assigned to create a realistic model of a wheelie bin.

Completing the wheelie bin was like a dream come true. yet, texturing the model proved itself a worthy enemy; challenging both my patience and sanity. it took 26 attempts to get right.

There's Jon posing for the camera, (future model)

During the course of the wheelie bin project we were taken to Bradgate Park, a countryside-esque nature reserve.

However, as beautiful as it sounds, the weather was dismal; cold wind and bucket loads of rain, almost implying that the park did not want us there. yet, I found the day an enjoyable experience, especially drawing such a visually pleasing sight as Leicester's countryside. (If only I could draw it from my bed though…)

Currently , this week Chris and Jack have taken us to the ‘New Walk museum’ in Leicester to draw dinosaur fossils and bones. I'm taking a liking to this project more than the others. at the same time in game production we have been given our first deadlined architectural project. We had to recreate a realistic model of an interesting building. I have picked the ‘Leicester Guildhall’. I’m content  as both my projects are going well so far…..

(However, stay tuned into ‘The Rule of Thu’um’ blog site to uncover how the project ends up.)

Thanks for reading,

written by Denzil Forde

Like, Reblog, Game on!