Administrative

1
Administrative

• Assign Design Projects
• Present Game Creation project

2
Homework Discussion

• Question indicate examples in games where the
  question below are not properly answered and as a
  result there is a breakdown in meaningful play
• What happened before the player was given a
  choice?
• How is the possibility of a choice conveyed to
  the player?
• How did a player make a choice?
• What is the result of choice? How affects future
  choices?
• How are the results of choice conveyed?

3
Definition of Game and History of Games
Assigned readings Chapters 7 (Rules of Play
Book)

• Sources
• Gamespot.com
• investor.about.com
• emuunlim.com
• designboom.com
• Wikipedia
• my own

• Dr. Héctor Muñoz-Avila

4
Play and Game

• Game as a subset of play
• Considering all activities that we can play
• Tag is a game and it is also play
• Swing can be seen as play but it is not a game
• Play as a subset of game
• Play as one aspect (a crucial one) of a game
• Awareness on the distinction between play and
  game
• juego un juego
• ich speile ein Spiel

5
Some Definitions

• (Parlett) A formal game structure based on ends
  and means
• (Abt) an activity among two or more
  decision-makers seeking to achieve their
  objective
• Example of a game not meeting this definition?
• (Avedo and Sutton-Smith) a voluntary control
  system, contest between powers, confined by
  rules, outcome
• Book has 8 definitions (read them!) with some
  common elements (see Table!)
• following rules is the most common requirement
• Having a goal is also common

6
Definition of Game

• Elements
• A game is a system
• In which players
• engaged in an artificial conflict
• defined by rules
• That results in a quantifiable outcome
• Game design process of creating a game from
  which meaningful play emerges when experienced by
  a player

Examples of games fitting this definition

• Chess
• Tekken

• But problematic for other games

• MMORPG Games

7
History of Video Games

• By Héctor Muñoz-Avila

• Sources
• Gamespot.com
• investor.about.com
• emuunlim.com
• designboom.com
• Wikipedia
• my own

8
Introduction A Long Journey

• Some ideas in the 1948
• First video game
• Tennis game in an Oscilloscope
• Space game on DEC-1

• In between
• Space Invaders http//www.spaceinvaders.de/

• Current videogames
• Crysis

9
Chess Origins

• 6 AD Believed to come from India
• Came to Western through Persia
• 1769 Fake chess machine
• 1952 Turing design a chess algorithm
• 1956 Maniac versus Human

10
Origins of Some Companies

• 1889 company create card game
• 1932 COLECO (short for Connecticut Leather
  Company)
• 1947 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering
  Company
• 1954 David Rosen makes machines for GIs in Japan

Nintendo (leave luck to heaven)
Sony
(Service Games)
SEGA
11
Other Origins

• 1951 Ralph Baer (_at_Loral) suggest adding game to
  TV
• May be considered the inventor of video games
• Only until 1967 he realized his dream of an
  interactive television
• 1952 A.S.Douglas (_at_Cambridge) Interactive Tic
  Tac Toe
• 1958 Willy Higinbotham (_at_Brookhaven National
  Laboratory) Oscilloscope

12
Other Origins (II)

• 1961 Steve Russell (_at_MIT) creates Spacewar!

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
13
Spacewar! Legacy
1971 Bill Pitts and Hugh Tuck formed Computer
Recreations
Galaxy Game Cost 20K Play cost 10 cent Built
dozens
Galaxy Game Built 1.5K
PONG Built 10K Breaks down
14
Early Game Consoles

• Pong (http//www.apn.gr/pong.html)
• 1972 Magnavox builds Odyssey

15
Early Stages 1976-1977

• COLECO builds TELSTAR
• Cartridges are born (Fairchild Camera
  Instrument Channel F)
• Atari bought by Warner Communications (28M)
• Atari releases first console (later known as
  Atari 2600)

16
Early Stages 1977-78

• Nintendo releases Othello (http//www.mattelothell
  o.com/)
• Taito creates Space Invaders!
• Midway bought license
• Apple and Atari release PCs
• But Atari is seen as a gaming company

17
The Golden Age 1979-1981

• Atari releases Asteroids!
• Frogger, Konami/Sega, 1981
• Pac-Man, Bally/Midway, 1980
• Donkey Kong, Nintendo, 1981
• Namco releases Pac-Man, 1982 (300K machines
  sold)
• Own television show
• US Army commissions Atari for a tank simulation
  game
• Start of a long enduring activity (Lehigh
  included!)
• Nintendo releases first console in 1981
• Nothing to do? Check this out (some retro games)
• http//www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/

18
The Great Crash 1982-1984

• The Commodore 64 PC is released
• Coleco releases the Adam PC
• Too many competitors small and large saturate the
  market
• 1982 Warner Corp. stock fell 32 after Atari
  announces less-than-expected sells of consoles
• Atari sold to Jack Tramiel (owner of Commodore)
• New company Atari Corp. pulls from Console
  market
• Bright spot Nintendo releases famicon, which
  does well in Japan

19
The Return of the Video Games 1985-1988

• Nintendo releases NES
• Met with skepticism by market observers
• Turns out to be an instant hit
• Legend of Zelda
• http//www.nintendoland.com/zelda/home.htm
• Apple releases the Mac, Atari releases 520ST
• Who won?
• Tetris is released!
• http//www.miniclip.com/tetris.htm
• Coleco files for bankruptcy

• 1985 MS releases Windows
• PC as a gaming platform
• 2006 Games for Windows

20
The Story Continues

• 1989 Nintendo releases Gameboy, Sega releases
  Genesis
• 1991 Nintendo releases SNES, Sega releases Sonic
• 1993 32-bit consoles
• Nintendo releases Mortal Combat!
• 1999-2001 Playstation 2, Gamecube, Xbox
• 2006 Nintendo releases wii (out sales
  PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360)

21
Whats Left?

• PC Games
• We will cover these in coming classes but by
  Genre
• FPSs
• RTSs
• RPGs (including MMOs)