The Early Age of Video Gaming and Computing: Atari Corporation’s Pong
Brief history In 1972, Nolan Bushnell and his company, Atari, released Pong, the first commercially successful video game. Atari sold computerized table tennis to bars, bowling alleys, pool halls, and other amusement locations targeting children and adults with money to spend and a desire for novelty. As Atari and other companies released more and more games, including perennial favorites like Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) and Centipede (Atari, 1981), video game cabinets surpassed other coin-operated entertainment systems, including the pinball machine and jukebox. Interestingly, arcades were not just frequented by truant punks in leather jackets but by bright young boys and girls with a penchant for technology and adults in need of a diversion from the
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His photographs, in addition the historical insights by Raiford Guins and Ryan Pierson, provide a lens through which one can analyze the video game design, physical …show more content…
Its black exterior complements the yellow wooden shroud and enclosed black screen. Installed at a 90-degree angle, the screen faces outwards to facilitate direct interaction, “drawing its users deeper into the cabinet and closer to the phosphorescence of the machine’s cathode-ray tube” (Guins, 412). Bushnell intended for Pong to be “low key” and “suitable for sophisticated locations,” not relegated to rambunctious, flashy arcades (Guins, 411). The absence of cabinet graphics beyond the machine’s title allowed Pong to enter locations not typically welcoming of coin-op video game machines during the early 1970s. As cabinet design inherently promotes and expresses attributes of the game, ostentatious or decorative graphics would have detracted from the Pong’s
Atari was the first commercial video game company with hits like ‘break out” and “pong”. For many people pong was the first video game they have ever played. The idea of pong is that there is two rectangles that only move up and down and a little square that bounces around the screen until one of the rectangles miss, once the rectangle miss’ the game is over. This game may seem simple now but it sold 19,000 units so you can say what you want but back then this was the greatest game ever.
An examination of videogames in popular culture is a complicated one. There is a large debate as to what is the very first video game. The supposed earliest known video game was created by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann on a cathode ray tube in 1947. The game was a missile simulator similar to radar displays from World War II, and overlaid sheets of paper were used for targets since graphics were unknown at this time. On May 5, 1951, the NIMROD computer was presented in Britain. It used a panel of lights for its display and was used to play a game called “NIM”. Later, in 1952, Alexander S. Douglas made the first compu...
Would it not be awesome if we could do the things one can only dream of doing? Imagine a world where you can be a running back in the NFL, a powerful sorcerer, and Batman, all in the same day. This world does exist and its the world of video games. Video games allow us to escape reality and the stress that comes with it. It is a world of infinite possibilities with something for everyone. You can slay huge aliens with your friends in a virtual reality, harvest the crops from you very own virtual farm, or even run your own country! In the world of video games, you can do whatever your heart desires! But video games have not always been this way and have not always been around. It has taken a lot of innovation, creativity, and technology to get to where we are today.
Atari, a name synonymous with video games. The makers of such hits as Pitfall!, Adventure, Centipede, and Asteroids. Atari’s name and moniker will forever be written down as one of the first, successful video games companies in America. But, how successful? It’s regarded among the gaming community as one the most scandalous and ludicrous actions in gaming history and, in recent years, has taken on a title of urban legend.
1970s was considered as the birth of video game industry, the phenomenon of gaming was growing and home gaming console Home-Pong which was a one-game-only console was invented by Atari, since then, the gaming industry has become very profitable, and more and more genre of video games were created.
ames have been played before we began to record time. Almost 50 years ago, games changed into a new form. Magnavox Odyssey can be debated to be the first game console. Throughout 50 years ago and now, video games have become essential to every living room and a pastime to every young child. Companies have risen from this new industry, to produce games to young investors and dominate the game world. With new technology, graphics, and software: gaming franchises run mostly by public support. Each decade that passes, games are changed by America’s public these games change based on how the public perceives them.
Video games were invented in the early 20th century and many children under the age of 20 were immediately drawn to it. Many video games started as arcade games, which in most cases were less than twenty-five cents. It then evolved into home consoles you can play on the TV. Today, there are handheld consoles and improved TV consoles for a better gaming experience. Many companies such as Microsoft and Sony create video games, but still have their other products (not game related).
While it is as far from the eventual commercial videogame systems that come later as a walk in the park is to a walk on the moon, a physicist trying to make the public tour of his lab a little more exciting to bored visitors designs what some consider as a precursor videogame system in 1958. Working at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a US nuclear research lab in Upton, New York, William A. Higinbotham notices that people attending the annual autumn open houses, which are held to show the public how safe the work going on there is, are bored with the displays of simple photographs and static equipment. Educated at Cornell University as a physics graduate, Higinbotham had come to BNL from Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project, and had actually been witness to the first detonation of the atomic bomb. A chain-smoking, fun-loving character and self-confessed pinball player, he wants to develop an open house exhibit at BNL that will entertain people as they learn.
In the video game Enter the Matrix, released in 2003, the players take on the role of supporting characters in the film sequel Matrix Reloaded. They play the side stories; those that not appear on screen in the film. The game is inspired by the world that is depicted in the film. Enter the Matrix displays distinct visual parallel between the film and the video game. The overlook of the film and video game is similar and distinguishable because the video game mimics the visual style of the film. It gets players satisfied with their purchase of the game. Playing the game is a different experience for the players because it connects them with the source material. It allows them to be part of the story and to feel to be the character of their franchise. Players are considered spectators too because there are some cinematic cut scenes that are shown in the game which makes them observe and do n...
Video games started as arcade machines with simple graphics and even simpler stories, soon evolving into home gaming with The Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first home-gaming console. It invaded living rooms in 1972, selling 300,000 units. Since then there has been many consoles and games released, some have been huge commercial successes which
Video games, specifically home consoles, came to the US on October 18th 1985. The NES. Most games around that time were all bright and cheerful looking games such as Mario, Kirby, Legend Of Zelda, and Pokemon a few years later on the Gameboy. But as other game developers appeared, new types of games were made. The shooter genre and fighting genre of games came mostly on the Xbox and PS systems with a couple exceptions being on a Nintendo console(Doom, Goldeneye, Smash bros). Now shooter games
“The History of Video Arcade Games.” BMI Gaming. BMI Worldwide, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.
3. “Video Games” by Chris Jozefowics. Published by Gareth Stevens Publishing 2010. Pleasantville, NY 10570-70000 USA. Produced by Editorials Directions Inc.
Video games first appeared in the early 1970's. It all started with a simple white ball bouncing back and forth on the screen. In 1986, Nintendo introduced its first line of home video game consoles. With the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on the market, the home video gaming industry surged and immediately became popular among children. Since then, not only have video games increased in popularity, but there have been vast improvements in graphics, game play, and forms of gaming.
In society’s current era of technological advancement, video games have gone a long way since they were first created. Video games in the twenty-first century are no longer just toys or junk in the lifestyles of the youth. They have become innovative inventions that not only entertain its users, but also help aid the people in both the academic field and in jobs. The influences that video games bring about in the culture of the youth today are, in fact, not the negative influences that most people think. Video games are actually this generation’s new medium for educating the youth. The information they learn are also mostly positive and useful things that they may apply in their future lives (Prensky 4). In a generation that revolves around technology and connectivity, developers and educators have already been able to produce fun and interesting games that can teach and train people. Video game developers and educators should continue to collaborate in order to create more positive, educational, and appealing games.