Examination of Games

An actual definition for the term 'Game' has been, by some, deemed impossible to clarify. My personal definition would be 'an activity in which people (players) take on roles to act out certain situations defined by set rules." 

The first instance of computer games were built on a machine back during the Cold War in 1958. This game was called 'Tennis for Two' and used an oscilloscope to simulate a game of tennis or ping pong. Created by William Higinbotham, an American physicist, the machine was designed to stop the guests who visited his laboratory where he worked from becoming bored. Higinbotham had used an old Brookhavens computer's ability to calculate ballistic missile trajectories as the starting point for the game. After 2 hours of designing and 3 weeks of building, with the help of Robert V. Dvorak, they had created a game that could even go as far as creating a 'drag' effect when the ball hit the net. The game was controlled by an aluminium controller with a button to hit the ball with, and a knob to alter the angle of the shot. There has been controversy over whether this is the first video game or not, due to the fact that the game is displayed on an oscilloscope rather than a traditional (by today's standards) CRT monitor or television set.

Higinbotham's Tennis for Two

After a few years, games such as Pong and Asteroids would go on to be the first mainstream games, which would then evolve into Arcade classics like Pac-Man. When Magnavox and Atari were releasing consoles during the 1970's, Pong was the game that got the public aware and interested in this new-found media. Up until the early-80's, Atari were the kings of the home console industry with games such as Space Invaders behind their belts. They survived every video game stock crash that forced smaller companies out of business, and carried on making consoles for years to come. It wasn't until Nintendo jumped onto the scene that video games would truly be changed forever.

The 2600 would lead Atari to the top for
years.

In 1983, when Nintendo released the Famicom (Family Computer) in Japan, it gained instant popularity with it's high-quality graphics and longer games. When it was released under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in America by 1985, the popularity continued and Super Mario Bros. went on to be classed as one of the greatest video games of all-time. SEGA released the Master System to try and compete with the NES, but to no avail. Consoles would be released year after year up until the present day, with companies still battling it out for their share of the market. Nintendo, even after all these years, are still on the high-end of the market with the Nintendo Wii and it's innovative motion-sensing gameplay and trademark titles. Not to say there isn't any competition, however, as Microsoft and Sony are hot on their tail with the Xbox and Playstation.

Super Mario Bros.: Nintendo's greatest success.

'Fun play' with video games is now slightly more difficult to define. As time goes on, people want more new and fresh ideas. It's reasons like this that Nintendo are selling the Wii so well. It's a unique and family-friendly type of gameplay which appeals to all ages and cultures of people around the world. Microsoft and Playstation are also breaking from their traditional styles of gameplay with the release of Kinect, the controller-less gaming device and Sony's Move, a Wii-Remote with a light on the end.

The Nintendo Wii is a ground-breaking piece of hardware.

Games have also transferred into mainstream life as a major form of media. Some people are still uneasy about video games, especially when it comes to violence and more realistic situations. Some people are so concerned, in fact, that their governments are trying to create regulations on video games. The main argument here is showing graphic content to minors, but ratings boards and parental locking suggest that it's not easy at all for minors to see anything they shouldn't be unless parents are careless.

Reference:


Anderson, John (1996-) Tennis for Two: The Story of an early Computer Game. Available from:
<http://www.pong-story.com/1958.htm>
[Accessed 19th October 2010]