Introduction, History of Computer and Video Games

Background

Colleges and universities offering game development and theory courses.
- some majors and minors
  - MIT, University of Southern California, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Washington, etc.
- International Game Developers Association has developed an evolving education curriculum guidelines for game development: http://www.igda.org/resource/group/b5ea2361-3c2d-49fe-9a7d-b3e7bbeddfa1/2015_Framework_GDC_Presenta.pptx

Developing a game is not just programming.
- (But the programmers tend to make more money.)
- Fields of study such as Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Theater, Business, and Film Studies have a major impact on gaming

1952 - A.S. Douglas of U. Cambridge developed Tic-Tac-Toe for the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), a British computer.

The first games were hacked on oscilloscopes and university mainframes.
1962 - Spacewar. Developed at MIT on a PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1; Digital Equipment); used vector graphics.
1965 - Periscope. Developed by Sega; popularity prompted Sega to ditch the pinball business and produce more of its own games. See http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/sperisc.htm

1971 - Computer Space (a Spacewar clone). Developed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney; used a regular raster display television set; too ahead of its time.
1972 - Magnavox Odyssey. The first home video game console developed by Ralph Baer. A commercial success ($100 a system, 330,000 sold).
1972 - Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney found Atari.
1972 - Pong, the arcade machine (by Atari). Home version released in 1975.
1974 - Tank. Developed by Kee Games. The first arcade game to use ROM chips.
1976 - (Colossal Cave) Adventure. The first text-based interactive fiction game developed by William Crowther and Don Woods on Digital mainframes.
1976 - Breakout. Prototyped by then Atari employee Steve Jobs (with the help of friend Steve Wozniak). See link.
1977 - Atari 2600 (128 bytes of RAM); Apple introduces the Apple II. 2 million Atari 2600s sold by 1980 – thanks in part to …
1978 - … Space Invaders. Developed by Taito in Japan.
1979 - Asteroids. Developed by Atari.

1980 - Pac-Man. Developed by Namco. $1 billion since its release.
1980 - Battlezone. Developed by Atari (doing $1 billion in business at the time).
1981 - Donkey Kong, Centipede, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Tempest.
1982 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts}Electronic Arts (EA) is founded.
Crash: Game industry > $6 billion in 1981; Atari sales down 50% in 1981; game industry < $800 million by 1984.
1985 - Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
1985 - Tetris. Developed by Alexey Pajitnov (Soviet Union).
1986 - Sega Master System, Amiga by Commodore (computer), and Atari 7800.
1989 - Sega Genesis (16-bit console), Nintendo GameBoy, SimCity (by Maxis).

1990 - Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES)
1991 - Super Nintendo (SNES). 16-bit competitor to the Sega Genesis.
1991 - S3 introduces first single chip graphics accelerator for PC.
1991 - Street Fighter II (Capcom) and Wolfenstein 3D (id Software)
1992 - Mortal Kombat by Midway.
Nintendo has $7 billion in sales worldwide; Sega and Nintendo consoles dominate 80% of the computer/video game market.
1993 - DOOM (id Software; not true 3D) and Myst (Broderbund).
1993 - 7th Guest. First game with full-motion video.
1995 - Windows 95. Make game development significantly easier (DirectX SDK, plug-and-play).
1995 - Two 32-bit systems: Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation.
1996 - Nintendo 64. Cartridge based system aimed for the younger market.
1996 - Quake (id Software). Real 3D engine; multiplayer online game
1997 - Standardization of 3D acceleration; Pentium II 200 MHz PCs.
1997 - Ultima Online. First 3D Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG).
1997 - GoldenEye 007 released for N64, developed by a team who had never developed a game before; created a smooth multi-player mode as an afterthought.
1997 - Final Fantasy VII released for PS1.
1998 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time released for N64.
1998 - Dance Dance Revolution (Konami) introduced. A pioneer in the rhythm and dance video game genre.
1999 - Sega Dreamcast. 128-bit console.

2000 - The Sims, developed by Maxis and published by EA. Became one of the the best-selling PC games of all time (>175 million copies sold).
2000 - Sony PlayStation 2. 128-bit console; 294 MHz processor (“Emotion Engine”).
2001 - Microsoft XBox. 128-bit console; Pentium 4 733 MHz processor; DirectX API.
- Launch title: Halo
2001 - Nintendo GameCube. 128-bit console; IBM Gekko Processor at 403 MHz.
2001 - Grand Theft Auto III. Developed by Rockstar Games.
2004 - Two handheld systems: Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP)
2004 - World of Warcraft
2004 - Flash MX 2004 (ActionScript 2.0); begin the Flash games revolution
2005 - Microsoft XBox 360. Custom IBM PowerPC and ATI Graphics processors.
2005 - Guitar Hero I
2006 - Guitar Hero II
2006 - PlayStation 3 (PS3); Blu-ray
2006 - Nintendo Wii.
2007 - Apple iPhone.
2007 - Halo 3; >14.5 million copies sold worldwide.
2007 - Rock Band for PS3 and XBox 360 by Harmonix Music Systems.
2009 - Wii Sports becomes the best-selling game of all time. (>82 million copies sold to date)
2009 - 2D games still going strong! (?) New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
2009 - Angry Birds
2010 - Apple iPad
2010 - iPhone 4
2010 - Microsoft Kinect, PlayStation Move

…

2012-13 - XBox One, Playstation 4, Wii U, Ouya (attempt at crowd-funded model, Android-based), “Steam Box”
2014-now - VR, League of Legends (professional electronic sports), twitch.tv (live game streaming), people still can't let Pokemon Go

Roadmap: Game Design ⇒ 2D Game Development Concepts ⇒ Game Mechanics Implementation ⇒ Game Production
Build at least one large-scale game (full development life-cycle)