VIDEO GAME: HISTORY AND INDUSTRY

Week 4

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THE FIRST 25 YEARS OF VIDEO GAME II

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Chronicle of Video Game

Generation Years 1st Generation 1972 – 1977 2nd Generation 1976 – 1984 Video Game Crash 1983 3rd Generation 1983 - 1992 4th Generation 1987 - 1996 5th Generation 1993 - 2002 6th Generation 1998 – 2006 7th Generation 2005 – present day

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Video Game Market Crash - 1983 It happened in NA only.

Several home computers and console gaming companies went through bankruptcy.

The reasons:

Too many poorly clone games were in the market.

Two highly publicized games turned out to be very poorly designed and manufactured: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Pac-Man for Atari 2600

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Too many clone of Pong. End when Taito released the Space Invader.

Clone of Pong

Pong and clones

Space Invader

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Space Invader – 360,000. Galaxian – 40,000. Asteriods -70,000.

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Golden Age of Arcade Games

Galaxian Asteriods

Fall of Arcade Games

Personal Computers (PC) – Apple and IBM released their machines.

Game developers began to write games in the bed rooms and sold them through mail orders.

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Lord British was creating Ultima world.

3rd Generation 1985 - 1989

Nintendo of America (NOA) released Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System – NES) in US.

NES sold like a hotcake in NA. Customers regained their confidence in Video

Game. NES dominated the NA market.

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3rd Generation 1985 - 1989

NES/Famicom Bundled with Super Mario Bros.

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3rd Generation 1985 - 1989

NES had many legendary titles: Legend of Zelda – Nintendo Dragon Quest - Enix Final Fantasy – Square Metal Gear - Kanomi Sweet Home – Capcom

NES has around 800 game titles during its life time.

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3rd Generation 1985 - 1989

For the coming period of 1990s – we saw a lot new individual and small companies create lot highly quality and original games on PC.

The popularity of console and PC games help the decline of arcade platform.

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3rd Generation 1985 - 1989

PC titles during 1990s: Wing Commander DOOM/Quake Dune Warcraft Alone in the Dark SimCity

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3rd Generation 1985 - 1989

In 1989, Nintendo released Game Boy. It is the first commercial successful handheld console.

The Tetris was bundled with Game Boy.

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4th Generation 1989 - 1996

This era had 2 dominated game consoles: Sega Mega Drive Nintendo NES

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4th Generation 1989 - 1996

The competition was intense during this period.

Due to large number of 3rd party developers gained during the NES era, the dominated winner of 4th generation was still Nintendo and its Super NES.

However, Mega Drive was used CD-Rom as the mean of delivering game instead of using cartridge.

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5th Generation 1994 - 1999

Nintendo release N64 during this period. Surprisingly N64 was poorly received.

SONY became the leader instead by releasing Playstation.

The success of PS based of 2 factors: Brilliant business strategies PS vastly advanced processing power of 3D

graphics

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5th Generation 1994 - 1999

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Genre of Video Games

Action adventure game: Puzzles solving, adventure, action, leveling

system The Legend of Zelda.

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Action role-playing game: Exploration/puzzles/action/monetary

system/leveling. Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu

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Adventure game: Text adventure/home computer/complex

story/huge imagined world. Mystery House.

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Beat’em up: Side-scrolling beat’em ups/multiple enemies/

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Cinema platform game: Prince of Persia

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Role-playing game: Console RPG: Dragon Quest. PC PRG: Ultima.

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Fighting games: One-on-one fighting. Street Fighter

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Hack and slash: Visceral hack & slash/Cooperative play. Golden Axe

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Interactive Movie: Feature live-action FMV footage.

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Platform games (Platformers): Centered on climbing ladders between different

floors. Donkey Kong/Mario Bros.

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Shooters: Side-scrolling in shoot ‘em ups.

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Stealth games: Metal Gear

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Survival horror: Haunted House/Sweet Home/Resident

Evil(Biohazards)

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Real Time Strategy: Dune II /Herzog Zwei

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