Games History & Context

Our most challenging task so far write about the course and what you learned, always a hard task to complete especially when your comments may make your final mark. But to be fair I have enjoyed and learnt a lot from the course.

Heading into the first lesson unaware of what I was about to learn, I found myself thinking about what we could actually be learning. Thoughts such as Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Donkey Kong and Alex the kid (to name a few) all games that I had enjoyed as a child could be discussed which only heightened the anticipation.

The fist assignment was fun to complete as we were given the option of writing about a game of our choice. Naturally I chose Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as it was my favourite game at that time. Through this assignment I found myself learning about different features and what the game does through the game mechanics within the game. Also through some intense research I was able to find similar mechanics in other older games which help me understand where ideas may have come from for the game.

Another fun assignment was writing about first person shooters. I found this to be an exiting challenge as I was writing about a game I had just recently completed on the Microsoft Xbox 360 Call of Duty 2. The video that was shown to the class prior to this assignment was quite amusing to watch. To keep it short the plot was about how first person shooter games mainly Counter Strike are absorbing the younger generation. Although the video has a few points that should be voiced, I personally felt it was one sided and didn’t explore the beneficial side of games to produce a fair argument.

As the lectures rolled on as weeks passed the topic in class became more detailed and explored different areas within the games industry. For example learning about the different cultures and how this affects the way a game is made or developed. How games have evolved though newer consoles and PCs are developed.

The cultures within games are astonishing when it is looked at in detail. Japanese games with their style using different colours and focusing on bright, eye-catching tones. Then there is the western approach using what only can be said different shades of brown. Also the way the characters look and move show signs of the area in which the games were developed.

Another informative lesson and assignment was researching developers of games such as the Oliver brothers and how they began from a small bedroom to a multi million pound franchise. Learning about the origins of Atari and Nintendo was also very informative.

Although the deadline for these assignments was flexible, it did start to become clear that work wasn’t being completed. A good idea on some of the assignments was a stricter deadline which encouraged us to complete what was assigned.

One thing I found to come rather annoying and boring with the in class discussions was the constant eventual debates about World of War Craft. Although a popular game and does deserve a mention it is a new game and the module does say games history. I think that time spent on it could have been used talking about something older and more relevant to the module.

Apart from this negative part about the in class debates, I found that many opinions were put forward and issues were discussed fully no matter what they might be. As all students come form different backgrounds and grew up with different games it was interesting to find out about games that I personally had never played or even never herd of. This only encouraged me do some of my own research and look back into games history and just look at what I had missed.

Perhaps one area that was not dealt with or just briefly looked at was the inner workings of a games company. For example how business was conducted in the early days to the more modern way of business it is now. With our lecturer coming from this background I’m sure he could of spilt the beans on some of his previous employment, without causing too much embarrassment to himself or the company/companies.

The module I thought was relevant to the course as it is teaching us to look back at the older games so we can move on into the future. This helps a game designer I think because week areas of games can be worked on, therefore improving the game play. Also by looking back new ideas can be thought of and written into a game. Perhaps certain game mechanics those were not possible on older consoles, but are on the next generation ones like the Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playsation 3 or Nintendo Wii.

On a final note I would like to congratulate Phil Carlisle on his teaching methods as I have learnt a lot and I can honestly say I look at games in a whole new way. Instead of looking at graphics and game play to rate a game, I feel I can look further and appreciate all the hard work that has gone into it. Knowing about the game mechanics behind the flashy exterior of a game now provides me with excitement for what new ideas may appear.

F22 Intercepter

Developed by: Ingram Entertainment

Published by: Electronic Arts

Created by: Ned Lerner and Gene Kusmiak

Year published: December 31 1991

Platfrom: Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

New/Unique: Landing on aircraft carrier, air refueling, smart bombs.

Links:

Mig Man Fight Simulation Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-22_Interceptor

Wikipedia

http://www.migman.com/ref/1990_combat/F22Interceptor/F22Interceptor.htm

Game FAQs

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/data/586171.html

Japanese Games Vs American/European Games (448 Words)

The console gaming revolution started properly in the late eighties, with the 8-bit systems from developers Nintendo, Sega and Atari. These consoles started a fierce competition that has seen the rise and fall of many companies. Such companies include Sega and Atari who now focus on games development and the latest console developers Sony and Microsoft who have now entered the console gaming market.

The Atari 7800 was developed to replace the unpopular Atari 5200. The aim was to make an affordable console that would help the company regain supremacy in the console market. This worked very well until the company was sold the Atari was pulled of the shelves to pursue other interests. When console gaming took of again due to the release of Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom), Atari re-released the 7800 only for it to fail due to Nintendo’s dominance.

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES/Famicom) was the most successful console of it’s time and helped to revitalize the games industry after the video games crash of 1983. With games such as Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong the Nintendo Entertainment System was the preferred console choice in many homes.

The Sega Master System was the only console at the time that could give Nintendo Entertainment System any competition. While it eventually failed in the America and Japan. It did enjoy a success in secondary markets such as Brazil.

The games on these consoles and even the ones today still show a vast difference in game play. The earlier games were very stereo-typical to where they were released with Japanese games usually focusing on fighting with games like Mortal Kombat, and American/European games focusing on shooting side scrolled screen. The only games that seemed to appear to both regions would be mascot games such as Mario or Sonic.

One main problem with the American/European games market is the necessity for licensing. This can be a good thing in small doses but as usual, big publishing houses such as Electronic Arts always focus on repeating one successful title rather than producing new ones. This is not normally found in Japan as we see more and more different titles arriving with new and different games mechanics. New games mechanics do origin from America/Europe but it is rare.

Another major factor that is present in America and Europe is they are developers and publishers as two separate companies. This causes problems as the publishers have the say to what games are produced as they are the ones with the money.

In future games we can only hope that American/European and Japanese developers combine their best qualities to create something fantastic and will appeal to all audiences whatever they may be.

Call Of Duty 2 (489 Words)

From the developers Infinity Ward and publishers Activision, Call of Duty 2 was the First Person Shooter to buy for the Xbox 360 on launch date. Set in the environment of World War 2, with the player experiencing the lifestyles of three nations during the war Russia, United Kingdom (UK), and United States of America (USA). Call of Duty 2 offers thrilling gameplay to all its players.

Being ported from the PC version, the game as always with console/PC games came under fire on what differences they would be between versions. Fortunately as Microsoft’s next generation console the Xbox 360 had the capabilities of a high end PC, this resulted in an almost perfect if not better gaming experience.

The game has well scripted sequences that help with the story of that particular campaign. With real events being mentioned by using old archives of video and photo with voice over explanations it helps and even informs the player of what actually happened on those days even created the right atmosphere for which the player is about to play.

The developers Infinity Ward have a long history of first person shooter as many of the staff was involved with successful first person shooter games such as Medal of Honour series and Terminator: Dawn of Fate among other titles in games as well as several film titles for certain members of staff in their field of expertise. Although mainly making games for the PC since the release of the Xbox 360 and the future release of other next generation consoles from Sony and Nintendo. The company seems to be putting resources into producing games for these computers as well.

The history of first person shooters can only really have been started from GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64 (Although it was really started with Wolfenstein 3D) as this was the only first person shooter game that was actually good. Although Doom and Quake were both good titles as well, GoldenEye opened the platform up to different game styles and storylines apart from the traditional Sci-Fi. As the years have past many games have been produced some bad and some good such as James Bond 007: Nightfire being bad and Unreal Tournament be superb.

Just recently we see the movie industry has recognised the first person shooter game with the movie release of Doom starting The Rock (The People’s Champion) in their ever increasing interest in game to movie port since the release of Resident Evil. Not to mention the future release of Unreal Tournament 2007 that has already caused a stir in the games industry.

As newer titles of games appear on our shelves we can only hope that we are kept on the edge of our seats with fantastic game play that puts us right in the game. With perhaps another Call of Duty focussing on a more recent war e.g. the Cold War or Gulf War to name a few.

Violence in Computer Games (440 Words)

After watching the American/Canadian documentary First Person Shooter, I found myself thinking about what violence is in our video games. I came to the conclusion that whilst there is a lot of violence in video games, I found it to be closely monitored, with age limits posted on the packaging by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

I cannot speak for other countries but is seems that the United Kingdom is trying to protect its children as best it can from violence that is distributed in games and many other medias. However, bearing this in mind, we are still finding that children can access violence via the news and even in their history lessons. Therefore, it seems to me, that the games industry has become the latest media to be used as a punch bag for political arguments.

On a more positive note, British research (the best kind) has found no link to suggest that violence in children and adults results from any video game they may play. Also, we have not yet seen any Trevor McDonald documentary on the subject.

There are many games that have been criticised for their violence, from the early fighting games such as Mortal Combat to the latest Grand Theft Auto series. Although newer games have been given a strict age licensing on them preventing children from buying them, unfortunately, there are many other ways for these games to be purchased, such as the Internet and parents.

With this is mind, we have to ask ourselves is it really the designers of these games that are the problem or should the finger be pointed at those parents who allow their children to play these games. Misguided parents who don’t understand the problems continue to give their children money to feed this so called addition, not realising the potential harm they may be doing. Another point of view that was put forward but never developed was that of friendship. The video shows the main character in question making friends with all ages, and, in events where the character lost, no hard feelings were shown by the shaking of hands. That would rarely be found in today’s sports amongst fans of opposing teams.

Even though the violence we see in computer games doesn’t affect this generation like previous generations, I am sure we will be appearing in similar idiotic documentaries on the latest new age media that we don’t like or understand. As I am sure you are all aware we do eventually become our parents (God help us!).

For those wishing to watch the documentary it can be found at the following link.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2791133924012342287&q=documentary

Bill Budge (446 Words)

As the first person in gaming history to be described as “famous”, Bill Budge is a renowned computer game programmer and designer. With two main claims to fame being 1981’s Raster Blaster – a pinball game for the Apple 2 and 1983’s Pinball Construction Set for the Apple 2 and Atari 800. Making him the best known game designer in North America in the early eighties.

Starting out by creating Penny Arcade a clone of the classic Pong game using his own custom graphics. He traded the computer game with Apple Computers for a Centronics printer. While still a graduate at The University of California, Berkeley United States of America (USA) studying Computer Science. He continued to produce other game which he tired to market commercially. Whilst teaming up with floppy disk salesmen, generating fifty percent profit for his creations he managed to receive a first pay check of 7,000 USD.

With this inspiration in mind he proceeded to create faster graphics libraries for game programmers stating:

“I wasn't that interested in playing or designing games. My real love was in writing fast graphics code. It occurred to me that creating tools for others to make games was a way for me to indulge my interest in programming without having to make games.”

While working for Apple Computer in 1981 Bill Budge became interested in writing a pinball game. Raster Blaster was created and prevented challengers for the Apple 2, such as physics and collision detection that were too much for the limitations of the processor.

After creating Raster Blaster, BudgeCo was founded with the intentions of the company handling the distribution of his games. In 1983 the game publishing arena became too much and he decided to produce games instead of becoming an entrepreneur. He was later approached by Trip Hawkins (founder of EA) to publish his games which he agreed to and later produced Pinball Construction Set. Towards the mid 1980’s he decides to leave the games industry to semi-retirement in the San Francisco Bay Area California USA.

Returning in the 1990’s working only on work he enjoyed he decided he preferred programming and developing something cutting edge. Later he decided to port his Pinball Construction Set (under the new title Virtual Pinball) to one of the hottest platforms of that time the SEGA Genesis.

Towards the mid nineties he went to work for 3DO, a computer console developer before switching to game developer, developing a game engine for the computer game Bladeforce. He remained at the company until bankruptcy in 2003 where he returned to Electronic Arts (EA) for less than two years. In 2004 he joined Sony Computer Entertainment as Lead Tools Programmer.

Game Mechanic: Factions (403 Words)

In a previous review on a Rockstar Games and Rockstar North game title Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a key game mechanic was identified within the game. This game mechanic know as factions is the grouping of people into categories or ratings.. This is used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a way of dividing the some of the city’s residents into gangs and political parties.

Rockstar North (formally DMA Design) and Rockstar Games produced Grand Theft Auto on the Sony Playstation and PC in 1997. GTA 2 and the expansion packs were later released until 2001 when the GTA franchise entered the third person view, with the title Grand Theft Auto 3. In 2002 GTA: Vice City was released as a prequel story set in a 1986 Miami. With inspiration coming form the movie Scarface and Miami Vice the game proved to be a huge success. Then in 2004 GTA: San Andreas set in 1992 told a story in the eyes of Carl Johnson an ex gang member who returns for his mother’s funeral only to be framed by corrupt police officers. From this in 2005 GTA: Liberty City Stories was produced as a prequel to the stories introduced in GTA 3.

Looking back though history of computer generated games we can see the development of this game mechanic. From the early games where it was a simple rating scheme – to an interaction of non-playable characters (NPC). Although this type of game mechanic is normally associated with military style games it has been introduced into other game platforms as well.

The first game that my research and in class discussions that used this game mechanic factions is Elite. Published by Acornsoft and written by David Braben and Ian Bell for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. Elite is a space trading game where you most improve your space combat rating though a variety of tasks.

Other games that have introduced factions into their gameplay are some of which include The Getaway and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Theses games used ratings as a way to build a player profile to progress thought the game.

In future games especially Grand Theft Auto games I think that the use of factions within gameplay will improve dramatically. From the improvements though the different games in the series, I think that there will be many improvements to the way factions are used in the gameplay.