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Videogames Turn 40
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue May 15, 2007 11:05 AM
from the oh-man-we're-all-old-now dept.
from the oh-man-we're-all-old-now dept.
May 15th marks the 40 year anniversary of the first games hooked up to the television. An article on the 1up site tells the story of Ralph Baer, Bill Harrison, and Bill Rusch working at the Sanders Associates company on a little game called Pong. They go into a great deal of detail on the development of the console, going so far as to include a number of the group's original notes on the project. "Baer kept the tiny lab, a former company library in Sanders' early days, locked at all times. Only two men had keys: Baer and Harrison. The room would remain the base of operations for their controversial video experiments for years to come -- experiments that, had they been known about widely at the time, might have garnered intense ridicule from other employees of the prominent defense contractor. Pursuing them was an utterly audacious move."
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So this means (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So this means (Score:4, Funny)
"so simple even a frog could play them."
Why must article discriminate againt the French ? We are good people. Too much now in the US is anti-French feeling, like "freedom fries". Without France, its hards for US defeat Hitler, and France is a leads computer industry, with programming languages like OCAML, which win most programming contest.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:So this means (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:So this means (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
No, but... (Score:2)
SPACEWAR!! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:SPACEWAR!! (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:SPACEWAR!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Spacewar on original hardware! (Score:4, Informative)
Nitpick: It was a PDP-1 [brouhaha.com], one of which has been restored to working order, much to the delight of Spacewar's creators [computerhistory.org].
But everything else you said was essentially correct, including the homebuilt input device [pdp-1.org], which consists of five switches laid out in a pattern that anyone who played the coin-op versions of Spacewar and Asteroids will immediately recognize.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Even Ralph Bayer's Odyssey system might not meet some qualifications for videogame since it was an analogue system and not digit
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Chris Mattern
I had a Magnavox Odyssey growing up (Score:4, Interesting)
And now this article comes out.
Jeez, I'm old.
Re:I had a Magnavox Odyssey growing up (Score:4, Interesting)
The thing that got my excited was that they had a computer programming cartridge for it. I had dreams of using the Odyssey II like a home computer, or at least doing some basic programming. In turned out all the cartridge let you do is program about 20 steps in assembly language. The output was limited to about 10 characters. What a let down.
Parent
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So yes you are old.
Hey, I found an emulator! (Score:3, Informative)
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You can view our Ralph Baer Interviews (Score:5, Informative)
Baer Necessities (Score:5, Interesting)
However painful it may seem, most industries are born of one or more men inventing something truly interesting. However, their first growth spurt comes when someone else copies that invention and popularizes it. This is, in effect, the respective roles of Baer and Bushnell.
I'd encourage people to read the whole article, including the sidebars. It's a great history lesson for a subject dear to us all.
Re:Baer Necessities (Score:5, Funny)
I'd encourage people to read the whole article,
Will do. Right after I post some comments about the article.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not sure if I agree that the invention has to be copied by someone outside the organization (although this is frequently the case), but I think you are on to something with the rest of your thought. There are two key parts of "birt
Bushnell IS the beginner (Score:3, Insightful)
Bushnell was responsible for making the video-game arcade as well as popularizing
Video game used to teach lesson on .. (Score:5, Funny)
My Father bought us the Atari system and we would play the "Tennis" game. I would bet my allowance and I would win several games. Each time my Dad lost, he would say, "How about double or nothing?"
I would always respond with "Yes!"
All of a sudden, my Dad would become great at video tennis and win. I lost everything, but kept my original allowance. Eventually, I gave up gambling with him and to this day I don't like to gamble. Educated risks, yes, but no gambling.
Re:Video game used to teach lesson on .. (Score:5, Insightful)
look at what has become of games?
banal and needlessly vulgar.
i used to be really good at counterstrike (1.4+ and source..).. i mean really good.. good as in admins kicked me constantly under suspicion of cheating. i found maybe 3 people each month that could school me, and when i did, i was awestruck. anyway, i digress. i stopped playing cs because one day my 5 year old sister was behind me, without me knowing it, then i heard her say something to the effect of 'shoot him! kill him!' or something equally as disturbing. i wondered 'how the hell does she have any idea what the object of this game is at her age?'...before that, the only game she had seen me play was mario.
ive come to the conclusion that we're desensitizing ourselves and our children to violence and vulgarity, and this is something i could have never pictured myself saying even 5 years ago. sure, as 'mature adults' we can play stuff like CS / GTA and clearly distinguish between game life and real life, between what is proper to do in real life, and what is funny to do in videogames (funny, simply because its so far off course with what would be done in real life), however, i do not believe that children are as capable of this advanced level of discernment. it seems as if though we have recreated the roman arena on our screens. sure, people aren't actually dying, but hey, to some degree i bet the spectators didn't consider the gladiators 'people' in the normal sense. (in other words, i bet if a tons of villagers were going about their everyday tasks, and a tiger suddenly appeared and killed one of their fellow villagers, im sure there would have been a sense of grief, loss, and sadness in general amongst them. yet, these same villagers would have cheered on the death of another human to the very same tiger inside of the arena.)
people are quick to become infuriated if someone offers a contradictory opinion to theirs on various topics and quickly say "don't force your opinions on me!", yet, look at what we do to the upcoming generations-- are not all our examples left to inspire, influence, and mold the future generations, for centuries to come, long after our deaths?
Parent
Re:Snakes and Arrows (Score:5, Interesting)
I find it similar to the article/essay written by Neal Peart of Rush about their new album, Snakes and Arrows. (Rush is currently #3 on the charts - I never thought I'd see that again! Makes me happy as a big Rush fan!)
Snippet from A Prize Every Time [rush.com]
"...how children are usually imprinted with a particular faith, along with their other early blessings and scars. People who actively choose their faith are vanishingly few; most simply receive it, with their mother's milk, language, and customs. Thinking also of people being shaped by early abuse of one kind or another, I felt a connection with friends who had adopted rescue dogs as puppies, and given them unlimited love, care, and security. If those puppies had been "damaged" by their earlier treatment--made nervous, timid, or worse--they would always remain that way, no matter how smooth the rest of their life might be. It seemed the same for children.
To express that notion, I came up with, "The snakes and arrows a child is heir to/ Are enough to leave a thousand cuts." I thought I was only combining Hamlet's "slings and arrows" with the childhood game "Snakes and Ladders," to make something less clichéd. And indeed, when we were discussing Snakes and Arrows as a possible album title, Geddy remarked, "I like it because it sounds familiar, but isn't."
Parent
Played my first arcade game in 1972 (Score:3, Insightful)
And here we are in 2007 and video games still catch my interest....
This isn't fact!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
So get you facts straight and don't argue with 40-something fantasy numbers you children-hating-son-of-the-devil!
Praise the lord! See you in court!
Sure, but (Score:2)
Close to home (Score:2)
Deep Sleep Operatives... (Score:2, Funny)
Video Games have Changed! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Video Games have Changed! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Kids these days get bored with several games in less time than it took us to code one screen.
But it doesn't mean kids are necessarily harder to amuse, I think it only means it's much more fun to play a game you wrote (even if you didn't understand a thing) than downloading some (not necessarily very entertaining) game and trying it instantly. Compare that to making a cake and buying a cake at the baker's and eating it as soon as you paid.
So I think that what has changed the most, is that firstly we don't
Alternate first game (Score:4, Interesting)
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Raquette ball
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Re:Alternate first game (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
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Pong TV (Score:5, Interesting)
I didn't discover this until kids were asking me in school "who was on the left". I replied that was my brother. "He was kicking your ASS last night dude". I replied "wait - you weren't around yesterday - hell I didn't even know you knew I had a system!". After he told me he was watching us on tv I rode after school on my bike - several miles from my house - to his and wached my Odyssey (which I left on) beaming in crystal-clear to his tv.
I have no idea what our ratings were, but given the state of mid 70s television - I wouldn't be surprised if our audience-share wasn't substantial.
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Inaccurate summary (Score:2)
Um, Baer & co didn't develop "Pong". They developed a generic tennis game that was similar to Pong, which was developed by Bushnell & co. Sure, they got the basic idea from Baer, but they made it their own (for example, more detailed graphics, on-screen scoring). If I remember the videos I've seen correctly, Baer's version allowed you to mov
Earlier (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham.asp [bnl.gov]
Re: (Score:2)
an oscilloscope is not a television.
40 Years Is Not Very Long (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, that doesn't mean that modern video games are any more enjoyable than Pong and the earlier games, which almost have an advantage in that the only thing they could focus on was gameplay, but it does show an impressive advancement along the technical curve. With that curve tending upwards and advancement getting faster, it's fun to imagine what the next 40 years will bring.
Vector hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
I still love the raster updates and spent many happy hours on the various PC and Mac ports - Maelstrom in particular, but the original game running on vector hardware is still the version I prefer.
Cheers,
Ian
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The reason why there are 100 different versions of Rainbow Six? Maybe because that's what people want. There's a good reason we never see sequels to Pong or Galaga or Frogger.
No Pong Sequels [rockstargames.com]?
There were probably more Galaga knock-offs than sequels to any modern game, and I think 3 Frogger titles plus countless knockoffs.
People "want" the 74th version of Rainbox Six because no one has invented better yet. Once someone does, the next generation will be cluelessly whining about "there's a good reason there were no sequels to Rainbow Six".
And, yes, all the (recent) Final Fantasy games are basically the same: a movie where you have to work to unlock each scene, plus chocobos when yo