I don’t feel
I can fully cover the golden age of arcade video games in the 1980s without covering
the existence of Pong in the 1970’s, with the pong arcade machines being
produced in 1972. Due to the manufacturing design of being
built with simple electronic chips and tv set, numerous companies copied the
pong design once it had reached the one year mark in the market. Many
variations adjusted the Pond design lightly – focusing on areas of sport still,
such as hockey or football, as well as bringing in a multiplayer option for the
game. In early 1973 the first colour multiplayer pong game was produced by Nutting Associates under the name of
Wimbeldon – the company having produced the first successful arcade machine in
1971 – Computer Space.
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| Space Invaders - 1978 |
Come 1978 we enter what’s referred
to as the “golden age of video games” (bit narrow minded I guess considering we’re
not dead yet and still have years of video game development ahead of us). Taito
– a struggling manufacturer who produced pachinko
games – developed their first computer
game Space Invaders, in which a player is given the task of defending the
planet from oncoming alien attack by using bunkers as barriers and a single
shot turret as their weapon - the game featuring tension, weapons, character
design and fast pace action. The simple black and white background allowed the
overlay to gain the appearance of colour, causing uproar and is said to have
caused a nationwide coin shortage, and helped see the rapid spread of video arcades across North
America, Europe, and Asia.
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| Atari Football 1978 |
In
the same year Atari released ‘Atari Football’ – the arcade game challenging the
previous norm of machine design - with its table top screen. The game itself added an introduction to a more strategy-based game and featuring manoeuvres used in the footballing world.
Enter the 1980’s – arcade machines became
more of a common occurrence, and in
North America reaching a peak of 13,000 video games between 1980 and 1982.
In this year speech appears in Taito's ‘Stratovox' – a galaxian knock-off. The games aim is to try and prevent the abduction of planet colonists by other aliens. Speech synthesis requires massive amounts of memory to execute, so the alien taunts and pleas from kidnapped colonists are highly distorted and limited to four phrases.
In this year speech appears in Taito's ‘Stratovox' – a galaxian knock-off. The games aim is to try and prevent the abduction of planet colonists by other aliens. Speech synthesis requires massive amounts of memory to execute, so the alien taunts and pleas from kidnapped colonists are highly distorted and limited to four phrases.
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| Pacman 1980 |
In
addition to this, a great pop culture reference was created by Namco – Pacman –
with it first being released in Japan. The game became a phenomenon amongst its
popular predecessors, moving away from the space shooter genre which Taito and
Atari had claimed and creating a new, gender neutral genre. An interesting
aspect about the game is the enemies – most commonly known in the western world as ‘Ghosts’. In an interview the
creator explained that each enemy has its own ‘personality’ in an attempt to
lower the games difficulty as well as the entertainments expiry point. This was obviously effective, as
Pacman could be seen to be one of the highest selling games of all time.
In 1983 a large snag was hit - The North American video game crash. This was a recession of the video game industry that lasted until 1985. Revenues that had peaked at around $3.2 billion dropped almost 97% and an abrupt end was brought to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming. The crash almost destroyed the industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video game consoles - this including Atari. The causes were multiple, a plethora of games and consoles combined with competition from home computers, a loss of publishing controls and the high-profile failures Atari suffered after the release of Pacman once they attempted to recreate it for their system. The main effects were that the home console market shifted from the United States to Japan – with Nintendo's NES being the leading player in 1985, in addition to the institution of measures to control third-party development of software.
The NES became an instant success, coupled with Super
Mario Bros. The game reintroduced a previous character used in Nintendos’ 1981 platform
game Donkey Kong – and later seen as an antagonistic character in Donkey Kong Junior.
When thought about the game takes an everyday job of a plumber and throws it
into a fictional world of damsels in distress, killer turtles and power items.
The 8-bit console also helped shift the default design
of controllers – using a gamepad with a directional pad and action buttons rather
than a joystick.
More genres developed over time, moving far away from the shooter science fiction and opening up to a multitude of alternate themes. The majority of these genres existence could be due to the shift in video game marked - as rather than focusing on what appeared to be a more historical focused development in gameplay, increased fantasy-based and story focused games came to pass. The action-adventure ‘The Legend of Zelda’ made its debut in 1986, with RPGs such as ‘Dragon Quest’ following later in the same year. Dragon quest was inspiration for the large selling success that is Final Fantasy in 1987 – currently with 65 games to its name. Stealth games also appeared with Metal Gear, and the precursor of survival horror appearing in 1989 in the form of ‘Sweet Home’.
The video link above shows that art styles throughout the 1980's, although it has remained pixel/sprite based imagery, more dimension appears towards the end of the years despite them remaining platform games - whether it be from rendering style or using an increased amount of detail within the art in the background images. In addition to this, a broader range has been developed for humanoid characters - other than use of colour - this giving them a more varied silhouette in comparison to one another. However, at this time it mainly reflects on the differences between the playable character and NPCs/enemies within a game.
From 1987 and ending in 1996 we enter the time of
fourth generation consoles, these featuring games and systems programmed for 16
bit. This era not only saw an improvement in 2D graphics in games, but the development
of 3D environments also – however pc gaming was more prevalent in this area,
and compact discs became a viable port for video game sales for the first time. In 1990 the
SNES appeared, beginning the first console war with the 1988 Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
1993 until 2002, the bigger names being the Nintento 64 and the Playstation. It was here where 3D was introduced to video games effectively - Super Mario 64 featured large, free roaming open areas with true 3D polygons as opposed to the 2D sprites. After its success, many other games tried to mimic this.
The use of 3D in video games allowed further genre
development, introducing a more developed fighting game. Street Fighter 2 is
one of the more memorable, mainly for its controls and the fact it has accurate
joystick and button scanning routine, allowing players to execute special moves
easily – more of a skill based game than a luck based one… Unless you button
mash, of course.
First person shooters popped up during fifth
generation consoles as well, alongside MMORPGs, Racing games, and interactive
movie games, my favourite example for this being ‘Toonstruck’ from 1996, where
you control Christopher Lloyd through a point and click adventure through a
cartoon universe, featuring footmen who are actually feet and what could be
seen as some quiet twisted scenes..
Last but not least, survival horrors – with Capcom
releasing Resident Evil in 1996 – taking inspiration from Sweet Home and Alone
in the Dark, incorporating fixed cinematic camera angles and puzzle-solving
characteristics.
It was here,
with fifth generation consoles, that female figures in video games began to
take on a sex symbol status – Lara Croft being considered one of the earliest,
her design being memorable, based partially off of the comic book character
Tank Girl – focusing on counteracting a stereotypical female video game
character with her athleticism and intellect.
From 1987 and ending in 1996 we enter the time of
fourth generation consoles, these featuring games and systems programmed for 16
bit. This era not only saw an improvement in 2D graphics in games, but the development
of 3D environments also – however pc gaming was more prevalent in this area,
and compact discs became a viable port for video game sales for the first time. In 1990 the
SNES appeared, beginning the first console war with the 1988 Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
(Couldn't help but put The Left Rights in when writing about this.. how unprofessional of me).
1993 until 2002, the bigger names being the Nintento 64 and the Playstation. It was here where 3D was introduced to video games effectively - Super Mario 64 featured large, free roaming open areas with true 3D polygons as opposed to the 2D sprites. After its success, many other games tried to mimic this.
The use of 3D in video games allowed further genre
development, introducing a more developed fighting game. Street Fighter 2 is
one of the more memorable, mainly for its controls and the fact it has accurate
joystick and button scanning routine, allowing players to execute special moves
easily – more of a skill based game than a luck based one… Unless you button
mash, of course.
First person shooters popped up during fifth
generation consoles as well, alongside MMORPGs, Racing games, and interactive
movie games, my favourite example for this being ‘Toonstruck’ from 1996, where
you control Christopher Lloyd through a point and click adventure through a
cartoon universe, featuring footmen who are actually feet and what could be
seen as some quiet twisted scenes..
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| Resident Evil - 1996 |
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