Computer GamesJoin now to read essay Computer GamesComputer GamesKelly Hanlon, Tim Lopes,Jeff Peterson, Daniel GallantUniversity of PhoenixCIS 319Clay FieldingDecember 1 2004IntroductionComputer games in the information systems industry account for over seven billion dollars in sales in 2003 and are a pivotal component in driving both the software and hardware portions of the industry. (Entertainment Software Association, 2003). Computer games are quickly taking a chuck of total dollars in the entertainment industry and some say will emerge with Hollywood to create a more interactive entertaining experience for the consumer. In this paper we will be discussion some brief history of games, how they are currently being developed in regards to software, where games are heading in the future, and how they currently are being used today in other aspects of life.
A History of GamesThe beginningAccording to many sources, the idea of the video game came about between 1949 and 1951, from a man named Ralph Baer. Baer was television engineer at Loral. His chief engineer asked him to “build the best television set in the world.” A simple task for Baer, he decided to make it a challenge and add the ability to play games to the television set. Unfortunately, his chief engineer did not like this idea, and the project was scrapped. The earliest known completed video game was created by A. S. Douglas, a PhD student at Cambridge, in 1952. It was a Tic-Tac-Toe game titled “Naughts and Crosses” written for the EDSAC computer. Six years later, William Higinbotham and Robert Dvorak from Brookhaven National Laboratories created “Tennis For Two.” Unlike Pong, this game was viewed from the side. The ball physics were very good for its time, accurately simulating the effects of gravity. In 1962, MIT student Steve Russel created Spacewar! for PDP-1 mainframes, and was the first game distributed over ARPAnet. Baer resumed his project in 1966, and created a game system that had several games in it, including various ball and paddle games, a chase game, and what appears to be the first light gun game. Baer showed many TV manufacturers his prototype, and Magnavox took a liking to it, releasing the first machine in 1972 under the name Odyssey. At the same time, Atari released the arcade version of Pong, and an arcade version of Spacewar! called Computer Space a year earlier.
The ArcadesPong became a very popular game. Ataris prototype generated so much money in its first few weeks the coin counter would jam because the bucket was too full. Kee Games created the first game to use ROM chips to store graphics, level, and program data, called Tank. This game also became very popular, so much that Atari decided to merge with Kee Games. In the next few years, many companies release 110 games, but most were unremarkable pong clones. Meanwhile, in Japan, a struggling Pachinko manufacturer known as Taito catches wind of the popularity of arcade games and creates Space Invaders. This quickly becomes insanely popular in Japan, to the degree of causing coin shortages. Midway, an American distributor soon acquires the license to distribute Space Invaders in the US, and almost overnight shop owners were setting up all Space Invaders arcades. Soon after, Merry-go-Round manufacturer Namco decides to buy out the Japanese Atari subsidiary and create the first true color game Galaxian. All games before this just used colored cellophane glued to the monitor to give the illusion of color.
Home GamingIt all began with the Odyssey in 1972 with its simple ball and paddle games. Several similar units made by various companies, including Atari, soon follow. The first home system with interchangeable cartridges arrives in 1976, the Fairchild Channel F. The next year, Atari releases the Atari 2600. Early on, the system never caught on, until 1980, when the Space Invaders license was obtained. With the release of that, sales grew astronomically. Atari, however, poorly paid their programmers, to the point where the many left Atari and formed Activision. Activision was responsible for some of the greatest games ever seen on the 2600. Because of Ataris poor treatment of its programmers, many rushed games were released for the system, including a terrible port of Pac-Man, and the infamously horrible E.T. Soon after, Coleco created Colecovision, with some very nice arcade ports, and eventually an adapter which
came out just in time for the Atari Classic’s release, the Colecovision-S. Both the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 were released on the 2600, despite the new controllers and video game cartridges being the main competitors. The Commodore 64 was available on the NES, which it did in November 1979.
The 2600 game was sold in just over 100 units.
The Commodore 64 – Commodore 64 Pocket Computer.
The 2600 game in the NES was in no way the only Atari 2600 game, with almost 100 of these in stock, but it was the best one for a long time – about a year after the NES came out. A few of the cartridges that made it to the 2600 were used, including the Atari 2600 and 3DS. Another source said that the 2600 was the world’s first computer game for the 2600.
In 1984, Coleco purchased the game company Atari, which was struggling. This time, the company came out with the more modern 2600 system. The 2600 was used for a short time, but that only lasted a couple games, which was quite amazing. However, eventually it was resold to third parties, who made the new hardware available to everyone who played. The cartridges were discontinued, and the 2600 sold mostly unsold.
The Atari 2600 – Atari 2600 Pocket Computer.
The 2600 (later ” Atari-800 “).
To illustrate, here are some screenshots we’ve taken of a 2600:
– The Atari 2600 was released late in 1983, by Atari. The 2600 used “classic” controls and cartridge features (e.g., the Atari 2600 3D), as well as a number of new features, such as the ability to use your phone as a desktop, 3D games, and of course, an updated video game controller (in some games, you can even switch between these, for the full 2600 experience), the ability to play “all” games, and much, much more. The 2600 was released very early on, especially in 1983 (and in later years well into 1988), but it did not appear until late in 1984.
– There were a number of Atari 2600 games that were very well received online. There were (in a few cases more than one) arcade arcade games on the 2600 included like Mega Man, Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and so on. However, there were no arcade games on the 2600 that were not well received online (e.g., the Atari 2600 and Atari 2600 4K). There were arcade games on other systems, but they were never really used in any of those games, at least in the sense they were considered the best-known Atari games of all-time. Most of the 2600 games sold online.
– There were a number of Atari games from arcade games to other consoles.
– There are few analog consoles on the 2600 (it was not clear where the games were sold, but one can almost certainly guess that Atari sold only a handful of the 2600 games).
– Other Atari 2600 games from arcade games to other consoles were probably less or no-hitches, including the Atari 2600 (which sold well by 1985) and the Atari 2600 Pocket Computer. Some of these were sold as “preorders” in the arcade market, but they were often made by the same company and sold just online, at some point or another.
– A few of these were “sell by Amazon” as well (there are more of them online now than at any time in time).
The Atari 2600 – Atari 2600 Pocket