• Over the past 30 years, video games have become an integral part of our culture, and the video game industry has become a multi-billion dollar behemoth.

• Since its commercial birth in the 1950s as a technological oddity at a science fair, gaming has blossomed into one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world.

• The mobile technology boom in recent years has revolutionized the industry and opened the doors to a new generation of gamers.

 

The first recognized example of a game machine was unveiled by Dr. Edward Uhler Condon at the New York World’s Fair in 1940. The game, based on the ancient mathematical game of Nim, was played by about 50,000 people during the six months it was on display, with the computer reportedly winning more than 90 percent of the games.

 

Try Playing:

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/game_nim/nim.html#

 

• However, the first game system designed for commercial home use did not emerge until nearly three decades later, when Ralph Baer and his team released his prototype, the “Brown Box,” in 1967.

• The “Brown Box” was licensed to Magnavox, which released the system as the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.

• Between August 1972 and 1975, when the Magnavox was discontinued, around 300,000 consoles were sold

• In 1972 Atari (founded by Nolan Bushnell, the godfather of gaming) became the first gaming company to really set the benchmark for a large-scale gaming community.

• Atari not only developed their games in-house, they also created a whole new industry around the “arcade”

• Atari began to sell the first real electronic video game Pong, and arcade machines began emerging in bars, bowling alleys and shopping malls around the world.

• Between 1972 and 1985, more than 15 companies began to develop video games for the ever-expanding market.

 

Home Gaming:

 

• The integration of the microprocessor also led to the release of Space Invaders for the Atari VCS in 1980, signifying a new era of gaming

• The video game boom caused by Space Invaders saw a huge number of new companies and consoles pop up, resulting in a period of market saturation.  This caused the industry to crash in 1983

• Than in the mid 1980’s home computers like the Commodore Vic-20, the Commodore 64 and the Apple II started to grow in popularity.

• These home computers had much more powerful processors than the previous generation of consoles; this opened the door to a new level of gaming, with more complex, less linear games

• Early computers such as the Macintosh, and some consoles such as the Atari ST, allowed users to connect their devices with other players as early as the late 1980s.

• In 1987, MidiMaze was released on the Atari ST and included a function by which up to 16 consoles could be linked by connecting one computer’s MIDI-OUT port to the next computer’s MIDI-IN port.

• Multiplayer gaming over networks really took off with the release of Pathway to Darkness in 1993, and the “LAN Party” was born(Local Area Network)

• LAN gaming grew more popular with the release of Marathon on the Macintosh in 1994 and especially after first-person multiplayer shooter Quake hit stores in 1996

 

 

A local-area network (LAN) is a computer network that spans a relatively small area. Most often, a LAN is confined to a single room, building or group of buildings, however, one LAN can be connected to other LANs over any distance via telephone lines and radio waves.

 

• Today technology allows millions around the world to enjoy gaming as a shared activity. The recent ESA gaming report showed  connect with friends, and 45 percent use gaming as a way to spend time with their family.

• Rapid developments in mobile technology over the last decade have created an explosion of mobile gaming,

• The move to mobile technology has defined the recent chapter of gaming, but while on-the-move gaming is well-suited to the busy lives of millennials, gaming on mobile devices also has its limitations.

• Phone screens are small, and processor speeds and internal memories on the majority of cellphones limit gameplay possibilities. According to a recent VentureBeat article, .

• Although mobile gaming has caused the death of hand-held gaming devices, consoles are still booming, and each new generation of console welcomes a new era of technology and capabilities.

 

Virtual Reality:

 

• Virtual reality (VR) company Oculus was acquired by Facebook in 2014, and is set to release its Rift headset in 2016.

• This would potentially allow gamers to “live” inside an interactive, immersive 3D world.

• October 2015, Apple made two AI acquisitions in less than a week. Two of the fields being developed are accuracy for voice recognition technology and open-ended dialogue with computers.

 

Play Pong: http://www.ponggame.org/

 

Make your own game:

 

http://www.sploder.com/free-shooter-game-maker.php

 

https://cartoonist.soe.ucsc.edu