Monica Mitchell
AP Lit., Period 1
Dr. Watson
19 September 2008
The Early Days of Games
Today, the world of games has expanded into a near cult phenomena. Today’s youth, and many of the adults, enjoy a vast variety of games that range from tactical games, that are much like the board games people love, to the expansive role playing games that take the player into new worlds and storylines. There are even games that span the world through the internet. But what about the games that started it all? What about the pioneers of the cultural phenomena that are the video games?
Games began as simple as pong, the ball and paddle game with one objective: keep the pixel ball on the screen. They have since evolved to games where there are hundreds of objectives to complete before each level is finished. In the early seventies, games became more popular. Systems such as the Atari and the products of one of today’s gaming giants, Nintendo, began their rise to power.
Atari began modestly in 1972 and its first product was slated to be a simple driving game (Atari Rising). The first game Atari had that obtained widespread success was PONG which was released in the same year as its founding (Wikipedia). Just a year before, Computer Space was land marked as the first widely manufactured game, despite the fact that it was not very popular (Wikipedia). PONG was born as a full-fledged game during the latter end of 1972 and immediately became a smash hit. As Atari Rising simply puts it, “1973 sees the start of a trend that will dog the industry forever more...a flood of imitations of a hit game. Literally dozens of PONG clones hit the market...” Little did the world know, this was just the tip of the iceberg in this particular branch of entertainment.
The 1970s ushered in a new era in game history. During the early seventies, many games communicated with the players via text on paper. By 1975, most places of gaming had replaced these text machines with CRT screens that could show up to thirty lines of text. This advent allowed for games that were able to ‘draw’ graphics on the screen (Wikipedia). Just a bit earlier, members of Kee Games, a rival to the Atari game company, produced Tank. This game brought new breakthroughs in technology by incorporation ROM chips, items not unlike those in computers today, that allowed the game to hold more graphics memory and have a greater range of effects (Atari Rising). What really brought the game into greater success was the early computers of this time period. These computers allowed users to program simple games (Wikipedia).
Due to the popularity of the growing game industry, it can only be noted that a study of their effects on their players will occur. The widespread thought was that games produced lower grades and a separation of family ties. This was certainly not the case. In 1985, a researcher gave Atari systems to families and found that instead of producing the general thoughts about gaming producing lower productivity in the family as a whole, the families used the systems as central gatherings and a source of shared play. The games were instead a positive influence on the families as units (Squire). This misconception continues to exist on in today‘s modern society.
Video games have come a long way from the text based games that made people think of the general misconception of poor work values. They have instead become a source of entertainment with more interactive systems and a greater variety of games a player can choose from. The 16-bit characters and the pixel characters have given way to explosive, three dimensional graphics with full color and, in some cases, detailed storylines. What has not changed is the effect games have on the people that play them. The games can still be used as a means to bring families together. They do not have to hinder processes too much in our modern life. It seems as though the video game is here to stay, despite its shaky beginning.
Works Cited
“History of video games.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 17 Aug. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games>.
“Player 1 Stage 2: Atari Rising.” The Dot Eaters: Video Game History 101. Summer 2007. 18 Aug 2008 <http://www.thedoteaters.com/stage2.php>.
Squire, Kurt. Cultural Framing of Computer/Video Games. Game Studies: The international journal of computer game research. Vol. 2 issue 1 (2002). 18 Aug. 2008 <http://gamestudies.org/0102/squire/>.
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Requirements included 4 sources total...which I managed to put my 4th in there and not cite it...but I'm too lazy to go and fix it since the grade has already come to pass as of the beginning of the 08-09 school year. It also had to be a minimum of 2 pages long...which is really small...it was pretty much a LARGE essay....with research.
My last paper was um....really long....>.> 8 page minimum (had 8 1/2)...and had a minimum of 15 sources and 6 different types of sources. It was murder....and I managed...um....5 types of sources...? If I had gotten to use courier new font style like I wanted to...I'd have had 12 pages. :3
Anyway..this is sticking it to the people that bash video games all the time. My teacher loved it because I was being good to games rather than being a traitor like a friend of mine and writing about how games are BAD for you. biggrin
 Tsume Rokaro · Sat Mar 14, 2009 @ 11:16pm · 0 Comments |
