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Videogames: In the Beginning
evanak (Evan Koblentz) writes "Last year, at the PhillyClassic videogame event, I noticed a teenager wearing an ironic t-shirt. His shirt showed an original Nintendo controller and said 'Know your roots.' Sadly, it's not just modern youngsters who are unaware of their technological roots -- sometimes even we self-proclaimed adult über nerds are equally unaware. Regarding videogames, this is especially true, and now industry pioneer Ralph Baer is trying to rectify the situation. His attempt takes the form of a sincere autobiography, although with mixed results. The book is titled Videogames: In the Beginning." Read on for the rest of Koblentz's review.
Videogames: In the Beginning
author
Ralph Baer
pages
260
publisher
Rolenta Press
rating
8
reviewer
Evan Koblentz
ISBN
0964384817
summary
Autobiography of the inventor of home videogames
According to Rolenta publisher Lenny Herman (the author of Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames), Baer became interested in documenting his own experiences a few years ago, when the mainstream media began heaping praise with increasing frequency on Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.
Baer begins his story as expected: a detailed explanation of why he, not Bushnell, should be called the father of videogames. Baer, as Slashdot readers probably know, invented the prototype console that eventually became the Magnavox Odyssey. He explains that he suggested building a game feature to differentiate Loral Electronics' high-end televisions in 1951, but that his idea was declined by management; that he got serious about the idea and built his first prototype while working at defense contractor Sanders Associates in late 1966; and that Bushnell attended a demonstration (and signed the guestbook) in 1972 before founding Atari and consequently building his own version of Pong.
That's fair, and if Baer were to conclude the first chapter with the book's subtitle -- "the inventor of home videogames" (note the qualifier of "home" vs. "all") -- then it would be an acceptable story. However, he takes the argument into a different and surprising direction. He asserts that everything before his time -- such as Willy Higginbotham's 1958 oscilloscope-based tennis game at Brookhaven National Laboratory and MIT hacker Steve Russell's Spacewar from the 1960s -- were not "real" games simply because they used non-standard screens and weren't commercially viable. (But so what? They were no less entertaining. By common sense, and not a console purist's definition, a "videogame" is a game played on a video screen, period. I'm sorry if Bushnell gets credit for the invention of practical, home videogames where Baer rightfully deserves it, but that's no reason to indict the whole history of creative computer science.)
Happily, the Baer drops the matter after the first chapter, and continues telling the story of his adventures working with Sanders and Magnavox. Better yet, it turns out that these adventures are fascinating and worth reading no matter when or what Baer originally invented. Among the technologies he helped to develop were methods for delivering game content over cable television networks, the use of cartridges for storing game data, interactive videotape and videodisk systems, instant-replay features for sports games, and methods for drawing on the screen. He also invented the famous electronic Simon toy. For most of this time, he made a living by designing military simulators for Sanders Associates. In addition, for most of these issues, Baer includes not just prose about the how and why, but also detailed and full-color technical notes, illustrations, and even schematics. There are also sections focusing on the business issues he faced while trying to get Magnavox and other large corporations (such as Coleco and Nintendo) interested in his unproven ideas, which of course were correct, or else you wouldn't be read this. Another section of the book deals with lawsuits involving Bushnell.
Baer has two more treats for us before closing his autobiography. First, he includes eight appendices, focusing on the Simon and other toys; a television games chronology; a Magnavox timeline; notebook entries from 1966-1972; patents; schematics and experiments; timelines of all of his projects sorted by date and category; and a bibliography. Second, for hands-on readers, there is an optional CD available for $10, which includes the necessary information for building your own Brown Box prototype and with video of Baer demonstrating how to play it. (My review copy didn't include the CD, so I'm basing this on what's stated in the book and on an email from the publisher.)
Overall, I recommend checking out this book. There are other videogame histories, but none so thorough from the perspective of a pioneer who actually lived it. If you can get past the controversial first chapter, you will find a great tale of ingenuity, persistence, ambition, and justice, along with some very cool technological insights. Or, as summarized by Steve Wozniak on the back cover, "I can never thank Ralph enough for what he gave to me and everyone else." Game on!
You can purchase Videogames: In the Beginning from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
According to Rolenta publisher Lenny Herman (the author of Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames), Baer became interested in documenting his own experiences a few years ago, when the mainstream media began heaping praise with increasing frequency on Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.
Baer begins his story as expected: a detailed explanation of why he, not Bushnell, should be called the father of videogames. Baer, as Slashdot readers probably know, invented the prototype console that eventually became the Magnavox Odyssey. He explains that he suggested building a game feature to differentiate Loral Electronics' high-end televisions in 1951, but that his idea was declined by management; that he got serious about the idea and built his first prototype while working at defense contractor Sanders Associates in late 1966; and that Bushnell attended a demonstration (and signed the guestbook) in 1972 before founding Atari and consequently building his own version of Pong.
That's fair, and if Baer were to conclude the first chapter with the book's subtitle -- "the inventor of home videogames" (note the qualifier of "home" vs. "all") -- then it would be an acceptable story. However, he takes the argument into a different and surprising direction. He asserts that everything before his time -- such as Willy Higginbotham's 1958 oscilloscope-based tennis game at Brookhaven National Laboratory and MIT hacker Steve Russell's Spacewar from the 1960s -- were not "real" games simply because they used non-standard screens and weren't commercially viable. (But so what? They were no less entertaining. By common sense, and not a console purist's definition, a "videogame" is a game played on a video screen, period. I'm sorry if Bushnell gets credit for the invention of practical, home videogames where Baer rightfully deserves it, but that's no reason to indict the whole history of creative computer science.)
Happily, the Baer drops the matter after the first chapter, and continues telling the story of his adventures working with Sanders and Magnavox. Better yet, it turns out that these adventures are fascinating and worth reading no matter when or what Baer originally invented. Among the technologies he helped to develop were methods for delivering game content over cable television networks, the use of cartridges for storing game data, interactive videotape and videodisk systems, instant-replay features for sports games, and methods for drawing on the screen. He also invented the famous electronic Simon toy. For most of this time, he made a living by designing military simulators for Sanders Associates. In addition, for most of these issues, Baer includes not just prose about the how and why, but also detailed and full-color technical notes, illustrations, and even schematics. There are also sections focusing on the business issues he faced while trying to get Magnavox and other large corporations (such as Coleco and Nintendo) interested in his unproven ideas, which of course were correct, or else you wouldn't be read this. Another section of the book deals with lawsuits involving Bushnell.
Baer has two more treats for us before closing his autobiography. First, he includes eight appendices, focusing on the Simon and other toys; a television games chronology; a Magnavox timeline; notebook entries from 1966-1972; patents; schematics and experiments; timelines of all of his projects sorted by date and category; and a bibliography. Second, for hands-on readers, there is an optional CD available for $10, which includes the necessary information for building your own Brown Box prototype and with video of Baer demonstrating how to play it. (My review copy didn't include the CD, so I'm basing this on what's stated in the book and on an email from the publisher.)
Overall, I recommend checking out this book. There are other videogame histories, but none so thorough from the perspective of a pioneer who actually lived it. If you can get past the controversial first chapter, you will find a great tale of ingenuity, persistence, ambition, and justice, along with some very cool technological insights. Or, as summarized by Steve Wozniak on the back cover, "I can never thank Ralph enough for what he gave to me and everyone else." Game on!
You can purchase Videogames: In the Beginning from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
"If Pacman had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music."
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
Are there any people out there who reminice once and a while about the days of playing Doom over IPX with 3 other players on various BBS's over 14.4K and having rocket wars? I found those days especially fun, even tho technology is so much better today.
i don't know how the 'know your roots' t-shirt is ironic. i mean, it's not like everybody is 40 years old and still playing pong. 'your' would imply that the roots he is 'knowing' are relative to his own life, not that of some intelevision spaz touting the depth of burger time gameplay.
I have a videogame collection with close to 1000 original game carts and systems as well as thousands more in emulation. When younger kids/relatives come over they don't even know how to USE a NES/SNES let alone an Atari or the likes, but once I brief them they all love them. TAZ for Atari 2600 is one game that holds up so well it is amazing, or Warlords.
The "roots" of gaming were FUN games, easy play, and great simple control. Gaming really needs to get back to its roots and stop trying to be the next multi-billion hollywood-like crap industry.
Music has been turned artificial, movies have followed suit, I guess games are next. When people will wake up and stop accepting this crap is beyond me. People have no "soul" anymore, they want fluff with no real substance, typical disposable society.
Ask a teenager to hum or whistle their favorite song... they can't do it because there is nothing but a catchy hook, it's empty. Same thing with games, they have tons of flash and glitz but no soul and it isn't getting any better.
The only hope is that the Nintendo Revolution claims to simplify the controller so that even a mom can play, with this simplification of controller should force game developers to go back to THEIR roots and begin to produce fun and enjoyable games with some heart put into them.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
I can still vividly recall playing Pac-Man and Scramble at the local roller rinks, and Donkey Kong and Defender at the front entrance of the local grocery store. I would scrape together all the change I could find just on the off chance my parents would let me hit the arcade at the mall, just to take a whack at Tempest or Spy Hunter.
:D
Space Invaders, Lunar Lander, Omega Race... Rush N' Attack, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, P.O.W.... Ladybug, Tapper, Mappy... yeah, I know my roots.
And thanks to the joys of emulators, I can go back to my roots any time I want!
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
And if you're in Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry has a great exhibit for a couple more weeks, "Game On". It's a hands-on exhibit and historical/cultural look at video games. From the Museum's website...
"Forty years ago, video games didn't exist. The Nintendo Company made playing cards, Sony made black and white televisions and Sega imported instant photo booths. Families played games by rolling dice or dealing cards."
Cool Exhibit!
Quomodo cogis comas tuas sic videri?
I brought Steve Russell's Spacewar to Sanders in the early 1970s, and installed it on the PDP-1 in the basement. When Nintendo was contesting the Magnavox patents they couldn't find any evidence that Baer had seen or played Spacewar, but the possibility does exist, since they were in the same building at the same time. Does he say in his book whether or not he ever encountered Spacewar>
John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)
Sadly, it's not just modern youngsters who are unaware of their technological roots
Um, he's only a teenager, those are his roots.
...is J. C. Herz's Joystick Nation. It was published in 1997 so is pretty dated by now but it's still a fun read about the history of video and arcade games.
Want to improve your life? This guy will show you how!
www.klov.com
www.vaps.org
There is nothing like classic video games and pinballs. MAME is great, but still can't capture it completely. I am glad I got to grow up during the great era of arcades.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Seriously what theh heck is wrong with saying your roots are in Nintendo? What I would take this shirt to imply would be that Nintendo were the ones who inovated video games largely back in the early ninties and late eighties. They made gaming incredibly fun, and that's where video gaming really started to take off. Contrast the fun early nintendo and super nintendo games with the crap that Sony is pushing no where most games sell because of pixelated breasts, blood, and by playing to the lowest common denominator. It's one of the reasons I still have yet to own any Sony playstation product. And actually might never. Also one of the reasons I refuse to buy just about anything from Sony.
Jeez everyone knows that video games were invented by Al Gore!
Seriously though this story makes me think back on how much fun I used to have playing River Raid and PitFall (damn those alligators!)
News Reporters Make Tasty Polar Bear Treats!
Spacewar not a "real" game? What a crock! Here is Spacewar running on a PDP-11 emulator in a Java applet: :-)
http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/sp acewar/
It sounds to me that it's one of those "I invented the Internet" deals.
Sadly these guys were all beaten by a couple score of years by the table top gamers, and those beaten by centuries by Board games, and of course I'm sure there was cavemen who played "who can get hit the hardest" and they beat us all.
This book does sound interesting but the first chapter probably will throw most people, why don't people just accept they aren't the FIRST. There's only one, and it's likely to be an unstandardized and oddball chose, rather then a standardized idea. VMS and Unix easily predates Dos, tnd There's smaller OSes before that too, IBM is one of the first developers of computers, but hardly the first. Babbage is considered the creator of computers, but I'm sure even he stood on the shoulders of giants (while he was a giant himself too.)
I prefer my historians to be realistic, even if they do believe themselves to do great things, Carmack is a genius, and as long as he doesn't run around and say he single handly created the FPS (though he did a HELL of a lot for it) I'll applaud him, same thing with Gates admiting that he changed a fledgling OS into DOS, or helping to create Basic, no he didn't do it himself, but he did take a decent idea and make one of the first stardized "simplistic" programming languages.
Basically I just wish all these programmers or creators would just admit that they arn't the only person in the industry, admit what they did for the industry, and not they to make their accomplishment the only one in the industry, but then to make that wish I'd have to forget about human nature, and sadly I can't so I guess I understand the reasoning for it, but the wish will stay in my heart even if it's never spoken.
I can see why he thinks the t-shirt is ironic - the shirt doesn't depict the earliest known example of video gaming, but I don't agree with his judgement.
If "roots" had to be the first known moment that a human did something (even if it was before your time), imagine the confusion. You couldn't say that your roots included MSDOS because the first computers did not run MSDOS. Would you have to say that the root was Babbage's mechanical computer, or would that be disqualified because it was never built?
It's a nonsense. If the person first played on the NES then the t-shirt is perfectly sincere.
As a senior project manager I am surrounded by 20-somethings who think that the world revolves around Halo and/or MechAssult...
Every once in a while I like to fire up either MAME or Stella (Atari 2600 emulator) to show them "the old days". I usually bring out Galaxian or Pac Man or Night Driver or Pitfall...
Oddly enough, some of these peeps have learned a bit and are enjoying using the emulators during break time.
The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy
I miss the days when i could play C64, Atari, Coleco and Intellivision until i had square eyes. Not a care in the world, as i was in the public school system.
Many of those kids, now grown adults, are still in the public school system.
I'm 25 (Born in 1980) The first game system I had was NES, in 1987. That is, I can't remember much before '86, and my parents didn't buy me Atari. So the NES really is the roots of my video gaming life. A teenager is probably beyond the original NES as far as roots go.
I've spent the last 8 years moving back and forth from college and various apartments... and 2 weeks ago, I dug my original NES out of the box, hooked it up, and played Metroid. It really was a blast from the past. It's been 15 years since I played it.
And if you really want a tribute to good ol' fashioned gossip and fan networks, think how fast the Justin Bailey code spread without the existene of the internet or BBS.
Those are roots.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
"We Didn't Stop Atari" By Francisco Rangel
l
(To the tune of We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel)
Harry Potter, Pokemon, Tomb Raider, Digimon
Monkey Island, Space Invaders, Super Mario
Maniac Mansion, Zero Mission, Mortal Kombat, Pole Position
Grand Theft Auto, Ninja Gaiden, Pong and Yu-gi-oh
Megaman, Depth Bomb, Asteroids, Robotron
Tetris, and Army Men, River Raid, and Suikoden
Castlevania, Kirby, Demolition Derby
Dragon Warrior, LEGO Racers, Yoshi's Island, Gauntlet
I really miss Atari. From when I was younger, Now the games are longer
So, I still play Nintendo. Like to keep it old-skool, 8-bit's always so cool
South Park Rally, Harvest Moon, Jungle Hunt and Zoo Tycoon
Double Dragon, Puyo Puyo, NBA Jam
Duck Hunt, Tony Hawk, Chrono Trigger, Chuck Rock
Q*Bert, Sonic, Worms, and Serious Sam
Half-life, Max Payne, Zak McKraken, and Bloodrayne
Onimusha, Sam and Max, Age of Empires, Golden Axe
Home run, Outer Space, Prince of Persia, Death Race
Alley Cat, Paperboy, Sinistar, SimCity
I used to love my gameboy
First they made it Color, Then they made is smaller
My portable companion
It has been enhanced now, So it's called "Advance" now
Bomberman, Burning Fight, Killer Instinct, Gyromite
Frogger, Basketball, Day of the Tentacle
Solitaire, and Sim Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ice Climber, and Descent, and Unreal Tournament
There's Street Fighter, Zaxxon, Duke Nukem, Mafia
Need for Speed, Halo, Turok: Evolution
Rampage, Deus Ex, and that BMXXX
Metroid Prime and Fusion, Dance Dance Revolution
Genesis made by Sega. 16 bits of power Made Nintendo cower
They made Super Nintendo. Neither one was hated, Neither dominated
Leisure Suit Larry, Project Gotham Racing
Punchout, Zork, Doom, Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Legend of Kyrandia, DOA Beach Volleyball
Dig Dug, Nethack, Contra and Plaque Attack
Zelda, Moon Patrol, Battlezone and Star Control
Zero Wing, Baldur's Gate, FIFA Soccer 98
The 3D Revolution. First we saw Playstation, Our infatuation
N64 and Dreamcast. Came along to fight it, But they couldn't smite it
Splinter Cell, Ms. Pac Man, Donkey Kong is back again
Warcraft, Starcraft, Centipede, Xybots
Pitfall, Pengo, Burger Time, 3D Castle Wolfenstein
Ninja Turtles in Japan, Roger Wilco needs a tan.
Hogan's Alley, Excitebike, Quest For Glory, Counter-strike
Ultima, 7th Guest, Quake, Joust, Everquest
Klax, Defender, Earthworm Jim, The Incredible Machine
Final Fantasy, and Loom, I have no space in my room
New consoles are arriving. GameCube, PS2, We've got Xbox,too
New consoles will be coming. But when these are gone
We will still play on and on and on and on...
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/06/stop_atari.htm
Technoli
How many other geeks out there find that the romanticized universes of games, books, and movies have affected their view of life and/or actions. For movies, this is to a lesser extent nowadays, as they are generally more sap and sex than anything.
Various women have mentioned that I tend to have an old-fashioned flair for opening doors or genteel conversion. Most of these mannerisms I've probably picked up from books, some perhaps from games. Does anyone else find this to be the case?
It's like a maze of twisty tunnels all alike.
[Insert pithy quote here]
>His shirt showed an original Nintendo controller and said 'Know your roots.'
Wish I still had my old t-shirt which showed the solution of a quadratic equation and had the same motto...
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
I still remember playing Trade Wars on local BBSs and Red Dragon as well. The fact that you could do things which impacted other player's games was amazing and I always remember dreading that I would log on and find that I was destroyed overnight.
When I found MUDs (Medievia was my main one), I was in heaven. I was simply amazed at what we could do and how you could interact with other players in real time. It didn't matter that there weren't any graphics, it was just simply amazing.
If your experience halts upon the screen's surface, you need a little coaching.
0 0002HIK/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/103-5231162-9433400?v=gl ance&s=music) at 50% the normal speed. You begin to see and appreciate all the "fun" interactions between the bits. The experience has time to dawn on you, and that makes all the difference.
Turn your attention to the interaction between screen elements (sprites) and their sounds. That's where the gameplay happens.
(You might have to get a real 2600 for this to work properly, but it's easy now, with the 2600 & more available at Wal-Mart & such)
The thing that makes new machines great - even the NES, is the incredibly simplistic graphics on the old systems. Inversely, the thing that makes the older systems *good* in the first place, is how inventively and captivatingly they work within the contraints of a tiny memory space, 2-axis, 1-button controls, and 480 lines of 60Hz video.
What your mind experiences as "gameplay" is a combination of the feedback from your hands/fingers on the control, the visual triggers from that blocky pixel bouncing into/around/over the static area. When the "blocky pixel" becomes a biplane-shaped sprite, and the static area a vaguely "barn-shaped" color area, and you have to use this little stick with one button to manoeuvre the "biplane" through the "barn", you have a Game.
Making the game "Fun" is another challenge altogether. You have a single channel, voltage controlled synthesizer with which to generate happy sounds, mean sounds, ambient sounds, and triumphant sounds. You have the stick with button. You have hardware limits in storage, code execution speed, etc. Line up alll those pieces, and because you had to make sacrifices, each interaction becomes something meaningful.
The best analogy I can come up with would be to listen to any of the meatier tracks on "I Care Because You Do" or "Drukqs - Disc 2" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0
Why don't children play golf?
Because compared to blocks & mud, it's no fun. Why? Because there are too many rules and roadblocks, and paraphernalia. Freeze tag, go-fish, war, jumprope, hopscotch, etc, all have extremely low entry ceiling.
Fun games all have that quality - whether based on the meat-plane or in Cyberspace.
The ability to GET IN AND PLAY is what keeps your play center titillated. Q3 Deathmatch: Prime example. Ms Pacman, Donkey Kong, Mario, Poke(shudder)mon, Kirby, and the Prince in Katamari Damacy all know this.
Why else would the fundamental unit of computer logic be the Al-Gore-ithm?
you're not a real gamer until you use EVERY key on the keyboard to perform vital functions... Netrek knew that all too well.. oh yeah and it was low quality graphics, high quality gameplay... team play and intelligent thought required... what a concept.
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
I read that subject too fast and thought it said "Hebrew PONG".
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof which this margin is too small to contain.
It's obvious why he denied those two games as being videogames. It's because his company, Magnovox, had a patent on game consoles. As long as Magnovox held on to the patent, anybody wanting to make a game console would have to pay royalties.
But of course, it is obvious that Tennis for Two and Space Wars are videogames. In fact, anybody who wants to play the origional Spacewar can do it here
I'll go one better - Doom over a serial connection with each player in different rooms. That was deadly, having that thick serial cable sprawled across the floor between rooms.
I've really been in the mood for some of those old games lately. My wife (then fiancee) and I spent hundreds of hours in front of my 12 MHz 286 playing "Tank Wars" until all hours of the night. I've really wanted to play that lately. It was a hell of a lot of fun in its simplicity and ease of use. Unfortunately, it did not have proper clock/tick synchronization, so my AMD Athlon 64 3200 makes it jump to Ludicrous Speed, so it's unplayable as is.
But you're absolutely right that - even with the "simplistic" graphics and sound - they were FUN because they were forced to focus on gameplay. Only after 256-color games and 640x480 VGA graphics came into play was there an evident push to visuals at the expense of gameplay.
Fortunately, open source and freeware utilities like ScummVM are making it easier to play a lot of those older games.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
While other console companies existed before Nintendo, they were largely unprofitable. Atari's abysmal failures in Pac-man and E.T. are just one example. In short, the entire console industry was about to be written off as just another fad. Nintendo's entry into the market was largely seen as suicide at best, according to many insiders. However, Nintendo did what Magnavox, Atari, and Colecovision could not: brought gaming into the mainstream and were comercially viable. To this day, some people call console gaming (regardless of platform) "playing Nintendo" just as some people call all sodas "coke".
While gaming would've carried if Nintendo hadn't existed, it would've been mainly on the PC/Mac in my opinion. So while Nintendo was not the first console, it's the landmark console through which all modern consoles trace their roots.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
The arguments in the parent post and the, er.., "grandparent" are not really mutually exclusive. In fact, I'd say there's a lot of truth in both.
On one hand, I think that the older generation of games tend to decry the games of today as being derivative, uncreative titles that focus more on technology and graphics than gameplay. I think that this is a nostalgic view that glosses over a mountain of crap. In fact, I'd argue that the ratio good/bad games has remained relatively constant. You had franchises with too many sequels, and you had legions of copy-cat titles. It's just that people only remember Pac-Man and Galaga -- they dont remember Pac Man Jr., Super Pac Man, Pac-Man Pinball, and the legion of forgettable Galaga clones.
On the other hand, I think that it's true that video games are getting overly complex and overwrought, and that is part of the reason why development costs are spiraling out of control. The added competition in a larger game industry is part of the reason, but In general I think games are just getting too "big".
I think games like Kamitari Damacy are a model for what other games should be. KD is alot of fun, and easy to learn, but it isn't obsessively focused on realism and it was a relatively quick game to play (I finished it in a weekend). So, Konami was able to price it at $20 in the U.S. and it did quite well.
When I was a wee lad I had a friend with a near senile old grandfather - an ex-electronics tech with the Army. His routine was set - breakfast, go out into the garage and tinker with circuits, lunch, nap, more tinkering, supper, and then when the sun set - his self-built Heathkit HAM Radio.
:)
One fine day me and my buddy were happily playing 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' on his 2600 when the old man broke his routine enough to stick his head in and say, "Those things are just silly, really. Nothin' to 'em. Just a bunch of IC's..."
That led to a discussion on how 'foolish' those IC's were. "Nothin' to 'em!", he'd shout (making his antiquated hearing aid whistle and hum loudly). A little while later, he tried to show me why the transistor was better than ''em all'. It was amazing. He saw absolutely NO advantages to using integrated circuits. I think he sniffed at them because they represented something he couldn't fix - something he couldn't tear apart and trouleshoot. His biggest complaint was that the IC 'made people lazy'.
When I look at video games today and try and compare them with the past, I always keep his example in mind. As I get older, I see how easy and how tempting it is to shut off any advances simply because I don't understand them fully. It's scary out there after all.
As a critic of video games, I have to come up with something better than: "This game sucks because games like Defender had FAR more playability!" Even if that's my opinion (and it often is), I have to at least try and see things from an unjaded perspective. Most kids today don't know, don't WANT to know about how it was when you played 'Hunt The Wumpus' on punchcards.
There's something about being a kid and having those first experiences - whether it's Project Gotham, Metroid, or Asteroids - that make it special for you (if no one else). That's the kind of thing you can't explain to other people who haven't been there - and don't try. Education is one thing, getting lost or losing perspective in the past is another.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
I also made an etch-a-sketch type road-racing game on my oscilloscope by tracing a "road" onto a clear piece of cellophane and taping it to the screen. Then, by adjusting the horizontal and vertical offset knobs, I could "drive" the point around the track.
But try telling that to kids these days and they just don't believe you.
John
Top of the list: Death of hardware
;)
Me and this guy from across town used to pound the living hell out of each other at 14.4K. At first, it was friendly rivalry but later, shit started getting abused.
The first casualty was my nice, almost new 500 MB hard drive. I still remember it: There I was, circling around back of the cathedral to take him out when all of a sudden I turn around and get a face full of rocket. Totally surprised (and pissed), I pounded my fist on the table screaming incoherantly (probably something similar to, "Son a BITCH!") and within my desktop I heard the scariest noise ever: 'whhhhiiiirrrrr... Click... whhhhhiirrrrr'. Yep. Destroyed my hard drive that day.
But my buddy did even better than that a few weeks later. I had helped him get a motherboard and processor but I had no case to donate. He ended up with this old Hyundai case. Man did that suck! Everything in the case was off by like half a centimeter (a Dremel can only do so much)!
Anyway, because of the sickly case design, he'd have to keep it open with a room fan blowing into the case to keep it from overheating. It was kinda comical and sad at the same time.
Now, how many of you remember that level with all the REALLY THIN walls you had to walk on with lava below? Well, I found out that the spawnpoints were such that he could not finish the level if I didn't want him to. I'd simply wait for him to get on those thin walls and blow him away.
After doing this (I'm not kidding) around 40 times, he texts me and says something like, "Godddamint chuk. if you fucking do that one more time im done." I'm sure you realize that this kind of message is the kind that almost insures his death. The funny thing was, he was on the walls again when I came around the corner, rocket launcher in hand. I fired off a round - purposely missing him and he got so freaked out that he fell off the wall into the lava.
{CLICK!}
Game over! I didn't find out what happened until the next day as he was too embarrassed and angry to talk to me. Apparently, when he accidentally fell off the wall in the game, his RL leg shot out and caught the 'case fan'. The case fan (with a nice, conductive metal grating) fell into his motherboard and shorted the whole mess out - EVEN his VESA (Whoa! 32-bit Trident chipest - hot stuff!) video card.
It was about that time that we both realized that maybe we were taking things a bit too seriously. Then Duke Nukem 3D came out... But that is a different story.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
"Music has been turned artificial, movies have followed suit, I guess games are next. When people will wake up and stop accepting this crap is beyond me. People have no "soul" anymore, they want fluff with no real substance, typical disposable society." ...and modern dentistry keeps us alive at the price of people with artificially white teeth.
Warlords is still a great game. Most of its era sucked. Same thing now. Whether it is the perceived coarsening of the culture, the quality of the video games or the quality of the toast: I'm sick of the whining. Games now, if not better on average (I'd argue they are), cover a wider range of possibilities from simple control greatness (Warning Forever) to insanely deep simulations (X-Plane) to frantic multi-player (UT2004). Random high quality examples only.
Unconnected to my bitching at the poster, I've got the July 1971 Analog which includes a many page article about Spacewar, written by one of the variant creators, Albert Kuhfeld. It's even got a flowchart of the game logic!
Showing the kids the history of games is a great service; it is a hobby and an industry without ties to its history. Just don't become mired in your own nostalgia. A dangerous narcotic, nostalgia.
Feeling so good natured I could drool
Know your roots indeed. Hmmm, I was born in Winnipeg, so my family's history must start there...