The History of Videogame Genres

TobyToadstool writes "Over the last few months, CNET have been quietly running a series of free video documentaries that take a look back at the history of different videogame genres. The Space Bubble show has covered everything from the history of Platformers to the origins of the Beat em up. The gaming sections are interspersed with other tech-related information, but almost every show covers one of the major genres. There's loads of footage from ancient arcade machines, and bizarre trivia, like the fact that some schools are using the Dance Dance Revolution videogame in place of traditional physical education. It's presented by an eccentric British guy floating in a little bubbleship in Space — odd but good."

Comments

interesting vids

[old and new again]

it'S actually pretty interesting to see their classifications

Why watch...

[chubs730]

I think I'll stick to just playing them.

Way wrong.

[pcgabe]

"Rez explores the more surreal side to the dance game using abstract graphics and fancy landscapes, with the emphasis on exploring rather than performing."

Did anyone even PLAY this game? Rez is a shooter, and there is no exploration at all.

Combine this with the two-minute pointless video of a guy wearing a cardboard cutout of an iPhone, and yeah. My five minutes? I want them back.

Re:Way wrong.

[Renraku]

Rez wasn't about exploration.

I suggest you look into certain mind-altering substances.

Or just stay up for a few days and then try.

Either that, or learn to feel the music and beat without the need for such things. It was all about creating synesthesia.

Re:Way wrong.

[Kamineko]

It's a shooter.

Re:Way wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

a la moleman:

You took 5 minutes of my life and I want them back.

Ah hell, I'd probably waste them anyway.

And since I'm on slashdot I know they'd be wasted.

Re:Way wrong.

[seebs]

Yes, someone played Rez.

History of RPGs

[Enderandrew]

I can't pull up any links related to games at work, but GameSutra has an incredible in-depth history of the RPG genre in a 3 part series. It is a great read.

Re:History of RPGs

[Bazar]

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980-1983)

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 2: The Golden Age (1985-1993)

Re:History of RPGs

[Enderandrew]

There is a part 3 on the modern era as well.

Re:History of RPGs

[Anonymous Coward]

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part III: The Platinum and Modern Ages (1994-2004)

Re:History of RPGs

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the links!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Which game?

[sporkme]

Which game was briefly highlighted as "one of the latest" that was distinctly Japanese in style and featured a childish character jumping over symbols? ...Something ribbon...

I thought it looked cool, possibly a diversion from Cloud and Flow for down-time at work or before bed.

Re:Which game?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aaah my beloved singing crack rabbit! Vib Ribbon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Eb70o-YAI&mode=re lated&search=

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vib_Ribbon

Re:Which game?

[biovoid]

Vib-Ribbon. It's a PS1 game, and the only PS1 game I continue to play on my PS2.

Woohoo

[ZachMG]

yippy i can know what old games i never played that werent worth playing were in the same genre as the games i like to paly now

aweful

[El_Muerte_TDS]

They're 5 minute videos with 1 minute or so dedicated to the history of a video game genre. And this is not much more than a list of games in the genre. The Wikipedia articles contain more information.

Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[LingNoi]

I have been trying to get back the source code to a game made 9 years ago but its been a horribly difficult. Games are made and there is no attempt to preserve them for the future.

You can still watch a film/movie/moving picture made 50 years ago but with games you can't play a game made as recently as 5 years ago!!

It is the publishers/developers fault and they could do a lot more to help the situation such as putting out the source code to that game to ensure that its consumers can still play in the future when they're company doesn't exist any more. Instead we have 100's of games which the developers and publishers are not making money on any more which can not be played on today's hardware.

ID software leads the way in this respect and you can still play all their old games.

Until that happens any history on games where I can't actually play the game in question is bullshit. It is the equivalent of a Wikipedia entry describing a film which will never capture the emotion of the media in question.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Baumi]

Games are made and there is no attempt to preserve them for the future.

You can still watch a film/movie/moving picture made 50 years ago but with games you can't play a game made as recently as 5 years ago!!
[...]
Until that happens any history on games where I can't actually play the game in question is bullshit. It is the equivalent of a Wikipedia entry describing a film which will never capture the emotion of the media in question. While I agree that it's a shame many of those old classics can't be played anymore, I disagree with the conclusion:

a) Even if you played them today, you likely wouldn't feel the same sense of wonder players did back then, because you've seen more complex games before. It'd still be great from a historian's perspective, but it will not elicit the same emotions. (E.g. while I'm a film buff and love "Citizen Kane", I know that many regular movie watchers have trouble realizing its greatness, because much of the techniques it pioneered are standard practice nowadays. You can't go back and watch it with the fresh eyes and minds of those who'd only seen the movies made before it.)

b) Writing about games you cannot play anymore isn't "bullshit" - if something doesn't exist anymore, does that mean we should destroy all knowledge related to it? On the contrary, I'd say these histories are extremely important to preserve as much of the legacy as possible. Sure, it can never replace the original games, but if you don't remind people these things have been out there, they'll forget them. And that'll make sure nobody will ever try to resurrect them.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[ardor]

I disagree with (a). I found Deuteros (very old Amiga game) and Iron Seed (very old PC) game in this year on some abandonware sites, and I was glued to the screen. The same with old RPGs etc. What *really* pisses me off though are bad interfaces, frustrating the hell out of me. Unfortunately, the older the game, the higher the chance gets it has a bad interface.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Greyfox]

A lot of the old coin-op games are as playable now as they were decades ago when they first came out. And when you look at the diversity of games between 1978 and 1988 you can't help but be impressed with the developers creativity and what they could cram into a few kilobytes of RAM. Or sometimes wonder exactly what they were on and where you could get some these days...

I'm constantly amazed at how playing a game that I may have discovered and played once in a Shakey's Pizza in Warner Robins, Georgia in the early '80s really takes me back to that time and place. I'll remember details about those times that I haven't thought about in years.

That experience isn't as easy to capture with PC games I may have played because ironically there's been less of an effort to preserve them. It's not hard to find MAME ROMs for every coin-op game ever made and even the old Apple, Commidore and Texas Instruments games (Parsec FTW!) are still available. But you're probably out of luck if you want to fire up an old Wing Commander, Inherit the Earth or Ultima game. The PC gaming market may have been one of hype and crapitude during those times but there were still quite a few gems to be had and it'd be nice to have the option of playing them again. And a lot of us missed Playstation titles like the early final fantasy games (I understand you can get some of those on handheld units now) and Star Ocean and the like. Games where it didn't matter that your guy was a blurry blob on the screen because the story was so compelling.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[4D6963]

Games are made and there is no attempt to preserve them for the future.

What kind of idiot could mod that insightful? Has nobody here ever heard about emulators? Well of course you cannot run a C64 game directly on top of Windows XP, but that's what the hell emulators are for! Hell, you can even play the original Spacewar! from 1961! Not to mention I once played a tic-tac-toe game written in 1949 thanks to a ENIAC emulator.

The "attempts to preserve them for the future" consist in writting emulators. Emulators provide you the most faithful experience possible to the original on your PC. There are few machines on which you could play game that haven't been emulated, and therefore there are very few 10+ year old games you can not play with your PC.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Novus]

That experience isn't as easy to capture with PC games I may have played because ironically there's been less of an effort to preserve them. It's not hard to find MAME ROMs for every coin-op game ever made and even the old Apple, Commidore and Texas Instruments games (Parsec FTW!) are still available. But you're probably out of luck if you want to fire up an old Wing Commander, Inherit the Earth or Ultima game.

Actually, most of the time, late DOS era retrogaming is not too hard. Assuming you already have the game and can read the media (you did archive those old floppies to CD, didn't you?), DOSBox does a good job of getting old PC games to run on modern systems. While getting hold of older Wing Commander or Ultima games could be a bit tricky (read: not much harder than the MAME roms you mention), Inherit the Earth is still being sold and supported on a ridiculous amount of current platforms (partly thanks to ScummVM).

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[LingNoi]

The "attempts to preserve them for the future" consist in writting emulators.

You're taking my quote out of context which was originally to do with the game industry not preserving anything. It has nothing to do with what the community are doing to restore what the game industry has tried to flush down the toilet.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Peter Mork]

Also, check out Abandonia.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[EtoilePB]

You know, I've been trying to come up with ways to teach a basic game studies class (history, theory, and criticism) but the major obstacle I keep running into is that I can't think of a way to get a class to play them. It's as you say. With the advent of certain retro gaming distribution services (online Wii purchasing, and GameTap, and so on) it's possible to get certain older titles but not all of them.

It's easy to teach film studies these days, because Netflix has just about every movie that ever was released on DVD and can mail it to nearly wherever in the country you are, and is inexpensive. And more and more old films are released on DVD daily. But getting one's hands on old games and getting them to be playable is, indeed, a complicated and thorny mess. And a legal mess, too, not just a practical one.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Corporate Troll]

Not to mention I once played a tic-tac-toe game written in 1949 thanks to a ENIAC emulator.

I was going to say "Bullshit, nobody ever wrote an ENIAC emulator". Luckily I did a google before posting, and incredibly it exists!. Now, I just need to program tic-tac-toe on it ;-)

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[4D6963]

Wait, hold on, how isn't the game industry not preserving anything? When a new video format comes out, movie companies re-release their old movies on the new media. When a new console comes out, game makers either re-release their old games in packs playable on new consoles, or console manufacturers make emulators on which the original game can be bought and played, not to mention backwards compatibility. How is that any different? And how isn't the game idsutry preserving anything given this?

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[4D6963]

Hehe, on the one I tried it had a few original programs comming with it, you surely can find the tic-tac-toe I was talking about :)

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Baumi]

A lot of the old coin-op games are as playable now as they were decades ago when they first came out. I didn't mean to imply they're not playable - I'm a great fan of old games and spend a lot of time in my Wii's Virtual Console.

I'm constantly amazed at how playing a game that I may have discovered and played once in a Shakey's Pizza in Warner Robins, Georgia in the early '80s really takes me back to that time and place. That's nostalgia though, which is most likely not what you've felt the first time playing it, and it'll only work if you've played that game "back in the days". Todays (and future) kids will not have that feeling, because they've never played these games when they were new. (Just like you may enjoy watching a movie form the 1920s, but most likely not because it remindes you how you went to see it when it came out.)

My point was just: It's impossible to experience games, movies, book, really any non-recent work of culture the same way people did when it came out, simply because of the massively different context.

Perhaps I'm getting way too academic, though - after all, no matter what the reason, a session of "Super Mario Brothers" or "Donkey Kong" is still a lot fun, and so are movies like "The General" or "Safety Last". That's probably more important than arguing about whether you're having fun for the same reason, people did back then.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Hellpop]

Try checking out Home of the Underdogs
If they don't have it, they have links to a lot of other "Abandonware" sites.
You are not alone, lots of us are looking for old games too!

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Gulthek]

Even if you played them today, you likely wouldn't feel the same sense of wonder players did back then, because you've seen more complex games before. It'd still be great from a historian's perspective, but it will not elicit the same emotions.

And that is why sales of Wii virtual console games are dead in the water.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Baumi]

Even if you played them today, you likely wouldn't feel the same sense of wonder players did back then, because you've seen more complex games before. It'd still be great from a historian's perspective, but it will not elicit the same emotions.

And that is why sales of Wii virtual console games are dead in the water. My comment came out wrong - tried to clarify it here.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Baumi]

My comment came out wrong - tried to clarify it here. And that came out completely wrong.... The "here" was supposed to have this link attached...

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[LingNoi]

Wait, hold on, how isn't the game industry not preserving anything? When a new video format comes out, movie companies re-release their old movies on the new media.

No, because re-releasing media that can still turn a profit and just dumping all the code in the trash because they are done making money on that thing are different. There is a cultural interest in keeping this stuff going, its not throw-a-way media.

Emulators are an abstraction on top of the game. There could be a bug in the game code or the emulator code you will never know which. The developers could easily release source code for games that don't make them any money since they own the rights to the source code. Bugs that are found in the game could still be fixed by members of that games community.

A lot of old games have bugs which makes running a server on a binary only game extremely difficult.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[PyroMosh]

The equivelant that you're asking for from a film perspective would be to have a movie studio release all the origional footage from a production. Every last second that got left on the cutting room floor. And all the scripts and screen plays, etc. That's a movie's "source code"

After all, then members of the community can put it into Primeire and edit out all the mistakes.

I exagerate to make a point. Games, despite what roger Ebert may think are considered art by some. Maybe the origional artist(s) don't want their source released for others to muck about with. Just playing devil's advocate here, but nobody is entitled to this.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Hoi Polloi]

I play the arcade emulator, MAME, pretty regularly (Rampage, Metal Slug series, 1943, Toobin, etc). Some of the classic arcade games are fun beyond their simpler graphics. The one thing MAME has shown me though is how many of the games had their excitement tied to the fact that losing would cost you a quarter. Once I got MAME and could play for free and endlessly continue I found that endless variations of mazes and ladders became boring fast (Pac Man, Burgertime, etc). You also don't have the fun of the competition to have your high score blinking for days in public.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Tyler Durden]

E.g. while I'm a film buff and love "Citizen Kane", I know that many regular movie watchers have trouble realizing its greatness, because much of the techniques it pioneered are standard practice nowadays. You can't go back and watch it with the fresh eyes and minds of those who'd only seen the movies made before it.

That's funny, because my impression after watching "Citizen Kane" was much different. It seemed to me that the cinematography/direction was considerably *more* advanced than any other movie I had ever seen. I remember thinking, "Wow, they were doing all of that back then! Hollywood really dropped the ball."

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[Baumi]

I know that many regular movie watchers have trouble realizing its greatness, because much of the techniques it pioneered are standard practice nowadays.

That's funny, because my impression after watching "Citizen Kane" was much different. It seemed to me that the cinematography/direction was considerably *more* advanced than any other movie I had ever seen. I remember thinking, "Wow, they were doing all of that back then! Hollywood really dropped the ball."

Maybe I just know the wrong people... :-)

BTW: What makes "Citizen Kane" even more fantastic is the fact that Welles had never directed a movie before - although, of course, much of the movie's visual brilliance is owed to Gregg Toland - one of Hollywood's best cinematographers.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[LingNoi]

The equivelant that you're asking for from a film perspective would be to have a movie studio release all the origional footage from a production. Every last second that got left on the cutting room floor.

It is not the same and here is why.

The movie equivalents would be keeping a copy of the original movie in digital format so that newer generations can see that movie.

Without opening up the source code there is no guarantee that the binaries produced today will work in 100, 200 even 300 years from now. Yes it means the game could be altered but then it would cease being the original game.

Look at Doom that was released by ID Software. There are many different ports of Doom but the game hasn't changed. Many people have also edited the doom engine and created something completely different but no one ever gets confused into thinking that the edited doom engines are the Doom game.

Say a game hasn't been touched in 30 years. During that time no one has played the game, new programming languages have come and gone and you attempt to restore the game. What is easier:

1) Figuring out what the binary is doing?
2) Figuring out what the source code is doing?

It is pretty obvious that it would be easier for future generations to figure out what the source code is doing.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[4D6963]

It is pretty obvious that it would be easier for future generations to figure out what the source code is doing.

That's the exact same for movies. "Oh it would be easier for people to remaster some old movies if they had all the original footage". Plus, you *can* figure out what the binary is doing. Oh surely it'd be easier if we had the source code, and it would be even easier if it was accompanied by a nice video explaining what does what, but just for like every other art forms, things are rarely as easy.

Plus that whole "in 100 years from now" thing is quite irrelevant. Binary code for each major type of processor is very well documented, many times emulated with emulation code in open source, so unless a major catastrophe happens in 100 years we won't have much more issues than now.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[LingNoi]

That's the exact same for movies. "Oh it would be easier for people to remaster some old movies if they had all the original footage".

The original footage is there! You're watching it! With your eye balls! All that is required for a movie to survive is to make sure its in some raw format and that you are not blind.

That it *NOT* the *EXACT* same as programming and software where you are dealing with *ABSTRACTIONS* on *WHAT THE COMPUTER IS DOING*.

When the human eye evolves to be incompatible with *WATCHING* a *MOVIE* then you'll have a point.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[4D6963]

The original footage is there! You're watching it! With your eye balls!

...

I'll try not to insult your intelligence, but you're not quite watching what's originally been filmed. Armageddon wasn't actually filmed on a smoking space asteroid. There's been quite a few things done between the original footage and what you saw..

If all is required for a movie to survive is for you to be able to see it, then all a game needs is for you to be able to play it, that means an emulator. Having the raw footage is still equivalent to having the sources of a game. You're still not making a point.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[LingNoi]

You're still not making a point.

I am, it is just you are not getting it. A movie doesn't suffer from software bugs. A movie is MOVING PICTURES. A game is pieces of software that you interacts your with operating system. Software does have problems. Games are pieces of software. An author doesn't intend for an error to occure in the program. Having to restart a game because it has memory leaks isn't what the author intended and these pieces of software can cause security risks to your system too. How you can compare fixing memory leaks to "changing art" is ridiculous. This is my situation NOW this is what I was describing in my original post which you have bought completely off topic.

Re:Welcome to the medieval time in game media

[4D6963]

A movie doesn't suffer from software bugs

Right, a movie suffers goofs instead. As for memory leaks, well any author has the time to release a patch/update to his game before he definitely stops working on it and that the game enters history. I can't even think of any "historical" game (understand old enough not to be updated) suffering such issues to the point you could possibly care, so it's a non-issue :-).

Great

[Greyfox]

Now I'm going to have to wash my brain. Thanks...

Nothing but a bad advertisment.

[shoolz]

First 3 1/2 meaningless minutes of a man wearing an iPod costume wandering around, then the most feeble attempt to discuss the history of music-based video games.

Whoever paid for this slashvertisement just threw their money out the window. I mean come on, shouldn't a proper slashvert be at least remotely engaging?

You call that history?

[theorangesven]

Wow, the history of beat em ups? Try learning what they are, and how they are not fighting games. Beat em ups are single player (or co-op), often side-scrollers, that involve beating up huge amounts of enemies.
Fighting games are 2 player versus games (occasionally 4, such as Powerstone 2, SSB, and GG: Isuka) that require one player to defeat the other.

game

[rose123]

we see free PC games and online games at http://funmin.com/ rose123 www.withfriendship.com