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Subject: The History of Video Games
(Written in 1999)
The Beginning: A Brief Introduction
In the fall of 1972, the very first video game, Pong, was released at a small bar in Sunnyvale, California. The game’s creator, Nolan Bushnell, is now known as “The Father of Video Games” (Sheff p. 133). His monumental success with this game led to one of the first video game companies, Atari. Other companies such as Coleco and Magnavox joined the ranks with competing products similar to that of Atari. However, Bushnell, in his early twenties, filled with ambition and a unique vision, formed the path for Atari to be the most successful video game company throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
However, this success was cut short when Atari was bought out by Warner Bros. Communications. Bushnell left Atari two years later after he felt that his creativity was being stifled by corporate rules and regulations. With Bushnell’s vision gone, the large company had no direction to go.
Totally blind to the concepts of individual game quality and creativity, Atari started to release a flood of “copycat” titles, with other companies following their way. Many older titles would just be re-released with slight graphical changes or sped up game levels. These events led to a total collapse of the gaming market in 1984, the year loosely known to many individuals as “The Great Video Game Crash.”
However, Nintendo (a Japanese company famous for its trading cards at the time) still believed that there was potential in the idea of video games; it was simply poor executive decisions and a lack of quality software that shattered the industry. Despite the bitter taste that Atari had left in consumers’ mouths, Nintendo was determined to take a stab at the home game market. This was partially influenced by the continuing success of arcade centers around the world despite what had happened with the home gaming market. With attention to precise arcade-to-home conversions along with an innovative controller, Nintendo moved in for the kill with their revolutionary NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1985.
The launch of this system would forever change the face of video gaming. Nintendo went on to sell millions of NES systems along with hundreds of millions of cartridges. The NES supported some of history’s all time greatest games such as the “Mario” series, Mega Man, Zelda, Contra, Ninja Gaiden and Tetris just to name a few. Nintendo’s attention to quality was unquestionable and they remained virtually unchallenged by any competitor for the next five years.
The Unstoppable Force?
By the early 1990’s, video games had evolved from a simple child’s toy into a powerful electronic medium with a loyal following. The NES was a household item, much like a TV or VCR. Mario’s face was recognized by more kids than Mickey Mouse.
However, this evolution brought a new player to the video game field, Sega. Having failed by competing on a direct level with their Master System, Sega introduced their “Genesis” system which boasted 16-bit power versus the NES’s 8-bit. Coupled with Nintendo’s inability to adapt quickly enough to the new 16-bit technology along with the introduction of more “mature” games, the Genesis became a powerful force in the gaming industry. For the first time, Nintendo’s dominance was threatened and consumers were now faced with two main choices when it came to console video games.
When Nintendo finally responded, they came in full force. The fourth quarter of 1991 saw the introduction of Nintendo’s long awaited 16-bit Super NES. Games such as Super Mario World, Gradius 3, UN Squadron and Actraiser were instant hits with gamers all over the nation. But while the SNES’ debut was incredible, there was one significant flaw: it did not play the library of old NES games. This was ground for concern to many consumers and Sega took full advantage of it. Along with a superior marketing campaign and the introduction of their “mascot” (Sonic the Hedgehog), Sega took the lead in the 16-bit gaming wars. Nintendo had been usurped. Despite this, analysts all agreed that the gaming market was big enough for both of them to survive well. The market was still expanding at an incredible level with no end in sight.
Around the same time, a coin-op video game by the name of Street Fighter 2 was taking arcades around the world by storm. Players from countries all over the world were helplessly addicted to the sharp graphics, responsive gameplay, and overall competitive fun that this game provided. The company who created it, Capcom, was reveling in the amount of success that this one game had brought in.
Success was not unusual for Capcom as they had created some of arcades’ most memorable titles such as Strider, Ghosts n’ Goblins, and 1943. Not surprisingly, all these titles were converted for play on Nintendo’s NES. Through this co-operation, Nintendo and Capcom became very close partners. Thus, when Street Fighter 2 was announced to be translated to a home system in 1992, the SNES was the obvious gaming platform of choice. This game singlehandedly put Nintendo back into the position as the frontrunner in the video game wars.
There was a significant problem with the translation of this game, however. Being that the original was such an advanced arcade game, Street Fighter 2 on the SNES required more memory than the highest SNES cartridge (8 megabits) could hold. Not wishing to leave out any important elements from the original, Capcom decided to double the memory capacity of the SF2 cartridge to 16 megabits. This was a very risky decision; a single 8-meg chip (at the time) could swallow up to half the cost of a cartridge to the consumer (around $85). Thus, when Street Fighter 2 was released, its average retail cost tipped the $120 mark. This did not seem to matter though; SF2 went on to become the best selling game of 1992 and ranking among the top selling games of all time. It received countless awards and praise wherever it went as was hailed as the ultimate power in home videogaming. Capcom, seeing that their game was an unstoppable force, began to release annual “upgrades” of the original SF2 (in arcades first then at home around 6 months after) which included character refinements, faster game speed, and more memory. These upgrades did astonishingly well and Capcom is still riding the “SF2 wave” to this day. From this monumental success, fighting games and titles with higher memory in general were clearly (at the time) the wave of the future.
The Invasion of Interactivity
Observing the incredible success of Street Fighter 2, gaming companies around the globe began to churn out countless “copycat” titles, all of which coincided with more memory with each release. These titles varied greatly from variations of SF2’s martial arts theme to licensed characters (Ninja Turtles, Batman, Sailormoon) fighting one another. While many of these titles sold, very few came close to SF2’s success. Many companies were quick to blame this lack of success on the idea that there were too many limitations involving 16-bit hardware and software. But when one reads between the lines, the failure lied mostly in the software companies’ lack of originality and programming talent.
Frustrated by this fact, the majority of the gaming development community blindly turned to a new storage medium for video games, CD-ROM, which first became mass-market in 1993. The advantages of CD-ROM were clear: a single CD could hold up to 4000 times more memory than the average (8-meg) cartridge and cost less than a dollar to produce. CD’s were labeled as the “knight in shining armor” (West 1) savior of video games. Full-motion-video (FMV), stereo soundtracks and real voices were now a reality with the advent of CD-ROM technology. It was regarded as superior by the entire gaming community (less Nintendo, who had major financial interests tied in their cartridge factory) and videogamers alike.
Unfortunately, things only got worse. With the monster amount of memory storage available, companies began to create video games that were labeled as “interactive.” In these games, players could not control on-screen characters in the conventional sense; a player would view FMV (which often featured frequent, awkward loading complete with atrocious on-screen acting) and make a decision every few minutes based on what he or she saw. In addition, interactive games were much cheaper and easier to create than the average video game due to the lack of creative skills needed.
An example of a first wave title in this genre is a game called “Night Trap.” Your goal was to protect scantily-clad women in your hotel from creatures trying to kill them. The player would view different rooms of the hotel at the click of a button from the “control room.” When a creature entered, the player had to eliminate the threat by trapping or killing it. If the player was successful, he or she would witness a FMV clip of the creature dying; if the player failed, he or she would witness a scene where the woman would be tortured to death. Needless to say, the shallowness and mediocrity of this game (and all others like it) were incredible.
Because of Night Trap’s early success, companies everywhere flooded the market with countlessly lame interactive titles with themes ranging from already-seen movies, “make-your-own-video”, and Playboy centerfolds. One 32-bit system, the Panasonic 3-D-O, failed miserably on the market after having released more than half its software as interactive titles. Sega’s 16-bit CD-ROM system also failed for similar reasons, despite having a strong library of RPG’s to translate from Japan.
The Beginning: A Brief Introduction
In the fall of 1972, the very first video game, Pong, was released at a small bar in Sunnyvale, California. The game’s creator, Nolan Bushnell, is now known as “The Father of Video Games” (Sheff p. 133). His monumental success with this game led to one of the first video game companies, Atari. Other companies such as Coleco and Magnavox joined the ranks with competing products similar to that of Atari. However, Bushnell, in his early twenties, filled with ambition and a unique vision, formed the path for Atari to be the most successful video game company throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s.
However, this success was cut short when Atari was bought out by Warner Bros. Communications. Bushnell left Atari two years later after he felt that his creativity was being stifled by corporate rules and regulations. With Bushnell’s vision gone, the large company had no direction to go.
Totally blind to the concepts of individual game quality and creativity, Atari started to release a flood of “copycat” titles, with other companies following their way. Many older titles would just be re-released with slight graphical changes or sped up game levels. These events led to a total collapse of the gaming market in 1984, the year loosely known to many individuals as “The Great Video Game Crash.”
However, Nintendo (a Japanese company famous for its trading cards at the time) still believed that there was potential in the idea of video games; it was simply poor executive decisions and a lack of quality software that shattered the industry. Despite the bitter taste that Atari had left in consumers’ mouths, Nintendo was determined to take a stab at the home game market. This was partially influenced by the continuing success of arcade centers around the world despite what had happened with the home gaming market. With attention to precise arcade-to-home conversions along with an innovative controller, Nintendo moved in for the kill with their revolutionary NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1985.
The launch of this system would forever change the face of video gaming. Nintendo went on to sell millions of NES systems along with hundreds of millions of cartridges. The NES supported some of history’s all time greatest games such as the “Mario” series, Mega Man, Zelda, Contra, Ninja Gaiden and Tetris just to name a few. Nintendo’s attention to quality was unquestionable and they remained virtually unchallenged by any competitor for the next five years.
The Unstoppable Force?
By the early 1990’s, video games had evolved from a simple child’s toy into a powerful electronic medium with a loyal following. The NES was a household item, much like a TV or VCR. Mario’s face was recognized by more kids than Mickey Mouse.
However, this evolution brought a new player to the video game field, Sega. Having failed by competing on a direct level with their Master System, Sega introduced their “Genesis” system which boasted 16-bit power versus the NES’s 8-bit. Coupled with Nintendo’s inability to adapt quickly enough to the new 16-bit technology along with the introduction of more “mature” games, the Genesis became a powerful force in the gaming industry. For the first time, Nintendo’s dominance was threatened and consumers were now faced with two main choices when it came to console video games.
When Nintendo finally responded, they came in full force. The fourth quarter of 1991 saw the introduction of Nintendo’s long awaited 16-bit Super NES. Games such as Super Mario World, Gradius 3, UN Squadron and Actraiser were instant hits with gamers all over the nation. But while the SNES’ debut was incredible, there was one significant flaw: it did not play the library of old NES games. This was ground for concern to many consumers and Sega took full advantage of it. Along with a superior marketing campaign and the introduction of their “mascot” (Sonic the Hedgehog), Sega took the lead in the 16-bit gaming wars. Nintendo had been usurped. Despite this, analysts all agreed that the gaming market was big enough for both of them to survive well. The market was still expanding at an incredible level with no end in sight.
Around the same time, a coin-op video game by the name of Street Fighter 2 was taking arcades around the world by storm. Players from countries all over the world were helplessly addicted to the sharp graphics, responsive gameplay, and overall competitive fun that this game provided. The company who created it, Capcom, was reveling in the amount of success that this one game had brought in.
Success was not unusual for Capcom as they had created some of arcades’ most memorable titles such as Strider, Ghosts n’ Goblins, and 1943. Not surprisingly, all these titles were converted for play on Nintendo’s NES. Through this co-operation, Nintendo and Capcom became very close partners. Thus, when Street Fighter 2 was announced to be translated to a home system in 1992, the SNES was the obvious gaming platform of choice. This game singlehandedly put Nintendo back into the position as the frontrunner in the video game wars.
There was a significant problem with the translation of this game, however. Being that the original was such an advanced arcade game, Street Fighter 2 on the SNES required more memory than the highest SNES cartridge (8 megabits) could hold. Not wishing to leave out any important elements from the original, Capcom decided to double the memory capacity of the SF2 cartridge to 16 megabits. This was a very risky decision; a single 8-meg chip (at the time) could swallow up to half the cost of a cartridge to the consumer (around $85). Thus, when Street Fighter 2 was released, its average retail cost tipped the $120 mark. This did not seem to matter though; SF2 went on to become the best selling game of 1992 and ranking among the top selling games of all time. It received countless awards and praise wherever it went as was hailed as the ultimate power in home videogaming. Capcom, seeing that their game was an unstoppable force, began to release annual “upgrades” of the original SF2 (in arcades first then at home around 6 months after) which included character refinements, faster game speed, and more memory. These upgrades did astonishingly well and Capcom is still riding the “SF2 wave” to this day. From this monumental success, fighting games and titles with higher memory in general were clearly (at the time) the wave of the future.
The Invasion of Interactivity
Observing the incredible success of Street Fighter 2, gaming companies around the globe began to churn out countless “copycat” titles, all of which coincided with more memory with each release. These titles varied greatly from variations of SF2’s martial arts theme to licensed characters (Ninja Turtles, Batman, Sailormoon) fighting one another. While many of these titles sold, very few came close to SF2’s success. Many companies were quick to blame this lack of success on the idea that there were too many limitations involving 16-bit hardware and software. But when one reads between the lines, the failure lied mostly in the software companies’ lack of originality and programming talent.
Frustrated by this fact, the majority of the gaming development community blindly turned to a new storage medium for video games, CD-ROM, which first became mass-market in 1993. The advantages of CD-ROM were clear: a single CD could hold up to 4000 times more memory than the average (8-meg) cartridge and cost less than a dollar to produce. CD’s were labeled as the “knight in shining armor” (West 1) savior of video games. Full-motion-video (FMV), stereo soundtracks and real voices were now a reality with the advent of CD-ROM technology. It was regarded as superior by the entire gaming community (less Nintendo, who had major financial interests tied in their cartridge factory) and videogamers alike.
Unfortunately, things only got worse. With the monster amount of memory storage available, companies began to create video games that were labeled as “interactive.” In these games, players could not control on-screen characters in the conventional sense; a player would view FMV (which often featured frequent, awkward loading complete with atrocious on-screen acting) and make a decision every few minutes based on what he or she saw. In addition, interactive games were much cheaper and easier to create than the average video game due to the lack of creative skills needed.
An example of a first wave title in this genre is a game called “Night Trap.” Your goal was to protect scantily-clad women in your hotel from creatures trying to kill them. The player would view different rooms of the hotel at the click of a button from the “control room.” When a creature entered, the player had to eliminate the threat by trapping or killing it. If the player was successful, he or she would witness a FMV clip of the creature dying; if the player failed, he or she would witness a scene where the woman would be tortured to death. Needless to say, the shallowness and mediocrity of this game (and all others like it) were incredible.
Because of Night Trap’s early success, companies everywhere flooded the market with countlessly lame interactive titles with themes ranging from already-seen movies, “make-your-own-video”, and Playboy centerfolds. One 32-bit system, the Panasonic 3-D-O, failed miserably on the market after having released more than half its software as interactive titles. Sega’s 16-bit CD-ROM system also failed for similar reasons, despite having a strong library of RPG’s to translate from Japan.