Press Start to Play : A History of Modern Gaming (Part One)

One of my very earliest memories as a child is sitting in my dad's huge office chair in his bedroom, surrounded by computer parts, consoles now obsolete and stacks of floppy disks, wearing my thumbs out playing Zool on his Amiga. While my memories of gaming only stretch back as far as clunky joysticks and sugary pixels in 1992, of course computers have a longer and much more vast history. In fact, the development of the first computers dates back to the early 1820s (1), far earlier than even my dad and his love of computing would care to remember.

While today, computers may be widely used for personal use - emailling, social networking, gaming - they were first developed as problem solvers; inventions intended to speed up the process of calculating mathematical equations, faster than any human could. It was Charles Babbage(2), an English Mathematician, who first hatched the idea of such a creation by proposing The Difference Engine -  a huge, steam-powered machine capable of calculating mathematical tables. Interested in his idea, the British government gave Babbage £1,700(3) to build his machine, which seems a startlingly small amount. And apparently it was, as due to financial problems, Babbage never saw The Difference Engine built in his lifetime. However, over a century later, Babbage's Engine was finally built, using his original design.

 

Some Quite Interesting information on Charles Babbage himself.

The Difference Engine.

Not really the compact personal computers we're used to using in our own homes, right ? Clearly computers still have a long way to go before we recognise them as the machines we use so often today. That being said, Babbage's machine, once built, was proven to work effectively and he is widely credited as being the father of modern computing. 

So, how exactly did computing machines make such a jump from clunky hunks of hand-cranked metal to the sleek, portable instruments of entertainment that we know today ? Well, back to the late 19th century now, where Herman Hollerith, an American inventor, attempts to - once again - create a machine to solve problems. To calculate the census in 1880, Hollerith develops an effective "punch card" system(4), and in the light of this success, goes on to develop the company IBM - ring any bells ? Still, it takes the personal computer another 90 years to become commercially available. During that time though, it didn't take developers long to realise that alongside problem solving, computers also had another exciting potential - game playing, of course !

Talk about embarrassing baby photos.. This is Tennis for Two, the very first video game, developed in 1958 by William Higinbotham(5). Tennis for Two is one of the very first games to use a graphical display, which meant users could directly interact with the device they were using. Tennis for Two was dismantled after just a year, but developers interest in gaming wasn't going anywhere.

Over the next 17 years, the world of gaming saw a variety of developments in gaming - from Tic-Tac-Toe, which involved using a light pen to play, to Spacewar! where two players were pitted against each other - culminating in the founding of Atari in 1972(6). With Atari of course came Pong and, with it, widespread commercial success of the arcade game, opening the floodgates of interest in gaming.

Examples of first-gen systems: left to right - Atari Sears/Tele-Games, Magnavox Odyssey, Nintendo Color TV Game, Coleco Telstar, Magnavox Odyssey Series.

Starting to look more familiar ? These first generation consoles became the building blocks for the home systems we now use every day. At this point, Atari and Magnavox were the big names in the business, competing against each other with systems like the Atari 2600 and the Magnavox Odyssey models(7). Coleco was the next competitor with the release of it's Telstar model in 1976. 

While I never had the opportunity to grow up playing anything this early on, I can imagine my dad and other kids of his generation and they excitement they must have experienced getting to play these consoles for the first time. It's around this time I imagine people really getting into gaming for the first time; the challenge of getting further than you could before, waiting for new releases, teaming up with groups of friends to play together - everything that appeals to us now as a community, but completely fresh and exciting. Considering this, the success of the video game industry seems obvious - is there much else in the world that invokes such images of excitement, creativity and community in the name of fun ? 

Sentimentality aside, the gaming world was beginning to to take off. With the arrival of home consoles and improved technology, it looked like the sky was the limit for the fresh-faced gaming industry. In my next History of Modern Gaming post, I discuss further developments in the gaming world and get nostalgic over some of my first favourite games and consoles.    

References

1. http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine

4. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blhollerith.htm

5. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcomputer_videogames.htm

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games#Late_1950s.E2.80.931960s

7. http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/evolution-of-home-video-game-consoles-1967-2011/

Dalek Disasters & Mushroom Making

So, I'm now coming to the end of our second teaching week here at DMU and honestly I still felt like I was really struggling getting to grips with using 3D modelling. Our first taster with 3D Studio Max was build a church; easy right ? It's all just rectangles and triangles ! I sailed happily through the church exercise, how could I ever have thought I would struggle with 3D work ? This was so fun ! Then things got complicated.

This was our next challenge. At first I was thrilled to see this guy, who doesn't love a bit of Doctor Who ? But when I started trying to create even the base of the model, I was stumped. There was so many complicated shapes, fiddly little bits, and parts I literally had no idea how to create the shapes of. Everybody seemed to be doing really well at this exercise - I pretty much fell flat on my face. By the end of week one, I was well and truly defeated. I hadn't manage to create anything that even remotely resembled a Dalek. Davros would be ashamed!

This was a pretty big wake up call for me; I had to get good at using this software, and - technically a week behind everyone else - I was going to have to get good fast. I decided that the best way to figure this out was to have a go at playing with the program outside of what we'd been told to do in class. I set myself a target of creating one thing of my choice and using that as my first stepping stone of getting to grips with 3D Studio Max.

click for larger images

I decided to embark on some mushroom making (I was inspired after seeing this article on the BBC News site) and for the most part, it was really fun. I didn't feel I struggled half as much with this as I did with the dreaded Dalek and I also managed to have a finished outcome at the end. While this probably seems pretty basic stuff to some, I definitely feel much more confident with my ability to use 3D techniques now - when we were set our new project I didn't feel daunted, I felt excited ! I guess everybody has to start somewhere. I've also manage to solve a lot of problems I had with the Dalek by doing this - if I get any time in the next week I will definitely be having another shot at him.

I've spent the past few days working on wheelie bin creating, working with textures and unwrapping. I'll be posting my progress and outcome here when I'm finished. I have to say I'm really pleased to finally feel like I'm getting some momentum in my learning experiences.    

In Which I Become a First Year,

I'd like to use the excuse of this being my first experience with blogging to explain how awkward this introduction post will be, but actually I'm just not very good at talking about myself ! What I am good at talking about, though, is how excited I am to be embarking on a 3 year Game Art Design course at De Montfort University, in Leicester. After finishing an art foundation in June, this summer felt like it lasted forever as I waited to move down here from Liverpool !

My creative background could be easily described as varied - illustrative art, contemporary textiles and fine art are all pies I've had my greedy art fingers in. 3D work is something completely new to me, but evidentally I will never get bored of picking up new skills, and I'm really excited to learn something that as of right now I don't know even the basics of. My blog will be used to document my journey into the world of 3DS Max, along with all the other processes and techniques I will be learning throughout my 3 years on the course. Hopefully this will be as fun for you to read as (I'm sure) it will be for me to learn !

As I'm sure is obvious, I am a pretty big game lover. The vast majority of my favourite games are survival horrors and RPGs, but anything really beautiful, challenging or just outright cute will have me hooked. Gaming, along with art, is a lifelong interest and I am just as passionate about one as I am the other. For me, it's a way to immerse myself in a completely creative environment which is as interactive as it is exciting. In the future, I am hoping to be able to contribute to the gaming industry just as much as I have taken away from it over the years. Here are some examples of some of my favourite games !

So, watch this space as DMU crafts me into an ideal game artist. For now, I'm off to wrestle with 3DS Max, let the progress begin !