Sunday, 4 November 2007

WEEK 4 A Short Survey on the History of Computer Games

1971 : The first "Coin-op" Arcade is opened to the public in the USA.

1972 : Nolan Bushnell founds ATARI Corporation. PONG becomes the most successfull game for coin-op arcades. The game had only two screen messages: "Deposit Quarter" and "Avoid missing Ball for High Score"

1974 : PONG for ATARI home computers released.

1975 : Commodore presents the Commodore PET, a home computer with a conventional audio cassette recorder as a storage device.

1976 : Fairchild releases the Channel F, a computer console for cartridges. Available software: PADDLE, HOCKEY, TIC TAC TOE.

1977 : Another space shoot-up game, SPACE INVADERS, keeps the player alive, if he destroys many hostile spaceships. Space invaders is the first game featuring a "High-Score Display".

1978 : ATARI's VCS 2600 becomes a commercial success as a hybrid station consisting of
tv-set, videogame-software and computer.

1979 : Activision is the first company exclusively dedicated to computer games programming. It was founded by 4 former ATARI employees.

1980 : Mattel releases Intellivision, another game developer. Nintendo releases PAC MAN. Pac Man becomes a long lasting success as well as an arcade game as a home computer game.

1981 : Nintendo and SEGA start exporting games to the USA.

1982 : DONKEY KONG by Nintendo Entertainment Systems (NES) released. The computer games business faces its first international crash.

1984 : Mattel sells its electronic division.

1989 : Nintendo releases GAME BOY and the programme TETRIS.

1990 : Nintendo sells SUPER MARIO BROS. games worth 500 Mio. $ worldwide.

1991 : SEGA makes a splash with SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.

1993 : DOOM becomes the most popular "First Person Shoot ‘em Up" game.

1994 : PC CD-ROM games become a serious alternative to consoles. SONY presents the Playstation.

1995 : SEGA releases the Saturn console.

1996 : Nintendo 64 issued, QUAKE follows DOOM as another ultra brutal shoot-up game.

1998 : Epic Megagames releases UNREAL1. The game software includes an editor called UnrealEd, which is a complete 3D-game editing software. Unreal communities flourish all over the world and exchange levels, models and know-how via the INTERNET.

1999 : 400 artists contribute to the development of FINAL FANTASY VII. For the first time the budget for the development of a single computer game equals the budget of major Hollywood movie productions. Epic Megagames release UnrealTournament, an extended version of Unreal1. SEGA presents its Dreamcast console with costum built interfaces like fishing rods, steering wheels and more.

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