2 Books in 1: The History of Video Games Through the most Interesting Anecdotes, Curiosities and Facts - Volumes 1 & 2

By Jon Bardo

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE ORIGIN OF VIDEO GAMES AND THEIR EXPLOSIVE POPULARIZATION THROUGH THE DECADES OF THE 70'S AND 80'S?

 

In this compilation of 2 books in 1 of the collection The history of video games through the most interesting anecdotes, curiosities and facts you will enjoy and learn the highlights of the early years of video games, from its origin to 1989.

 

Virtual games were created in the 1950s, but it was in the 1970s when their commercial power was discovered with the first arcade machines such as Galaxy Game or Computer Space, although it would be the success of Atari's Pong that finally launched the industry. 

 

Subsequently, games like Space Invaders, Galaxian, Asteroids or Pac-Man took arcades to their first golden age while first and second generation consoles began to spread video games in homes, especially through the Atari 2600... until the arrival of the video game crisis in 1983.

 

Nintendo's 8-bit console relaunched and massified the market through a glorious catalog (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, Castlevania, Punch-Out!!!) while arcade machines continued their success, with computers threatening with their first hit titles.

 

In this book you will discover:

- The first video game, programmed even before the existence of computers.

- The influence of World War II on the development of video games.

- The first candidates for the first video game in history and why they didn't become so.

- The first female video game designer

- How the first arcade machine and the beginning of the video game industry originated

- The relationship between the Nazi holocaust and the appearance of the first console

- The most controversial games of the arcades

- The first successes of glorious companies like Sega, Taito or Namco

- Racial segregation and the invention of game cartridges

- The origin of the Pac-Man idea and its explosive success in arcades

- The first color video games and their impact on the industry

- The first portable video game systems and their variable reception

- The rebellion of developers against video game console companies

- The first appearance of Super Mario in virtual games, before his own saga

- Beyond fun: games for the army and psychological testing

- The explosion of cooperative games: Joust, Bubble Bobble, Contra, Double Dragon...

- The end of Atari in the video game console environment

- The first relationship of video games with Walt Disney

- The video game crisis of 1983 and its subsequent recovery.

- The beginning of the fight between Nintendo and Sega through the third and fourth generation consoles...

- The numerical mess in the first releases of Super Mario Bros.

- The explosive fame of a Tetris whose author was slow to see the first profits

- The golden age of Namco and the emergence of legendary companies such as Konami and Capcom.

- The daring universe of fantasy with The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

- The beginning of the success of fighting games: Double Dragon, Final Fight, Punch-Out!!, Street Fighter...

- The first successes on computers and the threat of a new system for consoles and arcades.

 

All this and much more in a selection of eye-catching and interesting facts to enjoy learning about the early years of video games!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jon Bardo
• Release date: Mar 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224310494

Book preview

Introduction

Do you want to know the origin of video games and their explosive popularization throughout the decades of the 70s and 80s? In this book that brings together the first two volumes of the collection The history of video games through the most interesting anecdotes, curiosities and facts, you will enjoy and learn the most notable aspects of the early years of video games.

Virtual games were created in the 1950s as simple means to demonstrate the possibilities of the first computers, but it was in the 1970s when their commercial power was discovered with the first arcade machines such as Galaxy Game or Computer Space, although it would be the success of Atari's Pong that finally launched the industry.

Games like Space Invaders, Galaxian, Asteroids or Pac-Man took arcades to their first golden age while first and second generation consoles began to spread video games in homes, especially through the Atari 2600... until the arrival of the video game crisis.

Nintendo's 8-bit console relaunched and expanded the market through a glorious catalog (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mega Man, Castlevania, Punch-Out!!) while arcade machines continued their success. , with computers threatening their first successful titles.

In these pages you will discover the journey of video games from their origin until 1989, through curious and entertaining anecdotes that will allow you to advance in the history of video games in a new way.

I hope you enjoy this book and that its pages are satisfactory to you. All the best,Jon Bardo.

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FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO THE FIRST IDEA OF A VIDEO GAME

Paradoxically, the origin of a universe as idle and happy as that of video games is closely related to another as sad and destructive as that of war. What is the relationship between these two concepts that could not be further from each other?

The Second World War promoted the development of technology with the intention of achieving greater military advantages and obtaining victory in the war. With the objective of survival, science squeezed its possibilities looking for any element that could offer more options for achieving victory on the battlefield.

As we will see later, many of the most prominent personalities worked during this stage as engineers for the North American army, discovering new elements that, finally, after the end of the war, would be vital for the development of technology and the first video games.

But one of the most notable examples is perhaps that of the Turing Machine. Alan Turing was a British mathematician who worked during World War II trying to decipher the communications system of German submarines. Recognized is his contribution to Enigma, a machine useful for deciphering codes and messages.

One of Alan Turing's most notable milestones is the establishment of the theory of the Turing Machine.

Theoretically, the British mathematician described what the functioning of an artificial intelligence with computing capacity should be like. That is, he described how computers that did not yet exist should work, and laid the foundations for the creation of the first computers.

This theory represented an intellectual revolution, as it established the possibility that machines could act on their own and have their own automaton behavior. This unleashed all kinds of reflections and a new philosophical world, since it limited human intelligence to a series of instructions capable of being replicated. The obsession with human intelligence associated with robots and its problems still persists today. You just have to look at the success of the Terminator movie saga.

In any case, the foundations for automated computing were already laid. Turing would not create the first computer and his study remained a simple idea, but it would be key for other scientists to create the first computer systems. In this way, video games would finally have a physical system on which to be deployed in the future. But Turing's relationship with video games goes further. Even before the first computers were created where the first video games would appear, he had already programmed his own on his imaginary computer machine concept!

It was a chess game. In 1948 he designed a program with precise instructions for his imaginary machine that indicated how this machine should act in a game of chess against another human being.

Turing had not only mentally created what the first computer should be like, but he had also programmed a chess game for it even without it ever existing beyond his thoughts!

And in this way, even if only theoretically and in the imagination of the magnificent Turing, the first steps were established for the arrival of computers and competitive games against them.

El hombre que separó a las personas de las máquinas - El Litoral

THE FIRST VIDEO GAMES WERE NOT MADE TO SELL

Although it may seem unthinkable today, the first video games were not created to be marketed or to make money with them.

The scientific impulse of World War II eventually led to the creation of the first computers, such as Colossus or ENIAC. These were gigantic machines (mainframes) that occupied entire rooms.

After the war, the main universities tried to have this new technology available, with the Manchester Mark 1 appearing at the University of Manchester, the EDVAC in Pennsylvania, the IAS Machine in Princeton or the EDSAC in Cambridge. Large organizations sought to have this new computing power, still very expensive and cumbersome for general distribution.

Efemerides de Tecnologia: 06 de mayo (1949) se estrena EDSAC. Primer ordenador que ejecuta programas internos

With the appearance of this new technology, a new market was created, giving rise to commercial companies such as IBM or Ferranti. And with the appearance of these companies, a new war would begin: that of computer trade and sales.

In this context, is where the first video games appeared. But not as entertainment systems dedicated to leisure, but as experimental samples to show what the new computers could do.

Games, by having precise norms and rules, and by requiring the use of logic to be played, were an appropriate means to show the computing capabilities of new technologies.

They were designed so that potential buyers could easily check what the new hardware could do, thus showing its possibilities.

In this way, the first video games rarely left laboratories or trade shows. They died once their illustrative task ended. They were not created to play, but to exhibit.

For this reason, many of them did not register, falling into oblivion. It is very difficult to establish which was the first video game in history, because they had such a limited and precise purpose that many did not create a legacy or sufficient impact to be remembered.

But they would be equally important for the development of the industry. It was only a matter of time before someone saw them as a form of entertainment worth paying for, and the video game industry began. But for that, there would still be a long way to go.

THE FIRST ELECTRONIC VIDEO GAME?

One of the first electronic devices dedicated solely to entertainment was the cathode ray tube entertainment device.

This simple electronic game was created by Thomas Toliver Goldsmith Jr. and his partner Estle Ray Mann. Goldsmith had worked during World War II on the development of radars, and once the war ended he thought about using his knowledge for more recreational purposes.

The game was simple: a beam of light on an electronic screen that made a parabolic movement that simulated the launch of a missile. Through a knob, the player could determine the trajectory of the throw with the aim of hitting specific points on the screen as a target.

After a few seconds of progress, the light beam blurred, simulating the explosion of the projectile, and the player was considered to have won if that explosion was generated exactly in the position that had been defined as the objective.

The tool consisted of a cathode ray tube (CRT) connected to an oscilloscope, so it is considered the first game with electronic elements.

However... he did not use any computer or computer systems. Its operation was purely analog.

For this reason, it is normally excluded from the concept of a video game and, therefore, cannot be considered the first video game in history.

The item was patented in 1947, giving it the titles of the first game on cathode ray tubes and the first electronic game in history, under the title Amusement device with cathode ray tube.

However, it was never mass produced or commercialized, since, being still in its origins, the world of electronic gaming did not seem an appropriate environment in which to do business, and Goldsmith preferred to invest his time in more productive occupations.

For this reason, the device would end up being forgotten, even though it had represented a great advance for the development of interactive entertainment.

THE FIRST VIDEO GAME ON A COMPUTER?

In 1950, the first video game developed on a computer was exhibited. It was Bertie the Brain, developed by Canadian engineer Josef Kates.

As usual, Kates developed the game simply with the intention of showing the potential of one technology: his additron tube. It was a smaller vacuum tube, which was really the commercial objective of the exhibition.

Bertie the Brain was a four-meter-tall computer capable of playing a game of tic-tac-toe. It was shown at the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. In it, the player could challenge the artificial intelligence to this well-known pencil and paper game.

The X and O signs appeared on the large screen as the human and the machine decided their movement, and lights on the right side showed whose turn it was, and also illuminated to show the winner. The game difficulty could be adjusted.

Kates obtained the support of the Roger Majestic company to develop the game that ended up being a success, with long lines to enjoy this interactive game with the aim of surpassing artificial intelligence.

Another curiosity was that, in these first games, it was necessary to develop a specific computer for each of them. A game, a computer. Bertie the Brain was useless for anything other than the game of tic-tac-toe for which he was programmed.

It is as if today, for each title in its catalog, PlayStation had to release a new console. Unthinkable, right?

In any case, despite the success during the exhibition, Bertie the Brain was quickly forgotten. Even its role as a means of showcasing the potential of additron tubes was not really useful, as the technology quickly became obsolete with the advent of transistor technology.

Even from the fight to be the first video game in history, Bertie the Brain is usually excluded, since the development of the game was not done on a screen, but were simply fixed light bulbs that turned on and off in response to actions. of the computer.

Since it does not have a screen, most scholars exclude