Sunday, August 24, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Arcade Games
The first popular "arcade games" such as Shooting galleries, ball toss games, and the earliest coin-operated machines, such as those which claim to tell a person their fortune or played mechanical music.In the 1938, the earliest coin-operated pinball machines were made. These early amusement devices were distinct from their later electronic cousins in that they were made of wood, did not have plungers or lit-up bonus surfaces on the playing field, and used mechanical instead of electronic scoring readouts. By around 1976, most pinball machines in production switched to using solid state electronics for both operation and scoring.In 1975, students at Stanford University set up the Galaxy Game, a coin-operated version of the Spacewar computer game. This is the earliest known instance of a coin-operated video game.
Action Games
While the earliest action games appeared on computers, most action game genres were popularized in the video arcades that became popular in the 1970s and '80s. At that point, the vast majority of games focused on tests of dexterity that lent themselves to the short, addictive play that the arcade format thrived on. Sports and driving themes were common, but other games with more varied (and usually violent) themes began to form the action genre.
Some seminal action games include Space Invaders and Kung Fu Master, which helped to popularize the shoot 'em up and beat 'em up sub-genres, respectively. Later, as consoles and personal computers became more popular, it became more common for action games to include more non-action elements to lengthen to play experience and reduce repetition. "Pure" action games are not as common as the once were, but still exist.
Common objectives and gameplay
While the objective of an action game varies from game to game, it generally involves advancing through stages (or levels), eliminating hordes of enemies, and solving puzzles. Many games include one or more "Bosses", often preceded by "Mini-Bosses". A Mini-Boss is usually the climax to a level or series of levels, with a Boss encountered either at the end of the game or periodically throughout the game, leading up to an "End-game Boss", whose defeat is the objective of the game.
Bosses are typically defeated through use of "pattern recognition" skills and physical reaction speed. In most older action games and even many modern ones, the bosses are programmed with a simple pattern of attacks or moves that players learn through trial and error. These simple patterns would often include combo moves that require a player to jump, dodge, or block an attack, then strike at certain points to deal damage, perhaps even waiting out or timing the patterns to get in attacks.
Many sub-genres, such as platform games and action-adventure games, such as timing jumps to and from moving platforms. Platform games, whether 2D or 3D, are usually similar in concept to the original Mario Bros. game series. Some action games feature third-person shooter gameplay, enabling the player to acquire and upgrade various weapons, each sporting its own special abilities.
Another common sub-genre is the shoot 'em up, which usually involves the player controlling a character or vehicle brandishing many weapons and shooting anything that moves on-screen. This genre is well known for its side and vertical scrolling shooter games.
Some seminal action games include Space Invaders and Kung Fu Master, which helped to popularize the shoot 'em up and beat 'em up sub-genres, respectively. Later, as consoles and personal computers became more popular, it became more common for action games to include more non-action elements to lengthen to play experience and reduce repetition. "Pure" action games are not as common as the once were, but still exist.
Common objectives and gameplay
While the objective of an action game varies from game to game, it generally involves advancing through stages (or levels), eliminating hordes of enemies, and solving puzzles. Many games include one or more "Bosses", often preceded by "Mini-Bosses". A Mini-Boss is usually the climax to a level or series of levels, with a Boss encountered either at the end of the game or periodically throughout the game, leading up to an "End-game Boss", whose defeat is the objective of the game.
Bosses are typically defeated through use of "pattern recognition" skills and physical reaction speed. In most older action games and even many modern ones, the bosses are programmed with a simple pattern of attacks or moves that players learn through trial and error. These simple patterns would often include combo moves that require a player to jump, dodge, or block an attack, then strike at certain points to deal damage, perhaps even waiting out or timing the patterns to get in attacks.
Many sub-genres, such as platform games and action-adventure games, such as timing jumps to and from moving platforms. Platform games, whether 2D or 3D, are usually similar in concept to the original Mario Bros. game series. Some action games feature third-person shooter gameplay, enabling the player to acquire and upgrade various weapons, each sporting its own special abilities.
Another common sub-genre is the shoot 'em up, which usually involves the player controlling a character or vehicle brandishing many weapons and shooting anything that moves on-screen. This genre is well known for its side and vertical scrolling shooter games.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Video Games Arena
Welcome!
Computer and video games" and "Computer Games" redirect here. For other uses, see Computer game (disambiguation).
A video game is a game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device.[1] However, with the popular use of the term "video game", it now implies any type of display device. The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms are broad in range, from large computers to small handheld devices. Specialized video games such as arcade games, while previously common, have gradually declined in use.
The input device normally used to manipulate video games is called a game controller, which varies across platforms. For instance, a dedicated console controller might consist of only a button and a joystick, or feature a dozen buttons and one or more joysticks. Early personal computer based games historically relied on the availability of a keyboard for gameplay, or more commonly, required the user to purchase a separate joystick with at least one button to play. Many modern computer games allow the player to use a keyboard and mouse simultaneously.
Beyond the common element of visual feedback, video games have utilized other systems to provide interaction and information to the player. Chief examples of these are sound reproduction devices, such as speakers and headphones, and an array of haptic peripherals, such as vibration or force feedback.
The formulative years of video games consist of basic games that made use of interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example was in 1947, where the idea for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device" was conceived by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. The two filed for a patent on January 25, 1947, which was issued on December 14, 1948 as U.S. Patent 2455992. Inspired by radar displays, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets represented by drawings fixed to the screen. Other examples included the NIMROD computer at the 1951 Festival of Britain, Alexander S. Douglas's OXO for the EDSAC in 1952, William Higinbotham's interactive game called Tennis for Two in 1958, and MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's Spacewar! on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961. Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim, OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe, Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court, and Spacewar! used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other.
In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold, coin-operated video game. For its display it used a black-and-white television and the computer system was a state machine made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green. Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the "Brown Box", it also used a standard television and game generated video signal. These systems were followed by two versions of Atari's Pong; an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975. The commercial success of Pong led other companies to develop numerous Pong-clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)