Computer Space
1970's
What is important about the years to come is that the computer and video game designing and programming split into various different and new areas such as university or home computers, arcade machines and handheld computers.
1971
The first coin operated game is installed at the student union at Stanford University using a DEC PDP-11 and vector display terminals. The game was called Galaxy Game, based on the already successful Spacewar! Also based on Spacewar! later on that same year Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar! calling it Computer Space. Nutting Associates bought the game manufacturing 1500 Computer Space machines. The game was not too successful, but was the first mass-produced video game, also being the first to be offered for commercial sale.
1972
Bushnell and Dabney, creators of Computer Space felt that it was too complex and a more simple game might make them more money so they left Nutting Associates and founded Atari Inc. They then released Pong, the first video game with widespread success. The game is very similar to its predecessor Tennis for Two. The main idea was exactly the same, this time more similar to ping pong, but as the name “Ping-Pong” was already copyrighted, Pong is decided on for it is the sound the machine makes when the ball is hit with the paddle. 19,000 Pong machines were sold and everyone still remembers it.
1973
By the end of 1972 and beginning of 1973 Magnavox begins manufacturing Baer’s TV game system, calling it the Odyssey. Sanders and Magnavox begin showing it around the country seeing if anyone will buy it. Nutting Associates believing it is the only company dealing with video games is astonished when it sees Magnavox publicizing video games. Sending Bushnell to test the Odyssey, Nutting feels once again the strongest for Bushnell found it uninteresting and nothing compared to Computer Space. None the less the Odyssey still sells 100 000 copies, for Magnavox said it would only work with they televisions, and even if expensive it was the closest home-version one could have to Pong.
1976
The first violent video game is released by Exidy Games. Death Race 2000 is a driving game based on a 1975 movie from which the name of the game is taken. One earns points by running people, in this case stick figures, over. At first it is well loved, but as the game’s violence gains national attention it is taken off the market.
1978
The arcade gaming industry enters its Golden Age with the release of Space Invaders by Taito, inspiring many manufacturers to enter the market.
1979
The still very successful Pac-Man is set into the market, and its success as the first colour arcade game is enormous. Arcade machines could then be found anyway such as in shopping malls, restaurants and convenience stores.
1971
The first coin operated game is installed at the student union at Stanford University using a DEC PDP-11 and vector display terminals. The game was called Galaxy Game, based on the already successful Spacewar! Also based on Spacewar! later on that same year Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin-operated arcade version of Spacewar! calling it Computer Space. Nutting Associates bought the game manufacturing 1500 Computer Space machines. The game was not too successful, but was the first mass-produced video game, also being the first to be offered for commercial sale.
1972
Bushnell and Dabney, creators of Computer Space felt that it was too complex and a more simple game might make them more money so they left Nutting Associates and founded Atari Inc. They then released Pong, the first video game with widespread success. The game is very similar to its predecessor Tennis for Two. The main idea was exactly the same, this time more similar to ping pong, but as the name “Ping-Pong” was already copyrighted, Pong is decided on for it is the sound the machine makes when the ball is hit with the paddle. 19,000 Pong machines were sold and everyone still remembers it.
1973
By the end of 1972 and beginning of 1973 Magnavox begins manufacturing Baer’s TV game system, calling it the Odyssey. Sanders and Magnavox begin showing it around the country seeing if anyone will buy it. Nutting Associates believing it is the only company dealing with video games is astonished when it sees Magnavox publicizing video games. Sending Bushnell to test the Odyssey, Nutting feels once again the strongest for Bushnell found it uninteresting and nothing compared to Computer Space. None the less the Odyssey still sells 100 000 copies, for Magnavox said it would only work with they televisions, and even if expensive it was the closest home-version one could have to Pong.
1976
The first violent video game is released by Exidy Games. Death Race 2000 is a driving game based on a 1975 movie from which the name of the game is taken. One earns points by running people, in this case stick figures, over. At first it is well loved, but as the game’s violence gains national attention it is taken off the market.
1978
The arcade gaming industry enters its Golden Age with the release of Space Invaders by Taito, inspiring many manufacturers to enter the market.
1979
The still very successful Pac-Man is set into the market, and its success as the first colour arcade game is enormous. Arcade machines could then be found anyway such as in shopping malls, restaurants and convenience stores.
Pong Advertisement
COMPUTERS
MAINFRAME COMPUTERS
The development of university mainframe games started in the 1970’s. These games were mainly made by students who wrote these games on the expensive university computers, thus causing many games to never go on the market for no one at home had such high-tech computers. The three most important distribution paths of the time were the PLATO system, the DECUS, and Hewlett-Packard. PLATO was an educational computing environment designed at the University of Illinois which ran on mainframes made by Control Data Corporation; the games were interchangeable between PLATO systems. The DECUS was the user group for computers made by DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), which distributed games that would run on various DEC computers. Only some games were written for Hewlett-Packard minicomputers such as the HP2000 but it was still quite well known.
1971
The first computer baseball game is written on a DEC PDP-10 mainframe at Pomona College by Don Daglow. Players could either play single games or an entire season. Later on Daglow published a better version of the game called Earl Weaver Baseball in 1987.
Also this year, Mike Mayfield creates Start Trek on a Sigma 7 minicomputer at the University of California. This was the first major game to be ported across hardware platforms by students. Throughout the decade many more Star Trek games were produced.
1972
Hunt the Wumpus, a hide-and-seek game is written by Gregory Yob for the PDP-10; this could be considered the first ‘text adventure’.
1974
The first early multi-player 3D first-person shooters are created; Maze War (on the Imlac PDS-1 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California) and Spasim (on PLATO).
1975
The first modern text adventure game, Adventure, later called Colossal Cave is written by William Crowther on the FORTRAN for PDP-10. The player controls the game through simple sentence commands and receives descriptive text output. It was then re-written on PLATO by some students, which was when it really became popular.
Also this year, Daglow wrote the first role-playing game on PDP-10 mainframes, Dungeon. It was inspired by the still popular board game Dungeons & Dragons. It was the first game t use life of sight graphics; it took in different factors such as light or darkness and the difference in visions between the species one could interpret.
1977
The first version of Air a text air combat game is written by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. This was the inspiration to the first ever graphical online multi-player game Air Warrior. Flinn and Taylor also founded the first successful online game company, Kesmai.
1980
Rogue is released on BSD Unix after two years of work by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman and Ken Arnold. It inspired many rogue like games ever since its release. Like Dungeon it displayed dungeon maps using text characters, but the maps changed for every new game so one could never cheat.
HOME COMPUTERS
Even if most of the market for video games was concentrated on video arcades and home consoles, the home computers industry of the 1970’s and ‘80’s was rapidly evolving. As new computers were developed, games followed. What happened at the time, was that game designers such as Yob, Crowther and Daglow didn’t think to copyright their game codes, so were published in numerous books and magazines for people to type into their home computers, the most popular of the time being Tandy (the Tandy TRS-80 was one of the machines responsible for the personal computer revolution), Commodore, and Apple.
Video games were also sold in ‘solid’ form, such as with floppy disks, cassette tapes and Read-Only Memory (ROM) cartridges. The games were mailed, or later on even bought in stores, thus changing the way we play video games at home.
The development of university mainframe games started in the 1970’s. These games were mainly made by students who wrote these games on the expensive university computers, thus causing many games to never go on the market for no one at home had such high-tech computers. The three most important distribution paths of the time were the PLATO system, the DECUS, and Hewlett-Packard. PLATO was an educational computing environment designed at the University of Illinois which ran on mainframes made by Control Data Corporation; the games were interchangeable between PLATO systems. The DECUS was the user group for computers made by DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), which distributed games that would run on various DEC computers. Only some games were written for Hewlett-Packard minicomputers such as the HP2000 but it was still quite well known.
1971
The first computer baseball game is written on a DEC PDP-10 mainframe at Pomona College by Don Daglow. Players could either play single games or an entire season. Later on Daglow published a better version of the game called Earl Weaver Baseball in 1987.
Also this year, Mike Mayfield creates Start Trek on a Sigma 7 minicomputer at the University of California. This was the first major game to be ported across hardware platforms by students. Throughout the decade many more Star Trek games were produced.
1972
Hunt the Wumpus, a hide-and-seek game is written by Gregory Yob for the PDP-10; this could be considered the first ‘text adventure’.
1974
The first early multi-player 3D first-person shooters are created; Maze War (on the Imlac PDS-1 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California) and Spasim (on PLATO).
1975
The first modern text adventure game, Adventure, later called Colossal Cave is written by William Crowther on the FORTRAN for PDP-10. The player controls the game through simple sentence commands and receives descriptive text output. It was then re-written on PLATO by some students, which was when it really became popular.
Also this year, Daglow wrote the first role-playing game on PDP-10 mainframes, Dungeon. It was inspired by the still popular board game Dungeons & Dragons. It was the first game t use life of sight graphics; it took in different factors such as light or darkness and the difference in visions between the species one could interpret.
1977
The first version of Air a text air combat game is written by Kelton Flinn and John Taylor. This was the inspiration to the first ever graphical online multi-player game Air Warrior. Flinn and Taylor also founded the first successful online game company, Kesmai.
1980
Rogue is released on BSD Unix after two years of work by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman and Ken Arnold. It inspired many rogue like games ever since its release. Like Dungeon it displayed dungeon maps using text characters, but the maps changed for every new game so one could never cheat.
HOME COMPUTERS
Even if most of the market for video games was concentrated on video arcades and home consoles, the home computers industry of the 1970’s and ‘80’s was rapidly evolving. As new computers were developed, games followed. What happened at the time, was that game designers such as Yob, Crowther and Daglow didn’t think to copyright their game codes, so were published in numerous books and magazines for people to type into their home computers, the most popular of the time being Tandy (the Tandy TRS-80 was one of the machines responsible for the personal computer revolution), Commodore, and Apple.
Video games were also sold in ‘solid’ form, such as with floppy disks, cassette tapes and Read-Only Memory (ROM) cartridges. The games were mailed, or later on even bought in stores, thus changing the way we play video games at home.
mainframe computer from the back
