Mystery House
1980's
Because of the relatively cheap costs of publishing a video game, games of all sorts were published in the 1980’s as anyone who wanted to could try and produce a game that might even have quite a big amount of success. Many different genres of video games were developed in these years, to which in the later years to come many more were added.
ADVENTURE GAMES
1980
Mystery House, the first ever graphic adventure game on home computers is developed by Roberta Williams. Eventhough the graphics were monochromes drawings and relatively slow, it still had a lot of success, for usually the video games were text adventures and this was a new idea.
1983
The first first-person perspective game is developed by Horii, it was called Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken. It was one of the first visual novels, also the first video game to have colour graphics.
1984
A completely new idea is developed by Sierra, even if the commands are still entered by text. King’s Quest not only had colour graphics but also a third-person perspective, but the really special thing was that the player could move an on screen character in the video game, making it interact with 2D objects, which due to various views seemed 3D.
1987
LucasArts, with Manic Mansion finally manages to remove text entry commands, building the SCUMM system to allow a point-and-click way of commanding.
BEAT ‘EM UP
1984
The first game in which one must “beat ‘em up”, Kung-Fu Master is developed, with its simple gameplay and multiple enemies one had to fight.
1986
Nakketsu Köka Kunio-Kun relseases Renegade, the first game in which one can move the character both horizontally and vertically.
FIGHTING GAMES
1985
Yie Ar Kung Fu is developed by Konami. The player meets with a variety of opponents, all with different appearances and fighting style which is an innovation to the usual ‘one against one’ style the games had before then where the only difference between the players was their clothes’ colours.
1987
Capcom developed Street Fighters, where the player can for the first time perform different moves by experimenting with the game controls.
INTERACTIVE MOVIE
1983
The first laserdisc video game is developed; Dragon’s Lair, introducing full-motion videos to the video game.
MAZE GAME
1980
One of the most successful video games ever is developed; Pac-Man.
1981
The first 3D game for the home computer is developed, 3D Monster Maze.
PLATFORM GAMES
1981
Donkey Kong, an arcade game, is not only the first game that allows the player to jump over obstacles and across gaps, but Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto also introduces Mario for the first time, becoming one of the most known video game figures.
1982
Alpha Denshi’s Jump Bug is the first platform game to use scrolling graphics
1983
Mario Bros is developed by Namco’s Shigeru Miyamoto, offering the first two-player simultaneous cooperative play
1984
Namco develops Pac-Land, which is the first game to feature multi-layered parallax scrolling
1986
The first game to fuse platform game fundamentals with elements of action-adventure games is Metroid. It also includes elements of Role-Playing Game (RPG), which allow the players to explore the playing area freely, also introducing the ability to gain new abilities of performance through the use of inventory items.
RACING GAMES
1981
The first racing game is developed by Sega, they call it Turbo.
1982
The first pseudo 3D graphical game, Pole Position is designed by Namco. It refined the ‘rear-view racer format’, where the player’s view is behind and above the vehicle, looking forwards with the horizon in sight.
RHYTHM GAME
1987
Dance Aerobics is the first game that allows the player to create music by stepping onto Nintendo’s Power Pad peripheral.
SCROLLING SHOOTERS
1980
The first game to have events occurring outside of the player’s view, Defender uses radar to display a map of the whole field and all the movements of various enemies.
1982
Moon Patrol introduces parallax scrolling in the computer graphics.
SURVIVAL HORROR
1981
Horror House is the first game to intentionally have elements of horror.
VIDEO GAME CRASH OF 1983
This was the “crash” of the video game industry. It also bankrupted several companies that produced North American home computers and video game consoles. What caused the crash includes he production of poorly designed games, which caused people not to buy then, leaving thousands of games cartridges unsold.
ONLINE GAMING
The most common thing in the 1980’s were dial-up bulletin board systems, sometimes used for online game playing. Later systems made use of terminal-control codes to get a pseudo-graphical interface. Some BBS offered access to various games, which one could play through such an interface. The games went from thing such as text adventures to gambling games; the usual card games. Certain BBS multiuser, allowed the players to interact with one another whilst playing the games, and the genre one could play evolved into what is known today as “massively multiplayer online role-playing games” (MMORPG). The first network game ever written for commercial personal computers was Snipes in 1974, written by SuperSet Software. It was a text-mode networked computer, created to test the new IBM Personal Computer, allowing the users to test its capabilities.
What also arose during this decade were commercial online services, the first of which were plain-text, operating on large mainframe computers permitting many users to be online at once. By the end of the decade, inline services had fully-graphical environments. The most popular text-based services included CompuServe, The Source, Genie, whilst platform-specific graphical services included PlayNET and Quantum Link.
ADVENTURE GAMES
1980
Mystery House, the first ever graphic adventure game on home computers is developed by Roberta Williams. Eventhough the graphics were monochromes drawings and relatively slow, it still had a lot of success, for usually the video games were text adventures and this was a new idea.
1983
The first first-person perspective game is developed by Horii, it was called Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken. It was one of the first visual novels, also the first video game to have colour graphics.
1984
A completely new idea is developed by Sierra, even if the commands are still entered by text. King’s Quest not only had colour graphics but also a third-person perspective, but the really special thing was that the player could move an on screen character in the video game, making it interact with 2D objects, which due to various views seemed 3D.
1987
LucasArts, with Manic Mansion finally manages to remove text entry commands, building the SCUMM system to allow a point-and-click way of commanding.
BEAT ‘EM UP
1984
The first game in which one must “beat ‘em up”, Kung-Fu Master is developed, with its simple gameplay and multiple enemies one had to fight.
1986
Nakketsu Köka Kunio-Kun relseases Renegade, the first game in which one can move the character both horizontally and vertically.
FIGHTING GAMES
1985
Yie Ar Kung Fu is developed by Konami. The player meets with a variety of opponents, all with different appearances and fighting style which is an innovation to the usual ‘one against one’ style the games had before then where the only difference between the players was their clothes’ colours.
1987
Capcom developed Street Fighters, where the player can for the first time perform different moves by experimenting with the game controls.
INTERACTIVE MOVIE
1983
The first laserdisc video game is developed; Dragon’s Lair, introducing full-motion videos to the video game.
MAZE GAME
1980
One of the most successful video games ever is developed; Pac-Man.
1981
The first 3D game for the home computer is developed, 3D Monster Maze.
PLATFORM GAMES
1981
Donkey Kong, an arcade game, is not only the first game that allows the player to jump over obstacles and across gaps, but Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto also introduces Mario for the first time, becoming one of the most known video game figures.
1982
Alpha Denshi’s Jump Bug is the first platform game to use scrolling graphics
1983
Mario Bros is developed by Namco’s Shigeru Miyamoto, offering the first two-player simultaneous cooperative play
1984
Namco develops Pac-Land, which is the first game to feature multi-layered parallax scrolling
1986
The first game to fuse platform game fundamentals with elements of action-adventure games is Metroid. It also includes elements of Role-Playing Game (RPG), which allow the players to explore the playing area freely, also introducing the ability to gain new abilities of performance through the use of inventory items.
RACING GAMES
1981
The first racing game is developed by Sega, they call it Turbo.
1982
The first pseudo 3D graphical game, Pole Position is designed by Namco. It refined the ‘rear-view racer format’, where the player’s view is behind and above the vehicle, looking forwards with the horizon in sight.
RHYTHM GAME
1987
Dance Aerobics is the first game that allows the player to create music by stepping onto Nintendo’s Power Pad peripheral.
SCROLLING SHOOTERS
1980
The first game to have events occurring outside of the player’s view, Defender uses radar to display a map of the whole field and all the movements of various enemies.
1982
Moon Patrol introduces parallax scrolling in the computer graphics.
SURVIVAL HORROR
1981
Horror House is the first game to intentionally have elements of horror.
VIDEO GAME CRASH OF 1983
This was the “crash” of the video game industry. It also bankrupted several companies that produced North American home computers and video game consoles. What caused the crash includes he production of poorly designed games, which caused people not to buy then, leaving thousands of games cartridges unsold.
ONLINE GAMING
The most common thing in the 1980’s were dial-up bulletin board systems, sometimes used for online game playing. Later systems made use of terminal-control codes to get a pseudo-graphical interface. Some BBS offered access to various games, which one could play through such an interface. The games went from thing such as text adventures to gambling games; the usual card games. Certain BBS multiuser, allowed the players to interact with one another whilst playing the games, and the genre one could play evolved into what is known today as “massively multiplayer online role-playing games” (MMORPG). The first network game ever written for commercial personal computers was Snipes in 1974, written by SuperSet Software. It was a text-mode networked computer, created to test the new IBM Personal Computer, allowing the users to test its capabilities.
What also arose during this decade were commercial online services, the first of which were plain-text, operating on large mainframe computers permitting many users to be online at once. By the end of the decade, inline services had fully-graphical environments. The most popular text-based services included CompuServe, The Source, Genie, whilst platform-specific graphical services included PlayNET and Quantum Link.
Nintendo Power Pad
