the history of video games : from ‘pong’ to ‘pac-man’

the history of video games : from ‘pong’ to ‘pac-man’..there was bell, there was edison, and then there was higinbotham .............................................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary

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the history of video games
from ‘pong’ to ‘pac-man’

- september 2000 -

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by william hunter, curator of ' the dot eaters '.
© the dot eaters
for more info, links and videoclips:
http://www.emuunlim.com/doteaters
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2 of 4 pages

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the coin eaters
from 1974 to 1975, 57 games are released.
and 1976 alone sees 53 videogames by 15 companies
hit the market.
most of them are simply cranking out 'pong' clones.
the arcade is about to get a whole lot more crowded.
in 1974 atari produces another game, 'shark jaws',
under the pseudonym 'horror games' created to avoid
any possible legal hassles from the producers of the
obvious inspiration for the game: universal studios'
smash -hit movie 'jaws'.
the first game featuring animated characters,
it's a conversion using the 'tank' hardware.

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videogame violence
it is 'death race' by exidy that sparks the first controversy
over videogame violence.
its inspiration is a movie by illustrious b-movie king
roger corman and released a year earlier, titled
'death race 2000'.
originally named 'pedestrian', the game has the players
steering vehicles around the playfield chasing running
stick-men.
the atmosphere the game evokes is certainly unsettling,
when one of the little on-screen characters is run over,
it screams and turns into a cross, adding another obstacle
for players to avoid. amid growing pressure from parental
groups looking anywhere but at themselves for an easy
excuse to explain their wayward kids, 'death race' is
eventually pulled off the market.
their ire is further peaked by the mainstream media's
coverage of the growing impact of video games on society.

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a powerful tool
in 1972, after dropping out of reed college in oregon,
steve jobs becomes an atari employee. jobs spends
several months in India following his quest to understand
eastern wisdom and philosophy, and after returning to
atari starts sneaking his good friend steve wozniak
into the factory after hours for long playing marathons
on the arcade machines.
nolan bushnell wants the young jobs to put together
the hardware for 'breakout', yet another variation on 'pong'
designed by the atari founder, but instead of knocking the
ball back and forth the player uses the paddle to send the
ball at a wall of bricks across the top of the screen.
the game sports a black and white display, utilizing the old
pre -1980 chesnut of coloured overlays on the screen to
simulate colour.
it is actually wozniak who builds the machine...the way
his computer designs would introduce colour to the world
of personal computers stems directly from his work on the
arcade game.
his work with 'breakout' also gives him a valuable education
in logic design and its integration with a tv signal.
and he uses his version of basic language to manipulate his
computer version of 'breakout', and is amazed how powerful
a tool software is in creating games.
later jobs approaches boss bushnell with the idea that atari
could produce the computer but with the new home 'pong'
unit and looming financial problems already on his plate,
bushnell passes on the project.
jobs leaves atari soon after, and he helps himself to some
electronics that eventually end up integrated into the prototype
computer woz and jobs create under the auspices of their newly
founded apple computer company.
http://www.atarigames.com
http://www.woz.org

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vector graphics
the 'pong' clone maker cinematronics ushers in new
videogame technology with the first vector graphics game,
1977's 'space wars'.
the title of the company's new game is a hardly subtle
amalgam of the title of its genesis game, 'spacewar!',
and the current movie sensation 'star wars'.
it is designed by larry rosenthal, based on his memories
of playing fellow MIT graduate stephen russell's mainframe
classic.
following the 'spacewar!' motif, it has two ships
(one retaining the original's wedge shape, the other suspiciously
like the starship 'enterprise') facing off around a sun, firing
missiles at each other.
'space wars' is unique in that it offers the players a myriad of
selectable play options, such as variable ship speed and gravity
effects. also featured is a damage model, causing ships to exhibit
reduced performance after being grazed by a shot.
the huge cabinet is big enough to allow two players to stand side
by side with room to spare, but it has to be weighted in the back
to prevent it from falling forward and squashing them.
it is a big hit for cinematronics and vector graphics and its
method of drawing sharp geometric shapes with straight lines,
pioneered here in 'space wars', will soon become a hot trend in
videogames.

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lines
when larry rosenthal leaves cinematronics over royalty
disputes after 'space wars', he takes all his equipment
and documentation on the hardware and sets up his own
company vectorbeam.
after producing his own competing space wars game,
he designs vector game 'speed freak', released in 1977.
while it is not the original 'first-person' driving game
(night driver, made by atari a year earlier, takes that honour),
it is nonetheless an astounding production.
the most realistic driving game made up to that point,
'speed freak' involves wheeling a car down a winding road
while trying to avoid oncoming traffic and various obstacles
like hitchhikers and wayward cows at the side of the road.
there is a gear shift offering four gears, and when the player
collides with another car, there is a spectacular explosion of
various automobile parts.

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see the other pages