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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3 of 4 pages

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coin shortage
the japanese company taito is a struggling manufacturer
of pachinko games (players drop balls down into a colourful
playfield and try to direct them into holes for points).
in 1978 they release their first videogame 'space invaders'.
layers are charged with protecting the planet from relentless
hoards of aliens marching down the screen, with just a
single-shot moving gun and four shot-blocking bunkers
as protection. the more aliens you shoot, the faster they move,
accompanied by an ominous, thudding marching sound.
the display is black and white, with screen overlays giving the
appearance of colour. upon release it practically causes riots
across japan, as well as being responsible for a nation-wide
coin shortage. to cash in on the craze, shopowners clear out
their merchandise and set up all -'space invader' arcades overnight.
midway, licensing the game, soon finds itself in possession of the
biggest arcade videogame hit in america up to that point.
the game transcends the regular videogame ghetto of pool halls
and bars, popping up in department stores, restaurants and other
mainstream venues.

screen down
'atari football' is released to arcades by atari in 1978,
drowning out everything else as over-excited players slap
its newfangled control method, the trak ball, into submission.
also introduced for the first time is a playfield that extends
beyond the borders of the monochrome screen, allowing
plays to run the entire length of the simulated gridiron.
it is also the first game to portray it's sport in an even remotely
realistic manner.
while the on-screen teams are represented by X's and O's
(in the tradition of actual football playbooks), players can
choose complex running and passing plays on a panel-mounted
menu. no kicking plays allowed, however.

initials and high score
in 1978, 27 year old atari employee lyle rains is developing a game
concept for 'cosmos', the company's planned holographic gaming
project headed by 'pong' engineer al alcorn.
with the working title of 'planet grab' and rendered in 3D graphics,
the game would involve players piloting around a solar system
claiming planets by touching them.
after rains meets with atari programmer ed logg his game idea is
further developed as a vector graphics arcade game, named 'asteroids'.
a perfect synergy between simplicity and intense gameplay,
the game has players using buttons to thrust a spaceship around an
asteroid field. when one rock is shot, it breaks into smaller ones,
and so on till completely destroyed.
using the hyperspace button, the player's ship can jump to a random
point on the screen to escape immediate death, but at the risk of
re-appearing in the path of an oncoming projectile.
every so often flying saucers enter the screen, intent on the player's
destruction. adding to the popularity is a high-score system introduced by
'asteroids', allowing players to record thier initials to be diplayed next to
their score for all to see.

8-bit colour
in 1955, nakamura manufacturing company of japan
is founded as a producer of merry-go-rounds.
after changing their name to namco in 1974 they establish
a videogame presence with the purchase of the japanese
subsidiary of atari corp. And in 1979 they design the first ever
colour arcade game with 'galaxian'
(colour had previously been replicated with
the use of overlays on the screen, al la 'space invaders').
as in invaders, players control a ship and fire at lines of
aliens across the top of the screen, but this time the enemy is
no sitting duck.
they actually leave formation and swoop down the screen
after you, dropping bombs all the way.
numerous 'galaxian sequels naturally ensue, including 1983's
'galaga', aside from more detailed graphics, it comes in the
form of a tractor beam the aliens use to capture the player's
ships.
by shooting the offending alien the player can win back his ship
and double his firepower. 'galaga' is also the first video game
to have a bonus, or 'challenging' level, interspersed between
the main action.

sound
speech comes to videogames in taito's 1980 galaxian
knock-off 'stratovox'.
the point of the game is to try and prevent the abduction
of planet colonists by marauding aliens, who for some reason
have chosen a sombrero as their choice of ship design.
speech synthesis requires massive amounts of memory to
execute, and the hardware used to emulate the male human
voice is a full 1.5 mhz chip (about half the speed of the the
z-80 running the rest of the show), so the alien taunts and
pleas from kidnapped colonists are highly distorted and
limited to four phrases. cries of 'help me!' come when an
alien grabs one of your men, who then congratulate you with
a 'very good' if you mange to shoot his captor. shouts of
'lucky!' accompany each colonist saved during the tally at
the end of a screen, and a very arnoldesque 'we'll be back!'
is said when an alien is destroyed.

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