Spacewar was the first video game ever created. It was created in 1961 by a talented team led by Steve Russell. While much has changed over the years, the basics of what makes a video game good are the same as back in 1960.
Spacewar, which ran on a DEC PDP-1 machine, was not widely available. Space Invaders is the game that introduced most people to video games, including me, in 1978.
Toshihiro Nagado, who was working at the Japanese Taito Corporation, designed and developed Space Invaders. Space Invaders is a simple and simple game, but it was a huge hit. This is because of ‘gameplay’, which is probably one of the most important aspects of any computer game. Without it, a game will fail. Even today (2012), video sophistication is not enough to replace good old-fashioned gaming.
Space Invaders has an interesting aspect. Nishikado initially planned to use airplanes or tanks as the attacking force. However the computers of the time were not fast enough to allow tanks to turn smoothly and so aliens were used instead. Nishikado could also have used aliens in place of tanks or planes, but he felt it would have been wrong morally.
The 1980s
Arcade games became very popular in pubs, bars and hotels during the 1980s. These games were not always free to play, and I can easily recall spending more on arcade games than I did on beer. Atari was the dominant company in the games industry since the late 1970s. The 1980s were a boom year for companies in the sector. The market became saturated with low-quality games over the course the decade. It was then that the industry crashed.
The scene was changing however with the emergence of small handheld devices like Nintendo’s GameBoy. These devices would become increasingly popular and play an important part in the future growth of the games industry.
The 1990s
The video games industry experienced a gradual shift from 2-D (2D) graphics into 3D (3D) graphics. This decade saw the rise of new games such as the first-person shooter (or survival horror), and the Massive Multiplayer Online (or MMO).
Through the decade, handheld gaming remained popular. Although arcade games continued to be popular in early 1990s but were slowly being replaced by home consoles, they became less popular. Of course, in the 1990s was the birth of the World Wide Web. It would revolutionize gaming over the next decade.
The 2000s
The 2000s saw the dominance of companies such as Sony, Nintendo and – in a smaller way – Microsoft in the home-video market. Sega had been Nintendo’s main rival during the 1980s and 90s. But in 2002, Sega decided to leave the console market for a third-party firm. Through the 2000s, the computer processing power increased gradually. This allowed developers to create immersive and interactive gaming environments. This created a more natural and enjoyable gaming environment.
Influence from the World Wide Web
Online gaming was not possible during the early days of the internet in the mid-1990s. There were slow transmission speeds and low computing power, which meant there wasn’t much to go online. Online gaming became more popular with the advancement of computers and faster transmission speeds in 2000. Flash allowed the creation of complex games with ease thanks to technologies like Flash. These games could then easily be integrated into or embedded into web pages, and run in a web-browser.
Internet technology has made the gambling industry a big winner. Online gambling is very popular. It allows adults to play gambling online. Websites are strictly regulated by many countries.
Many websites offer free online casino games. These games are played with virtual money. There is no risk in playing, and many allow you to play against other players around the globe.
