1. EDUARDO JIMÉNEZ (Brief) History of Videogames

2. Purpose Not an extensive revision of the history of videogames, but visiting some of the most relevant titles in history Centered in 2D games since that’s the main purpose of this subject Will try to be relatively thorough and follow a historic timeline

3. 1970s – 1st Generation 1972 – Pong by Allan Alcorn. Atari.  Sold 19000 Pong machines

4. 1977-1983 – 2nd Generation 1977 – Atari launches Atari 2600.  Contained a general purpose microprocessor  Could run video games, found in cartridges

5. 1977-1983 – 2nd Generation 1978 – Space Invaders by Tomohiro Nishikado. Taito  Helped make the Atari 2600 the most popular system in the USA at the time

6. 1977-1983 – 2nd Generation In 1979, Activision was created by disgruntled former Atari programmers "who realized that the games they had anonymously programmed on their $20K salaries were responsible for 60 percent of the company's $100 million in cartridge sales for one year".  It was the first third-party developer of video games.

7. 1977-1983 – 2nd Generation In 1982, approximately 8 million American homes had a video game console. It generated $3.2-$3.8 billion a year in revenue.  As a reference, arcade machines were generating $8 billion revenue a year (in quarters!) Video game crash of 1983.  Revenue fell from over $3 billion a year to around $100 million (97% drop!)  Led to the bankrupcy of Atari

8. 1977-1983 – 2nd Generation In the 80s many personal computers (PCs) appeared. They could be used for different purposes including gaming. Some of the most important:  Commodore 64. 1982. Had a BASIC programming environment and ‘advanced’ graphics and sound capabilities  ZX Spectrum. 1982 in UK. Very popular in Europe.  IBM PC. 1981. It became the standard.  Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. First 16 bit machines.  Apple Machintosh. Very early online gaming appeared in the late 70s and the 80s, but it wasn’t really successful until the 90s

9. Golden Age of Arcades (1978-1986) The arcade industry entered its ‘golden age’ in 1978 with Space Invaders by Taito.  It was a success and inspired others to enter the market  It sold over 360,000 cabinets worldwide and generated over $2 billion in quarters by 1982 At its peak it, arcade machines generated over $8 billion revenue a year

10. Golden Age of Arcades (1978-1986) Pac-Man was released in 1980, and was one of the first colour cabinets  It sold 350,000 cabinets in one year and is estimated to have generated over $10 billion during the 20th century

11. 1983-1995 – 3rd Generation The third generation was 8-bit Nintendo conquered the american market in 1985 with the release of NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).  Its influence in other areas wasn’t so important due to the success of PCs  It was a success in Japan too (released in 1983 here) The Sega Master System was its main competitor at the time, particularly in certain parts of the world, but the American market was dominated by Nintendo.

12. 1983-1995 – 3rd Generation

13. 1988-1999 – 4th Generation This is the 16-bit generation Mega Drive/Genesis debuted in 1988 and gathered quite some success in the USA  In 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was introduced giving the console a lot of popularity Nintendo responded with the Super NES (SNES) in 1990. SNK’s Neo-Geo was released in 1990. It had the same hardware that this of the SNK’s arcade machines providing 2D graphics way ahead of its competition  It was very expensive though and didn’t find the same amount of success as SNES or Mega Drive.

14. 1990s - Innovation and 3D The decade of the 90s games produced a transition from raster graphics to 3D graphics. That was mostly possible due to the increase in computing power.  New genres were born that weren’t possible before like the first person shooters. Handheld gaming became more common mostly thanks to the appearance of Gameboy in 1989. Also arcade machines experienced a resurgence and, later on, a decline.

15. 1990s – PC Gaming Increase of computing power and decrease of costs caused the rise of 3D graphics, first on PC. In the early 1990s, shareware distribution was a popular method of publishing games for smaller developers.  Important companies started out with shareware such as Apogee (then 3D Realms), Epic Games and id Software Many new genres appeared such as RTS, survival horror, FPS or MMOs.

16. 1988-1999 – 4th Generation

17. 1993-2006 – 5th Generation Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation were released on 1994 in Japan and later in 1995 in USA. PlayStation outsold its competition (bar SNES) due to the strength of both hardware and software Both these consoles were 32-bit In 1996 Nintendo released its own console, Nintendo 64. It ‘s 64-bit  It used cartridges instead of CDs (like PlayStation) which proved to be the wrong decision in spite of some benefits (faster access times, resistant to piracy) mostly due to the production costs and the capacity (over 10 times a cartridge).

18. 1993-2006 – 5th Generation This generation was mostly marked for the transition to 3D and CDs.

19. 1998-2013 – 6th Generation Sega Dreamcast was launched in 1998 but didn’t find success. Sega retired from the hardware market in 2002. PlayStation 2 was launched on 2000. It included a DVD player which allowed for up to 4.7GB of capacity for its games and didn’t need a separate DVD player Nintendo GameCube was released in 2001 but couldn’t find the same success as the PS2. In 2001 Microsoft entered the market with the original Xbox. Nintendo still dominated the Handheld market with the Game Boy Advance (2001).

20. 1998-2013 – 6th Generation This generation continued the trend started by PlayStation of developing increasingly complex, sophisticated and adult-oriented games

21. 2004-present – 7th Generation In 2005 Xbox 360 debuted getting a lot of attention in the USA. In 2006 PlayStation 3 was released. Both consoles were very similar in terms of capabilities, but the price point ($200 higher the PlayStation) and a more complex hardware (games looked better in the 360). Wii was released in 2006 and, while initially dismissed by many, it ended up selling more than its competitors and starting the motion control trend.

22. 2004-present – 7th Generation In handheld consoles both Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable were released in 2004. Mobile games became very important during this time, having evolved considerably from the early games such as the snake that came with Nokia phones in the late 90s and early 2000.

23. 2004-present – 7th Generation This generation is marked mainly by  The drastic increase in development costs  Motion controls that attracted the casual market to consoles

24. 2000s PC Gaming XBLA, Steam and later PSN revolutionized digital distribution, which is now the main distribution method for PC games.  Thanks to this there’s a rise of indie games on all these platforms that wasn’t possible before  Big budgets games are not the only option now. Casual games rised during this decade, particularly at the end with their introduction in mobiles and social networks (Facebook). The introduction of the iPhone and later Android phones revolutionizes mobile gaming.

25. 2011-present – 8th Generation In 2012 Nintendo releases Nintendo Wii U.  Which is far from reaching the success Wii enjoyed In 2013 PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are released too.  Still too early to evaluate In 2011 Nintendo releases Nintendo 3DS, capable of stereoscopic 3D graphics without glasses. In 2011 PlayStation Vita is released trying to rival the 3DS but finding little success in spite of having superior hardware.

26. Revolutionary Games We’re going to discuss now a bunch of games that did something to mark the history of videogames. We’ll center on 2D games and ignoring most games from 2000-onwards

27. Pong (1972) First game made ‘popular’

28. Space Invaders (1978) Very popular at the time in arcades

29. Pac-Man (1980) One of the first color arcade games Defined it’s own genre: maze games

30. La Pulga/The Flea (1983) The first (1983) successful Spanish videogame It reached the UK market with quite some success

31. La abadía del crimen (1987) Mostly successful only in Spain, but still technically very advanced and with innovative gameplay elements

32. Zork (1980) One of the earliest text adventures  Yeah, you read right. Text adventure. No graphics, only text

33. King’s Quest (1984) One of the first graphic adventure games.

34. The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) Although not the first it’s arguably one of the best graphic adventure games of all times. Introduced SCUMM engine, used in many other games of the genre (particularly from Lucasarts)

35. Zelda (1986) Started the action-adventure and action-RPG genres.  The Legend of Zelda (1986) and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987) were of the earlier games in these genres

36. Karateka (1984) One of the first of the beat’em up genre. Pioneered in using rotoscoped animation.

37. Budokan (1989) Relatively advanced graphics and sound for its time Versus fighting game

38. Final Fantasy (1987) This series of games popularized what we now know as JRPGs.

39. Donkey Kong (1981) Considered the first ‘true platformer’ Allowed you to jump over obstacles and gaps

40. Super Mario Bros (1983) No comments needed, right?

41. Dragon’s Lair (1983) First interactive movie. It’s hardly a game, but still, a feat for the time

42. Commando (1985) First influential run & gun shooter. It featured a character instead of a vehicle (first one to do so of its genre)

43. Metal Gear (1987) One of the first stealth games Mixed action adventure with stealth

44. Street Fighter 2 (1991) Popularized the 1v1 fighting games Helped the revitalizing of arcade games in the 90s

45. Mortal Kombat (1992) The use of rotoscoped real pictures of people was very innovative Lot’s of gore that gave it a lot of controversy

46. Golden Axe (1988) One of the first popular beat’em ups in arcades Could be played cooperatively Distinct styles for the different characters

47. Prince of Persia (1989) First ‘cinematic platformer’ Used rotoscoped animation that run very fluidly

48. Robocop (1988) Popular 2D run & gun beat’em up game

49. Metal Slug (1996) Another high exponent of the run & gun genre Still quite alive these days (in Steam)

50. Double Dragon (1987) One of the first highly successful beat’em up

51. Final Fight (1989) Another exponent of successful beat’em up.

52. Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) Helped popularize the Mega Drive console Very fast, intense and unique platformer at the time

53. NBA Jam (1993) Highly successful sports game in arcades Not exactly like the current NBA or FIFA franchises

54. Windjammers (1994) Popular sports game based on a non-existent sport Could be even loosely considered inspired in Pong

55. QiX (1981) Original arcade game

56. Arkanoid (1986) Brick breaker subgenre.

57. Pang (1989) Quite an original arcade game Could be played cooperatively

58. Snow Bros (1990) Platform arcade game with original mechanics

59. Tetris (1984) One of the first and best exponents of the puzzle genre

60. Beyeweled (2001) Another great example of puzzle games Its core mechanics are still very relevant

61. 1942 (1984) One of the first hits from Capcom Vertical scrolling shoot’em up

62. Ikaruga (2001) One of the best shoot’em ups Bullet hell makes sense in this context

63. Raptor: Call of Shadows (1994) In my opinion one of the best exponents of the shoot’em up genre Shareware

64. Operation Wolf (1987) In arcades it was particularly popular due to the use of a toy gun for aiming It had a storyline too

65. Cabal (1988) One of the first successful exponents of the gallery shooter genre Innovative for its time

66. Bomberman/Dynablaster (1983) Strategic maze game

67. Lemmings (1991) Interesting mix of genres: puzzle-platformer

68. Worms (1995) ‘Artillery strategy’ game Curious mix of puzzle, platformer, shooter and turn strategy genres

69. SimCity (1989) One of the first resource management games Still alive these days

70. Railroad Tycoon (1990) One of the first business simulation games There are many others that followed suit (Pizza Tycoon, Theme Park, Theme Hospital, SimFarm…)

71. Civilization (1991) Possibly the best turn strategy game of all times

72. Age of Empires (1997) Could be considered a mix between Civ and Warcraft Meet a lot of success and have had lots of sequels

73. Dune 2 (1992) Stablished the format for the real-time stragegy (RTS) genre for decades

74. Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994) Stablished the RTS genre and made it popular Made online playing ‘feasible’ (not the first one to support it but the first one to make it easy)

75. Command & Conquer (1995) Main competitor to Warcraft Had lots of different games and a spin-off series (Red Alert) Funny tone and live action cutscenes

76. Diablo (1996) Action RPG that made the genre popular again Randomized parts of the game made it very replayable as well as the looting system

77. Wolfenstein 3D (1992) The grand-father of FPSs Very revolutionary for its time 2.5D

78. Doom (1993) The father of the FPS genre Huge success Still 2.5D

79. Geometry Wars (2003) Initially released as part of another game (Project Gotham Racing 2) Made popular dual-stick shooters

80. Super Meat Boy (2010) A good exponent of what you could get to do with a 2D platformer

81. Castle Crashers (2008) Very successful 2D beat’em up from this century

82. Lone Survivor (2012) Horror can be done in 2D too

83. World of Goo (2008) Very original puzzle game

84. Braid (2008) There’s still room for innovation even in the platforming genre in 2D

85. Fez (2012) 2D can play with 3D as well…

86. References History of videogames:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games Spanish videogames  http://www.emezeta.com/articulos/10-grandes-videojuegos- espanoles