History of Game Design Electronic Games Timeline Credit to TIME: line/

First Console: The Brown Box

Odyssey Console

Pong: From Sears

Atari 2600: The Cartridges

Intellivision: Synthesized Voices

Nintendo: Saved Game Market

GameBoy:Handheld Game

NEO-GEO:24-Bit

Super NES

PlayStation: Most Popular 32-Bit

Nintendo 64: Cartridges

PS2: First 128-Bit System

Xbox: Microsoft’s First Console

Game Boy Adventure: colors

Nintendo DS: Dual Screens

Upcoming Consoles: Pandora [edit] Upcoming consolesedit [edit] Milestone titlesedit

Upcoming Consoles: On Live [edit] Upcoming consolesedit [edit] Milestone titlesedit

Upcoming Consoles: PSP GO Sony [edit] Upcoming consolesedit [edit] Milestone titlesedit

The First Computer Game In 1952, A.S. Douglas wrote his PhD degree at the University of Cambridge on Human- Computer interaction. Douglas created the first graphical computer game - a version of Tic- Tac-Toe. The game was programmed on a EDSAC vacuum-tube computer, which had a cathode ray tube display. The EDSAC was the world's first stored-program computer to operate a regular computing service. Designed and built at Cambridge University, England, the EDSAC performed its first calculation on May 06, Simulation of game on EDSAC Click to play animation

The First Computer Game The EDSAC, taken shortly after its completion in May 1949

The First Computer Game EDSAC under construction, c.1948

The First Computer Game Adjusting CRT monitor tubes, which showed contents of memory and registers

The First Computer Game Print out from the EDSAC's first programs

The First Computer Game Key punching a program for the EDSAC

The First Computer Game

The Second Computer Game William Higinbotham, head of the Brookhaven National Laboratory's Instrumentation Division in 1958, is thinking about how to entertain the people who will be touring the place in the fall. So, he does something that he thinks is fairly obvious. He puts together a little electronic circuit to play tennis on an oscilloscope. It takes him three weeks. “Tennis for Two”

History of Game Design The history of game development can be broken down into: The older more traditional board games The more recent electric game

History of Electric Game Design Video Games The first path started in 1951 when Martin Bromley launched Sega. Sega was originally founded in 1940 as Standard Games Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg, and James Humpert provided coin-operated amusements for American servicemen on military bases. Bromley suggested that the company move to Tokyo, Japan in 1951 and in May 1952 "SErvice GAmes of Japan" was registered. This development launched the coin-operated games of the 1970s called Video Games. These games later developed into the console games of today

History of Electric Game Design Computer Games Started in colleges and universities College programmers wanted to practice their skills and entertain themselves during breaks Their efforts resulted in mainframe games that came on the market with the personal computer revolution. These types of games were called computer games.

History of Video Games Arcade Games: Early arcade games consisted of Electromechanical pinball located in small amusement parks. As the games became more popular, the arcades became more accessible. Locations were now closer to schools and in local neighborhoods. These arcades became a very popular hangout area. Pinball Machine of this era includes:

Video Games – Space War Developed in 1961 by Steve Russell a MIT student. The game started as a mainframe game and later marketed as Computer Space in the coin-op arcades of This game is believed to have started the “coin-op” industry. In 1978, Space Wars was introduced and adapted from the original game.

Video Games – Space Wars

Steve Russell programmed the first version of Spacewar!

Video Games – Space Wars Two players using the front-panel of a PDP-12 to play Spacewar at the Vintage Computer Festival

Video Games – Pong In 1958, Willy Higginbotham of Brookhaven National Laboratories in New York released a primitive table tennis game. Magnavox Odyssey later converted it to a “table tennis” game in Atari released “Pong” in 1972 and became the first successful coin-op arcade game. Magnavox sued Atari over the idea and it was settled out of court.

Video Games – Pong

An early PONG chip made in October 1975

Video Games – Pong Ultra PONG Doubles (model C-402D): same for up to 4 players PONG (model C-100): Atari's first system (1976) It played only one game: PONG

Video Games – Pong Television Magazine July 1974 Popular Electronics April 1976 Television Magazine (England) July 1977

Video Games – Pong

Video Games – Asteroids Atari later developed a very successful arcade game - Asteroids, which became the first blockbuster for Atari. It was also the first game to allow users to enter their initials after they achieved a high score. This game, developed by Ed Long, used monochrome vector graphics, instead of pixels.

Video Games – Asteroids Click to begin animation

Video Games – Asteroids 2007 Paul Neave

Chuck E Cheese’s Pizza Atari owner Nolan Bushnell Pizza with your game-Atari owner Nolan Bushnell wanted to clean up the stigma associated with video arcades, so he placed video games in a pizza parlor. Known as Chuck E. Cheese, customers were offered tokens with their orders. They could play games while waiting for pizza.

Space Invaders The first "slide-and-shoot" game. players pilot a laser base that moves right and left along the bottom, firing upward at descending aliens. The player's job is to destroy the invaders before they reach the bottom. Eliminating the Mystery Ship that flies intermittently over the top row of invaders will earn Bonus points. players can hide under bunkers that erode piece-by- piece first game to post a continuous high score. Has menacing sound effects, addictive gameplay and a high degree of character design and animation. Enormously popular, more than 60,000 machines sold in its first year in the U.S. It was such a hit in Japan it caused a shortage of the 100-yen piece used to play the game.

Pac Man Pac Man was released in 1980, by Namco. It appealed to a larger market with out the shooter aspect. Over 300,000 units were sold making Pac-man the most popular game in arcade history. Pac-man had levels and in later spin offs. Ms. Pac man used plot structure and animated sequences. The Ms. Pac-man game also appealed to girls and families thus widening the market.

Centipede Centipede, Atari Inc., Designed by Ed Logg and Dona Bailey, Centipede was the first arcade game from a woman designer. Colorful graphics and ingenious game play made Centipede the first game to attract more female fans than male.

Donkey Kong

Nintendo released Donkey Kong in 1981 when arcades were new and popular. Gas stations, fast food places and other restaurants were sure to have one of the many one-quarter arcades that had been produced. Players controlled a construction worker (or carpenter) known as Jumpman who tried to get back his girlfriend Pauline from a huge gorilla known as Donkey Kong (which means "Stupid Monkey") by jumping over several obstacles and climbing up ladders. The single-screen game was a big hit