By Harry Carr

It all started with Pong.  Well actually, the first video game was called Tennis for Two. But, anyway, Pong was released in 1972, by Atari. It was the first arcade game ever! In the game, the player would control an in-game paddle by moving it vertically across the left side of the screen and reflecting a “ball”, and can compete against either a CPU player or someone else in real life. The Wii Play game “Laser Hockey” is very similar to Pong. Pong is commonly mistaken as the first video game ever.

Platformers  Platformers are a genre, or kind of, video game. In these games, the player character jumps onto platforms and enemies, sometimes floating. The most famous of these is the Super Mario series.

RPGs  RPGs are another genre of video games. In these kinds of games, the character travels in a 3-D overworld. The battles in these are turn- based. The most famous example is Pokémon.

Fighting Games  Fighting games are… well, fighting games! The player fights a CPU or another person. There is a variety of characters to be chosen. Some of these have realistic blood, but we’re going to focus on things like Super Smash Bros., featured below!

Nintendo  Nintendo is one of the most successful video game companies of all time. They created characters like Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, Pikachu, Zelda, and of course, that one red- clad plumber with the ‘stache, Super Mario!

Sega  Sega is often thought of as a rival to Nintendo. Sega created characters like Sonic the Hedgehog and Eggman.

Some Famous Characters  Mario-That one red-clad plumber, you probably know him well.  Luigi-Mario’s brother. Basically the same, except he wears green and can jump higher, but stops slower.  Pikachu-That one super cute yellow mouse, NOT a rabbit. Electrical powers. It’s the #1 most wanted Pokémon. EVER.

BONUS: Sprites  Sprites! One of my favorite parts of video games! NOT the drink. A sprite is any image on a video game system or a computer, composed of pixels. A pixel is the smallest addressable screen element. The word comes from “picture element”. They can be fused, like Pokemon sprites, or made from scratch. Here are some in-game sprites. They’re often blurry when enlarged.

Example Sprites Fused and Recolored By Me! Scratch! Baaaa…

THANKS FOR WATCHING!