The History of Computer Games
- From Spacewar to Tournament

The history of computer games - mistakenly termed videogames - probably started in 1962. The early programmers and game designers came up with ideas which have been taken over by the industry and have nowadays become cultural stereotypes. Game types like combat games, strategy, simulation or dungeons and dragons were early 60ies inventions but they are still alive today and probably more vital than ever. Having a look at the old predecessors of today's Playstation and Dreamcast games might explain why certain stereotypes are so persistent. Comparing early games with today's programmes also shows the technological progress achieved during the last 4 decades. It seems that the gaming industry and game technology nowadays challenges the complete computer industry in becoming the key industrial branch.

Examples for Unreal-Levels, Mathias Fuchs and Sylvia Eckermann developed during the past few years can be found on:

http://www.t0.or.at/~fuchs-eckermann/projects/

    A Short Survey on the History of Computer Games

Autumn 1961      Digital Equipment Corp. delivers a PDP-1 computer to the MIT in Cambridge, Mass. This was the first computer equipped with a cathode ray tube monitor and a keyboard. DEC expected the MIT scientists to develop scientific programmes with the machine they donated, yet two scientists programmed an application which is said to have been the first computer game ever.

1962          Stephen Russell, Peter Samson, Dan Edwards, and Martin Graetz realized SPACEWAR, a shoot-up game with animated spaceship icons on a black and white monitor. Two users could shoot the other player's spaceships in order to "survive".

            A number of programmers working on big mainframe computers developed different computer games during the following years. Most of these games have been programmed in BASIC programming language:

            LUNAR LANDER was a text based simulation game. The user had to type in to what amount a lunar spacecraft should accelerate or decelerate. The computer then computed the fuel consumption, landing speed and height above the lunar ground. All the information was output in monochrome numbers on a black and white screen. More recent adoptions of the basic idea of Lunar Lander add graphics and sound to the game, which of course were not available on 1966ies computer terminals. (A recent remake of Lunar Lander is the Webapplication Mars Lander.)

            HAMMURABI (KINGDOM) simulated economic processes in a virtual Mesopotamian kingdom. The player was asked to numerically specify tax rates and other parameters and was then told about tax revenues, food supplies available, birth and death rates and the profits of the kingdom. Hammurabi could be considered a predecessor of SimCity.

            HUNT THE WUMPUS consisted of a network of tunnels and rooms. The first implementation was said to have used a dodeocaedric structure. Players were able to wander around in the tunnels and they were warned whenever they approached the "Wumpus". Nobody knows what a Wumpus is, but it must have been something dangerous, because you could read on your console when coming close to it: "You are in node x. I smell a Wumpus. Move or shoot."Then there were bats able to move you to another room. (Console message: "I smell a bat."). Hunt the Wumpus is a predecessor of the Dungeon & Dragons genre.                                                   

1971    The first "Coin-op" Arcade is opened to the public in the USA.            

1972    Nolan Bushnell founds ATARI Corporation. PONG becomes the most successfull game for coin-op arcades. The game had only two screen messages: "Deposit Quarter" and "Avoid missing Ball for High Score"

1974          PONG for ATARI home computers released.

1975          Commodore presents the Commodore PET, a home computer with a conventional audio cassette recorder as a storage device.

1976          Fairchild releases the Channel F, a computer console for cartridges. Available software: PADDLE, HOCKEY, TIC TAC TOE.

1977          Another space shoot-up game, SPACE INVADERS, keeps the player alive, if he destroys many hostile spaceships. Space invaders is the first game featuring a "High-Score Display".

1978          ATARI's VCS 2600 becomes a commercial success as a hybrid station consisting of tv-set, videogame-software and computer.

1979          Activision is the first company exclusively dedicated to computer games programming. It was founded by 4 former ATARI employees.

1980          Mattel releases Intellivision, another game developer. Nintendo releases PAC MAN. Pac Man becomes a long lasting success as well as an arcade game as a home computer game.

1981          Nintendo and SEGA start exporting games to the USA.

1982          DONKEY KONG by Nintendo Entertainment Systems (NES) released. The computer games business faces its first international crash.

1984     Mattel sells its electronic division.

1989          Nintendo releases GAME BOY and the programme TETRIS.

1990          Nintendo sells SUPER MARIO BROS. games worth 500 Mio. $ worldwide.

1991          SEGA makes a splash with SONIC THE HEDGEHOG.

1993    DOOM becomes the most popular "First Person Shoot ‘em Up" game.

1994          PC CD-ROM games become a serious alternative to consoles. SONY presents the Playstation.

1995          SEGA releases the Saturn console.

1996          Nintendo 64 issued, QUAKE follows DOOM as another ultra brutal shoot-up game.

1998     Epic Megagames releases UNREAL1. The game software includes an editor called UnrealEd, which is a complete 3D-game editing software. Unreal communities flourish all over the world and exchange levels, models and know-how via the INTERNET.

1999          400 artists contribute to the development of FINAL FANTASY VII. For the first time the budget for the development of a single computer game equals the budget of major Hollywood movie productions. Epic Megagames release UnrealTournament, an extended version of Unreal1. SEGA presents its Dreamcast console with costum built interfaces like fishing rods, steering wheels and more.

2000          SONY PS2 (Playstation 2) presented as the console of choice for gamers above the age of 15. Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 again doubles the number of polygons per framerendered by the engine. Microsoft announces plans to enter the computer games market.

2001          Microsoft Xbox scheduled to be sold in autumn of 2001. Microsoft announces plans to equip the console with 800 MHz processors and video cards with 600 MHz processors.

Computergame Prehistory

1890          The USA is hit by a "Coin-op Craze", i.e. a mass movement of the customers to play games on coin operated devices - the first ones being phonographs. These recording devices were set up in hotel lobbies, railway stations and small pubs or restaurants. The working class population, clerks and businesspeople used the machines during their lunch breaks. The media automata often appeared in combination with chewing gum dispensers, candy box dispensers or commercial machines made to X-ray your handsand objects of your choice.

Around 1885 the kinematoscope became the favourite toy of the population. Now people used to look at wonders of the world, famous buildings, athletic men or pornographic movies.

In the end of th 1890ies the kinematoscopic devices have again been replaced by the mutoscopes. Mutoscopes were interactively controllable kinematoscopes. A lever served as the interface for replay speed, forward/ backward movement or freeze frames.

   UNREAL (by Epic Games©)
- a Realtime 3D-Environment

"Do something Unreal today!"
(Marketing slogan by Epic Megagames)

The Software developers at Epic Megagames released a programme called UNREAL in 1998. The programme was written in C++ by Tim Sweeney, CEO and programmer of the small corporation. Tim Sweeney made ample use of the 3D features of the Voodoo grahic card, then one of the best 3D cards available. The game was also bundled with a 3D Editor enabling the costumor to build levels of his own. Not only was it possible to use the textures and sounds shipped with the software, but it was also possible to import any texture material, 3D object or soundfile, if it was in the PCX, DXF or WAV-file format. the most exciting feature of UNREAL is a scripting language called UNREALScript, which is a close dialect to Java and C++. UNREALScript is an object-oriented language. Classes already implemeted in the game (like effects, water, fog, monsters, moving objects) can easily be extended by creating new classes which inherit the original classes' properties.

At present the UNREAL player is available for PC Windows machines, Macintoshes and Linux machines. The Editor however only works on a PC running Windows 2000 or Windows 98.

In 1999 Epic Megagames issued UnrealTournament, an extended and improved version of the former Unreal1. Patch 420 contains UnrealEd Version 2.0.

During the summer of 2000 Epic Megagames announced Unreal2 and presented screenshots, drawing sketches and technical details at a games conference in London. Unreal2 will increase the level of detail by the factor of 10, will enable the developers to use special terrain builder tools and will have exporting features for the Playstation2, the SEGA Dreamcast and the Microsoft XBox.