Storytelling

Storytelling

To begin this blog I have decided to start with a short definition of what storytelling is.

Storytelling

Is the conveying of events in words, images, and sounds often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture and in every land as a means of entertainment, education, preservation of culture and in order to instil moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot and characters, as well as the narrative point of view.

http://www.answers.com/topic/storytelling

I have researched into Stories and the art of which they are written. During my research I came across a man called Joseph Campbell, who wrote a book called ‘The Hero with a Thousand faces’.

It is from this book that many great Poets, Artists, Film makers and musicians have been inspired, such as Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and George Lucas to name but a few. Most notably was George Lucas’s work on his series of ‘Star Wars’ films. Within these films the characters that build up the story are particular to the writings of Campbell’s ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’, for instance you have Luke Skywalker who is the archetypal hero, Obi-Wan who is the ‘wise old man’ and Darth Vader who is the Villain or the Devil. There are several others in the film and other films follow suit in the same way such as ‘Lord of the Rings’, here you can clearly see the trickster at work in the form of ‘Gollum’.

I feel that a strong story is something that can capture the imagination and people’s desire therefore I do think that storytelling is important within its specific genre, whether that be games or films, definitely films. However sometimes within games there is no need for a story line at all. This is usually the case when it comes to sports games, however to contradict myself, there is still certain characters within even sports games, Heroes and Villains, can come in many forms and stories don’t necessarily need any words or oral dialogue to be deemed a story at all. A story can be so through many different forms including images, dance, music and imagination provoked through a convergence of media. A simple football game has my team of heroes, of course, the opposition team of villains and the referee who is the wise old man, yeah right! Campbell’s model can be applied to lots of situations and makes the basis for a perfect story. Having said all of this I feel that within games it isn’t always obvious, so therefore not always that necessary, but it does give the game a lot more depth. I think the bottom line is it depends upon the type and genre of game that it is.

There are some story lines that, without them, the game or film just would have been pretty poor or cheesy. The game ‘Max Payne’ has a superb revenge story line as it tells the story of a man hell bent on finding out who murdered his wife and new born baby. Similarly to this is the film ‘The Crow’, with its story line following the chance given to a murdered man to come back from the grave to avenge his murder and his fiancée’s murder. These types of story lines really immerse you into the film or game. They make you want to jump into the main character’s role and they really play upon your emotions. These stories give a sense of meaning to the characters that are portraying them.

There are many excellent films out there that have some truly captivating story lines and I would like to maybe pursue creating stories through games design later on in my career. There are also so many good films out there that could have been used to create equally good games from, as many have been, some good some bad.

They say ideas are cheap but a bad idea can cost alot of money!

Art Direction

Art Direction for Games

I have researched into what it is that an Art Director does and who they are responsible for as stated below.

Video game art directors are responsible for the quality of art incorporated in the video games produced under their supervision. They need to have a background in fine arts, so that they are knowledgeable about the technical aspects of drawing, texturing, and coloring. They need to have a good amount of creativity, as they are often required to visualize how a particular section of a game would look once it is finished.

Video game art directors usually manage a team composed of both amateur and experienced designers, and as such, having management skills is always advantageous. They are often required to work closely with people having different skill levels. Video game art directors also need to be open towards suggestions from other team members. In a large team, every member is likely to have a unique opinion regarding how a particular level should be designed, or how a texture should be incorporated in the game environment. It is the job of the art director to take all these suggestions into account, select the best one, and develop it further with personal inputs.

http://careers.stateuniversity.com/pages/7775/Video-Game-Art-Director.html

I think that Art Direction is one of the most important jobs when it comes to creating a Games Designer. Without the correct colors, tones, contrast, style, realism, well researched historical facts and correct lighting, a game or film for that matter, can be a failure. The need to make sure that things are correct for the era or specific day are what makes games or films visually stunning.

For example ‘Medal of Honor’ on the PS2, depicted the WW2 Normandy beach landings and it was most important that the Art Director tried to make the gamer feel as if he was really going to war, otherwise it would have been highly criticized due to the fact that it was such an important event in history. In parts of this game, such as the beach landings, the Art Director has presented the scene in a cinematic tone, making it almost an exact replica to the 1998 film ‘Saving Private Ryan’ by Steven Spielberg.

For me this was cleverly done as the film was a massive success and its opening scene was shocking and realistic to say the least. In the game it felt almost like it was wrong to be playing, for fun, as a character that would of almost certainly of died on that beach, making the experience a realistic one. When this kind of feeling is evoked it tells me that the game or film has been carefully planned and that, more importantly, the Art Director has done his job well.

The qualities that I feel that I need to develop to become an Art Director in the future would probably be to be an excellent researcher, a competent 2d artist and to be better at analyzing visual designs, my own or otherwise.

Games design

What is Games Design?

For this week’s blog I have been asked to look into Games design. Here is a definition of Games Design.

Game design is the process of designing the content, background and rules of a game. A document which describes a game's design used during development may also be called a design document. Professional game designers specialize in certain types of games, such as board games, card games or video games.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_design

Often when referring to Games Design the term ‘Gameplay’ is used. This is a term used to describe what the game is like or another definition would be to say

Gameplay is a term most commonly used to rate, or score the quality of the experience had by the gamer while playing a particular game. The term gameplay is often found in game reviews where a score is given based on player experiences during the interaction with game.

http://isp.webopedia.com/TERM/G/gameplay.html

Other elements of Gameplay include

Boss
A boss is the enemy at the end of a level that a player must defeat to continue to the next stage. Typically, bosses are more graphically elaborate and difficult to defeat than other intralevel enemies.

Bot
A bot is a computer-controlled player that is designed to behave like a human player. They are implemented by gamers through multiplayer selection screens when it's inconvenient, or not possible to play against an actual human opponent. Bots use AI routines to simulate human actions, but they generally lack in the strategy department.

Combo
A combo is a combination of moves, usually in a fighting game, which can be chained together into an unblockable sequence. Skilled players will have a multitude of combos at their command.

Cut Scene

Cut scenes are periods of dramatic development that intersect the action sequences in a game. They are rendered in still pictures or video and are usually accompanied by some type of dialogue. In most action games, cut scenes serve as the only form of plot progression.

Deathmatch
The multiplayer mode in the original Doom for the PC was called "deathmatch" by the game's creators, and the term has since become the gaming industry's label for the multiplayer game in all first-person shooters.

Frag
A kill in a deathmatch game. Like the term deathmatch, the term frag originated in the PC game Doom but has since become a slang term that can apply to a kill in any multiplayer first-person shooter.

Latency or Lag

In online multiplayer games, latency describes the amount of time it takes data to be sent from the player's machine to the server and back again. Measured in milliseconds, latency is typically the amount of delay the player will encounter between the press of a button and the resulting action onscreen. For instance, if a player's latency is 100 milliseconds, and the player fires a weapon, the weapon won't register as having been fired in the game world until one tenth of a second after the button has been pressed. Latency has traditionally been an issue for only PC players to deal with, but as consoles move into the age of the Internet, it will become an increasing problem on that side as well.

Level
Also known as "stage" or less commonly "board," a level is one self-contained, consistently themed area of a game. It can contain various enemies, power-ups, missions, challenges, and/or a boss.

Miniboss
Also known as a midboss, a miniboss is a minor boss character situated somewhere in the middle of an action game level. A miniboss isn't quite as powerful as the boss of a level, but it packs a bigger punch than regular enemies.

Multiplayer
A mode of gameplay involving two or more players. Multiplayer can be carried out with multiple people playing on the same system or over the Internet. Almost all competitive games include a multiplayer option.

Perspective
The position of the camera relative to the player's character. First-person perspective denotes a view from the character's own eyes, while third-person perspective refers to a camera position somewhere outside the character, usually floating behind the character.

Ping
The amount of time it takes a packet of data to be sent from a gamers’ machine, to an online server he or she is playing on, and back. This time contributes to the player's lag. With console systems heading into the online realm, this will soon be an issue for video gamers as well as PC gamers.

Physics
In a gaming context, physics represent the rules implemented in a game world that govern how objects behave. For instance, if a character jumps, the arbitrary amount of gravity in the game will determine how high he can jump and how fast he will fall back down. Some recent games have provided very realistic physics modelling in their game worlds; a character might throw a stone to knock a tin can off a table, and both objects will fall the same way they would in the real world. Sony is seeking to make this type of realism standard in PlayStation2 games, as both the system and software Sony is providing to developers make realistic physics easier for game creators to use.

Plot
An element all too often missing from video games, the plot ties events together into a coherent story. Games that manage to convey a well-designed plot approach movie like status, such as Final Fantasy VIII, Metal Gear Solid, or "Resident Evil 2".

Power slide

A technique in racing games that lets the player swing the rear end of his car outward in a turn to diminish the loss of speed. A power slide is accomplished by skilfully manipulating the gas and brake simultaneously.

Power-up
An item in a game that grants the player temporary powers. Power-ups can enhance a character's weaponry, strength, speed, life, or a variety of other attributes but is usually removed either after a set amount of time or when the character dies.

Single Player

The mode in a game meant to be played alone by one player.

Split screen

Split screen refers to a mode exclusive to multiplayer games wherein all players play on the same screen. It splits the screen evenly among the number of players currently playing the game. Split-screen mode is notorious for making a game more difficult, as it reduces the visible area of the game and sometimes warps the players' surroundings. You can usually split the screen horizontally or vertically, depending on your preference.

http://uk.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/defining_games/p4_01.html

Some of the top game designers in the world are people like Zachary Clarke who designed GTA, Jade Raymond who designed Assassins creed, Amano Yoshitaka the character artist for the Final Fantasy series, Kojima Hideo the games designer for Metal gear solid and Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura and Yoshikazu Yamashita the developers for Wii sports.

Development of games is undertaken by a developer, which may be a single person or a large business. Typically, large-scale commercial games are created by development teams within a company specializing in computer or console games. A typical modern video game can cost from USD$1,000,000 to over $20,000,000 to develop. Development is normally funded by a publisher. A contemporary game can take from one to three years to develop, though there are exceptions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_development

The way in which Commercial games are usually made is shown below.

1. Core Team

A group of people whom come up with the general concept of the game. Numerous meetings will occur in which the group brainstorms about the game; figuring out not only how it will look, but also how it will work. The core team is in charge of the production schedule as well, which describes the tasks each person is assigned and when they most do them.

2. Game Breakdown

Every detail, task, job, and deadline about the video game is broken down into components and then added to a bulletin board. This board acts as the nerve centre throughout the games production.

3. Artistic Concept

Artist’s sketch out the games characters & backgrounds with a very basic level of detail. These sketches are what the graphics artists use to create the characters and backgrounds in 3D on the computer.

4. Development Team

This team uses the latest in computer animation technology to bring life to all of the game's elements; adding colours, textures, shading, and even movement. This team uses the 3d characters and backgrounds created by the graphics team.

5. Programming & Engineering

This is the bread & butter of the game development stage; because without this part, there would be no game. Suffice it to say, the programmers & engineers make the game work. Their coding is what holds the game together and allows the player to actually play the game.

6. Testing

This is the final and most crucial part of the development process. This phase is to see if everything is working properly and as it should be. Testers will check for bugs and glitches and try to find potential problems.

The game testers won't merely be playing the game and seeing if problems will find them -- it's the other way around, as THEY will be the ones searching for the problems. The testers will do everything and anything possible in the game to ensure there is no abnormal situations or circumstances; walking through walls, disappearing, enemy AI problems, cinematic errors, you name it. If the testers miss ANYTHING, it could mean disastrous consequences -- in the form of profit loss -- for the company releasing the game.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Are-Video-Games-Made---The-Process-From-Start-to-Finish&id=1490898

I feel that when designing games the fundamentals of the design to the specific genre stay the same, however, when looking across genres the design changes accordingly. For instance when designing a survival horror game, the game will need to be considerably different to that of, let’s say a sports game. However the design of games can cross over genres at times for instance you could design a basic platform adventure game in the same way as a survival horror platform game. The difference starts with things like the sound, style, lighting, art and so on. For me the way that a game looks is very important as it creates the world in which, you as the gamer, are immersed in. I particularly like games that look and feel real especially in certain genres of games such as survival horrors, as this adds to the experience. The look of a game can be the deciding factor as to the target audience which it is intended to be relevant to, sub genres such as comedy will be clearly shown with correct artwork and style. This will be done at the designer’s discretion and if researched correctly, can make the difference between a top selling game and a brain fart!

NGJ

Jon King

New Games Journalism

As I have began to read about “New Games Journalism” or “NGJ” I have realised that it is a form of expressing an opinion based solely on the individuals experience whilst playing a particular game, or in other words it is a model of New Journalism applied to Video Games Journalism.

People who write NGJ face two major issues whilst writing their reviews of games which are,

1. If the Journalist is employed by a particular company and he or she is writing a review of one of that company’s games then the review will almost certainly be a biased one, therefore the review isn’t worth the paper that it’s printed on!

2. The amount of time needed to complete some of the games on the market is vast. Reviews will often be written after the journalist has only played a small section of the particular game.

It seems to me that people who write NGJ are paid by the companies that have made the game that they are reviewing. However it is also a useful tool for the competition in terms of the way that a company can pay people who write NGJ to write a poor review of a rival company’s game in order to manipulate the consumer market. Sometimes it can also be random people writing their own thoughts and feelings on a particular game or game related issue, maybe in order to try and improve the games that are being made by constructive criticism. It’s hard to tell. I believe we live in a “money driven world” which is rife with corruption and it’s probably true to say that most of the NGJ stuff that is available to read is written to influence, in one way or another.

I have read a piece of NGJ called “Shoot Club: Saving Private Donny” and found this piece of writing particularly interesting. It is about using computer games to influence a teenagers mind. Quite a current issue I think. When reading it you kind of get the impression that the kid in question wants to join the army, like his older brother. His brother was injured badly in Iraq and the kid talks like its cool to be in the army. The adults mentioned in the piece are worried that a game that they are playing is going to influence him that much that he will want to join the marines and follow in his brother’s footsteps. So to change his mind they all decide to shoot Donny, in the game, every chance they get. Even if they are on his side, to make him see that war isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be, those Americans love their friendly fire!

It’s not too bad a read and it has a message within its humour, which seems to say that war is bad and that needs to be remembered even though they play games which have mindless violence in them. I’m not sure whether this piece of work was written from a true experience of not. It seems to be a true experience but who knows, it could be written by someone on the payroll of the people who developed the game for all I know.

Having said all this it does make you think about several different things in different ways. I can’t help but feel that its true worth is something to do with the money men, but hey maybe that’s just me looking for a conspiracy! I think that the bottom line is you take whatever it is that you’re looking for out of whatever it is that you’re doing and that games or films or music or anything else is just a scapegoat for people’s wrong doings.

When it comes down to a writers use of objectivity and subjectivity I’m not sure which I value more. I do like to look at the facts and figures in regards to the matter as it is something that you can relate to others with, therefore being objective is something that I value. However being subjective is a more interesting way to express a personal opinion and, I think makes for a more interesting read, giving the reader ideas and views that he or she otherwise might not have had before. I think that both are important.

I feel that I know a little more about the world of “NGJ” now and have started to think about the way in which I would like to improve my writing. In regards to the “Saving Private Donny” piece I would like to incorporate a little more wit into my writing, as the writer did there. Other than that I think that the more I write the better that I will become.

I forgot to discuss the issues surrounding objective ranking systems for games sales. I do not buy into the consumer psychology of, if its number one then it must be good! I’m sure that from time to time objective ranking systems do get it right and the best game does get to number one, but it’s the same across the board when it comes to media based products. The market is driven, predominately, by the people who advertise the most and this is a fact of life. Anybody who has more than a couple of brain cells to rub together must see this dam evil!!! Therefore I feel that ranking systems are an effective tool in terms of business, they must be or they wouldn’t use them. However ranking systems can be manipulated to suit and so I never bother with them.

Video Games History 2000-2009

Jon King

Video Games history

2000-2009

At the turn of the century the sixth generation of consoles was underway. It was headed by the Dreamcast for a short time, until the worldwide release of the “Play Station 2” in November 2000. The PS2’s success was instant and so was the demise of the Dreamcast. In comparison the Dreamcast sold around 10.6 million units whereas the PS2 sold a staggering 140 million! The best selling game on the Dreamcast was “Sonic Adventure”, selling a total of 2.5 million copies. Whereas the best selling game on the PS2 was “Grand Theft Auto”, selling a total of 12 million copies. No console war here.

Due to the success of the PS2, and the impending release of Nintendo’s “Game Cube” and Microsoft’s “Xbox”, Sega decided to leave the console market altogether and would instead concentrate on developing software.

In March 2002 Microsoft released the much anticipated “Xbox”, which was closely followed by Nintendo’s “Game Cube”. The two new consoles both did fairly well in terms of unit sales with the Xbox selling 24 million units and the Game Cube selling around 21 million units.

Although the PS2 unit’s sales far outweighed that of the Xbox the competition between the two was quite fierce. This was mainly due to the fact that there were good titles licensed solely to each console. Meanwhile the Game Cube was losing out mainly due to the fact that it only released a hand full of online games and there was a lack of mature titles available on this platform. The Game Cube didn’t manage to match the unit sales of its predecessor, the N64, and as a result of this lagged behind in the current console rat race.

Microsoft managed to do what the Game Cube failed to do, which was to attract software developers to design good quality games for its Xbox. Titles such as “Halo” and “Halo2” did particularly well with the latter of the two selling 8 million copies, a very respectful figure.

The success of the PS2, as stated earlier, was also due to the fact that it had backwards capability, meaning that it could play PS1 games as well, one of the first consoles to have this function. The Game Cube was also backwards compatible but in a different way. Nintendo released the “Game Boy Player” in 2003, which was a bit of kit that allowed the user to play “Game Boy”, “Game Boy Colour” and “Game Boy Advanced” cartridges on a television through the Game Cube. This setup wasn’t anywhere near as good as the PS2’s as it defeated the purpose of the mobility of this Nintendo range.

The PS2 remained at the top with the release of key game titles such as “Final Fantasy X”, “Grand Theft Auto III” and “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty”. However Xbox fought on and in November 2002 it unveiled its “Xbox live” online service. Due to the PS2’s lack of a built in network adapter, the Xbox had found a gap in the market, as people lent more towards online gaming with the Xbox as it came with the built in network adapter at no extra cost.

Critics slated the concept, as at the turn of the century the capability of broadband wasn’t as good as today’s standards. However Steve Balmer and Bill Gates vision had become reality and customers could now download updates for games for a premium. The excitement of purchasing a game that could evolve rather than gather dust on your shelve was an innovative vision indeed.

With the edge in the online market Microsoft’s Xbox was competing well with the PS2 as the Game Cube fell away in the console rat race. In August 2007 the Nintendo Game Cube was discontinued, due to a largely unsuccessful 5 years in the market and the release of Nintendo’s latest console, a year earlier, the Nintendo “Wii”. The Wii has put Nintendo back on the map and more. Its new console has sold over a staggering 52 million units since its release in November of 2006 and it has the record for best selling game of all time, “Wii Sports”, with 45.71 million copies sold! This is a massive turn around for Nintendo who had looked to be going the same way as Sega did a few years earlier. However the appeal of the Wii which has seen it reach out to parts of the market that, just simply were not being catered for prior to its release has seen Nintendo jump back to the top of the console podium.

In November 2006 Microsoft decided to discontinue its Xbox as they had released their new console, the Xbox 360, a year earlier. The 360 has sold 34 million units worldwide to date and its current top game is “Halo 3”, which has sold over 10 million copies. So looking at the current figures the Xbox 360 has increased Microsoft’s profits by a considerable margin to its predecessor the Xbox. It had seemed like the Microsoft had got things right with the 360 in the build up to its release with Sony stalling on its latest console release due to technical problems and Nintendo having not yet released their new console, going by Nintendo’s unsuccessful Game Cube console.

The future looked good for the 360 until customers, including myself, started to report massive failure to the console. This was and is known as the “Red Ring of Death” and would consist of three out of the four lights on the front of the console lighting up red when it was turned on. This was due to several things like, the number, size and placement of components, the addition of dabs of epoxy on the corners and edges of the CPU and GPU as glue to prevent movement relative to the board during heat expansion and a second GPU heatsink to dissipate more heat.

Microsoft’s answer to this was to extend the consumers warranty to three years in order to protect the individuals purchasing rights and enable you to send it away to be repaired free of charge. This seemed like a good compromise, after all it was free, however I do think this had effect to consumer confidence and probably pushed people towards the two other consoles. In 2009 Microsoft decided to extend the warranty to cover all E74 error codes, rather than just the initial three years that it originally permitted, meaning any further occurrence of the problem the “Red Ring of Death” would be fully covered and repairs paid for by Microsoft. This was an embarrassment for Microsoft and it now seems like Sony did the right thing to hold back on their release of the “Play Station 3”.

In November 2006 Sony released their delayed but long awaited “Play Station 3”. The new console had ironed out the previous problems of the PS2 by having a built in network adapter and not only that but its online gaming was free of charge. Also the PS3 comes with various sized hard drives and is also, unlike the 360 or the Wii, a Blu-ray player.

The PS3 was criticised at its launch due to its high price and its lack of quality games. However after price reductions, Blu-ray seemingly winning the race over HD DVD and several top titles being released, the PS3’s critics started to change their views and in 2008 the PS3 ranked first for best game line up of 2008.

The PS3 also utilised the wireless controller, like the 360 and the Wii, however its controllers came with a built in rechargeable battery and a wire to connect it to the console in order to charge them up. The 360 and the Wii remotes both came with standard entry points for the user to place batteries. 360 users could buy a plug and play unit similar to the PS3, but at an extra cost. The PS3’s remotes also had “Sixaxis Dualshock” capabilities in order to compete with the Wii’s innovative motion sensitive controller, however I think that the Wii most definitely has the edge in that field, due to the fact that nearly all of its games are designed to be played using the person’s body movement.

To summarise the current generation of consoles, I would have to say that the Wii has the edge in the market, with the most unit sales and the best selling game of all time. Not only has this but its advertising campaigns sports well known people like famous footballers and TV representatives. The appeal of the Wii has reached areas of the general public that had previously been mostly untouched by the games industry. This is down to the type of games that the Wii has released. They are the types of games that is bringing real social aspects of gaming back into the market, with people congregating in homes during holidays and other occasions.

Part of society would argue that computer games are a contribution to child obesity. The Wii is tackling that head on. You don’t sit and play these games. Nintendo has even bought out the “Wii fit board” which is becoming increasingly popular amongst women. Its novel gimmicks, innovative software, innovative hardware and its good advertising campaigns have put Nintendo back at the top of the consoles for this generation at least.

Arcade games history 1980's-1990's

Jon King
The Arcade games history
1980-2000

At the beginning of the eighties the arcade games industry saw the release of some of the most influential and popular arcade titles of all time.
The first game that I looked at, even though it was prior to the eighties, was “Space Invaders”, the reason being that it was this game that started the “Golden Age” of arcade games, Space Invaders was said to be the first blockbuster Video Arcade Game. The game was made by Taito in Japan and was such a success there that the Japanese thought there might be a shortage of 100 Yen coins! Midway Games were the lucky licensee in America and quickly rolled their version off the production line. Six thousand machines later and America was saying “Pong who?” The game play itself consisted of one spaceship and three barricades above it, with a marching army of aliens above that. The idea was to shoot all of the approaching aliens before they reached the ground, it was that simple. The game was highly addictive and established the concept of the high score.
The success of this game sparked off a number of similar games such as “Galaxian” which was another title by Midway. This game however was the first game to have full colour. Atari hit back with its version “Missile Command” in 1980. Very similar to Space Invaders in this game the player had to stop three cities on the ground being blow up while missiles would rain down from above. The targeting system was different from other games as it was cursor based. The flaw in this game was that there was a limited number of rockets that you could fire before your bases ran out, meaning the missiles would strike your bases and you would see the words “The End”.
The next Arcade Game that I looked at is “Pac-Man”. This game was released in 1980 by Midway Games and was the most successful Arcade title of all time. After sweeping through Japan, Midway Games did the same kind of deal that brought “Space Invaders” to America with “Pac-Man”. Very quickly the game had the whole country saying “wokka-wokka-wokka”, just like the main character in the game did. The game consisted of Pac-Man, your main character and four ghosts, the idea was to eat all of the dots scattered around the maze before the ghosts could get you. The general public loved this game even declaring an official Pac-Man day off, in some towns. This game was proof that Arcade Games had finally gone mainstream, there were spin off board games and cartoon shows. Midway sold a staggering 99,000 machines, so 8 years after losing out to Atari, when it had the opportunity to manufacture the Arcade smash “Pong”, Midway had finally had its day.
In 1981 “Nintendo” released a game called “Donkey Kong”. It was in this game that saw the first appearance of the famous character “Mario”, then known as “Jumpman”. This would prove to be a milestone for “Nintendo” as “Mario” would become “Nintendo’s” main mascot and face of their company. It wasn’t until 1983 that “Mario” and “Luigi’s” characters were acknowledged in the world of the arcades, with the release of “Super Mario bros”. Mario and his younger brother Luigi are portrayed as Italian-American plumbers, who have to defeat creatures that have been coming from the sewers below New York.
It was in the same year that the famous North American crash occurred. This was due to an oversaturated market, a decline in quality, and the competition of Commodore, PC and Apple computers. Atari puts an end to the Atari 2600, after which Coleco and Mattel exit the video game business, and numerous game related companies go bankrupt. The home computer was taking over from the second generation consoles.
At the same time as the release of “Super Mario bros” in the arcade, “Nintendo” were releasing their “NES” console and the same game “Super Mario bros” was packaged with it. However In 1985, the North American video game console market was revived with Nintendo’s release of its 8-bit console, the Famicom, known outside Asia as the “NES”. It was released with the “Mario Bros” game and instantly became a success. The NES dominated the North American and the Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the early 1990s. If the console had been released at the same time as it was in Japan, two years earlier, maybe the crash could have been avoided.
In 1985 the “NES’s” main rival “Sega” released its answer to the “NES”, it was the “Sega mark III”. The “Mark III” was launched in Japan in 1985 but was redesigned and re-launched in 1987. The new model was marketed as the “Master system” and was the fourth model in its development, but not the last.
By 1988, Nintendo commanded 83% of the North American video game market share and due to this the rights to the Master System in North America were sold to a company called “Tonka”. In 1990 “Sega” was having success in other areas and decided to take back their rights from “Tonka” in order to again redevelop the “Master system”. The new look console was to ditch several of its predecessors attributes in order to remain cost effective and to become easier on the eye. The new system was sleeker and more modern looking but lacked a reset button. It however came with a game built it, it was “Alex the kid in miracle world” and was developed to try to swing favor back in “Sega’s” direction, as “Mario” was taking the market by storm. The new system was heavily marketed in North America, but the sales finally ceased in 1992, having failed to have taken the top spot in the market.
It wasn’t until the arrival of a famous hedgehog called “Sonic” that Sega’s fortunes were to change. After the failure of “Alex the kid” as the new mascot of “Sega”, they released a game called “Sonic the Hedgehog” with the hope of “Sonic” becoming popular enough to topple “Mario”. By 1990 the fourth generation of consoles was under way with Sega’s next development the “Mega Drive”. This console had far superior graphics and sound to that of the “NES” and quickly became popular throughout the world. Except for in Japan where the “Mega Drive” was largely ignored.
Shortly after the release of the “Mega Drive” came the inevitable launch of Nintendo’s next edition the “Super Nintendo entertainment system” or “SNES”. This new system was the next step in the console war between Sega and Nintendo. Both of the two companies released versions of their mascot games and both were successful. However Nintendo seemed to keep the edge on their rivals after a few years of an even share of the spoils.
The release of these two consoles was probably the final nail in the coffin for the Arcade games industry as people were able to buy the games that were being played in the arcades and play them in the comfort of their own homes and for as long as they wanted without putting another coin in.
There were several good games released by both companies which included “Sonic the Hedgehog”, “Super Mario world”, “Road Rash”, “Super Bomberman”, “Street Fighter”, “Mortal Combat”, “Micro machines”, “Fifa Football” and many more.
The next and final generation for this period of time is the fifth generation. Now the fifth generation saw several changes in the console wars and a new giant appear on the scene. While Sega and Nintendo released the “Sega Saturn” and the “N64” respectfully, there was a new player on the block. This was “Sony” and their platform was the “Play Station 1”. After the Saturn’s release and a succession of poor games, with only a handful of more memorable ones Sega soon ditched the Saturn. However three of its games did have massive success in the arcades. They were “Virtual Fighter”, “Sega rally” and “Daytona USA”. These games did do exceptional well, with “Daytona USA” becoming the most profitable arcade game ever.
The difference with this generation of consoles and games was the use of 3d graphics, which was to change the industry forever. The first game to fully use 3d graphics was another game on the Saturn, a successful one too, it was “Quake”. This game was a first person shooter game and it was released on the 22nd June 1996. The game engine developed for Quake, the Quake engine, popularized several major advances in the 3D game genre. There were polygonal models instead of prerendered sprites, full 3D level design instead of a 2.5D map, prerendered lightmaps, and allowing end users to partially program the game (in this case with QuakeC), which popularized fan-created modifications. Not only was Quake utilising 3D graphics but its online multiplayer gaming was revolutionary. Several computers would connect to a server and people would play against each other, in various different styles of gameplay. The N64 meanwhile had a game called “Golden Eye 007” and again this game was a massive success, however this console also didn’t do very well. Sega was to try once more by releasing the “dream cast” in 1999 but it too soon failed and Sega later announced it was dipping out of the hardware market, 23 January 2001, in order to pursue software development instead.
The release of the “PlayStation” worldwide in 1995 was the probable cause of the downfall of its competitors. It quickly became the first video games console to sell over 100 million units worldwide and stayed in production for around eleven years. The range of games and the power of its graphics and sound were far superior to any of its rivals. The PlayStations games like its rival, the Saturn and Dreamcast, came on CD’s and it had a portable memory card. Its best selling game surprisingly enough was “Grand Turismo”, which sold over ten million copies. However like its predecessors it too needed a mascot and this came in the form of “Lara Croft” in the game “Tomb Raider”. Tomb Raider video games have together sold over 35 million units, making it one of the bestselling video games series of all time. The Play Station stayed at the top for the next few years until the launch of the “Xbox” it had no real rivals.

The history of the video arcade games industry

Jon King

The rise of the Video Arcade
Games Industry

This essay will look at the history of the video Arcade games industry. It will clearly explain the rise of the coin operated video Arcade games industry, detail where the Arcades originated from and look at some of the influences that came before it, examine some of the most popular Arcade titles and explore the games companies that created the foundation for the industry. It will look at some of the key men involved in the creation of video games.

Life before video games
In 1889 a Japanese man by the name of Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai in Kyoto Japan. It was this company from where the video games industry would develop into what it has become today and it was one of the first big companies in the world of video games. Nintendo Koppai started out designing and producing Japanese playing cards called Hanafuda or President and became an overnight success in Japan. (N-sider Media 2008)
In 1902 the cards had become such a success that even the Yakuza had introduced them into their gambling halls. This led to the inevitable mass production of the cards as they grew in popularity. Nintendo Koppai designed western style playing cards and became the first company to make the transition into the western market, whilst managing to sell this type of card in Japan. (N-sider Media 2008)
The founder of Nintendo Koppai, Fusajiro Yamauchi who died in 1929 left his company to a man named Sekiryo Kaneda, Fusajiros son in law. When Kaneda took over he became the second president of his late father in laws business and with that he was in charge of Japans largest card company. He was also given his father in laws surname, which I think was a sort of Japanese honour. Sekiryo went on to create a joint company, from his father in laws business, in 1933 and renamed it to Yamauchi Nintendo and co. The company that joined up with Sekiryos Company was a distribution firm that he established in 1947 called Marukufu co. ltd and it was this section of the two that became the primary company. (Nintendo database 2001)
The name of the company in the year 1947 again changed to become know as just Marukufu co. ltd which I think was a little disrespectful due to the fact that Fusajiros had given his son in law his last name. This wasn’t to last though as in 1949 Sekiryos Kaneda retired and later died from complications arising from a stroke. (Nintendo database 2001)
The company was then passed onto the next president, Fusajiros great grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Hiroshi was chosen due to the fact that his father had abandoned him and his mother to run off with his wife’s sister therefore bring dishonour to their family. In 1951 Hiroshi renamed the company to Nintendo co. ltd and in 1952 he started to modernise the firm by moving its head quarters to a newer building on a street called Takamatsu-Cho Street. He also housed his playing card production factories under one roof in Kyoto to increase the efficiency of the production and therefore increasing profits. (N-sider Media 2008)
In 1951 when Hiroshi Yamauchi renamed his Company there was another big Company forming. This Company was set to become one of Nintendo’s biggest rival over the coming years, it was “Sega”. Sega was originally formed in Honolulu, Hawaii 1940 under the name “Standard Games” by Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg and James Humpert. It was originally conceived in order to produce coin-operated amusements for American service men. In 1951 Standard Games was to relocate to Japan as suggested by Martin Bromley and by 1952 Standard Games had become “Service Games of Japan”. (Kent, S. L., 2001)
In 1954 another key figure of the Sega Empire was to emerge, his name was David Rosen. Rosen had been serving in the American army during the Korean conflict for three years and it was in this time that he had grew to love Japan and its culture. Rosen realised a gap in Japan’s already buoyant coin-op market and decided that once he had finished his service for the American army that he would begin his own business. Rosen started to import coin-op photo booths which he intended to install at the various military bases that were present in Japan in order to enable people to purchase a passport photograph. He named this business venture Photorama or Nifun Shasin in Japanese and he charged around 200 yen per picture. This business soon took off and Rosen was making a good profit. (Danny L. Chapman II 2003)

In 1956 Rosen started to import coin-op target gun Arcade games, which he cleverly placed outside of his Photorama booths. The machines came from America where he purchased them for $200 a piece in warehouse sales, he then exported them to Japan. It is said that from this single business venture that Rosen was the man who was responsible for founding Japans Arcade game industry. One of Rosen’s games was Baer gun which simulated a real target range by using a modified air gun. Rosen charged 10 cent for a go on this game and within two months had made all of his money back. The games soon started popping up all over Asia, in particular at military bases, which is where he would come into direct competition with a man named Goraku Bussan. Bussan had already established a business partnership with a man named Marty Bromley prior to Rosen establishing his own business. (Video game rebirth 2008)
There business was providing vending machines to companies that required them and this company did do very well partly due to their military contract to supply the American bases. The two partners decided to expand their company by importing Pinball machines. This was a wise move as Pinball was already a very popular game in America and with so many Americans in Japan at this time it was bound to do well. The success that Bussan and Bromley had was noticed by Rosen as at the time he was coming to the end of his service with the American forces. Their success was his inspiration and when these men crossed paths in business it would be this success that would be their downfall. After all if Bussan and Bromley hadn’t been doing so well in business at the time of Rosen’s service, Rosen may have never wanted to get into the coin-op business and would never have built up a rival firm. When Rosen’s business matched the success of Bussan and Bromley’s company it would prove to be no contest. Rosen learnt his first valuable formula for success “Superior technology plus great game play equals market success”. (Video game rebirth 2008)

In 1956 Rosen’s company was doing well and he was contemplating the expansion of it, however this expansion was to meet with the wrath of the Japanese Government. The Government believed that Japanese citizens were to busy to enjoy this type of entertainment due to the fact that they were rebuilding the country after the devastation caused by the Americans at the end of world war two. The average Japanese citizen would have been working six and a half days a week at this time. It took Rosen a year to persuade the Japanese Government to grant him the licence that he needed for his expansion, which he did by explaining that its citizens needed to have time to unwind due to the long working hours. (Video game rebirth 2008)
In 1957 Rosen was granted his licence and with that he imported $200,000 worth of used coin-op machines. The coin-op Arcades went down a storm and Rosen soon had Arcades in every major city in Japan. By 1960 Rosen had corned the Arcade games business with Bussan, one of his main rivals, concentrating on the Jukebox industry and having similar success. (Kent S, L., 2001)
In 1964 Rosen decided to become partners with one of his earlier rivals Bromley under the name “Rosen Enterprises”. It wasn’t long before Rosen had conquered another former rival Bussan. This would prove to be a great move for Rosen who now would no longer need to import his coin-op machines from America as Bussan had 6,000 manufacturing plants in Japan.
The three men now decided to rename the company “Sega Enterprises ltd”, this name was designed by Bussan and stood for “SErvice GAmes”. The idea behind this name was that the company was providing a service to the public and they wanted their employees to remember this at all times as this was the companies number one objective. (Video game rebirth 2008)
The first Arcade game locally made in Japan by Sega was a game called “Periscope” and was released in Japan 1966. The game was a massive success even though the technology used to produce it was still very limited; this game was an electromechanical game. When the game was released in the west it again, was a massive success and it attracted the attention of the Gulf and Western Corporation. (Video game rebirth 2008)
In 1970 after several years of negotiations “Sega” gave in to pressure from Gulf and Western with an offer that they just couldn’t refuse for the company and sold it on. Rosen stayed on at “Sega” as president however Martin Bromley decided to retire. The company went public in 1974 with its stock openly traded on the New York stock exchange. It seemed that “Sega” had made it. (Danny L. Chapman II 2003)

The birth of Video games

I have now looked at the major players previous to the birth of the Video game and so I began to research the men involved in designing the first Video game.
The first man that I have researched into is a man called William A. Higginbotham. In 1958 Higginbotham was working as the head of BNL’s instrumental division, it is said that he may have designed the first video game. BNL used to hold open days in the autumn were people could come and visit their labs and exhibits. It was at such a time as this that Higginbotham had designed a game that could show the sorts of things that Brookhaven could achieve. (Research and development of the U.S Department of energy 2008)
"I knew from past visitors days that people were not much interested in static exhibits," said Higinbotham, "so for that year. I came up with an idea for a hands-on display – a video tennis game."
William A. Higinbotham (Burnham, V., 2001)
During this visit Higinbotham found that he had created something that was very exciting, as he could tell from the crowd’s reaction.

"But if I had realized just how significant it was, I would have taken out a patent and the U.S. government would own it!"
William A. Higinbotham (Burnham, V., 2001)

It was thought that the first video game was created much later than this; however there was a book called “Basic computer games” written by a man called David Ahl were he states that on a trip to Brookhaven he thinks that he might have witnessed the first video game. Ahl was said to have know about the computer gaming at MIT and at a company in Cambridge as early as 1961, but had not heard of this type of work being done anywhere before his trip to Brookhaven in 1958. (Research and development of the U.S Department of energy 2008)
The game that Higginbotham had created was called “Tennis for two” and consisted of a simple side viewport displaying the floor, a net, and a ball. The ball would be hit backwards and forwards with a controller that had a rotating knob to control the angle of the bat and a button that when pressed returned the ball to the opposing player. The game was very basic but the concepts of the game were the same as some of today’s. The game itself was actually run by an analogue computer and an oscilloscope. (Burnham, V., 2001)
"It was simple to design," remembered Higinbotham. "Back then, analog computers were used to work out all kinds of mechanical problems. They didn't have the accuracy of digital computers, which were very crude at the time, but then you didn't need a great deal of precision to play TV games. "
William A. Higinbotham (Burnham, V., 2001)
The game only took about three weeks to make and was built by a man called Robert V. Dvorak.
"Bob and I worked very closely together," said Higinbotham. "I made some drawings, gave them to Bob, he made a patch board, we changed the things that didn't work, and got it running in time for the first tour."
William A. Higinbotham (Burnham, V., 2001)
The sad part about Higginbotham’s invention was that he never realised its full potential as it only featured at two of Brookhaven’s tours, between 1958 and 1959, after this it was disassembled and the parts were used for other projects. It is argued that this was the first video game and from the evidence that I have looked at it does appear to be. Therefore I do believe that William A. Higginbotham should rightly be credited for having designed the very first video game. (Research and development of the U.S Department of energy 2008)
The depending on what generation that you came from, depends upon what people think the first video game was, for instance a lot of people, if asked, would say that it was “Pong” whereas people that are slightly older would say that it was “Computer space”. The fact of the matter is that “Tennis for two” was the first video game played on an oscilloscope, next came “Spacewar” that was the first game to be played on a computer without an oscilloscope, followed by “Computer space” which was a revamped version of “Spacewar” and the first coin-operated video Arcade game and then “Pong” that was the first successful coin-operated video Arcade game.
The next man that I researched into was a man called “Steve Russell”. In 1961 Russell was working as a programming student at MIT when he was given the opportunity to work on a computer donated to MIT from DEC. The resulting product that Russell’s team came up with wasn’t what DEC had expected. The team led by Russell created a game called “Space war”. Russell was inspired by a man called E.E. Doc Smith, who was a science fiction writer in the 1930’s to the 1940’s. Smith was referred to as the “Father of space opera” after producing the very popular “Lensman” and “Skylark” series and had a large part to play in inspiring Russell to create “Spacewar”, as Russell had grown up reading his work. (Mike Richards’s ___)
Russell also had a passion for B-grade science fiction, enjoying titles such as “Doc Savage” and “Flash Gordon”, to name some. (Burnham, V., 2001)

The game “Spacewar” was a two player game with the objective being, to destroy your opponent’s ship. There were several fun features to this game including black holes, asteroids and negative gravity. The ships would fire torpedo like bullets at each other until one player had won. (Burnham, V., 2001)
The game created by Russell was initially written and used on a PDP-1, which would enable more than one person to use the computer at the same time for the first time. Unluckily for Russell he never actually profited from the game. (Burnham, V., 2001)

“If I hadn't done it, someone would've done something equally exciting if not better in the next six months”. “I just happened to get there first”.
Steve Russell (Burnham, V., 2001)

Russell, nick named “The slug” for being so slow at producing the finished product, finally after six months and around 200 hours he got the game finished, 1962. This game was known to be the “world’s first video game”, however as I wrote earlier in this assignment I believe from my research that “Spacewar” was in fact the second video game.
It is said that Russell was apparently unaware that Willy Higginbotham’s “Tennis for two” ever actually existed. (Burnham, V., 2001)

The birth of the Video Arcade

The true father of the Video Arcade Games Industry went by the name of Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell was born in 1945 and from an early age was obsessed with technology and how things worked. Bushnell worked at a local ham radio station and here he was taught everything he needed to know about radios, circuitry and electronics. It was here that he became the youngest ham radio operator in the state of Utah. (Sellers, J 2001)
During Bushnell’s younger days his father passed away, which left him with the task of managing his father’s cement business. This proved to be a valuable lesson for the young Bushnell, as he learnt a lot about how to run work crews and managing his own company, all of which would add to his already growing personal ambitions. (Burnham, V., 2001)
Bushnell attended college where he studied Electrical Engineering and took a part time job at a nearby amusement park to help him earn some extra cash. With his previous experience Bushnell was soon promoted to arcade manager. This job taught everything that he needed to know about the arcade industry, from the sorts of games that the players would play regularly to the ins and outs of running an amusement arcade as a business. (Burnham, V., 2001)
Bushnell’s dream was to take the genius of the game “Spacewar” and place it in a room full of booths that all played “Space War” for the small price of a quarter.

“People would look you like you had two heads. “You mean you’re going to put the TV set in a box with a coin slot and play games on it?”
Nolan Bushnell. (Burnham, V., 2001)
The problem with Bushnell’s dream was that it would cost way too much money, as in 1965 each arcade unit would cost around about $120,000. Therefore there needed to be a significant improvement in the current technology available in order to realise his dream. (Burnham, V., 2001)
In 1968 Bushnell graduated from college with a BA in Electrical Engineering and his ambition at this time was to work for one of the best if not the top amusement business in the world, Walt Disney Co. Unfortunately Bushnell never got the job that he wanted with Disney and instead ended up working for a company called Ampex. (Burnham, V., 2001)
In 1970 new advances in computer technology were being developed all of the time, with the transistor being replaced by the microprocessor. The development of this new chip would mean that computers could be built smaller and cheaper than ever before, Bushnell’s dream was edging ever closer. (Video games rebirth 2001-2008)
Bushnell’s dream had now once again become his number one priority. As he began to develop the game the actual hardware that needed to be designed for the system that he would use to run and house the software changed quite a bit until Bushnell finally reached the design that would set the standard for almost all of the arcade machines to follow.
The prototype that Bushnell came up with was created with a co-worker from Ampex, Ted Dabney. The original system consisted of a black and white TV that was connected up to numerous circuit boards. The game was basically the same but with two enemy saucers against the player’s weightless rockets instead of one. (Sellers, J., 2001)
Realising how close Bushnell now was to his dream he quit his job to dedicate all of his time to the project. Bushnell and Dabney decided that they needed a name for their newly formed venture and chose “Syzgy”, which meant the sun, moon and earth in a total eclipse. (Sellers, J., 2001)
The next hurdle for Bushnell and Dabney was to get a company interested enough to manufacture their product, they found joy with a company called “Nutting Associates”. This company was owned by a man called Bill Nutting and before long had given Bushnell a job with his company as a senior director. Bushnell’s role here was to supervise the design and production of “Spacewar”, which was to be renamed as “Computer Space”. (Sellers, J., 2001)
The “Computer Space” machine was very simple in interior design, it had the same black and white 13inch TV screen and a small circuit board which was referred to by Nutting as “the brain box”. The coin box used to collect quarters was an old paint thinners can. The outside of the machine made people think that it was very high tech as it boasted two joy sticks with button information printed upon a polished silver metal plate, it had a standout fibre glass shell which came in three bold space age looking colours of glittering red, glittering green and glittering blue. (Sellers, J., 2001)
The cabinet was typical of seventies culture and how they perceived the modern world to be and so fit in to this era very well. The arcade game was introduced to the public at an event called the AMOA in Chicago, Bushnell and Nutting were said to have shocked the crowd.

“We blew the coin-op industry’s mind”
Bill Nutting. (Burnham, V., 2001)
Bushnell had realised his dream, Nutting associates had 1,500 cabinets rolled off the production line as the birth of the video arcade games was completed. It is true that the game itself was based on a previous game by “Slug Russell“ and that there was a game previous to that in the form of “Tennis for Two” by “William Higginbotham” but when it comes to the first video arcade game then this was it. There is a reason why that people in general don’t know of this game and that is because it was such a flop in the commercial market. (Sellers, J., 2001)
Nutting associates tried in vain to attract distributors even though they had already installed “Computer Space” in arcades, restaurants, student unions, bowling alleys, supermarkets and bars across the country and around the world. They tried all types of marketing, even featuring a sexy topless dancer on one of its flyers. (Burnham, V., 2001)
The fundamental reason why the game failed was down to the actual game play. The ships in the game were hard to control as they were so slow in movement which in turn became frustrating to the game player. Also the rockets which they fired were extremely difficult to judge as to when you should fire them or move out of the way of your opponents. (Burnham, V., 2001)
One of the most important things that came from Bushnell’s idea was the cabinet, even today the cabinets are still designed in a very similar way. The architecture of the cabinet has stood the test of time, not exactly what Bushnell originally wanted but at least he can take that away. I suppose the ironic thing is that a “Computer Space” cabinet was installed in a game room of the ultra modern contemporary resort hotel for the grand opening of the new Walt Disney World vacation paradise in Orlando, Florida. This was the place where Bushnell had wanted to work earlier in his career and now one of his creations had its place here instead. (Burnham, V., 2001)
In 1972 there was to be two important changes in the video arcade games industry, the first was the formation of Atari and the second was the game design by Nolan Bushnell “Pong”. After having had a small amount of success with Bill Nutting, Bushnell wanted to complete his dream, after having thought that he had once already, with a new game. This time the game needed to be more simple and something that people already knew how to play, this was the lesson that was learnt from the “Computer Space” game as this game was too complicated for some. (Kent, S.L., 2000)
At the same time Bill Nutting had thought that his company was the only player in the industry, however there was another that went by the name of “Magnavox”. This worried Nutting as this company had announced that it was releasing a “mystery product”, so Bushnell was sent to see if he could find out what they were up to. This was prove to be a bad error for Nutting because while Bushnell was away he played a game called “Table Tennis” on the Odyssey home entertainment system which gave him an idea for a new game, this game was “Pong”.
When Bushnell returned to meet with Nutting he pitched his new game idea to him but also added that he wasn’t happy with his position within the company, as he wasn’t receiving the sort of money that he felt that he deserved. This didn’t go down well with Nutting, who refused the 30% and more control over marketing and design that Bushnell had asked for. Instead Bushnell was offered a 5%. (Burnham, V., 2001)
“I didn’t like his deal”, Nutting said. “The kind of royalties Nolan was asking for didn’t seem fair. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20”.
Bill Nutting. (Burnham, V., 2001)
There was only one outcome for Bushnell, which was to break away from Nutting Associates and form his own Video games Company. The first person that he got in touch with was his old friend from Ampex, Ted Dabney. Bushnell explained his ping pong game concept to Dabney and told him that they should start their own Video games Company, which Dabney agreed to. They both had cash to start up their new Company, Bushnell with his $250 from royalties he’d earned from “Computer Space” and Dabney with an equal investment from cash he’d made.
Together they both went to register the Company and wanted to call it “Syzgy”, however this name was taken and so they had to come up with something else, that name was “Atari”. (M. L. Clayton 2000)
The “Atari” Company was the beginning of a very lucrative business and would rake in the cash like nothing seen before from a Video games Company. The “Pong” game prototype was built by an engineer called “Al Alcorn” who was employed by Bushnell, as he had been at Ampex with Bushnell as a young student. Alcorn was the first employee of “Atari” and had a lot of input into the overall design of the game. (M. L. Clayton 2000)
The first prototype was installed at a local Sunnyvale tavern, Andy Capp’s, on EI Camino Real. All that was displayed instruction wise was “Avoid missing the ball for high score”, these simple instructions were soon being followed and Pong’s legacy was underway. Just a few days later Atari had a phone call from the tavern saying that the machine had broken down, which panicked Atari, and asked for an engineer to go out to fix it. This seemed like the worst possible start for Atari as the Company was just starting out and wanted to build up a good reputation. When the engineer arrived it turned out that the reason why the machine had broken down was because the cashbox was so full of quarters that it had become jammed! The cashbox could hold up to 1200 quarters which made this change from a problem into a bonus. (Steve Fulton 2007)
The next stop for Atari was to find someone to manufacture their new game, they approached Bally/Midway in Chicago. It was bad news from Midway as they had watched the rise and instant fall of the previous Video game “Computer Space” and had decided to pass on the basis that Video games were just a faze that would fizzle out. This would prove to be a big mistake for Midway. (Steve Fulton 2007)

Bushnell decided that if it was going to happen then he was the man that would have to make it happen. So his next move was to rent an old roller-skating rink and employ his own workers. Bushnell would employ just about anyone in particular students and hippies, however they got the job done and banged out around 12 games a day. (M. L. Clayton 2000)
The make shift factory was doing well and it sold every game that it produced, the problem was that it couldn’t keep up with the demand and needed to branch out. Bushnell finally found his man in the name of “Don Valentine”, with Valentine’s money and credibility Atari was able to produce more Pong games and sold 8000 Pong machines, bringing in around $300 a week. Nolan Bushnell became known as “King Pong”, this time Bushnell had realised his dream. (Burnham, V., 2001)
Pong became the world’s first successful coin-operated Video games machine. Nolan Bushnell sold his stake in Atari four years later to “Warner Bros” for an astonishing $28 million. Bushnell moved on to the Pizza time theatre chain and renamed it “Chuck E. Cheese, here Bushnell turned eating out into eating out with the fun of Arcade games. Bushnell presently runs an internet gaming site and has the new dream of turning it into the number one online gaming site. No doubt he will probably make this dream turn into reality to. Nolan Bushnell undoubtedly has earned the name “Father of the Video Game Industry”. (M. L. Clayton 2000)

Life after Pong
After the success of Pong the inevitability of other Companies wanting to design and produce their own Video games was certain to happen, Companies such as Midway, who had missed out on “the best thing since sliced bread” were now desperate to enter this new industry. Also companies like Nintendo, Sega, Taito, Midway games, SNK Corporation, Vectorbeam and Cinematronics all wanted a piece of the action and released their own Arcade Video games in the seventies. (Sellers, J., 2001)
There were several top arcade game classics, too many to go into a lot of detail, like “Breakout”, which was another title released by Atari, in 1976. This game was the start of some of the more famous puzzle games, namely “Tetris” in 1985. The game was another simple yet addictive title, as was Pong, which involved you moving a paddle similar to the paddle in Pong however this time the paddle was horizontal as opposed to vertical and you needed to rebound a ball into a wall of bricks which would disappear once struck. (Sellers, J., 2001)
I couldn’t have written this essay without writing about the craze that was “Space Invaders”. Midway Games certainly had their day in 1978 when it released “Space Invaders”, it was said to be the first blockbuster Video Arcade Game. The game was made by Taito in Japan and was such a success there that the Japanese thought there might be a shortage of 100 Yen coins! Midway Games were the lucky licensee in America and quickly rolled their version off the production line. Six thousand machines later and America was saying “Pong who?” The game play itself consisted of one spaceship and three barricades above it, with a marching army of aliens above that. The idea was to shoot all of the approaching aliens before they reached the ground, it was that simple. The game was highly addictive and established the concept of the high score, so now players had something more to play for, the only trouble was you couldn’t input your initials! (Sellers, J., 2001)
The success of this game sparked off a number of similar games such as “Galaxian” which was another title by Midway. This game however was the first game to have full colour, 1979. Atari hit back with its version “Missile Command” in 1980. Very similar to “Space Invaders” in this game the player had to stop three cities on the ground being blow up while missiles would rain down from above. The targeting system was different from other games as it was cursor based. The flaw in this game was that there was a limited number of rockets that you could fire before your bases ran out, meaning the missiles would get you and you would see the words “The End”. (Sellers, J., 2001)
The final Arcade Video Game that I looked at is “Pack-Man”. This game was released in 1980 by Midway Games and was the most successful Arcade title of all time. After sweeping through Japan Midway Games did the same kind of deal that brought “Space Invaders” to America with “Pac-Man”. Very quickly the game had the whole country saying “wokka-wokka-wokka”, just like the main character in the game did. The game consisted of Pac-Man, your main character and four ghosts, the idea was to eat all of the dots scattered around the maze before the ghosts could get you. The general public loved this game even declaring an official Pac-Man day off, in some towns. This game was proof that Arcade Video Games had finally gone mainstream, there were spin off board games and cartoon shows. Midway sold a staggering 99,000 machines, so 8 years after losing out to Atari, when it had the opportunity to manufacture the Arcade smash “Pong”, Midway had finally had its day. (Sellers, J., 2001)
The Video Arcade Games industry went from strength to strength until the mid to late 1990’s, when the home console’s had become so good that the Arcade Video Games industry stagnated. The games people could buy in the shops were as good as the ones in the Arcade’s and eventually became better. There are still Arcades out there today but the shine and the pure joy of playing it first, having your name at the top of the score board and the social aspects of the Arcades are long gone. I’m sure some day that there could be a return of the Arcades as the marketing side of the industry could still learn a lot from the them as they did all those years ago.