Task 2

The early history of the Games…
In 1952 at the University of Cambridge, A.S Douglas created OXO, a graphical version of tic-tac-toe, in order to explain his thesis on human-computer interaction. The game was played on the old now EDSAC computer.
In 1958, William Higinbotham, created a game called Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope to entertain visitors at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
In 1961, Steve Russell, who was part of a student group in MIT (Massachusetts Institution of Technology) programmed the first computer game called Spacewar!, on the new DEC PDP-1.
In 1966 the first videogame appears and it could be displayed on television set. Chase created by Ralph Baer, and two years later he had a prototype that could play several different games (including table tennis and target shooting).
In 1969 R.Baer had a prototype console that hooked up to a TV set and played ball and piddle games. This prototype was sold to Magnavox who released it in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first video game console.
The first arcade game, Computer Space and which was based on Spacewar!, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in 1971.
In 1972 N. Bushnell creates the arcade game Pong. That year Bushnell and Dabney started Atari Computers and they released the first arcade video game Atari’s Pong at the same year.
The arcade game industry entered its Golden Age in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders, by Taito. Also, Asteroids released by Atari that year.
And finally the colour arcade games became more popular in 1979 and 1980 with the arrival of titles as Pac-Man.

Who decided to use computers to have fun? What was their background?

The first computer game is generally assumed to be the game Spacewar!, which first conceived in 1961 at Massachusetts Institution of Technology by Steve Russell, Martin Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen, with the intent of implementing it on a DEC PDP-1. After Alan Kotok obtained some changes(sine and cosine routines) from DEC, Russell began coding, and by February 1962 had produced his first version. Spacewar originally ran on a PDP-1 computer.
The game was not bad even if the graphics were primal. Two players each control a spaceship circling a planet. The players could shoot each other, turned their ships, and accelerate. The goal was to hit the other player before being hit yourself.
Obviously, Spacewar! is the first computer game designed for having fun, as its construction requires two players in order to play it.


Does this strike you as significant?

At this period of time (when the Spacewar! created), the abilities of the computers were almost zero, just like their number. However the knowledge Russell a.o had about these computers were the best they could. If the idea of the game was not coming on PDP-1, then it could have come later, on other computer. If was not Russell a.o who created Spacewar!, it could have been someone else later, with another game relative to Spacewar!.
I believe that the most important is how a game runs and not where it runs.
“After you discover tea… is not difficult to find where you can savour it...”

The first game I’ve played in my life was on Atari. Well..I don’t really remember my age,probably 8-9 year old, and the name of the game. It was a game with a spaceship where you were flying above the enemies and killed them with laser(on screen it looked like “”) and it ends only when you lose. Because of that I played hours to do the best score I could.
The most recent game I’ve played is the lineage 2, which I played it a lot last year in many servers. But for the last 3 years I also played Dota(game mode of warcraft),diablo 2 exp. and from 2000 I was playing Counterstrike series. So last year when I was feeling bored with lineage, I was playing the others games too.
All these years, from my first game until now, I was playing these games because some of them tranfer you in other ages and other places, some others in fantastic situations and also they wake up the competion inside you.


Games I have played:

Atari

NES

Mega Drive

USA FIFA 94, Road Rash 3, Sonic2,3,4
The master of the rings (I hope is like that), Terminator

PlayStation and PlayStation2
Ace Combat2, Ace Combat3
Gran Tourismo 1, Gran Tourismo 2, Music 2000
Gradia, LMA 2002, Carmageddon, Championship Motocross
Championship Motocross 2000, Crash Bandicoot, 2, 3
Command and Conquer: Red Alert , Driver
ISS 2 and 3, James Bond 007
James Bond 007 Everything or Nothing
Knochout Kings 2001, 2002, Max Payne
Max Payne 2, Metal of Honor, Metal Gear Solit
Metal Gear Solit Special Missions
Metal Slug XMortal Combat Trilogy
NBA Live Need for Speed 1, 2, 3
Pro Evolution, 2 , 3, 4, 5, 6
Resident Evil, 2 ,3
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 9
Spaderman, Tekken 4
Moto Race 2, Toca Race Driver
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, V-rally 2
Total Club Manager 04, 05
www Smackdonw! Here come the Pain
Formula 1, 97, 98, 99 ,Formula one 2000
Diablo, Duke Nuke ‘em, Duke Nuke Land of babes
Duke Nuke Time to Kill, ESPN Extreme Games
Excalibur 2555, Grand Theft Auto, 2, London 1969
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Marvel Vs. Capcom
Dune, Nascar 2000 , NBA 96, 97, 98, 99
Colin McRae Raly , Colin McRae Raly 2.0
Tomb Raider, 2, 3 , Silent Hill, 2
Suikoden , Suikoden 2

PC games
Championship Manager 1999-2000
Championship Manager 2000-2001
Football Manager 2002, Football Manager 2003
Football Manager 2004, Football Manager 2005
Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 2 Expantion
Warcraft 3 Reign of Chos, Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne
Civilization 3 ,Civilization 4, Age of Empires, Age of Empires 2
Line age 2
CounterStrike 1.5
CounterStrike 1.6
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2
Runeword, Sims, Adventure Quest
Mu Online, Omerta, Run escape
Max Payne, Silkroad