Task 3

For the games, the periods of 80’s and 90’s (for computers and console) it was a time of pioneer and development in all the sectors.
In the economic sector game companies made enormous incomes and gave real battles for who will be the dominant in the market, where computer and console industries flourish. The phrase which is saying that the world is evolved, it is suits absolutely to the technological sector of games, then and now.
In computer industry now appear new products, like Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, IBM PC, PC/AT, Apple Macintosh, PC/2, Intel 386-486, Motorola 68030 which are progressively increase computing power and decrease the cost of processors.
Also, the first sound cards appeared from IBM, and afterwards other sound cards appeared, more developed like the AdLib and Sound Blaster. In 1996, accelerator cards appeared called the Voodoo.
On the other hand, console industry, had their first good sample of their technology when they released Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and followed with Master System, Mega Drive, Nintendo Super NES, Sega Suturn, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 which starts from 8 bit and reach 64 bit.
But enough with the technical parts. The important thing is that appeared games which lay the foundations for the games categories today.
· Text adventure games like Zork
· Stealth-based games like Metal Gear series
· First-person shooters (FPS) like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Queke, CounterStrike and Unreal Tournament
· Real-time strategy (RTS) like DuneII, Age of Empires, War Craft and StarCraft.
· Survival horror like Alone in the Dark, Sweet Home, Resident Evil and Silent Hill
· Puzzle-based adventure like Myst
· Simulation games like SimCity, SimEarth
· Role-playng games like Ultima, EverQuest, Final Fantasy and Zelda
· Music video games like PaRappa The Rapper, Beatmania and Dance Dance Revlution
· Third-person shooter games as Grand Theft Auto III, SplinterCell,GoldenEye 007, Enter The Matrix and Hitman
· And arcade games like SuperMarioBros, Sonic, SuperMario64.

What were the significant developments during this time?

I believe that all the developments of the 80’s and 90’s were significant. Is like, you want to reach the top of a mountain, and you using only the left leg and left hand.
What I want to say is that, one development need and use the others, and upwards. But if I have to pick some out… theses would be: 1)The Maniac Mansion built with its SCUMM system which allowed a point-and-click interface. 2)The new PS/2 line in 1987 gave to the PC the potential for 256-color graphics. 3)The sound cards which appeared. 4) The first accelerator cards. 5) The console technology which starts from 8 bit and reach 64 bit.

How were games different by the end of this period than at the beginning?


At the beginning of this period the games were “text” adventure type or they were graphic adventures (poor graphics, with or not sound).
At the end, quite a lot of games came out, with beautiful graphics and nice sounds, which were also range in many different categories.
Also, the number of the games that exist before and after that period has change. Now zillions of games have been created, which attract many people, from the very young ones to the older ones.

Part 1.5

The first game that I loved was the Contra (NES).
I played it for days until I became good enough in order to finish the game with my brother. And we won it many times! The game was not particularly good (poor graphics and sound), but it was my first love.
Suddenly Mega Drive came in my hands!! I played many games in Mega Drive (like sonic series, fifa 94, terminator), wasting quite a lot of hours every day.
Because of that my mother hid it from me many times!!!
Another addicted game was the “Road Rash” which I played for 10-12 hours some days. The game was simple and with "good" graphics. You had a character and you were able to give him name (Yeeeaaaah! It was the first game that I was able to do that!!! ) and it was running illegal races in order to win and collect money to buy a better bike. One better thing in that game was the codes that gave you in order to start from where you had finished the previous time.
However, my real love was “Jewel Master”! (In my list appears like: “The master of the rings [I hope is like that]”). A game with not very good graphics, but with a combination of strategy and action. It has a lot of rings with different forces each one (and once you combined them, your blast was becoming more powerfull), a lot of different enemies with different forces. Also, many levels and some of these really difficult, good sound effects-different in each level- and at the end of the game a final boss, which took me a lot of time to win him – win the game.


continued in part 2.0