Administrative
• Reminder: upcoming deadlines (email is fine)
– Optional: 1-Page describing game proposal:
(Deadline: September 25th) 3 groups so far. Not a
contract. Final exam exemption
– Mandatory: design analysis (1) name of the game
and (2) group members (deadline: September 30th)
–
• Test # 1: Monday September 30th.
– Covers: all of Unit 1 in the book (including details and
topics not discussed in class)
– All material covered in class (including topics not
covered in the book)
Definition of Game and History of
Games
Assigned readings:
Chapters 7 (Rules of Play Book)
Sources:
• Gamespot.com
• investor.about.com
• emuunlim.com
• designboom.com
• Wikipedia
• my own
Dr. Héctor Muñoz-Avila
Play and Game
• Game as a subset of play
– Considering all activities that we can play
– Tag is a game and it is also play
– Swing can be seen as play but it is not a game
• Play as a subset of game
– Play as one aspect (the experiential system) of a
game
• Awareness on the distinction between play and game
“juego un juego”
“ich speile ein Spiel”
Some Definitions of Game
• (Parlett) A formal game structure based on ends and means
• (Abt) an activity among two or more decision-makers seeking to
achieve their objective
– Example of a game not meeting this definition?
• (Avedo and Sutton-Smith) a voluntary control system, contest
between powers, confined by rules, outcome
• Book has 8 definitions (read them!) with some common elements
(see Table!):
– following rules is the most common requirement
– Having a goal is also common
Definition of Game
Elements:
• A game is a system
• In which players
• engaged in an artificial conflict
• defined by rules
• That results in a quantifiable
outcome
Game design: process of creating a
game from which meaningful
play emerges when experienced
by a player
Examples of games
fitting this definition:
•Chess
•Tekken
Are virtual environments
games?
History of Video Games
By: Héctor Muñoz-Avila
Sources:
• Gamespot.com
• investor.about.com
• emuunlim.com
• designboom.com
• Wikipedia
• my own
Introduction: A Long Journey
• Some ideas in the 1948
• First video game:
– Tennis game in an Oscilloscope
– Space game on DEC-1
• In between:
– Space Invaders: http://www.spaceinvaders.de/
• Current videogames:
– Crysis 3
Chess Origins
• 6 AD: Believed to come from
India
• Came to Western through
Persia
• 1769 Fake chess machine
• 1952 Turing design a chess
algorithm
• 1956 Maniac versus Human
Origins of Some Companies
• 1889 company create card game:
Nintendo (“leave luck to heaven”)
Hiroshi Yamauchi credited for transformation
Gunpei Yokoi created the game boy
• 1932 COLECO (short for Connecticut Leather Company)
• 1947 Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company:
Sony
• 1954 David Rosen makes machines for GI’s in Japan
(Service Games) SEGA
Other Origins
• 1951 Ralph Baer (@Loral) suggest adding game
to TV
– May be considered the inventor of video
games
– Only until 1967 he realized his dream of an
“interactive television”
• 1952 A.S.Douglas (@Cambridge): Interactive Tic
Tac Toe
• 1958 Willy Higinbotham (@Brookhaven
National Laboratory): Oscilloscope
Other Origins (II)
• 1961 Steve Russell (@MIT) creates Spacewar!
“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
Spacewar! Legacy
1971 Bill Pitts and
Hugh Tuck formed
Computer Recreations
Galaxy Game
Cost: $20K
Play cost: 10 cent
Built: dozens
1972 Noland Bushnell
and Ted Dabney
(@Nutting Associates)
Galaxy Game
Built: 1.5K
1972
PONG
Built: 10K
“Breaks down”
Early Game Consoles
• Pong
• 1972 Magnavox builds
Odyssey
Early Stages: 1976-1977
• COLECO builds TELSTAR
• Cartridges are born (Fairchild Camera & Instrument: Channel F)
• Atari bought by Warner Communications ($28M)
– Atari releases first console (later known as Atari 2600)
Early Stages 1977-78
• Nintendo releases Othello
• Taito creates Space Invaders!
– Midway bought license
• Apple and Atari release PCs
– But Atari is seen as a gaming company
The Golden Age 1979-1981
•
•
•
•
•
Atari releases Asteroids!
Frogger, Konami/Sega, 1981
Pac-Man, Bally/Midway, 1980
Donkey Kong, Nintendo, 1981
Namco releases Pac-Man, 1982 (+300K machines sold)
– Own television show (games  culture)
• US Army commissions Atari for a tank simulation game
– Start of a long and sustained effort
• Nintendo releases first console in 1981
• Nothing to do over the weekend? Check this out (some retro
games):
– http://www.tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/
The Great Crash 1982-1984
• The Commodore 64 PC is released
• Coleco releases the Adam PC
• Too many competitors small and large saturate the market
– 1982 Warner Corp. stock fell 32% after Atari
announces less-than-expected sells of consoles
– Atari sold to Jack Tramiel (owner of Commodore)
– New company: Atari Corp. pulls from Console market
• Bright spot: Nintendo releases famicon, which does well in
Japan
The Return of the Video Games 1985-1988
• Nintendo releases NES
– Met with skepticism by market observers
– Turns out to be an instant hit
– Legend of Zelda
•1985 MS releases
• Apple releases the Mac, Atari releases 520ST Windows
•PC as a gaming
– Who won?
platform
• Tetris is released!
•2006: Games for
Windows
• Coleco files for bankruptcy
The Story Continues
• 1989 Nintendo releases Gameboy, Sega releases
Genesis
• 1991 Nintendo releases SNES, Sega releases Sonic
• 1993 32-bit consoles
– Nintendo releases Mortal Combat!
• 1999-2001 Playstation 2, Gamecube, Xbox
• 2006: Nintendo releases wii (out sales PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360)
Current Trends
• Games for mobile devices are the fastest growing sector
• Which is the most played digital game in history?
(perhaps)
Homework Next Wednesday (x2)
Assigned Reading: Chapter 8 (note: make your own examples when
asked for. Do not use the ones from the book)
For each of the 4 traits of digital games, discuss an example
• in a digital game (*) that illustrates that trait
• in a non-digital game (*) that illustrates the difficulty non-digital games
have coping with the lack of that trait
1.Immediate but narrow interactivity
2.Information manipulation
3.Automated complex system
4.Networked communication
5.Open question: despite the shortcomings in dealing with these four
traits above, discuss an advantage across any dimension of non-digital
games over digital ones
(*) describe this game in one paragraph including name, what type of game it is
- RPG, RTS, etc-, and what is the objective of the game